in Charity draw out thy Alms and with them thy Soul give outward Things and which is more thy Self in real compassion Cast thy Bread upon the Waters upon the Tears of the Poor that it may be carried into the Ocean of Eternity and there found again in a glorious Reward When an Object of Charity meets thee Say not Go and come again pass not by as the Priest and Levite did but as the good Samaritan immediately pour in thy Wine and Oyl into the Wounds of thy Brother omit no Season of Charity Now is thy Seed-time scatter thy good Works Sow upon Blessings as the Phrase is 2 Cor. 9.6 Now Christs Bank is open put in thy Money upon holy Usury and God himself will be thy Pay-Master Be still a-doing of good that in thy little sphere thou mayst resemble him who doth good in the great sphere of Nature His Sun shines and Rain falls every-where Be as like him as thou canst shining in good Works and dropping in Charities upon all occasions Give a Portion to seven and also to eight saith the Preacher Eccles 11.2 From this Text the Jews ground a Custom to give an Alms to seven or eight poor people every day However that be we should be much in Charity Look on the Poor as Gods Altars erected on purpose That upon their Backs and Bellies thou mayst offer up thy Charity as an Odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God Be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up a good Foundation against the time to come This is the way to Assurance Works of Mercy and Charity make Faith visible and withal put the Believer into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to him They make Faith visible no Assurance can be had unless that Query Whether we be in the Faith be resolved in the Affirmative That cannot be done unless Faith become visible and more visible it cannot be than in such good Works which as the holy Blossoms of it prove that there is Life at the root The Mercy and Charity which hang upon it may tell thee That thou hast indeed closed by Faith with the infinite Love and Grace above and from thence brought down all those drops and models of Goodness which thou sheddest forth in thy Conversation The Fruit may prove thy standing in Christ the true Root of fatness and sweetness The Image of Goodness limmed and drawn out upon thy Life shews it self to be from the pure Spirit St. John exhorting the little children to a real practical Love adds this as a singular Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this Love we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 John 3.18 19. It thou love thy Brother in Deed and in Truth assure thy self that thou art of the Truth That the holy truth of the Gospel is mixed with faith in thy Heart and there grows up into the Divine life and likeness Say not That thy Faith is dead or idle as long as it can shew forth the Coats and Garments the Alms and good Works which it hath done these shew the life and labour of it Nay further these put thee into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to thee God in the Prophet commands them to deal their bread to the hungry to cover the naked not to hide themselves from their own flesh and immediately after lets out himself in sweet Promises to them Thy righteousness shall then go before thee Isa 58.8 that is thy Graces shall visibly appear to thee And again Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here am I ver 9. that is He will be very near and ready at hand to reveal himself to thee And which is more as St. John tells us he will dwell in thee He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 He dwells in the Divine Life and the Divine Presence dwells in him He hath a Shechinah nay and an Oracle in his own bosom God will speak peace to his Saints Psal 85.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his merciful ones with them he will shew himself merciful to them he will speak from the Mercy-seat they give but ordinary Bread but receive from him hidden Manna they draw out their Souls to their Brethren and he draws out his Soul to them In the last place if thou wouldst be assured set thy heart on God and Christ and Heaven stay no longer in the straits of this lower World take thy flight by Faith and Love into the sphere of Infinity where thy Soul may open and dilate it self for ever Hang no longer about the drops and little particles of Being put forth thy Soul might and main into the great ocean of Sweetness and Perfection which is able to fill up thy two vast Capacities of Mind and Will with its unmeasurable Truth and Goodness Warm thy Heart no more among the little sparks of Good here below soar up upon the wings of Desire and ardent Affection to that pure immutable Sun of Love and Goodness one of whose golden rays of favour will be more to thee than a World Thou hast O Believer a Soul twice Heaven-born once as it is in its own nature an immortal spark from above and again as it bears the impress of Heaven in its Graces And answerably thou hast a double impetus after Happiness one in the instinct of nature thirsting after it and another in the more Divine impulses of Grace pressing towards it as its Center Think not that such a Soul shall ever find rest till it come back to the first point from whence it issued and resign up it self to its Original in the bosom of God Inflame thy Heart with Love to Jesus Christ who is altogether lovely and wholly desirable In his Righteousness thou maist stand and look up to the sweet reconciled face of God In his bleeding wounds thou hast a passage into the infinite bowels of Mercy through the veil of his flesh the way is open to the Holy of Holies The oyl upon his head can fill thee with joy unspeakable and glorious Lift up thine eyes O Believer to that wonder of wonders God manifested in the flesh from whence come all the admirable indwellings of God in the spirits of Men. Set thy Heart upon that Infinite Mass and Treasure of Merit which paid off all the scores to Divine Justice and over and above bought all the Glory of Heaven for poor worms Ravish thy Soul in the rich redundancies and over-measures of the Spirit upon him which overflow and fill so many thousand precious Souls with Grace Look stedfastly upon that pure mirrour of Love Holiness Meekness Goodness Obedience Patience which is in his flesh look till thou shine with the same image or spiritual Idea of Grace look till thou art captivated in raptures and flames of Love towards
Wishes Resolves Choices Desires and Delights there should be smitten and turned into bloody Iniquity is an amazing consideration That a Rational Creature with an Immortal spark in his bosom whose natural instinct is after Happiness should yet without a new Creation not be able so much as by a holy thought to aspire after the great unspeakable blessedness in the Gospel or to give a serious look towards the pure undefiled Religion leading thither and after he is new made by Grace that yet there should be a black sountain within ready to flow out at every sense taint every work and derive a damp a deadness a wretched indisposedness upon all his holy things is an astonishing thought That the holiest Man on Earth who mourns and sighs over the horrible Wickednesses abroad should be forced to lament at home and say there is aliquid intus somewhat in my own heart answering to all these were I but dimissus libero arbitrio left to my own self I might fall into Jonabs pet against the Great God or roll in Davids Adultery and Blood or Peter-like deny my Lord and do it cursing and damning of my self as the Original imports or turn a Julian a total final Apostate and art up my bloody blasphemies against Heaâ—en at my dying hour is wonderfully prodigious ous Such Sentiments as these hath the Believer of Original Sin which make him go groaning under the gravedo thereof as an intolerable burden this Gemitus sanctorum as St. Austin calls it is the first step of this fundamental Mortification Secondly Faith ushers into the Soul a stock of gracious Principles which conflict against the innate corruption and labour to drive it out as the Israelites did the Canaanites by little and little there is even in unregenerate Men a conflict between Reason and the Sensitive Affections Arist Eth lib. 1. c. 13. Reason saith the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the best things but the Affections repugn and refist the Soul is as it were Paralytick whilest Reason would move one way to the right hand Affection moves contrary to the left Aliudque cupido mens aliud suadet Hence the Syllogism of an incontinent man hath as the Schoolmen observe out of Aristotle four Propositions Aquin. pr. secund Medina viz. two universal ones one whereof is from Reason That Fornication is not to be committed another from Passion that Pleasure is to be pursued and Passion binds Reason That it do not subsume and conclude under the first And whilest it remains so the Man subsumes and concludes under the second Epist 56. Seneca tells us Silentium regionis is nothing Si affectus fremunt Reason must compose things or else aâ—â— will be in tumult in the Soul In this natura conflict Reason if improved to maintain it own grandeur and royalty may by its Edict hush the tumults and mutinies in the Affections and prevent many shames and turpitudes of Sensuality but alas there is nothing of true Mortification in all this no not in the Affections themselves which are not inwardly changed but only as the Horse and Mule held in with the rational bit or bridle much less in the Reason in which there is a great deal of vanity dark ignorance proud curiosity fleshly wisdom vain philosophy humane folly and perverse contradiction in all which Reason will rather indulge than crucifie it self but Faith ushers in another manner of Conflict In the Natural Conflict Reason is General and manages the War and as the Reason is so is the strength in Battel but Humane only In the Spiritual Conflict there is a greater than Reason even Supernatural Grace which being of Divine extraction hath in it self a power more than Humane to oppose corruption and which yet makes it stronger it hath continual Auxiliaries from the Holy Spirit which is always standing at the right hand of Grace as Satan is of Corruption to back and strengthen it In the Natural Conflict the fight is in a Logical and Argumentative way only and Reason being corrupt like a cunning Sophister turns about and stands ever and anon on the same side with Sin but in the Spiritual Conflict there can be no such compliances the War is laid in nature Grace in its very nature carries an enmity against corruption and irreconcilably interminably opposes it as long as Grace is Grace and Sin Sin In the Natural Conflict Reason fights but ex parte only against the gross carnal sensual lusts which stain Humanity in the mean time the pride perversness and desperate contradiction which dwell in the upper faculties are altogether untouched The Moralist stands upon bis own bottom full of self-power and self-righteousness and because he hath by his Reason conceived and brought forth some Moral Virtues Free-grace and its progeny born after the Spirit are despised in his eyes than which temper there is nothing more diametrically opposite to the Gospel which would have Men come in to Jesus Christ weary heavy laden hungry thirsty poor in spirit lost in themselves and sensibly wanting all things But in the Spiritual Conflict the War is universal Grace sights against all Sin not only against the gross carnal lusts which have more of the beast in them but against the fine Spiritual ones which have more of the Devil nor only against those open Sins which face the World but against those secret ones which lie hid in the Heart So opposite it is that as in the War against the Canaanites it would destroy every thing that breaths Sin in the first motions and titillations thereof in the Natural Conflict the fight is between distinct faculties Reason and Passion and so is at a distance and as it were by missile arms but in the Spiritual Conflict the fight is close and immediate there is something of Grace in every faculty to encounter the corruption there In the Understanding there is an Heavenly Wisdom which counterplots the Earthly as Hushai did Ahithophel whilest the one designs for Absalom the rebellious lust in the Heart the other stands up for the Kingdom of Christ the true David In the Will there is an holy Principle which ballinces the corrupt and is as a counter-byass to the Heart drawing it off from the false beatitudes to the true In the Affections there is a Divine spark which makes them aspire and elevate towards Heavenly things whilest the earthly part clogs and presses them downwards In a word Grace is spread all over the Soul as the Israelites were over Canaan to drive out the old inhabitant the corruption in every faculty In the Natural Conflict Man walks in his own Circle the only desigu is for the Kingdom of Reason and which is the common blast upon Morality nothing is done in ordine ad Deum In the Spiritual Conflict the aim is all for God and Christ that their Throne may be in the Heart and all their enemies there may be made their footstool Thus Grace ushered into the
reason with the Gospel before him arrive at so great a notion of Divinity as is before admitted I answer the key to open this is in the Text the natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned A man by reason and its furniture of learning may in the perusal of the holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions and so know the things of God notionally but he knows them not spiritually and by consequence not congruously to their spiritual nature For the opening of this we must consider that there is in the holy Scriptures something humane or which may be inventoried among the things of man as the letters and words made up of them and sentences made up of words not as if these were not dictated exactly by God himself but that they are common to humane and profane Authors I mean not for the divineness of the matter but for the phrases and forms of speech And there is in them something Divine or which must be computed among the things of God as the mysteries and spiritual things themselves which are represented by those words and phrases I may illustrate this distinction farther by that of our Saviour If I have told you earthly things and you believe them not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things Joh. 3.12 I pray what earthly things did our Saviour tell them was not he there preaching on that divine Theme of Regeneration Very true but Christ spake to them of Regeneration under the shadow of a birth and a wind and not according to the heavenly and spiritual nature thereof in it self Thus the words and phrases in Scripture being of common use are as it were humane types and shadows but the mysteries and spiritual things themselves are altogether divine Now to apply this distinction reason improved reaching to the things of man as its proper line may know the words and sentences in Scripture and so gather up a great notion of Divinity But unless inlightned by the holy Spirit which searcheth the things of God it goeth not beyond its own line it knows not spiritual things spiritually Reason without the light of faith Take it in a Jew at a Sacrifice and it saw the type only and not Christ in it Take it in a Christian at the holy Supper and it sees only the outward elements and discerns not the Lords body Take it in the greatest Rabbi sitting with the Scriptures before him and it sees them only in the shell or letter and not in the mystery And no wonder for even in common Sciences it may be so a man may construe and know the Grammar of a principle in Euclide and yet be ignorant of the Mathematical sense of it much more in divine truths may a man be spiritually ignorant who knows a great deal literally Therefore all Scholars may do well in their studies to do as Zuinglius did who having arrived at Arts and Tongues yet in the reading of the holy Scriptures looked up to heaven As for the great Doctor the holy Spirit when he comes in supernatural illumination then we know the things of God not by our own spirit but Gods the very same spirit which breaths in the Scriptures shines in the heart Hence spiritual things are discerned spiritually by a light congruous to their nature the spirit glorifies and shews forth Christ as the expression is John 16.14 Holy truths are as it were transfigured and shewn forth in glory which before were seen but in the flesh or weakness of the Letter the Deity sparkles out in the beauty and spiritual lustre of Scripture-mysteries which before only appeared in the humanity of words and phrases Now heaven opens and free-grace passes before us the secret of the Lord is with us and we are of his Privy Councel This is the first and fundadamental difference Reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light congruous to spiritual things but the light of Faith is Out of this all the other are derived Secondly Meer Reason digging in the Letter of Scripture arrives but at notions and shadows of knowledg and though these be as the sands on the sea shore they are but a form of knowledg Rom. 2.20 but when the light of faith comes there is sound wisdom Prov. 3.21 or as the original word is essence a thing which can no more be made up of meer notions then a body can of shadows Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Without it notions and literal knowledge have no hypostasis in the heart the spiritual world is as it were lost God and Christ and Heaven are but notions But as soon as faith comes and makes the day-break in the heart the spiritual world subsists afresh God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven to the soul all of them are reallized by faith there is a good treasure in the heart far more substantial then Arts and Tongues and School-notions can make Thirdly Reason with its notions arrives but at a knowledge falsly so called for it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known those things are proposed to be known not as meer notions but as practical things to be in the first place chosen loved embraced and practised but it knows them only notionally and not practically That knowledge whilest materially true hath a secret lye in it thus the Apostle He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.4 'T is not in him in a practical way so as to ballance the will and affections with the excellency of the things known but as soon as faith comes those things are known as they are proposed to be known as practical things to be improved in heart and life The supernatural light digests truths into blood and spirits and turns mysteries into godliness It knows Law and Gospel in their true tendency which is holiness not to be holy is to blast and prophane the meaning of both Fourthly The meer notional knowledge acquired by reason hath no spiritual life or sense in it it hath no life in it meer notions are but a dead faith but faith is a living notion In an unbeliever the notions are all dead affording no pulse of holy affections or motion of true obedience they are all buried in a grave of corruption and covered in the dust of earthly things But as soon as faith comes there is a resurrection in the soul the notions before dead now wake out of the dust and rise in life and power every truth lives in the heart and springs up into the new-creature This supernatural knowledge is a well-spring of life Prov. 16.22 and all the vital acts of grace stream from thence Nay as our Saviour tells us it is life eternal John 17.3 heaven doth dawn and appear in it Meer notional knowledg hath no spiritual sense in it
God come out of Egypt out of the straits of sin and pass through a wilderness of wants and extremities towards the Land of promise the valley of Achor trouble and perplexity for the accursed thing is a door of hope husks and hunger make the Prodigal come to himself and his father Thirdly Upon this humiliation and strait of soul there ensues a deliberation a standing as the King of Babylon did Ezek. 21.21 at the parting of the way to make a true enquiry Lo saith the afflicted soul in a self-parley here is the way of life and there of death this is the way everlasting and that 's the way of time If you live after the flesh you must dye but if you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live if you sow unto the flesh you must reap corruption if unto the spirit life everlasting O my soul be not deceived God and sin Christ and Belial heaven and hell cannot mix together Say then O my soul what wilt thou have the mess of pottage or the birth-right the pleasures of sin or those at Gods right hand the worlds trinity of lusts or communion with the blessed Trinity in heaven Thus the soul sits down and casts up the cost sin on and burn in hell for ever turn to God and shine in eternal glory spare thy lusts and damn thy soul slay thy lusts and save it Oh! what a fearful cheat is sin it proffers a profit or a pleasure and asks a soul it holds out a moment or two and would have eternity in pawn for it it tickles the sense and stabs the conscience it courts and flatters like the strange woman and leads down to hell and death Such deliberations as these make way for resignation an indeliberate resignation is but a flash and away but a deliberate one is fit to endure Fourthly After all this the holy spirit doth so far press in the holy light as to work a denial of a mans self and his lusts in some measure I say in some measure for without some measure of self-denial a man will never resign up himself to God and Christ Thus our Saviour If any man will come after me let him deny himself Mat. 16.24 first deny himself and then go to Christ and again Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Mat. 11.28 first be weary of sin and then go to Christ no man can serve two Masters he that will follow Christ must do as Peter and Andrew did leave his nets all the entangling lusts of his heart and so follow him Whilest a man sits at the receit of custome driving on a trade of sin he cannot follow him First he must with Mathew rise up from thence and then he may follow him Also I say in some measure for the self-denial before precious faith must be distinguished from the self-denial after it self-denial before faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit making impressions and darting in light into the heart in a transient way self-denial after faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit dwelling in the heart by faith and acting therein as an abiding principle of all grace Before faith it is in a far lesser measure and degree after faith it grows up to a full stature before faith it doth in some sort cast off the soveraignty of sin the soul no longer chuses to live under its dominion but looking upon it as cruel bondage casts off its allegiance after faith it strikes at the very life of sin in the work of mortification What is said of the beasts in Daniel their dominion was taken away and yet their lives were prolonged Dan. 7.12 the same may be said of sin first it loses its crown and then its life The holy spirit in the first measure of self-denial doth as it were dethrone sin in order to resignation and in the after-measure thereof it mortifies and nails it to the cross there to dye and expire Now this measure of self-denial which precedes resignation stands in divers things First There is a denial of a mans reason Reason as the candle of the Lord is not to be denied but reason as it is a false light as it pleads for Baal the lording lust of the soul as it plays the serpent seducing from holy truths as it sows pillows under presumptuous sinning as it laughs at holiness and divine mysteries above its comprehension is surely to be denied We must become fools that we may be wise put out our lamp that it may be lighted by the spirit and crucifie our why's and wherefores that we may believe the Gospel Abraham having Gods promise for a seed considered not Rom. 4.19 and staggered not or as in the original discerned not v. 20. he did not play the critick upon the dead body and dead womb he laid by his discretion that he might give glory to God by believing Secondly There is a denial of a mans will This is the forbidden fruit and womb of concupiscence unless this be renounced there is no hope of resignation our own will is a thing of Belial and unless subdued by grace will not take Christ's yoke it is an inward Antichrist and unless consumed by the divine spirit and brightness will exalt it self above the will of God Saul must have a light from heaven and a fall to the earth a fit of trembling or else he will not resign and say Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9.6 the will must be un-selved and the man become as a little child without any will of his own or else there can be no resignation Thirdly There is a denial of a mans carnal affections These are the camels which cannot go thorough the needles eye the weights and plummets which press down the soul from God unless these be cast off there can be no resignation our Saviour is positive in it how can ye believe which receive honour one of another Joh. 5.44 A soul breathed into vain-glorious air or drowned in sensual pleasures or laden with the thick clay of the world cannot resign he that will offer up himself to God must leave the world behind his back his affections must be gathered in from earth and Angel-like ascend in the flame of faith the vail of time must be put by and an entry made upon eternity Fourthly There is a denial of a mans own power Proud persons puft up in their fleshly mind vainly dream that their Reason can span all mysteries and their Will teem out all graces no temptations are too strong for them nor duties too weighty Alass these are so far from resignation that they are not come to illumination through prodigious blindness they are strong in their impotency rich in their poverty free in their chains and something in their nothingness And what should they go to God for as yet they are not so much as in the way thither but let the man put off his false ornaments and
to which faith must proceed First This resignation is made to Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation I begin with this first because Faith cannot go to God immediately but to the Mediator first and so to God Thus the Scripture saith through him we have access to the Father Eph. 2.18 by him we come unto God Heb. 7.25 and which is more express by him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 If we will go to our heavenly Father we must first put on our elder brothers robes we must cloath our faith and resignation in the resignations of Christ and so appear before God we must put our faith into the hand of a Mediator and from thence it will ascend up before the divine Majesty Take away the Mediator and God is a consuming sire no saith no prayer can approach unto him If the cloud of incense do not cover the Mercy-seat Aaron will dye before it Lev. 16.13 unless the Mediators merits had been as a cloud of incense about God the sinner though in the lowest posture of resignation must have died before the Father of mercies First then there is a resignation unto Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation For the understanding whereof two things are considerable First That Jesus Christ is by Gods ordination sealed to be a Mediator There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 Christ as God-man stood up between an offended God and offending man and acts as a Mediator in all his offices As a Priest he acts with God to pacifie his wrath and purchase grace and glory for men and as a Prophet and a King he acts with men to declare unto them the Will of God and rule over them by his spirit and word Thus the livine days-man lays his hand upon both God above and man below to bring them together in a mutual reconciliation Secondly That this resignation to Christ as Mediator is in a way congruous to all his offices Look as God above sealed him to be a Mediator by his ordination so man below seals as it were the counter-part by his resignation The believer yields up himself to Christ as a Priest by a recumbency on his merits and sweet-smelling sacrifice This in Scripture is called saith in his blood Rom. 3.25 he yields up himself to Christ as a Prophet by an humble teachableness this is called a hearing of the Prophet Act. 3.22 and he yields up himself to Christ as a King by an holy subjection and this is called receiving Christ Jesus the Lord Col. 2.6 Thus this resignation as a key to the wards of the lock suits and hits Christ in every office What is merit in Christ is fiducialness in faith What is instruction in Christ is docibleness in faith What is royalty in Christ is obedientialness in faith Secondly This resignation is made unto God even the whole sacred Trinity as the center and ultimate object of faith I say the whole sacred Trinity For though Christ as God-man the Mediator be only the grand medium by and through which faith makes its approaches to God yet Christ as God is not the ultimate object of faith I say the whole sacred Trinity as the center and ultimate object of faith For nothing is or can be the formal reason or terminating object of faith but the Deity or divine nature only whose infinit excellency and perfection doth naturally merit the same whose infallible truth rich mercy matchless power and unsearchable wisdom calls for faith to come and repose in its bosom there and there only can it ultimately rest and keep Sabbath this the Scripture expresses emphatically by trusting in Jehovah the rock of ages and center of faith Thus then it is faith first goes to Christ the Mediator and then in and through him it advances unto God The Apostle is express in it who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 Faith in Christs blood is saith in the way the new and living way consecrated through the vail of his flesh but faith in God is faith in the ultimate end and center Moreover that faith may arrive at him he comes as it were out of his unapproachable light and manifests himself in Attributes he lets down his veracity grace wisdom power holiness and soveraignty as so many beams of his glory for our faith to lean upon and as it were to climb up by unto himself They that know thy name will trust in thee saith the Psalmist Psal 9.10 the knowledge of Attributes is a staff to our weak faith in its walk to him Thirdly This resignation is made unto the werd as the warrant rule and way in by and according to which faith doth proceed These things are written that you might believe Joh. 20.31 As for the choice blessings which faith waits for from God and Christ the promises are the warrant As for the obediential subjection to God and Christ the commands are the rule As for the teachings of the Spirit the whole word is the way in which believers looks for the same If faith look up the word is the perspective if it work the word is the line and plummet if it consult here 's the oracle if it weigh things here 's the ballance Faith is never warrantless There is transgressing without cause but never believing Faith resigns to the Mediator and through him to God but the commission for both is in the word Thus far of the first thing unto whom or what this resignation is made But to go on Secondly For what things or purposes is it made I answer It is made for very great things and ends In opening of which I shall to each of them accommodate the former distinction of resignation as to the Mediator as to God and as to the Word That the nature of this resignation may the more fully appear the precious things and ends for which it is made are as followeth First The soul is resigned to be instructed in all the ways of God And this resignation that I may keep to the prae-appointed method is made First To Jesus Christ the Mediator and as to him first faith Disciples the soul to him and then yields it up to him to be taught First It Disciples the soul to Christ before faith a man is as a Wolf or a Lion for brutish untractableness but after it a little child may lead him even the least truth in the word and he will not break from it his ear is opened and his mind in a readiness for instruction Now this Faith doth two ways First It doth it by revealing the excellency of Christ as a Prophet Oh! says faith this is the only Rabbie the Angel of Gods face the wonderful counseliar lying in his bosome and knowing all his secrets his mouth is most sweet he speaks hony-combs
able to drive out Corruption especially when that Grace is acted which besides its purifying strengthening nature in common with other Graces is contrary to the Sin which is to be mortified and so proper and apt to expel it as one contrary doth another Hence Daniel counsels Nebuchadnezzar to break off his sins by righteousness and mercy Dan. 4.27 his Sins being Oppression and Cruelty nothing was apter than Righteousness Mercy to break them off And our Saviour when his Disciples were fainting in the storm calls for their Faith And when aspiring after the Primacy sets a little child before them as an emblem of Humility Dying Sardis he puts upon strengthening the things which remain and Nentral Laodicea upon Zeal to give her a fresh warmth in Religion Still the advice runs upon the contrary Grace the more that is actuated the more it roots and spreads in the Soul and the less room and place is left there for the contrary Sin Which I suppose was the reason why the Presbyter Sulpitius Severus being guilty of too much Loquacity ever after kept silence Spondan Annal. Vt peccatum quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo emendaret as the Historian expresses it 'T is a Precept of the Philosophers Arist Eth. lib. 2. c. 9. To observe what Vice we are most propense to and then to bend our selves to the contrary extream that we might come to the Virtue in the middle Faith though it dares not touch upon one contrary Sin to cure another would cast them both out by acting the contrary Grace Lastly Faith mortifies Sin in a way of dependence upon the Power and Spirit of God in and through Jesus Christ In the Covenant of Works in which there was no Mediator Man stood on his own bottom and had all his stock in his own hands But in the Covenant of Grace the Believer stands in the Power of God and though he have a little Grace in himself the main stock is above in a surer hand his life is hid with Christ in God there 's the great treasure out of which Faith fetches supplies of the Spirit for every good work hence in Scripture he is said To love live pray walk mortifie in the spirit If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 He saith through the Spirit because there is no other way of mortifying Sin he that goes about this work in his own Power is but in a dream he knows nothing of the life of Faith as appears by that Antithesis which the Prophet makes between the Soul lifted up and the life of Faith Hab. 2.4 Such an one holds not the head Jesus Christ no more than the worshippers of Angels spoken of Col. 2.18 19. Whatever he may do theoretically he doth it not practically whilest his fleshly mind presumes that he can move about such a work though the Head in Heaven stir not his Mortification must needs be weak and powerless because without Christ the wisdom and power of God he goes out against his lusts as Samson did against the Philistines with his hair off or as the Israelites did against the Canaanites when the Lord was not among them Numb 14.32 instead of success he meets with that curse and blast which lights upon all Christlless persons and actions The most charitable Prayer that can be made for him is that of the Psalmist Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord Psal 83.16 St. Austin long struggled in his own strength against his Corruptions and all in vain at last a voice told him In te stas non stas Thou fallest O Austin by standing in thy self True Faith goes about this work in the Power and Spirit of Christ as under the Old Testament when Faith subdued outward Kingdoms as the Apostle speaks Heb. 11.33 it was by the Spirit the Spirit clothed upon Gideon and he smote a mighty Host of Midianites The Spirit came upon Samson and he slew heaps upon heaps of the Philistines So under the New when Faith subdues the inward Kingdom of Sin it is by the Spirit strengthening the Believer to overcome it the reign of Sin is broken because he is under Grace Here we see how old strong customary Sins such as are a second nature in Men come to be subdued it would be an hard nay almost impossible thing for a Moralist to unravel such a Sin meerly by contrary acts and those acts done by his own power and that power emasculated by a long tract of Sin But Faith draws down an Almighty Power and Spirit to the work that hyperbole of Power which raised up Christ from the dead is towards the Believer Ephes 1.19 That Spirit of life which is in Christ makes him free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The bands of Sin can no more hold him than those of Death could Christ when the glory of the Father came to raise him up In doing this great work Faith goes by these steps first Faith lays down this as a foundation That there is Power enough in God to subdue Sin or else he should not be an Infinite God and that Sin is capable of being subdued or else it would be an Infinite Monster That Power which can dry up the Sea or shake the Earth out of her place or raise up the Dead out of the dust or annihilate the World in a moment must be able to subdue Sin In the Prophet it is but the turn of his hand I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away they dross saith God Isa 1.25 And which comes nearer to us Faith is sure that this Power doth not stand off at a distance in the unapproachable Deity but is made over to Christ coming in the flesh He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and Power The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily And going up to Heaven he sate down at the right hand of Power all things being put under his feet And which yet is nearer this Power is made over to Christ as trustee and treaurer for his Church his Unction is to run down upon all Believers The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him that they might be filled with it He sits at the right hand of Power that his enemies among which Sin is a chief one may be made his footstool All things are put under him that he might be Head over all to the Church letting down his vital influences and motions to it his great design is to make an end of Sin and to dissolve the works of the Devil And now nothing remains to draw down this Power to the Believer but the acting of Faith as Faith goes up Power comes down all things are possible to the Believer he can do all through Christ strengthening him It is but to look and be saved believe and be established wait and renew strength hand upon Jesus Christ and he who was Immanuel God
in judgment Psal 25.9 And for a pure Comfort They shall have joy in the Lord and be every day increasing it Isa 29.19 Their meek and quiet spirit makes them beautiful in the eyes of God and Man so rich a jewel proves them to be the elect of God Col. 3.12 Such Promises as these are able to meeken us under any Injuries Cicero saying Justitiae primum munus est ut ne cui noceat and adding as a salvo nisi lacessitus Lactantius cried out O quam simplicem sententiam duorum verborum adjectione corrupit What a dainty sentence did he spoil with those two words A Believer fixing his eyes on the Promises will not let go his Meekness no not for all the provocations in the World the loss of such a Jewel would be more to him than all other sufferings Another Grace actuated by Faith is Obedience Two things in the Spouse did ravish the heart of Christ her single eye of Faith and the neck-chain of Obedience Cant. 4.9 Obedience as Samuel said is better than Sacrisice And as Luther More eligible than doing Miracles Faith receiving Christ the Lord is in it self Virtual Obedience to the Commands of God and as an effect it produces actual To this end it believes the Commands to be as they are looking on the stamps of Majesty Purity Equity Righteousness therein it falls down and confesses that God is there of a truth this and that is the very Will of God and must be done primo intuitu without dispute and by all persons even the greatest on Earth Princes here are Subjects Constantine and Theodosius though Emperors stiled themselves Vassals of Christ Zedekiab the King should have humbled himself before Jeremy the Prophet 2 Chron. 36.12 Nay the Kingdom of God which is in every Command must be humbly received though coming in the hand of a child or a servant as a good Divine noteth Here all men and all in men even the Princely powers of Reason and Will with all the progeny of Thoughts and Affections must bow down before God A famous instance of which we have in the Noble Andelot in France who being questioned for a Protestant by his Soveraign Henry the second bravely professed That his Body Estate and Dignity was in his Majesty's power but his Soul was only subject to God From such a Supream Authority in the Command Faith presses strongly to Obedience and for a sweet Principle thereunto it draws a free Spirit from Christ Faith translates us into the Kingdom of Christ and there by a singular Priviledg above other Kingdom all the Subjects are ready to do the Commands of their Lord. Faith converses much about the Wounds and precious Sacrifice of Christ and there the free Spirit dwells as the free bird in the Altar Ps 84.3 And being received by Faith brings forth a numerous off-spring in acts of Obedience Faith makes us parts and pieces of Christ and so we are anointed with the Holy Ghost in some measure as his Humane Nature was in a transcendent way Faith dwells in the holy Truth and that makes us free indeed Whilest Precepts give the Rule Promises afford the Power such a Promise as that I will cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 being mixed with Faith will impower us to all Obedience Hence the Service of God becomes a freedom and Obedience easie and natural moving upon the wheels of Love and wings of the Spirit which must needs be a very strong incentive to Obedience and the rather because Faith ensures the acceptance thereof Were we to obey under the Covenant of Works which will bate nothing of pure sinless Perfection our Obedience might be bootless and heartless because every act of it would vanish and come to nothing by the adherent Corruption which made Calvin say That if a man did cull out the most excellent work of all his life he would find some corrupt flesh or other in it And St. Austin Vae vite landabili Wo to a laudable life without mercy But we are to obey under the Covenant of Grace whence Sincerity is accepted and frailty covered God gives a Tostimonial of Righteousness to Noah not withstanding his Infirmities and of Perfectness to Asa notwithstanding the high Places Uprightness passes for absolute Perfection and the main of the Heart for all of it insomuch that it is said of Josiah That he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses 2 King 23.25 his Sincerity was taken as if all had been fulfilled Retract lib. 1. c. 19. according to that of St. Austin Omnia mandata facta deputantur quando quicquid non sit ignoscitur There are Pardons ready sealed in Heaven for Believers Insirmities God forgives what is ours in a duty and accepts what is his own Our Duties are taken into the hand of Christ the Mediator and there perfumed with his sweet Merits and though as they are in our hands they have dross and soil in them yet as they are in his they are glorified Duties and as sweet Odours to God And upon such terms as these who would not obey Every act of Obedience shall be accepted and the light of Gods Countenance will irradiate our Duties And to give a further advance to this Grace Faith looks within the Veil to the great recompence in Heaven there are Crowns of Life rivers of Pleasures and plenitudes of Joy for ever there holy Souls see all Truths in their Original drink all Good out of the Fountain and have God for their All in All and all this is the reward of our poor imperfect Obedience And as such is outwardly secured in the Promises and inwardly realized by Faith and therefore must needs move the Believer strongly to Obedience no wonder if he burn in Devotions or melt in Charity or labour in other acts of Obedience all these being but a sowing to the Spirit will come up in a crop of Eternal Life his Prayers will be turned into Hallelujahs his Alms repaid in Everlasting Love and all his good Works which follow him into another World shall be woven into a Crown of Immortality And upon such an account who would not obey and live in perpetual resignation as he did who as the story goes always concluded his Prayers thus Domine quid me vis facere Lord what wilt thou have me to do And lived in such holy joys as if he had been in Heaven already Another Grace actuated by Faith is Patience This is Meekness towards God as Meekness is Patience towards Man and respecteth Gods Disposing Will as Obedience doth his Commanding This is a Subjection to God a Possession of our Selves and an Admiration to Others Hence the Constancy of Annas Burgus a Senator of Paris suffering for the Protestant Cause made many curious to know what Religion that was for which he so patiently endured death To promote this Grace Faith in
cloud upon it and Guilt as a wound in it Make it as lightsome as thou canst from Scripture that as a pure glass it may be fit to reflect the Gospel-Comforts on thy Soul Get a through cure of thy old Wounds or else sooner or later it will cry out against thee Joseph started up in his Brethrens mind a good while after their unnatural sale of him John the Baptist rose again in Herods Conscience upon the fame of Christs Miracles Theodorick having cruelly murdred Boethius and Symmachus was affrighted at the great head of a Fish at his own Table as if it had been one of theirs whom he unjustly put to death Apply therefore Christs Blood by Faith that thy Wounds may be healed David after his great fall prays first to be purged with hysop and then for the joy of Gods salvation Psal 51. The Hysop which was used to sprinkle the Blood under the Law figured out the office of Faith in sprinkling Christs Blood on the Conscience that 's a soveraign Balm to heal thy Wounds and able to make Conscience give thee an answer of Peace I have read a notable story of a sick Man who when Satan appeared and shewed him a long scrole of his Sins in writing saying Behold thy Virtues replied True Satan but thou hast not set down all set down also The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Such a purifier is this that a Man may be able as is said of St. Austin to think of his former Evils without fear as having no spot of unpardoned Sin in him Thy Conscience being made pure walk after it A reciá Conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum said the Orator Leave it not lest thou fall and wound thy self afresh When Conscience summons thee to this or that Duty up be doing God calls thee to it by thine own Heart when it tells thee of such a snare in thy way avoid it pass by it as thou wouldst by Hell God warns thee against it by thy self Conscience will measure out Comforts or Terrors to thee according as thou behavest thy self well or ill towards it If like Saul thou force thy self and rebel against light and give stabs to Conscience what hast thou to do with Peace Thy Heart will reproach thee Conscience will strike again and give thee wound for wound thou shalt doom thy self and like the Devils carry thy Chains and Hell about with thee Tiberius professed to the Senate That he suffered death daily he meant in the torments of his accusing Conscience On the other hand if thou turn thine eyes inward and observe Conscience and walk by the line and level of it thy Heart shall be at rest Conscience shall be a thousand witnesses for thee thou shalt be thine own Comforter and like the Angels carry an Heaven and Paradise aboat with thee Pauls joy shall be thine the testimony of Conscience that thy conversation hath been in godly sincerity and what is this but Assurance That Conscience which faith That thou art sincere tells thee also That thy Sins are pardoned These two are inseparable companions and never part the one from the other Again If thou wouldst have Assurance thou must be much in self-examination Commune with thy own Heart dive into the abyss of it reckon with thy self summon thy self to the Tribunal in thy own bosom The Philosophers espied out this Rule Pythagoras would not have us sleep till we had reviewed the day asking our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What have I transgressed what done and what omitted This though done by the candle-light of Nature much promoted Virtue and the comfort of it Qualâ—s ille somnus post recognitionem sui sequitur quam tranquillus altus liber saith Sencea After a review of ones self Oh what manner of sleep is there how still deep and free is it Much more must such a search into ones own Heart conduce to the Christians Graces and Comforts if done by the pure Sun-light of Scripture Self-examination is a root which bears Self-knowledg and at the top of it grows Assurance which is the knowledg of gracious self Awake therefore O Believer down into thy own Heart rifle the labyrinths and break open the false bottoms there see what of Sin is in thee Is there any darling Sin such as cogs with thy complexion or falls in with thy calling or any way steals away thy Heart and Affections from God Be sure that this is an accursed thing a Deliah as the word imports an exhauster of thy peace and joy However fair it may look to sense it is virtually sorrow and wrath See again what of Grace is there in thee do thou repent of Sin and believe on the Lord Jesus and love God and his holy Ways Are thy Graces genuine such as act thee in the power of the Spirit and square thee to the holy Canon of the Word and level thy Thoughts and Intentions at the Glory of God If thou thus search into thy Heart and do it in truth and faithfulness to the holy Light I dare say thou art ready for the sealing of the Spirit and the very frame of thy Heart is a real prayer for it O how soon may the Spirit come and by a Divine irradiation on thy Soul tell thee That thy Repentance is a Repentance unto Life and thy Faith precious Faith and thy Love Love in Sincerity How soon may it apply and seal the Promises to thy Heart as if it should say to thee Thou repentest indeed and the Mercy in the Promise is thine Thou believest indeed and the Salvation in the Promise is thine Thou lovest indeed and thine are the supersensual superintellectual good things prepared for the lovers of God And now thou maist say much better than Seneca Qualis somnus O how sweet is the rest and repose which the self-searching Soul finds in the bosom of Christ and Grace He that comes to that sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper must prepare himself for the Sâ—ul by Self-examination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man examine himself faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 Examine as a man would do Gold or Silver by the fire or by the Touchstone in like manner must he do so that he may fit himself for the Seal of Assurance of which the Sacramental Elements are Symbols Again If thou wouldst be assured exercise thy Graces and grow therein It much conduces to Assurance to render thy Graces as visible as thou canst Grace however it always carry a Divine lustre in it is not so visible when dormant in an habit or principle as when it is put forth into act and exercise neither is it so visible in its Initials in the smoking flax or bruised reed as in its Progresses and statures in Christ In point of Comfort talents not used are as none Comforts lie dead in Believers as their Graces do the holy sire raked up affords no light to them Awake therefore O Believer to