man to God to love him and be beloved by him so the true use of Faith in Jesus Christ is to be as it were the bellows to kindle love or the burning-glass as it were of the soul to receive the beams of the Love of God as they shine upon us in Jesus Christ and thereby to enflame our hearts in love to God again Therefore if you would live by Faith indeed begin here and first receive the deepest apprehensions of that Love of the Father Who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And by these apprehensiâ—ns stir up your hearts to the Love of God and make this very endeavour the work and business of your lives Oh that mistaken Christians would be rectified in this point how much would it tend to their holiness and their peace You think of almost nothing of the life of Faith but how to believe that you have a special interest in Christ and shall be saved by him But you have first another work to do You must first believe that common Love and Grace before mentioned John 3.16 2 Cor. 5.19 20.14 15. 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 2.9 And you must believe your own interest in this that is that God hath by Christ made to all and therefore unto you an act of oblivion and free deed of gift that you shall have Christ and pardon and eternal life if you will believingly accept the gift and will not finally reject it And the belief of this even of this common Love and Grace must first perswade your hearts accordingly to accept the offer and then you have a special interest and withall at the same time must kindle in your souls a thankful love to the Lord and fountain of this grace and if you were so ingenuous as to begin here and first use your Faith upon the foresaid common gift of Christ for the kindling of love to God within you and would account this the work which Faith hath every day to do you would then find that in the very exciting and exercise of this holy Love your assurance of your own special interest in Christ would be sooner and more comfortably brought about than by searching to find either evidence of pardon before you find your love to God or to find your love to God before you have laboured to get and exercise it I tell you they are dangerous deceivers of your souls that shall contradict this obvious truth that the true method and motive of mans first special love to God must not be by believing first God 's special love to us but by believing his more common love and mercy in the general act and offer of grace before mentioned For he that believeth Gods special love to him and his special interest in Christ before he hath any special love to God doth sinfully presume and not believe For if by Gods special love you mean his love of complacency to you as a living member of Christ to believe this before you love God truly is to believe a dangerous lie and if you mean only Gods love of benevolence by which he decreeth to make you the objects of his foresaid complacency and to sanctifie and save you to believe this before you truly love God is to believe that which is utterly unknown to you and may be false for ought you know but is not at all revealed by God and therefore is not the object of Faith Therefore if you cannot have true assurance or perswasion of your special interest in Christ and of your justification before you have a special love to God then this special love must be kindled I say not by a common Faith but by a true Faith in the General Love and Promise mentioned before Nay you must not only have first this special love but also must have so much knowledge that indeed you have it as you will have knowledge of your special interest in Christ and the love of God for no act of Faith will truly evidence special grace which is not immediately and intimately accompanied with true love to God our Father and Redeemer and the ultimate object of our Faith Nor can you any further perceive or prove the sincerity of your Faith it self than you discern in or with it the Love here mentioned For Faith is not only an act of the Intellect but of the Will also And there is no volition or consent to this or any offered good which hath not in it the true nature of Love and the intention of the end being in order of nature before our choice or use of means the intending of God as our end cannot come behind that act of Faith which is about Christ as the chosen means or way to God Therefore make this your great and principal use of your Faith to receive all the expressions of Gods Love in Christ and thereby to kindle in you a love to God that first the special true belief of Gods more common love and grace may kindle in you a special love and then the sense of this may assure you of your special interest in Christ and then the assurance of that special interest may increase your love to a much higher degree And thus live by Faith in the work of Love Direct 7. That you may understand what that Faith is which you must live by take in all the parts at least that are essential to it in your description and take not some parcels of it for the Christian Faith nor think noâ— that it must needs be several sorts of Faith if it have several objects and hearken not to that dull Philosophical subtilty which would perswade you that Faith is but some single physical act of the soul 1. If you know not what Faith is it must needs be a great hinderance to you in the seeking of it the trying it and the using it For though one may use his natural faculties which work by natural inclination and necessity without knowing what they are yet it is not so where the choice of the rational appetite is necessary for it must be guided by the reasoning faculty And though unlearned persons may have and use Repentance Faith and other graces who cannot define them yet they do truly though not perfectly know the thing it self though they know not the terms of a just definition and all defect of knowing the true nature of Faith will be some hinderance to us in using it 2. It is a moral subject which we are speaking of and terms are to be understood according to the nature of the subject therefore Faith is to be taken for a moral act which comprehendeth many physical acts Such as is the act of believing in or taking such a man for my Physician or my Master or my Tutor or my King Even our Philosophers themselves know not what doth individuate a physical act of the soul Nay they are not
those things that are not seen Or you may take the sense in this Proposition which I am next to open further and apply viz. That the nature and use of faith is to be as it were instead of presence possession and sight or to make the things that will be as if they were already in existence and the things unseen which God revealeth as if our bodily eyes beheld them 1. Not that faith doth really change its object 2. Nor doth it give the same degree of apprehensions and affections as the sight of present things would do But 1. Things invisible are the objects of our faith 2. And Faith is effectual instead of sight to all these uses 1. The apprehension is as infallible because of the objective certainty though not so satisfactory to our imperfect souls as if the things themselves were seen 2. The will is determined by it in its necessary consent and choice 3. The affections are moved in the necessary dâ—gree 4. It ruleth in our lives and bringeth us through duty and suffering for the sake of the happiness which we believe 3. This Faith is a grounded wise and justifiable act an infallible knowlâ—dge and often called so in Scripture John 6.69 1 Cor. 15.58 Rom. 8.28 c. And the constitutive and efficient causes will justifie the Name We know and are infallibly sure of the truth of God which we believe As it 's said John 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Hâ—avens Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God 1 Cor. 15.58 You know that your labour is nâ—t in vain in the Lord Joh. 9.29 We knâ—w God spake to Moses c. 31. We know God heareth not sinners John 3.2 We know thou art a Teacher come from God So 1 John 3.5 15. 1 Pet. 3.17 and many other Scriptures tell you that Believing God is a certain infallible sort of knowledge I shall in justification of the work of Faith acquaint you briefly with 1. That in the Nature of it 2. And that in the causing of it which advanceth it to be an infallible knowledge 1. The Believer knows as sure as he knows there is a God that God is true and his Word is true it being impossible for God to lie Hâ—b 6.18 God that cannot lie hath promised Titus 1.2 2. He knows that the holy Scripture is the Word of God by his Image which it beareth and the many evidences of Divinity which it containeth and the many Miracles certainly proved which Christ and his Spirit in his servants wrought to confirm the truth 3. And therefore he knoweth assuredly the conclusion that all this Word of God is true And for the surer effecting of this knowledge God doth not only set before us the ascertaining Evidence of his own veracity and the Scriptures Divinity but moreover 1. He giveth us to believe Phil. 1.29 2 Pet. 1.3 For it is not of our selves but is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 By the drawing of the Father we come to the Son And he that hath knowledge given from Heaven will certainly know and he that hath Faith given him from Heaven will certainly believe The heavenly Light will dissipate our darkness and infallibly illuminate Whilest God sets before us the glass of the Gospel in which the things invisible are revealed and also gives us eye sight to behold them Believers must needs be a heavenly people as walking in that light which proceedeth from and leadeth to the celestial everlasting Light 2. And that Faith may be so powerful as to serve instead of sight and presence Believers have the Spirit of Christ within them to excite and actuate it and help them against all temptations to unbelief and to work in them all other graces that concur to promote the works of Faith and to mortifie those sins that hinder our believing and are contrary to a heavenly life So that as the exercise of our sight and taste and hearing and feeling is caused by our natural life so the exercise of Faith and Hope and Love upon things unseen is caused by the holy Spirit which is the principle of our new life 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received the Spirit that we might know the things that are given us of God This Spirit of God acquainteth us with God with his veracity and his Word Heb. 10.30 We know him that hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee This Spirit of Christ acquainteth us with Christ and with his grace and will 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12. This heavenly Spirit acquainteth us with Heaven so that We know that when Christ appeareth we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 And we know that he was manifested to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.5 And will perfect his work and present us spotless to his Father Eph. 5.26 27. This heavenly Spirit possesseth the Saints with such heavenly dispositions and desires as much facilitate the work of Faith It bringeth us to a heavenly conversation and maketh us live as fellow-citizens of the Saints and in the houshold of God Phil. 3.20 Eph. 2.19 It is within us a Spirit of supplication breathing heaven-ward with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed and as God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit so the Spirit knows the mind of God Rom. 8.37 1 Cor. 2.11 3. And the work of Faith is much promoted by the spiritual experiences of Believers When they find a considerable part of the holy Scriptures verified on themselves it much confirmeth their Faith as to the whole They are really possessed of that heavenly disposition called The Divine Nature and have felt the power of the Word upon their hearts renewing them to the Image of God mortifying their most dear and strong corruptions shewing them a greater beauty and desirableness in the Objects of Faith than is to be found in sensible things They have found many of the Promises made good upon themselves in the answers of prayers and in great deliverances which strongly perswadeth them to believe the rest that are yet to be accomplished And experience is a very powerful and satisfying way of conviction He that feeleth as it were the first fruits the earnest and the beginnings of Heaven already in his soul will more easily and assuredly believe that there is a Heaven hereafter We know that the Son of God iâ— come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life 1 Joh. 5.20 He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself Vers 10. There is so
they become the heirs of that Righteousness which is by faith and condemn the unbelieving careless world that take not the warning and use not the remedy By this time you may see that the Life of Faith is quite another thing than the lifeless opinion of multitudes that call themselves believers To say I believe there is a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell is as easie as it is common But the faith of the ungodly is but an uneffectual dream To dream that you are fighting wins no victories To dream that you are eating gets no strength To dream that you are running ridâ— no ground To dream that you are plowing or sowing or reaping procureth but a fruitless harvest And to dream that you are Princes may consist with beggery If you do any more than dream of Heaven and Hell how is it that you stir not and make it not appear by the diligence of your lives and the fervour of your duties and the seriousness of your endeavours that such wonderful unexpressible over-powering things are indeed the matters of your belief As you love your souls take heed lest you take an image of faith to be the thing it self Faith sets on work the powers of the soul for the obtaining of that joy and the escaping of that misery which you believe But the image of faith in self-deceivers neither warms nor works it conquereth no difficulties it stirs not up to faithful duty It 's blind and therefore seeth not God and how then should he be feared and loved Iâ— seeth not Hell and therefore the senseless soul goes on as fearlesly and merrily to the unquenchable fire as if he were in the safest way This image of faith annihilateth the most potent objects as to any due impression on the soul God is as no God and Heaven as no Hâ—aven to these imaginary Christians If a Prince be in the room an image reverenceth him not If musick and feasting be there an image finds no pleasure in them If fire and sword be there an image fears them not You may perceive by the senseless neglectful carriage of ungodly men that they see not by faith the God that they should love and fear the Heaven that they should seek and wait for or the Hell that they should with all possible care avoid He is indeed the true Believer that allowing the difference of degrees doth pray as if he saw the Lord and speak and live as alwaies in his presence and redeem his time as if he were to die to morrow or as one that seeth death approach and ready to lay hands upon him that begs and cries to God in prayer as one that foreseeth the day of judgement and the endless joy or misery that followeth that bestirreth him for everlasting life as one that seeth Heaven and Hell by the eye of faith Faith is a serious apprehension and causeth a serious conversation for it is instead of sight and presence From all this you may easily and certainly infer 1. That true faith is a Jewel rare and precious and not so common as nominal careless Christians think What say they Are we not all believers will you make Infidels of all that are not Saints are none Christians but those that live so strictly Answer I know they are not Infidels by profession but what they are indeed and what God will take them for you may soon perceive by comparing the description of faith with the inscription legible on their lives It 's common to say I do believe but is it common to find men pray and live as those that do believe indeed It is both in works of charity and of piety that a living faith will shew it self I will not therefore contend about the name If you are ungodly unjust or uncharitable and yet will call your selves Believers you may keep the name and see whether it will save you Have you forgotten how this case is determined by the holy Ghost himself James 2.14 c. What doth it profit my Brethren if a man say he hath faith and hath not works Can faith save him Faith if it hath not works is dead being alone Thou believest that there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble If such a belief be it that thou gloriest in it 's not denyed thee But wilt thou know oh vain man that faith without works is dead c. Is there life where there is no motion Had you that Faith that is instead of sight it would make you more solicitous for the things unseen than you are for the visible trifles of this world 2. And hence you may observe that most true Believers are weak in Faith Alas how far do we all fall short of the love and zeal and care and diligence which we should have if we had but once beheld the things which we do believe Alas how dead are our affections how flat are our duties how cold and how slow are our endeavours how unprofitable are our lives in comparison of what one hours sight of Heaven and Hell would make them be O what a comfortable converse would it be if I might but joyn in prayer praise and holy conference one day or hour with a person that had seen the Lord and been in Heaven and born a part in the Angelical Praises Were our Congregations composed of such persons what manner of worship would they perform to God How unlike would their heavenly ravishing expressions be to these our sleepy heartless duties Were Heaven open to the view of all this Congregation while I am speaking to you or when we are speaking in prayer and praise to God imagine your selves what a change it would make upon the best of us in our services What apprehensions what affections what resolutions it would raise and what a posture it would cast us all into And do we not all profess to believe these things as revealed from Heaven by the infallible God Do we not say that such a Divine Revelation is as sure as if the things were in themselves laid open to our sight Why then are we no more affected with them Why are we no more transported by them Why do they no more command our souls and stir up our faculties to the most vigorous and lively exercise and call them off from things that are not to us considerable nor fit to have one glance of the eye of our observation nor a regardful thought nor the least affection unless as they subserve these greater things When you observe how much in your selves and others the frame of your souls in holy duty and the tenour of your lives towards God and man do differ from what they would be if you had seen the things that you believe let it mind you of the great imperfection of faith and humble us all in the sense of our imbâ—cility For though I know that the most perfect Faith is not apt to raise such high affections in
3. And this guilt and fear and unwillingness together will all keep down your thoughts from Heaven so that seldom thinking of it will increase your unbelief and they will make you unfit to see the evidences of truth in the Gospel when you do think of them or hear them For he that would not kâ—â—w cannot learn Obâ—y therefore according to the knowledge which you have if ever you would have more and would not be given up to the blindness of Infidelity Direct 11. Trust not only to your understandings and think not that study is all which is necessary to faith But remember that faith is the gift of God and therefore pray as well as study Prov. 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not to thy own understanding It is a precept as necessary in this point as in any In all things God abhorreth the proud and looketh at them afar off as with disowning and disdain But in no case more than when a blind ungodly sinner shall so overvalue his own understanding as to think that if there be evidence of truth in the mystery of faith he is able presently to discern it before or without any heavenly illumination to cure his dark distempered mind Remember that as the Sun is seen only by his own light so is God our Creatour and Redeemer Faith is the gift of God as well as Repentance Ephes 2.8 2 Tim. 2.25 26. Apply your selves therefore to God by earnest prayer for it As he Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief And as the Disciples Luke 17.5 Increase our faith A humble soul that waiteth on God in fervent prayer and yet neglecteth not to study and search for truth is much liker to become a confirmed Believer than ungodly Students who trust and seek no further than to their Books and their perverted minds For as God will be sought to for his grace so those that draw near him do draw near unto the Light and therefore are like as children of Light to be delivered from the power of darkness For in his light we shall see the light that must acquaint us with him Direct 12. Lastly What measure of Light soever God vouchsafeth you labour to turn it all into Love and make it your serious care and business to know God that you may love him and to love God so far as you know him For he that desireth satisfaction in his doubts to no better end than to please his mind by knowing and to free it from the disquiet of uncertainty hath an end so low in all his studies that he cannot expect that God and his grace should be called down to serve such a low and base design That faith which is not employed in beholding the love of God in the face of Christ on purpose to increase and exercise our love is not indeed the true Christian Faith but a dead opinion And he that hath never so weak a faith and useth it to this end to know Gods amiableness and to love him doth take the most certain way for the confirmation of his faith For Love is the closest adherence of the soul to God and therefore will set it in the clearest light and will teach it by the sweet convincing way of experience and spiritual taste Believing alone is like the knowledge of our meat by seeing it And Love is as the knowledge of our meat by eating and digesting it And he that hath tasted that it is sweet hath a stronger kind of perswasion that it is sweet than he that only seeth it and will much more tenaciously hold his apprehension It is more possible to dispute him out of his belief who only seeth than him that also tasteth and concocteth A Parent and child will not so easily believe any false reports of one another as strangers or enemies will because Love is a powerful resister of such hard conceits And though this be delusory and blinding partiality where Love is guided by mistake yet when a sound understanding leadeth it and Love hath chosen the truest object it is the naturally perfective motion of the soul And Love keepeth us under the fullest influences of Gods Love and therefore in the reception of that grace which will increase our faith For Love is that act which the ancient Doctors were wont to call the principle of merit or first meritorious act of the soul and which we call the principle of rewardable acts God beginneth and loveth us first partly with a Love of complacency only as his creatures and also as in esse cognito he foreseeth how amiable his grace will make us and partly with a Love of benevolence intending to give us that grace which shall make us really the objects of his further Love And having received this grace it causeth us to love God And when we love God we are really the objects of his complacential Love and when we perceive this it still increaseth our Love And thus the mutual Love of God and Man is the true perpetual motion which hath an everlasting cause and therefore must have an everlasting duration And so the faith which hath once kindled Love even sincere Love to God in Christ hath taken rooting in the heart and lyeth deeper than the head and will hold fast and increase as Love increaseth And this is the true reason of the stedfastness and happiness of many weak unlearned Christians who have not the distinct conceptions and reasonings of learned men and yet because their Faith is turned into Love their Love doth help to confirm their Faith And as they love more heartily so they believe more stedfastly and perseveringly than many who can say more for their faith And so much for the strengthening of your faith CHAP. IX General Directions for exercising the Life of Faith HAving told you how Faith must be confirmed I am next to tell you how it must be used And in this I shall begin with some General Directions and then proceed to such particular cases in which we have the greatest use for Faith Direct 1. Remember the necessity of Faith in all the business of your hearts and lives that nothing can be done well without it There is no sin to be conquered no grace to be exercised no worship to be performed nor no acts of mercy or justice or worldly business to be well done without it in any manner acceptable to God Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 You may as well go about your bodily work without your eye-sight as about your spiritual work without Faith Direct 2. Make it therefore your care and work to get Faith and to use it and think not that God must reveal his mind to you as in visions while you idly neglect your proper work Believing is the first part of your trade of life and the practice of it must be your constant business It is not living ordinarily by sense and looking when God will
cast in the light of Faith extraordinarily which is indeed the life of Faith Nor is it seeming to stir up Faith in a Prayer or Sermon and looking no more after it all the day This is but to give God a salutation and not to dwell and walk with him And to give Heaven a complemental visit sometimes but not to have your conversation there 2 Cor. 5.7 8. Direct 3. Be not too seldom in solitary meditation Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled to perform in any set and long and orderly manner yet it is so needful to those who are able that the greatest works of Faith are to be managed by it How should things unseen be apprehended so as to affect our hearts without any serious exercise of our thoughts How should we search into mysteries of the Gospel or converse with God or walk in Heaven or fetch either joyes or motives thence without any retired studious contemplation If you cannot meditate or think you cannot believe Meditation abstracteth the mind from vanity and lifteth it up above the world and setteth it about the work of Faith which by a mindless thoughtless or worldly soul can never be performed 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Phil. 3.20 Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 3. Direct 4. Let the Image of the Life of Christ and his Martyrs and holiest servants be deeply printed on your minds That you may know what the way is which you have to go and what patterns they be which you have to imitate think how much they were above things sensitive and how light they set by all the pleasures wealth and glory of this world Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set before us that cloud of witnesses and catalogue of Martyrs in Heb. 11. that example may help us and we may see with how good company we go in the life of Faith Paul had well studied the example of Christ when he took pleasure in infirmities and gloryed only in the Cross to be base and afflicted in this world for the hopes of endless glory 2 Cor. 11.30 12.5 9 10. And when he could say I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 9 10. No man will well militate in the life of Faith but he that followeth the Captain of his salvation Heb. 2.10 who for the bringing of many Sons to glory even those whom he is not ashamed to call his Brethren was made perfect as to perfection of action or performance by suffering thereby to shew us how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal things are to be valued in comparison of the things invisible and therefore as the General and the souldiers make up one army and militate in one militia so he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2.10 11 12. Though that which is called the life of Faith in us deserved a higher title in Christ and his faith in his Father and ours do much differ and he had not many of the objects acts and uses of Faith as we have who are sinners yet in this we must follow him as our great example in valuing things invisible and vilifying things visible in comparison of them And therefore Paul saith I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Direct 5. Remember therefore that God and Heaven the unseen things are the final object of true Faith and that the final object is the noblest and that the principal use of Faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal to things invisible and eternal and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian Faith 1. Many think of no other object of it but the death and righteousness of Christ and the pardon of sin and the promise of that pardon And God and Heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of Faith 2. And they think of little other use of it than to comfort them against the guilt of sin with the assurance of their Justification But the great and principal work of Faith is that which is about its final object to carry up the soul to God and Heaven where the world and things sensible are the terminus à quo and God and things invisible the terminus ad quem And thus it is put in contradistinction to living by fight in 2 Cor. 5.6 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect in Rom. 6. throughout and many other places and thus it is that Heb. 11. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of Faith as it was expressed in valuing things unseen upon the belief of the Word of God and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them And thus Christ tryed the Rich man Luke 18.22 whether he would be his Disciple by calling him to sell all and give to the poâ—r for the hopes of a treasure in Heaven And thus Christ maketh bearing the Cross and denying our selves and forsaking all for him to be necessary in all that are his Disciples And thus Paul describeth the life of Faith 2 Cor. 4.17 18. by the contempt of the world and suffering afflictions for the hopes of Heaven For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Our Faith is our victory over the world even in the very nature of it and not only in the remote effect for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen is one and the same motion of the soul denominated variously from its various respects to the terminus ad quem and à quo Direct 6. Remember that as God to be believed in is the principal and final object of Faith so the kindling of love to God in the soul is the principal use and effect of Faith And to live by Faith is but to love obey and suffer by Faith Faith working by Love is the description of our Christianity Gal. 5.6 As Christ is the Way to the Father Joh. 14.6 and came into the world to recover Apostate
contingents are known to him in their causes or in his decree or in their coexistence in eternity They can tell what Decrees he hath about Negatives as that such a man shall not have Faith given him that millions of things possible shall not be that you shall not be a plant or a beast nor any other man nor called by any other name c. And how all Gods Decrees are indeed but One and yet not only unconceivably numerous but the order of them as to priority and posteriority is to be exactly defined and defended though to the detriment of charity and peace As to sin they can tell you whether he have a real positive Decree de re eveniente or only de eventu rei or only de propriâ permissione eventus i. e. de non impediendo i. e. de non agendo whether non agere need and have a positive act of Volition or Nolition antecedent Though they know not when they hear the sound of the wind either whence it cometh or whither it goeth yet know they all the methods of the Spirit They know how God as the first-mover predetermineth the motions of all Agents natural and free and whether his influence be upon the essence or faculty or act immediately and what that influx is In a word how voluminously do they darken counsel by words without knowledge As if they had never read Gods large expostulation with Job 42 c. Deut. 29 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Even an Angel could say to Manoah Judg. 13.18 Why askest thou thus after my name seeing it is secret No man hath seen God at any time saving the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1.18 And what he hath declared we may know But how much more do these men pretend to know than ever Christ declared But who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Rom. 11.34 Etiam vera de Deo loqui periculosum Even things that are true should be spoken of God not only with reverence but with great caution And a wise man will rather admire and adore than boldly speak what he is not certain is true and congruous Direct 6. Let all your knowledge of God be practical yea more practical than any other knowledge and let not your thoughts once use Gods Name in vain If it be a sin to use idle or unprofitable words and especially to take Gods Name in vain it cannot be faultless to have idle unprofitable thoughts of God for the thoughts are the operations of the mind it self There is no thought or knowledge which ever cometh into our minds which 1. Hath so great work to do and 2. Is so fit and powerfull to do it as the knowledge and thoughts which we have of God The vâ—ry renovation of the soul to his Image and transforming it into the Divine Nature must be wrought hereby The thoughts of his Wisdom must silence all our contradicting folly and bring our souls to an absolute submission and subjection to his Laws The knowledge of his Goodness must cause all true saving Goodness in us by possâ—ssing us with the highest love to God The knowledge of his Power must cause both our confidence and our fear And the impress of Gods Attributes must be his Image on our souls It is a common and true observation of Divines that in Scripture words of God which express his Knowledge do imply his will and affections As his knowing the way of the righteous Psal 2.6 is his approving and loving it c. And it is as true that words of our knowledge of God should all imply affection towards him It is a grievous aggravation of ungodliness to be a learned ungâ—dly man To profess to know God and deny him in works being abominable and disobedient and reprobate to every good work though as orthodox and ready in good words as others Titus 1.16 A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul It should partake of the Omnipotency and perfection of the blessed Object No creature should be able to stand before him when our minds entertain any serious thoughts of him and converse with him A thought of God should annihilatâ— all the grandure and honours of the world to us and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh and all the power of temptations what fervency in prayer what earnestness of desire what confidence of faith what hatred of sin what ardent love what transporting joy what constant patience should one serious thought of God possess the believing holy soul with If the thing known become as much one with the understanding as Plotinus and other Platonists thought or if man were so far partaker of a kind of deification as Gibieuf and other Oratorians and â—enedictus de Benedictis Barbanson and other Fanatick Fryers think surely the knowledge of God should raise us more above our sensitive desires and passions and make us a more excellent sort of persons and it should make us more like those blessed spirits who know him more than we on earth and it should be the beginning of our eternal life John 17.3 Direct 7. By Faith deliver up your selves to GOD as your Creator and your Owner and live to him as those that perceive they are absolutely his own The word GOD doth signifie both Gods essence and his three great Relations unto man and we take him not for our God if we take him not as in these Divine Relations Therefore God would have Faith to be expressed at our entrance into his Church by Baptism because a believing soul doth deliver up it self to God The first and greatest work of Faith is to enter us sincerely into the holy Covenant In which this is the first part that we take God for our Owner and resign up our selves to him without either express or implicit reserve as those that are absolutely his own And though these words are by any hypocrite quickly spoken yet when the thing is really done the very heart of sin is broken For as the Apostle saith He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 Because a dead man hath no faculties to do evil So we may say He that is resigned to God as his absolute Owner is freed from sin because he that is not his own hath nothing which is his own and therefore hath nothing to alienate from his Owner We are not our Own we are bought with a price which is the second title of Gods propriety in us and therefore must glorifie God in body and spirit as being his 1 Cor. 6.20 And from this Relation faith will fetch abundant consolation seeing they that by consent and not only by constraint are absolutely his shall undoubtedly be loved and cared for as his Own
what our case is and then hath taught him what he himself is as to his person and his office and what he hath done to reconcile us to God and how far God is reconciled hereupon and what a common conditional pardoning Covenant he hath made and offereth to all and what he will be and do to those that do come in the belief of all this serioâ—sly by the assenting act of the understanding is the first part of saving Faith going in nature before both the Love of God and the consenting act of the Will to the Redeemer And yet perhaps the same acts of faith in an uneffectual superficial measure may go long before this in many 6. In this assent our belief in God and in the Mediatour are conjunct in time and nature they being Relatives here as the objects of our faith It is not possible to believe in Christ as the Mediatour who hath propitiated God to us before we believe that God is propitiated by the Mediatour nor vice versâ Indeed there is a difference in order of dignity and desirableness God as propitiated being represented to us as the End and the Propitiator but as the Means But as to the order of our apprehension or believing there can be no difference at all no more than in the order of knowing the Father and the Son the Husband and Wife the King and subjects These Relatives are simul naturá tempore 7. This assenting act of Faith by which at once we believe Christ to be the Propitiator and God to be propitiated by him is not the belief that my sins are actually pardoned and my soul actually reconciled and justified but it includeth the belief of the history of Christs satisfaction and of the common conditional Covenant of Promise and Offer from God viz. that God is so far reconciled by the Mediatour as that he will forgive and justifie and glorifie all that Repent and Believe that is that return to God by faith in Christ and offereth this mercy to all and intreateth them to accept it and will condemn none of them but those that finally reject i◠〈◊〉 things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himsâ—lf not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. So that it is at once the belief of the Father as reconciled and the Son as the Reconcilâ—r and that according to the tenour of the common conditional Covenant which is the first assenting part of saving Faith 8. This same Covenant which revealeth God as thus far reconciled by Christ doth offer him to be further actualy and fully reconciled and to justifie and glorifie us that is to forgive accept and love us perfectly for ever And it offereth us Christ to be our actual Head and Mediatour to procure and give us all this mercy by communicating the benefits which he hath purchased according to his Covenant-terms so that as before the Father and the Son were revealed to our assent together so here they are offered to the Will together 9. In this offer God is offered as the End and Christ as Mediatour is offered as the Means therefore the act of the Will to God which is here required is simple Love of complacency with subjection which is a consent to obey but the act of the Will to Christ is called choice or consent though there be in it Amor Medii the Love of that Means for its aptitude as to the end 10. This Love of God as the End and Consent to Christ as the Means being not acts of the Intellect but of the Will cannot be the first acts of Faith but do presuppose the first assenting acts 11. But the assenting act of Faith doth cause these acts of the Will to God and the Mediatour Because we believe the Truth and Goodness we Consent and Love 12. Both these acts of the Will are caused by assent at one time without the least distance 13. But here is a difference in order of Nature because we will God as the End and for himself and therefore first in the natural order of intention and we will Christ as the Means for that End and therefore but secondarily Though in the Intellects apprehension and assent there be no such difference because in the Truth which is the Vnderstandings object there is no dâ—fference but only in the Goodness which is the Wills object And as Goodness it self is apprehended by the Vnderstanding ut verè bonum there is only an objective dâ—fference of dignity 14. Therefore as the Gospel revelation cometh to us in a way of offer promise and covenant so our Faith must act in a way of Acceptance Covenanting with God and the Redeemer and Sanctifier And the Sacrament of Baptism is the solemnizing of this Covenant on both parts And till our hearts do consent to the Baptismal Covenant of Grace we are not Believers in a saving sense 15. There is no distance of time between the Assent of Faith and the first true degree of Love and Consent Though an unsound Assent may go long before yet sound Assent doth immediately produce Love and Consent and though a clear and full resolved degree of consent may be some time afterward And therefore the soul may not at the first degree so well understand it self as to be ready for an open covenanting 16. This being the true order of the work of Faith and Love the case now lyeth plain before those that can observe things distinctly and take not up with confused knowledge And no other are fit to meddle with such cases viz that the knowing or assenting acts of faith in God as reconciled so far and in Christ as the reconciler so far as to give out the offer or Covenant of Grace are both at once and both go before the acts of the will as the cause before the immediate effect and that this assent first in order of nature but at once in time causeth the will to love God as our End and to consent to and chuse Christ in heart-covenant as the means and so in our covenant we give up our selves to both And that this Repentance and Love to God which are both one work called conversion of turning from the creature to God the one as denominated from the terminus à quo viz. Repentance the other from the terminus ad quem viz. Love are twisted at once with true saving Faith And that Christ as the means used by God is our first Teacher and bringeth us to assent And then that assent bringeth us to take God for our End and Christ for the Means of our actual Justification and Glory so that Christ is
it being his work to make us thus both Believers and Saints and his perfective work of our real Sanctification being as necessary to us as our Redemption or Creation Matth. 28.19 2â— Heb. 6.1 2 4 5 6. Direct 18. Therefore as every Christian must look upon himself as being in special Covenant with the Holy Ghost so be must understand distinctly what are the benefits and what are the conditions and what are the duties of that part of his Covenant The special Benefits are the Life Light and Love before mentioned by the quickening illumination and sanctification of the Spirit not as in the first Act or Seed for so they are presupposed in that Faith and Repentance which is the Condition But as in the following acts and habits and increase of both unto perfection Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off and to as many as the Lord our God shall call See Acts 26.18 Ephes 1.18 19. Titus 3.5 6 7. The special condition on our parts is our consent to the whole Covenant of Grace viz. To give up our selves to God as our Reconciled God and Father in Christ and to Jesus Christ as our Saviour and to the holy Spirit as to his Agent and our Sanctifier There needeth no other proof of this than actual Baptism as celebrated in the Church from Christs daies till now And the institution of it Mat. 28.19 with 1 John 5.7 8 9. 1 Pet. 3.21 with John 3.5 The special Duties afterward to be performed have their rewards as aforesaid and the neglect of them their penalties and therefore have the nature of a Condition as of those particular rewards or benefits Direct 19. The Duties which our Covenant with the Holy Ghost doth bind us to are 1. Faithfully to endeavour by the power and help which he giveth us to continue our consent to all the foresaid Covenant And 2. To obey his further motions for the work of Obedience and Love 3. And to use Christs appointed means with which his Spirit worketh And 4. To forbear those wilful sins which grieve the Spirit John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you v. 7. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you v. 9. Continue in my love Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the Faith c. Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God Heb. 10.25 26. Not forsaking the assembling of your selves together c. For if we sin wilfully c. of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath done despight to the Spiâ—it of grace v. 29. Heb. 6.4 5 6. Ephes 4 3â— Grieve not the holy Spirit of God 1 Thes 5.19 Quench not the Spirit Direct 20. By this it is plain that the Spirit worketh not on man as a dead thing which hath no principle of activity in it self nor as on a naturally necessitated Agent which hath no self-determining faculty of will but as on a living free self-determining Agent which hath duty of its own to perform for the attaining of the end desired Those therefore that upon the pretence of the Spirits doing all and our doing nothing without him will lye idle and not do their parts with him and say that they wait for the motions of the Spirit and that our endeavours will not further the end do abuse the Spirit and contradict themselves seeing the Spirits work is to stir us up to endeavour which when we refuse to do we disobey and strive against the Spirit Direct 21. Though sometimes the Spirit work so efficaciously as certainly to cause the volition or other effect which it moveth to yet sometimes it so moveth as procureth not the effect when yet it gave man all the power and help which was necessary to the effect because that man failed of that endeavour of his own which should have concurred to the effect and which he was able without more help to have performed That there is such effectual grace Acts 9. and many Scriptures with our great experience tell us That there is such meer necessary uneffectual grace possible and sometime in being which some call sufficient grace is undeniable in the case of Adam who sinned not for want of necessary grace without which he could not do otherwise And to deny this blotteth out all Christianity and Religion at one dash By all which it appeareth that the work of the Spirit is such on mans will as that sometimes the effect is suspended on our concurrence so that though the Spirit be the total cause of its own proper effect and of the act of man in its own place and kind of action yet not simply a total cause of mans act or volition but mans concurrence may be further required to it and may fail Direct 22. Satan transformeth himself oft into an Angel of Light to deceive men by pretending to be the Spirit of God Therefore the spirits must be tryed and not every spirit trusted 2 Cor. 11.14 15. Mat. 24.4 5 11 24. 1 John 3.7 Ephes 4.14 Revel 10.3 8. 2 Thes 3.2 1 John 4.1 3 6. Direct 23. The way of trying the spirits is to try all their uncertain suggestions by the Rule of the certain Truths already revealed in Nature and in the holy Scriptures And to try them by the Scriptures is but to try the spirits by the Spirit the doubtfull spirit by the undoubted Spirit which indited and sealed the Scriptures more fully than can be expected in any after revelation 1 Thes 1.21 Isa 8.16 20. 2 Pet. 1.19 John 5.39 Acts 17.11 The Spirit of God is never contrary to it self Therefore nothing can be from that Spirit which is contrary to the Scriptures which the Spirit indited Direct 24. When you would have an increase of the Spirit go to Christ for it by renewed acts of that same Faith by which at first you obtained the Spirit Gal. 3.3 4. Gal. 4.6 Faith in Christ doth two waies help us to the Spirit 1. As it is that Condition upon which he hath promised it to whom it belongeth to give us the Spirit 2. As it is that act of the soul which is fitted in the nature of it to the work of the Spirit That is as it is the serious contemplation of the infinite Goodness and Love of God most brightly shining to us in the face of the Redeemer and as it is a serious contemplation of that heavenly glory procured by Christ which is the fullest expression of the Love of God and so is fittest to kindle that Love to God in the soul which is the work of the Spirit These are joyned Rom. 5.1 2 5 6. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we
thou doubt And you cannot say that this is only a hinderance in the applying act and not in the direct and principal act of faith For Luke 24.21 we find some Disciples at this pass But we trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel And v. 25 26. Christ saith to them O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his Glory Luke 24.11 The words of them who told the Apostles that Christ was risen seemed but as tales to them and they believed them not And v. 41. While they believed not for joy and wondered c. 3. Nay a weak faith may have such a swouning fit as to fail extraordinarily in an hour of temptation so far as to deny Christ or shrink from him in this fear so did Peter and not only he but all the Disciples forsook him and fled Matth. 26 56. But yet he that according to the habituated state of his soul hath so much Faith and Love as will cause him to venture life and all upon the trust which he hath to the promises of the Gospel hath a true and saving faiâ—h And here I desire all doubting Christians to lay by the common mistake in the trying of their faith or trust in Christ and to go hereafter upon surer grounds Many say I cannot believe or trust Christ for salvation for I am full of doubts and fears and troubles and surely this is not trusting God Ans 1. The question is not whether you trust him perfectly so as to have no fears no troubles no doubts but whether you trust him sincerely so far as to venture all upon him in his way If you can venture all on him and let go all to follow him your faith is true and saving This would abundantly comfort many fearful troubled Christians if they did but understand it well For many of them that thus fear would as soon as any forsake all for Christ and let go all carnal pleasures and worldly things or any wilful sin whatsoever rather than forsake him and would not take to any other portion and felicity than God nor any other way than Christ and the Spirit of holiness for all the temptations in the world And yet they fear because they fear and doubt more because they doubt Doubting soul let this resolve thee suppose Christ and his way were like a Pilot with his Ship at Sea Many more promise to convey thee safely and many perswade thee not to venture but stay at Land But if thou hast so much trust as that thou wilt go and put thy self and all that thou hast into this Ship and forsake all other though thou go trembling all the way and be afraid of every storm and tempest and gulf yet thou hast true faith though it be weak If thy faith will but keep thee in the Ship with Christ that thou neither turn back again to the flesh and world nor yet take another Ship and Pilot as Mahometanes and those without the Church undoubtedly Christ will bring thee safe to Land though thy fear and distrust be still thy sin For the hypocrites case is alwaies some of these 1. Some of them will only trust God in some smaller matter wherein their happiness consisteth not As a man will trust one with some trifle which he doth not much regard whom yet he thinks so ill of that he cannot trust him in a matter of weight 2. Some of them will trust God for the saving of their souls and the life to come or rather presume on him while they call it trusting him but they will not trust him with their bodies their wealth and honours and fleshly pleasures or their lives These they are resolved to shift for and secure themselves as well as they can For they know that for the world to come they must be at Gods disposal and they have no way of their own to shift out of his hands whether there be such a life or no they know not but if there be they will cast their souls upon Gods mercy when they have kept the world as long as they can and have had all that it can do for them But they will not lose their present part for such uncertain hopes as they account them 3. Some of them will trust him only in pretence and name while it is the creature which they trust indeed Because they have learned to say that God is the disposer of all and only to be trusted and all creatures are but used by his will therefore they think that when they trust the creature it is but in subordination to God though indeed they trust not God at all 4. Some of them will trust God and the creature joyntly and as they serve God and Mammon and think to make sure of the prosperity of the body and the salvation of the soul without losing either of them so they trust in both conjunctly to make up their felicity Some think when they read Christs words Mark 10.24 How hard is it for them that trust in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God that they are safe enough if that be all the danger for they do not trust in their riches though they love them He is a mad man they say that will put his trust in them And yet Christ intimateth it as the true reason why few that have riches can be saved because there is few that have riches who do not trust in them You know that riches will not save your souls you know that they will not save you from the grâ—ve you know that they will not cure your diseases nor ease your pains And therefore you do not trust to riches either to keep you from sickness or from dying or from Hell But yet you think that riches may help you to live in pleasure and in reputation with the world and in plenty of all things and to have your will as long as health and life will last and this you take to be the chiefest happiness which a man can make sure of And for this you trust them The fool in Luke 12.19 who said Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry thou hast enough laid up for many years did not trust his riches to make him immortal nor to save his soul But he trusted in them as a provision which might suffice for many years that he might eat drink and be merry and take his ease and this he loved better and preferred before any pleasures or happiness which he hoped for in another world And thus it is that all worldly hypocrites do trust in riches Yea the poorest do trust in their little poor provisions in this world as seeming to them surer and therefore better than any which they can expect hereafter This is the way of trusting in uncertain riches viz. to be their surest happiness instead of trusting in the living God 1
be doth the Scripture say that all men believe or only some If some doth it name them or notifie them by any thing but the marks by which they must find it in themselves Object But he that believeth may be as sure that he believeth as that the Scripture is true Answ But not that he is sincere and exceedeth all hypocrites and common believers At least there are but few that get so full an assurance hereof Object The Spirit witnesseth that we are Gods children And to believe the Spirit is to believe God Answ The Spirit is oft called in Scripture the witness and pledge and earnest in the same sense that is it is the evidâ—nce of our right to Christ and life If any man have not his Spirit he is none of his Rom. 8.9 And hereby we know that he dweleth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us As the Spirits Miracles were the witness of Christ Heb. 2.3 c. objectively as evidence is called witness 2. And withall the Spirit by illumination and excitation helpeth us to see it self as our evidence 3. And to rejoyce in this discovery And thus the Spirit witnesseth our adoption But none of these are the proper objects of a Divine Belief 1. The objective evidence of holiness in us is the object of our rational self-acquaintance or conscience only 2. The illuminating grace by which we see this is not a new Divine Testimony or proper Revelation or Word of God but the same help of grace by which all other divine things are known And all the Spirits grace for our understanding of divine Revelations are not new objective Revelations themselves requiring a new act of Faith for them A word or proper Revelation from God is the object of divine belief otherwise every illuminating act of the Spirit for our understanding Gods Word would be it self a new word to be believed and so in infinitum Errour 33. Doubting of the life to come or of the truth of the Gospel will not stand with saving Faith Contr. It will not stand with a confirmed Faith but it will with a sincere Faith He that doubteth of the truth of the promise so far as that he will not venture life and soul and all his hopes and happiness temporal and eternal upon it hath no true Faith But he that doubteth but yet so far belâ—eveth the Gospel as to take God for his only God and portion and Christ for his only Saviour and the Spirit for his Sanctifier and will cast away life or all that stand in competition hath a true and saving Faith as is before proved Errour 34. That Repentance is no condition of Pardon or Justification for then it would be equal therein with Faith Contr. I have elsewhere at large proved the contrary from Scripture Repentance hath many acts as Faith hath To repent as it is the change of the mind of our Atheism Idolatry and not loving God and obeying him is the same motion of the soul denominated from the terminus à quo as Faith in God and Love to God is denominated from the terminus ad quem This is Repentance towards God Repenting of our Infidelity against Christ is the same motion of the soul as believing in Christ only one is denominated from the object-turned from and the other from the object-turned to By which you may see that some Repentance is the same with Faith in Christ and some is the same with Faith in God and some is the same with Love to God and some is but the same with the leaving of some particular sin or turning to some particular fore-neglected duty And so you may easily resolve the case how far it is the condition of Pardon Repentance aâ— it is a return to the Love of God as he is our God and End and All is made the final condition of further blessings as necessary in and of it self as the end of Faith in Christ And Repentance of Infidelity and Faith in Christ is made the Mediate or Medicinal Condition As consenting to be friends with your Father or King after a rebellion and consenting to the Mediation of a friend to reconcile you are both conditions one the more noble de fine and the other de mediis or as consenting to be cured and consenting to take Physick They that will or must live in the darkness of confusion were best at least hold their tongues there till they come into distinguishing light Errour 35. That all other acts of Faith in Christ as our Lord or Teacher or Judge or of Faith in God or the Holy Ghost all confessing sin and praying for pardon and repenting and forgiving others and receiving Baptism c. are the works which Paul excludeth from Justification And one act of faith only being the Justifying Instrument he that looketh to be justified by any of all these besides that one act doth look for Justification by Works and consequently is fallen from grace Contr. This is not only an addition to Gods Word and Covenant not to be used by them that judge it unlawful to add a form or ceremony in his worship but it is a most dangerous invention to wrack mens consciences and keep all men under certain desperation For whilest the world standeth the subtilest of these Inventers of new doctrines will never be able to tell the world which is that one sole act of Faith by which they are justified that they may escape looking for a legal Justification by the rest whether it be believing in Christs Divinity or Humanity or both or in his Divine or Humane or Habitual Righteousness or his Obedience as a subjâ—ct or his Sacrifice or his Priest-hood offering that Sacrifice or his Covenant and Promise of Pardon and Justification or in God that giveth him and them or in his Resurrections or in Gods present sentential or executive Justification or in his final sentential Justification c. No man to the end of the world shall know which of these or any other is the sole justifying act and so no man can scape being a legal adversary to grace Unhappy Papists who by the contrary extream have frightened or disputed us into such wild and scandalous inventions Of this see fully my Disput of Justification against the worthy and excellent Mr. Anthony Burgess Errour 36. That our own Faith is not at all imputed to us for Righteousness but only Christs Righteousness received by it Contr. The Scripture no where saith that Christ or his Righteousness or his Obedience or his Satisfaction is imputed to us And yet we justly defend it as is before explained and as Mr. Bradshaw and Grotius de satisfact have explained it And on the other side the Scripture often saith that Faith is imputed for Righteousness and shall be so to all that believe in God that raised Christ Rom. 4. And this these objectors peremptorily deny But expounding Scripture amiss is a much cleanlier pretence for errour than a flat
of the soul in God and the highest praises and thanksgivings with the readiest and chearfullest obedience And what kind of Religious performances are most excellent which we must principally intend Groans and tears and penitent confessions and moans are very suitable to our present state while we have sin and suffering But surely they are duties of the lower rank For Heaven more aboundeth with praises and thanksgiving and therefore we must labour to be fitter for them and more abundant in them not casting off any needful humiliations and penitent complaints but growing as fast as we can above the necessity of them by conquering the sin which is the cause So ask what is it that would make the Church on Earth to be likest to that part which is in Heaven Is it striving what Pastors shall be greatest or have precedency or be called gracious Lords or Benefactors Luke 22.24 25 26. 1 Pet. 5.3 4 5. Or is it in making the flock of Christ to dread the secular power of the Shepherds and tremble before them as they do before the Wolf Or is it in a proud conceit of the peoples power to ordain their Pastors and to rule them and themselves by a major vote Or in a supercilious condemning the members of Christ and a proud contempt of others as too unholy for our communion when we never had authority to try or judge them Is it in the multitude of Sects and divisions every one saying Our party and our way is best Surely all this is unlike to Heaven It is rather in the Wisdom and Holiness and Vnity of all the members When they all know God especially in his Love and Goodness and when they fervently love him and chearfully and universally obey him and when they love each other fervently and with a pure heart and without divisions do hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and with one heart and mind and mouth do glorifie God and our Redeemer Leaving that Church-Judgment to the Pastors which Christ hath put into their hands and leaving Gods part of Judgment unto himself This is to be like to our heavenly exemplar and to do Gods Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven Ephes 4.2 3 4 11 12 16. 9. And we must also look back to the examples of their lives while they were on earth and see wherein they are to be imitated as the imitators of Jesus Christ which way went they to Heaven before us 10. Lastly We must give God thanks on their behalf for making them so perfect and bringing them so near him and saving them from sin and Satan and the world and bringing them safe to Heaven through so many temptations difficulties and sufferings For making them such instruments of his glory in their times and shewing his glory upon them and to them in the Heavens For making them such blessings to the world in their generations and for giving us in them such patterns of faith obedience and patience and making them so great encouragements to us who may the more boldly follow them in faith duty and sufferings who have conquered all and sped so well For shewing us by faith their present state of glory with Christ for our confirmation and consolation Thus far in all these ten particulars we must have a heavenly conversation with the glorified by Faith Direct 8. Consider next wherein your imitation of the example of their lives on earth consisteth And it is 1. Not in committing any of their sins nor indulging any such weaknesses in our selves as any of them were guilty of 2. Nor in extenuating a sin or thinking ever the better of it because it was theirs 3. Nor in doing as they did in exempted cases wherein their Law and ours differed as in the marriage of Adams children in the Jews Polygamy c. 4. Nor in imitating them in things indifferent or accidental that were never intended for imitation nor done as morally good or evil 5. Nor in pretending to or expecting of their extraordinary Revelations Inspirations or Miracles 6. Nor in pretending the high attainments of the more excellent to be the necessary measure of all that shall be saved or the Rule of our Church-Communion Our imitation of them consisteth in no such things as these But it consisteth in these 1. That you fix upon the same ultimate Ends as they did That you aim at the same Glory of God and chuse the same everlasting felicity 2. That you chuse the same Guide and Captain of your salvation the same Mediator between God and man the same Teacher and Ruler of the Church and the same sacrifice for sin and Intercessor with the Father 3. That you believe the same Gospel and build upon the same Promises and live by the same Rule the Word of God 4. That you obey the same Spirit and trust to the same Sanctifier and Comforter and Illuminater to illuminate sanctifie and comfort your souls 5. That you exercise all the same graces of Faith Hope Love Repentance Obedience Patience as they did 6. That you live upon the same Truths and be moved by the same Motives as they lived upon and were moved by 7. That you avoid the same sins as they avoided and see what they feared and fled from and made conscience of that you may do the same 8. That you chuse and use the same kind of company helps and means of grace so far as yours and theirs are the same as they have done And think not to find a nearer or another way to that state of happiness which they are come â—o Phil. 3.16 Walk by the same Rule and mind the same things and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you If any preach another Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1.7 8. Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 Heb. 6.11 We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that you be not slothful but followers of them c. 9. That you avoid resist and overcome the same temptations as they did who now are crowned 10. That you bear the same cross and exercise the same faith and hope and patience unto the end 1 Pet. 4.1 Arm your selves with the same mind c. In brief this is the true imitation of the Saints Direct 9. Never suffer your life of sense to engage you so deeply in sensible converse with men on earth as to forget your heavenly relations and society but live as men that unfeignedly believe that you have a more high and noble converse every day to mind If you are Believers indeed let your faith go along with the souls of your departed friends into glory And if you have forgot them by an unfriendly negligence renew your acquaintance with them Think not that those only that live on earth are fit for our
Nos quoque floruimus sed flos fuit ille caducus Flammaque de stipula nostra brevisque fuit Ov. VERA EFFIGIES RICHARDI BAXTERI MIN IES CH IN OP ET PATA FIDEI SPEI ET CHARITATIS An. 1670. AETAT SUAE 55º Farewell vaine World as thou hast been to me Dust and a Shadow those I leave with thee The vnseen Vitall Substance I committ The Leaves Fruit are dropt for soyle and Seed Heaven's heirs to generate to heale and feed Them also thou wilt flatter and molest But shalt not keep from Everlasting Rest THE LIFE OF FAITH THE Life of Faith In Three PARTS The First is a Sermon on Heb. 11.1 formerly preached before His Majesty and published by his Command with another added for the fuller Application The Second is Instructions for confirming Believers in the Christian Faith The Third is Directions how to live by Faith or how to exercise it upon all occasions By RICHARD BAXTER 2 Cor. 5.7 For we walk by faith not by sight 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man parish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Heb. 12.27 By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons at the three Crowns over against Holbern Conduit 1670. To the Worshipfull my much honoured Friend Richard Hampden of Hampden Esquire and the Lady Laetitia his Wife Grace and Peace be multiplied SIR YOur Names stand here in the front of this Treatise on a double account First that the custom of Writers having given me such an advantage I may tell the present and future Ages how much I love and honour your Piety Sobriety Integrity and Moderation in an Age when such Vertues grow into contempt or into lifeless Images and Names And how much I am my self your debter for the manifold expressions of your love and that in an Age when 〈…〉 the superioâ—â—â—â—culties is ouâ— of fâ—shion and towards such as I is grown â— crime Sincerity and 〈◊〉 are things that shall be honourable when Hypocrisie and Malice have done their worst But they are most conspicuous and refulgent in times of â—â—rity and when the shame of their contraries seâ— them off Secondly To signifie my Love and Gratitude by the best 〈◊〉 which I can make which is by tendering to you and to your family the surest Directions for the most noble manly life on earth in order to a blessed life in Heaven Though you have proceeded well you 〈…〉 need of help so great a 〈…〉 for skilfull counsel and 〈…〉 and industrious and unweaâ—â—◠〈…〉 And your hopeful children may 〈…〉 to learn this excellenâ— Life from these Directions for the love of your prefixed Names And how happy will they bâ— if they converse with God 〈…〉 are wallowing in the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 When the dead heaâ—ted sinner thinketh not of 〈…〉 be dragg'd out of 〈◊〉 paâ—pered corruptible flesh to divinie 〈◊〉 and â—â—â—with the beginnings of endless 〈◊〉 to the world where they might have found everlasting rest what joy will then be the portion of mortified and patient Believers whosâ— Treasâ—â—â—s and Hearts and Conversatiâ—â— in Heâ—ven are now the foretaste of their possession as the Spirit of Christ which causeth this iâ— the seâ—â— of God and the pledge and earnest of their inheritance If a 〈◊〉 pleasing life in a dark distracted 〈◊〉 world were better than a life with God and Angels methinks yet they that know they cannot have what they 〈◊〉 should make sue of what they may haâ—â— And they that cannot keep what they 〈◊〉 should learn to 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 may keep Wonderfull stupidity â—hâ—t they 〈…〉 dead bodies 〈…〉 grave is as common a work 〈…〉 children into the world and that this life is but the road to another and that all men are posting on to their 〈…〉 should think no more considerately whither so many thousand souls do go that daily shoot the gulf of death and return no more to the world which one they called their home That men will have no house or home but the ship which carryeth them so swiftly to eternity and spend their time in furnishing a dwelling on such a tempestuous Sea where winds and tide are hasting them to the shore and even to the end are contriving to live where they are daily dying and care for no â—â—bitation but on horse-back That almost all men die much wiser than they lived and yet the certain foreknowledge of death will not serve to make them more seasonably and more safely wiâ—e Wonderful that it should be possible for a man awake to believe that he must shortly be gone from earth and enter into an unchangeable endless life and yet not bend the thoughts of his soul and the labours of his life to secure his true and 〈…〉 Adam hath given sin the 〈…〉 grace and madness the priority to wisdom and our wisdom health and safety must now come after by the way of recovery and cure The first born of lapsed man was a malignant persecuting Cain The first born of believing Abraham was a persecutor of him that was born after the Spirit 1 John 3.12 Gal. 4.29 And the first born of this Isaac himself was a profane Esau that for one morsel sold his birth-right Heb. 12.16 And naturally we are all the off-spring of this profaneness and have not acquaintance enough with God and with healthful holiness and with the everlasting heavenly Glory to make us cordially preferr it before a forbidden cup or morsel or a game at foolery or a filthy lust or before the wind of a gilded fools acclamation and applause or the cap and counterfeit subjection of the multitude But the fortunae non tua turba ut Ov. quos sportula fecit amici ut Juv. who will serve mens lusts and be their servants and humble attendants to damnation are regarded more than the God the Saviour the Sanctifier to whom these perfidious rebels were once devoted That you and yours may live that more wise and delightful life which consisteth in the daily sight of Heaven by a Living Faith which worketh by Love in constant Obedience is the principal end of this publick appellation That what is here written for the use of all may be first and specially useful to you and yours whom I am so much bound to love and honour even to your safe and comfortable life and death and to your future joy and glory which is the great desire of Your obliged Servant RICH. BAXTER Feb. 4. 1669. THE PREFACE Reader 1. IF it offend thee that the Parts of
Wisdom and that parts with Heaven for a few merry hours and hath not wit to save his soul When they see the end and are arrived at eternity let them boast of their Wisdom as they find cause We will take them then for more competent Judges Let the Eternal God be the portion of my soul let Heaven be my inheritance and hope let Christ be my Head and the promise my security let Faith be my Wisdom and Love be my very heart and will and patient persevering Obedience be my life and then I can spare the wisdom of the world because I can spare the trifles that it seeks and all that they are like to get by it What abundance of complaints and calamity would foresight prevent Had the events of this one year been conditionally foreseen the actions of thousands would have bâ—en otherwise ordered and much sin and shame have been prevented What a change would it make on the judgements of the world how many words would be otherwise spoken and how many deeds would be otherwise done and how many hours would be otherwise spent if the change that will be made by Judgement and Execution were well foreseen And why is it not foreseen when it is foreshewn When the omniscient God that will certainly perform his Word hath so plainly revealed it and so frequently and loudly warns you of it Is he wise that after all these warnings will lie down in everlasting woe and say I little thought of such a day I did not believe I should ever have seen so great a change Would the servants of Christ be used as they are if the malicious world foresaw the day when Christ shall come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgement on all that are ungodly Jude 14 15. When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1.10 When the Saâ—nts shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and when the ungodly seeing them on Christs right-hand must hear their sentence on this account Verily I say unto you in as mâ—ch as you did it or did it not to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me Matth. 25. Yet a few daies and all this will be done before your eyes but the unbelieving world will not foresee it Would malignant Cain have slain his brother if he had foreseen the punishment which he calleth afterward intollerable Gen. 4.13 Would the world have despised the preaching of Noah if they had believed the deluge Would Sodom have been Sodom if they had foreseen that an Hell from Heaven would have consumed them Would Achan have medled with his prey if he had foreseen the stones that were his Executioners and his Tomb Would Gehezi have obeyed his covetous desire if he had foreseen the leprosie Or Judas have betrayed Christ if he had foreseen the hanging himself in his despair It is fore-seeing Faith that saves those that are saved and blind unbelief that causeth mens perdition Yea present things as well as future are unknown to foolish Unbelievers Do they know who seeth them in their sin and what many thousands are suffering for the like while they see no danger Whatever their tongues say the hearts and lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth them and will be their Judge Psalm 14.1 You see then that you must live by Faith or perish by folly 4. Consider that things visible are so transitory and of so short continuance that they do but deserve the name of things being nothings and less than nothing and lighter than vanity it self compared to the necessary eternal Being whose name is IAM There is but a few daies difference between a Prince and no Prince a Lord and no Lord a man and no man a world and no world And if this be all let the time that is past inform you how small a difference this is Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his numerous Army as knowing how soon they were all to be dead men Can you forget that death is ready to undress you and tell you that your sport and mirth is done and that now you have had all that the world can do for those that serve it and take it for their part How quickly can a feaver or the choice of an hundred Messengers of death beâ—eave you of all that earth afforded you and turn your sweetest pleasures into gall and turn a Lord into a lump of clay It is but as a wink an inch of time till you must quit the stage and speak and breath and see the face of man no more If you foresee this O live as men that do foresee it I never heard of any that stole his winding-sheet or fought for a Coffiâ— or went to Law for his grave And if you did but see as wise men should how near your Honours and Wealth and Pleasures do stand unto Eternity as well as your Winding sheets your Coffins and your Graves you would then value and desire and seek them regularly and moderately as you do these Oh what a fading flower is your strength How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell Si vestra sunt tollite â—a vobiscum Bern. Buâ— yet this is not the great part of the change The terminus ad quem doth make it greater It is great for persons of renown and honour to change their Palaces for graves and turn to noisom rottenness and dirt and their Power and Command into silent impotency unable to rebuke the poorest worm that sawcily feedeth on their hearts or faces But if you are Believers you can look further and foresee much more The largest and most capacious heart alive is unable fully to conceive what a change the stroak of death will make For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to Angelical praise from sorrow unto boundless joyes from the slanders and contempt and violence of men to the bosom of eternal Love from the clamours of a tumultuous world to the universal harmony and perfect uninterrupted Love and Peace O what a blessed change is this which believing now we shall shortly feel For an unholy unrenewed soul that yesterday was drowned in flesh and laught at threatnings and scorned reproofs to be suddenly snaâ—cht into another world and see the Heaven that he hath lost and feel the Hell which he would not believe to fall into the gulf of bottomless eternity and at once to find that Joy and Hope are both departed that horrour and grief must be his company and Desperation hath lockt up the door O what an amazing change is this If you think me troublesom for mentioning such ungrateful things what a trouble wil it be to feel them May it teach you to prevent that greater trouble you may well bear this Find but a medicine against death or any security for your continuance here or any prevention of the Change and I have
done But that which unavoidably must be seen should be foreseen But the unseen world is not thus mutable Eternal life is begun in the Believer The Church is built on Christ the Reck and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Fix here and you shall never be removed 4. Hence followeth another difference The mutable creature doth impart a disgraceful mutability to the soul that chuseth it It disappointeth and deceiveth And therefore the ungodly are of one mind to day and another to morrow In health they are all for pleasure and commodity and honour and at death they cry out on it as deceitful Vanity In health they cannot abide this strictness this meditating and seeking and preparing for the life to come but at death or judgement they will all be of another mind Then O that they had been so wise as to know their time and O that they hâ—d lived as holily as the best They are now the bold opposers and reproachers of an holy life But then they would be glad it had been their own They would eat their words and will be down in the mouth and stand to never a word they say when sight and sense and judgement shall convince them But things unchangeable do fix the soul Pâ—eâ—y is no matter for Repentance Doth the Believer speak against sin and sinners and for an holy sober righteous life He will do so to the last Death and Judgement shall not change his mind in this but much confirm it And therefore he perseveres through sufferings to death Rom. 8.35 36 37. For this cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.16 17. 6. Lastly let this move you to live by a foreseeing Faith that it is of necessity to your salvation Believing Heaven must prepare you for it before you can enjoy it Believing Hell is necessâ—ry to prevent it Mark 16.16 John 3.18 36. The just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back or be lifted up the Lord will have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Hâ—b 2.4 Take heed that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 And be not of them that draw back to perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul Heb. 10.39 It is God that saith They shall all be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. May I now in the conclusion more particularly exhort you 1. That you will live upon things foreseen 2. That you will promote this life of faith in others according to your several capacities Princes and Nobles live not alwaies You are not the Rulers of the unmoveable Kingdom but of a boat that is in an hasty stream or a ship under sail that will speed both Pilot and Passengers to the shore Dixi estis Dii at moriemini ut homines It was not the least or worst of Kings that said I am a stranger vpon earth Psal 119.19 Vermis sum non homo I am a worm and no man Psal 32.6 You are the greater worms and we the little ones but we must all say with Job ch 17.13 14. The grave is our house and we must make our beds in darkness Corruption is our Father and the Worm our Mother and our Sister The inexorable Leveller is ready at your backs to convince you by unresistible argument that dust you are and to dust you shall return Heaven should be as desirable and Hell as terrible to you as to others No man will fear you after death much less will Christ be afraid to judge you Luke 19.27 As the Kingdoms and glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his temptation so are they inconsiderable to procure his approbation Trust not therefore to uncertain riches Value them but as they will prove at last As you stand on higher ground than others it is meet that you should see further The greater are your advantages the wiser and better you should be and therefore should better perceive the difference between things temporal and eternal It is alwaies dark where these glow-worms shine and a rotten post doth seem a fire Your difficulties also should excite you You must go as through a Needles eye to Heaven To live as in Heaven in a crowd of business and stream of temptations from the confluence of all worldly things is so hard that few such come to Heaven Withdraw your selves therefore to the frequent serious fore-thoughts of eternity and live by faith Had time allowed it I should have come down to some particular instances As 1. Let the things unseen be still at hand to answer every temptation and shame and repel each motion to sin 2. Let them be still at hand to quicken us to duty when backwardness and coldness doth surprize us What shall we do any thing coldly for eternity 3. Let it resolve you what company to delight in and what society to be of even those with whom you must dwell for ever What side soever is uppermost on earth you may foresee which side shall reign for ever 4. Let the things invisible be your daily solace and the satisfaction of your souls Are you slandered by men Faith tells you it is enough that Christ will justifie you O happy day when he will bring forth our righteousness as the light and set all strait which all the false histories or slanderous tongues or pens in all the world made crooked Are you frowned on or contemned by men Is it not enough that you shall everlastingly be honoured by the Lord Are you wronged oppressed or trodden on by pride or malice Is not Heaven enough to make you reparation and eternity long enough for your joyes O pray for your malicious enemies lest they suffer more than you can wish them 2. Lastly I should have become on the behalf of Christ a petitioner to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the invisible world For them that preach and them that live this life of faith not for the honours and riches of the world but for leave and countenance to work in the Vineyard and peaceably travel through the world as strangers and live in the Communion of Saints as they believe But though it be for the beloved of the Lord the apple of his eye the people that are sure to prevail and raign with Christ for ever whose prayers can do more for the greatest Princes than you can do for them whose joy is hastened by that which is intended for their sorrow I shall now lay
busie sawcy fellow and you bid him meddle with his own matters and let you speed as you can and keep his compassion and charity for himself you give him no thanks for his undesired help The most laborious faithful servant you like best that will do you the most work with greatest skill and care and diligence But the most laborious faithful instructer and watchman for your souls you most ungratefully vilifie as if he were more busie and precise than needs and were upon some unprofitable work and you love a superficial hypocritical Ministry that teacheth you but to complement with Heaven and leads you such a dance of comical outside hypocritical worship as is agreeable to your own hypocrisie And thus when you are mocking God you think you worship him and merit Heaven by the abuse Should a Mâ—nister or other friend be but half as earnest with you for the life of your immortal souls as you are your selves for your estates or friends or lives in any danger you would take them for Fanaticks and perhaps do by them as his carnal friends did once by Christ Mark 3.21 that went out to lay hold on him and said He is beside himself For trifles you account it wisdom to be serious but for everlasting things you account it folly or to be more busie and soliciâ—ous than needs You can believe an act of pardon and indempnity from man when as you are little solicitous about a pardon from God to whose Justice you have forfeited your souls and if a man be but earnest in begging his pardon and praying to be saved from everlasting misery you scorn him because he does it without book and say he whines or speaks through the nose forgetting that we shall have you one of these daies as earnest in vain as they are that shall prevail for their salvation and that the terrible approach of death and judgement shall teach you also to pray without book and cry Lord Lord open to us when the door is shut and it 's all too late Mat. 25.11 O Sirs had you but a lively serious foreseeing faith that openeth Heaven and Hell as to your sight what a cure would it work of this Hypocrisie 1. Such a sight would quicken you from your sloth and put more life into your thoughts and words and all that you attempt for God 2. Such a sight would soon abate your pride and humble you before the Lord and make you see how short you are of what you should be 3. Such a sight would dull the edge of your covetous desires and shew you that you have greater things to mind and another kind of world than this to seek 4. Such a sight would make you esteem the temptations of mens reports but as the shaking of a leaf and their allurements and threats as impertinent speeches that would cast a feather or a fly into the ballance against a mountain or against the world 5. Such a sight would allay the itch of lust and quench the drunkards insatiable thirst and turn your gulosity into moderation and abstinence and acquaint you with a higher sort of pleasures that are durable and worthy of a man 6. Such a sight would cure your desire of pastime and shew you that you have no time to spare when all is done that necessity and everlasting things require 7. Such a sight would change your relish of Gods Ordinances and esteem of Ministers and teach you to love and savour that which is spiritual and serious rather than hypocritical strains and shews It would teach you better how to judge of Sermons and of Prayers than unexperienced minds will ever do 8. Such a sight would cure your malignity against the waies and diligent servants of the Lord and instead of opposing them it would make you glad to be among them and fast and pray and watch and rejoyce with them and better to understand what it is to believe the communion of Saints In a word did you but see what God reveals and Saints believe and must be seen I would scarce thank you to be all as serious and solicitous for your souls as the holiest man alive and presently to repent and lament the folly of your negligence and delaies and to live as men that know no other work to mind in comparison of that which extendeth to eternity I would scarce thank the proudest of you all to lie down in the dust and in sackcloth and ashes with tears and cryes to beg the pardon of those sins which before you felt no weight in Nor the most sensual wretch that now sticks so close to his ambition covetousness and lust that he saith he cannot leave them to spit them out as loathsome bitterness and be ashamed of them as fruitless things You would then say to the most godly that now seem too precise O why do you not make more haste and lay hold on Heaven with greater violence why do you pray with no more fervency and bear witness against the sins of the world with no more undaunted courage and resolution and why do you not more freely lay out your time and strength and wealth and all that you have on the work of God Is Heaven worth no more ado than this Can you do no more for an endless life and the escaping of the wrath to come Shall worldlings over-do you These would be your thoughts on such a sight CHAP. II. Vse of Exhortation WHat now remains but that you come into the light and beg of God as the Prophet for his servant 2 King 6.17 to open your eyes that you may see the things that would do so much That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.17 18. O set those things continually before your eyes that must forever be before them Look seriously into the infallible word and whatsoever that fore-tells believe it as if it were come to pass The unbelief of Gods threatnings and penal Laws is the perdition of souls as well as the unbelief of Promises God giveth not false fire when he dischargeth the Canons of his terrible comminations If you fall not down you shall find that the lightening is attended with the thunder and execution will be done before you are aware If there were any doubt of the things unseen yet you know it is past all doubt that there 's nothing else that 's durable and worthy of your estimation and regard You must be Knights and Gentlemen but a little while speak but a few words more and you 'l have spoke your last When you have slept a few nights more you must sleep till the Resurrection awake you as to the flesh Then where are your pleasant habitations and contents
sinful world and flesh linger not now as unwilling to depart repent not of thy choice when all that the world can do for thee is past repent not of thy warfare when thou hast got the victory nor of thy voyage when thou art past the storms and waves and ready to land at the haven of felicity Thus Faith may sing our Nunc dimittis when the flesh is lothest to be dissolved But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly worldly life nor of a careless dull and negligent life Nature which brought us into the world without our forecast or care will turn us out of the world without it But it will not give us a joyful passage nor bring us to a better world without it It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honourable or plentiful estate that they may fall from an higher place than others and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them and may have a greater account to make at Judgement and that their passage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle And may a believing joyful death be expected without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life Nature is so much afraid of dying and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world that even true Believers do find it a work of no small difficulty to desire to depart and be with Christ and to die in the joyful hopes of faith A little abatement of the terrours of death a little supporting hope and peace is all that the greater part of them attain instead of the fervent desires and triumphant joyes which the lively belief of endless glory should produce O therefore make it the work of your lives of all your lives your greatest work your constant work to live by faith that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies may be able also to overcome the last and may do your last work well when it hath done the rest CHAP. I. Directions how to live by Faith And first how to strengthen Faith And secondly the natural Truths presupposed to be considered THe Directions which I shall give you as helps to live by Faith are of two ranks 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of your Faith 2. Such as tell you how to use it The first is the greatest part of our task for no man can use that faith which he hath not nor can use more of it than he hath And the commonest reason why we use but little is because we have but little to use But on this subject supposing it most weighty I have written many Treatises already The second part of the Saints Rest The Unreasonableness of Infidelity And last of all The Reasons of the Christian Religion Besides others which handle it on the by And somewhat is said in the beginning of this discourse But yet because in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much I will here give you an Index of some of the chief Helps to be close together before you for your memories to be the constant fuel of your Faith In the work of Faith it is first needful that you get all the prerequisite Helps of Natural Light and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence and their Vsefulness to befriend the supernatural revelations For it is supposed that we are men before we are Christians We were created before we were redeemed And we must know that there is a God before we can know that we have offended him or that we need a Saviour to reconcile us to him And we must know that we have reasonable souls before we can know that sin hath corrupted them or that grace must sanctifie them And we must know that whatsoâ—ver God saith is true before we can believe that the Scripture is true as being his revelation Faith is an act of Reason and Believing is a kind of knowing even a knowing by the testimâ—ny of him whom we believe because we have sufficient reason to believe him 2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of supernatural Truth which presupposeth the foresaid Natural Verities I shall set both bâ—fore you briefly in their order 1. Think well â—f the nature of your souls of their faculties or pâ—wers their excellency and their proper use And then you will find that you are not meer brutes who know not their Creatâ—ur nor live noâ— by a Law nor think not of another world nor â—â—ar any â—â—fferings after death But that you have reasâ—n free-will and executive power to knâ—w your Maker and to live by â—ule aâ—d to hope for a Reward in another life and to fear a pâ—nâ—shmeâ—t hereafter And that as no wise Artificer maketh any thing in vain so God is mâ—ch less to be thought to havâ— given you such souls and faculties in vain 2. Coâ—sidâ—r next how all the world declareth to you that there is a Gâ—d whâ— is infiniteâ—y pâ—werful wise and good And thaâ— it is not possible that all things which we see should have no cause or that the derived Power and Wisdom and Goodnesâ— of the creature should not proceed from that which is more excellent in the first and total cause Or that God should give more than he had to give 3. Consider nexâ— in whâ—t Relation such a creature must needs stand to such a Creatour If he made us of Nâ—â—hing 〈◊〉 is not pâ—ssible but that he must be 〈◊〉 Owner and wâ— aâ—d all things absolutely his Own And if he be our Maker and Owner and be infinitely powerful wise and good and we be Reasonable-free-agents made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end it is not possible but that we should stand related to him as subjects to their rightful Governour And if he be our Creatour Owner and Ruler and also infinitely Good and the grand Benefactor of the world and if the nature of our souls be to Love Good as Good it cannot be possible that he should not be our End who is our Creatour and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefest Good both originally as our Benefactor and finally as our End 4. And then it is easie for you next to see what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related That if you are absolutely his Own you should willingly be at his absolute dispose And iâ— he bâ— your Soveraign Ruler you should labour most diligently to know his Laws and absolutely to obey them And if he be infinitely Good and your Benefactor and your End you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly and to place your own felicity in his Love All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature that nothing but madness can deny
many waies apparent and also of the communion which they have with man And when we find also an intellectual nature in our selves why should we not believe that our likeness of nature doth infer our likeness in our future duration and abode 9. And mark well but the inward and outward temptations which solicite all the world to sin and what notable Evidences there be in many of them of an invisible power and you will easily believe that man hath a soul to save or lose which is of longer duration than the body 10. Lastly If yet there be any doubt consider but of the sensible Evidences of Apparitions Witchcraft and Possessions and it cannot chuse but much confirm you Though much be feigned in histories of such things yet the world hath abundant evidence of that which was certainly unfeigned See the Devil of Mascon Mr. Mompessons story lately acted and published Remigius Bodins Danaeus c. of Witches Lavater de Spectris and what I have written elsewhere CHAP. II. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural Evidences of Faith and Rules therein to be offered WHen you have thus seen what evidence there is of GOD and his Government and of a life of reward and punishment hereafter and of the natural obligations which lie on man to a holy just and sober life and of the depraved state of the world which goeth so contrary to such undoubted duty and how certain all this is even by natural revelation proceed next to consider what supernatural revelation God hath added both to confirm you in the same Truths and to make known such other as were necessary for mankind to know Where I must first direct you in the true Method of Enquiry and then set before you the things themselves which you are to know 1. Think not that every unprepared mind is immediately capable of the Truth either this or any other except the first principles which are nota per se or are next to sense All truth requireth a capacity and due preparation of the recipient The plainest principles of any Art or Science are not understood by novices at the first fight or hearing And therefore it were vain to imagine that things of the greatest distance in history or profundity in doctrine can be comprehended at the first attempt by a disused and unfurnished understanding There must be at least as much time and study and help supposed and used to the full discerning of the evidences of faith as are allowed to the attainment of common Sciences Though grace in less time may give men so much light as is necessary to salvation yet he that will be able to defend the Truth and answer Objections and attain establishing satisfaction in his own mind must ordinarily have proportionable helps and time and studyes unless he look to be taught by miracles 2. Remember that it is a practical and heavenly doctrine which you are to learn It is the Art of loving God and being happy in his love And therefore a worldly sensual vicious soul must needs be under very great disadvantage for the receiving of such a kind of Truths Do not therefore impute that to the doubtfulness of the Doctrine which is but the effect of the enmity and incapacity of your minds How can he presently rellish the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of the Gospel who is drowned in the love and care of contrary things Such men receive not the things of the Spirit They seem to them both foolishness and undesirable 3. Think not that the history of things done so long ago and so far off should have no more obscurities nor be liable to any more Objections than of that which was done in the time and Country where you live Nor yet that things done in the presence of others and words spoken in their hearing only should be known to you otherwise than by historical evidence unless every Revelation to others must have a new Revelation to bring it to each individual person in the world And think not that he who is a stranger to all other helps of Church-history should be as well able to understand the Scripture-history as those that have those other helps 4. Think not that the narrativt of things done in a Country and Age so remote and to us unknown should not have many difficulties arising from our ignorance of the persons places manners customs and many circumstances which if we had known would easily have resolved all such doubts 5. Think not that a Book which was written so long ago in so remote a Country in a language which few do fully understand and which may since then have several changes as to phrases and proverbial and occasional speeches should have no more difficulties in it than a Book that were written at home in the present Ages in our Country language and the most usual dialect To say nothing of our own language what changes are made in all other tongues since the times that the Gospel was recorded Many proverbial speeches and phrases may be now disused and unknown which were then most easie to be understood And the transcribing and preserving of the Copies require us to allow for some defects of humane skill and industry therein 6. Vnderstand the different sorts of Evidence which are requisite to the different matters in the holy Scriptures The matters of fact require historical evidence which yet is made infallible by additional miracles The miracles which were wrought to confirm our history are brought to our knowledge only by other history The Doctrines which are evident in nature have further evidence of supernatural revelation only to help us whose natural fight is much obscured But it is the supernatural Doctrines Precepts and Promises which of themselves require supernatural revelation to make them credible to man 7. Mistake not the true Vse and End of the holy Scriptures 1. Think not that the Gospel as written was the first Constitutive or Governing Law of Christ for the Christian Churches The Churches were constituted and the Orders and Offices and Government of it settled and exercised very many years together before any part of the New Testament was written to them much more before the writing of the whole The Apostles had long before taught them what was commanded them by Christ and had settled them in the order appointed by the Holy Ghost And therefore you are not to look for the first determination of such doctrines or orders in the Scripture as made thereby but only for the Records of what was done and established before For the Apostles being to leave the world did know the slipperiness of the memory of man and the danger of changing and corrupting the Christian Doctrine and Orders if there were not left a sure record of it And therefore they did that for the sake of posterity 2. You must not think that all is essential to the Christian Religion which is contained in the holy Scriptures Nor that
Psal 139.14 Direct 15. But let the chief study of Faith for the knowledge of God be of the face of Jesus Christ and the most wonderful mystery of his Incarnation and our Redemption For God is no where else so fully manifested to man in that Goodness Love and Mercy which it most concerneth us to know and the knowledge of which will be most healing and sanctifying to the soul But of this I must speak more in the chapter next following Direct 16. Let Faith make use of every mercy not only to acknowledge God therein but to have a pleasant taste and rellish of his Love For thus it is that they are all sanctified to Believers and this is the holy use of mercies Remember that as in order to Vnderstanding your eyes and ears are but the passages or inlets to your minds and if sights and sounds went no further than the senses you would be no better if not worse than beasts So also in order to Affection the taste and sense of sweetness or any other pleasure is to pass by the sense unto the heart and what should it do there but affect the heart with the Love and Goodness of the giver A beast tasteth as much of the sensitive sweetness of his food and ease as you do But it is the Believer who heartily saith How good is the Author and end of all this mercy whence is it that this cometh and whether dâ—th it tend I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplication Psal 116.1 O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness Psal 145.15 16. The eyes of all things wait on thee thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desires of every living thing He leaveth not himself without witness in that he doth good and giveth us Rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14.17 The near conjunction of soul and body and the near relation of God and his mercies do tell us plainly that every pleasure which toucheth the sense should touch the heart and reach unto the soul it self and that as the creature is fitted to the sense and God is suitable to the soul so the creature should be but Gods servant to knock and cause us to open the door to himself and the way of his communication and accession to the heart Therefore so great a judgement is threatned against the Israelites in their prosperity if they did not serve God with jâ—yfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 And therefore the daies in which men were to rejoyce in God with the greatest love and thankfulness were appointed to be daies of feasting that the pleasure of the bodily senses might promote the spiritual pleasure and gratitude of the mind 2 Chron. 19.21 29.30 Neh. 8.17 12.27 Esth 9 17 18 19. Numb 10.10 Direct 17. Let Faith feel Gods displeasure in every chastisement and judgement For we must be equally careful that we despise them not and that we faint not under them Heb. 12.5 They that pretend that it is the work of faith to see nothing in any affliction but the love and benefit do but set one act of faith against another For the same word which telleth us that it shall turn to a true believers good doth tell us that it is of it self a natural evil and that as the good is from Gods Love so the evil is from our sins and his displeasure and that he would give us the good without the evil if man were without sin He therefore that believeth not that it is a castigatory punishment for sin is an unbeliever as well as he that believeth not the promise of the benefit Rom. 5.12 14 16 17 18. 1 Cor. 11.30 32. Jer. 5.25 Micah 1.5 Amos 3.2 Yea this opinion directly frustrateth the first end and use of all chastisements which is to further mens Repentance for the evil of sin by the sense of the evil of punishment and the notice of Gods displeasure manifested thereby And next to make us warnings to others that they incur not the same correction and displeasure as we have done For he that saith there is no penalty or evil in the suffering nor no displeasure of God exprest thereby doth contradict all this But as it is a great benefit which we are to reap by our corrections even the furtherance of our Repentance and amendment so it is a great work of faith to perceive the bitterness of sin and the displeasure of God in these corrections of which more anon Direct 18. Faith must hear the voice of God in all his Word and in all the counsel which by any one he shall send us When sense taketh notice of nothing but a book or of none but a man faith must perceive the mind and message of God Not only in Preachers 2 Cor. 5.19 20. 1 Thes 2.13 Titus 2.5 Heb. 13.7 but also in the mouth of wicked enemies when it is indeed the will of God which they reveal And so David heard the curse of Shimei speaking to him the rebukes of God for his sin in the matter of Vâ—iah 2 Sam. 16.10 11. And Paul rejoyced that Christ was preached by men of envy and strife who did it to add affliction to his bonds Phil. 1.18 Moses perceived the will of God in the counsel of Jethro even in as great a matter as the governing and judging of the people Exod. 18.19 The counsel of the ancients which Rehoboam forsook was the counsel of God which be rejected 1 King 12.8 David blessed God for the counsel of a woman Abigail Whoever be the Messenger a Believer should be acquainted with the voice of God and know the true significations of his will The true sheep of Christ do know his voice and follow him because they are acquainted with his Word and though the Preacher be himself of a sinful life he can distinguish betwixt God and the Preacher and will not say it is not the Word of God because it cometh from a wicked mouth For he hath read Psal 50.16 where God saith to the wicked What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and hast cast my words behind thee But he never read to the godly saith God Why didst thou hear a wicked Preacher He hath read The Scribes and Pharisees fit in Moses chair hear them but do not as they do But he never read Hear none that live not according to their doctrine An unbeliever will not know Christs Word if a Judas be the Preacher of it but a Believer can read the commission of Judas or at least can understand whose counsel he delivereth and though he would be loth to chuse a Judas or to prefer him before a holy man yet if workers of iniquity do preach in Christs Name he leaveth it to Christ to say at Judgement I know you not Mat.
this Trust or Affiance is placed respectively on all the objects mentioned in the beginning on God as the first â—fficient foundation and on God as the ultimate end as the certain full felicity and final object of the soul On Christ as the Mediatour and as the secondary foundation and the guide and the finisher of our faith and salvation the chief sub revealer and performer On the Holy Ghost as the third foundation both revealing and attesting the doctrine by his gâ—â—ts And on the Apostles and Prophets as his Instruments and Christs chief entrusted Messengers And on the Promise or Covenant of Christ as his Instrumental Revelation it self And on the Scriptures as the authentick Record of this Revelation and Promise And the benefit for which all these are trusted is recovery to God or Redemption and Salvation viz. pardon of sin and Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glorification and all things necessary hereunto This Trust is an act of all the three faculties for three understanding are even of the whole man Of the vital power the understanding and the will and is most properly called A practical Trust such as trusting a Physician with your life and health or a Tutor to teach you or a Master to govern and reward you or a Ship and Pilot as aforesaid to carry you safe through the dangers of the Sea As in this similitude Affiance as in the understanding is its Assent to the sufficiency and fidelity of the Pilot and Ship or Physician that I trust Affiance in the will is the chusing of this Ship Pilot Physician to venture my life with and refusing all others which is called consent when it followeth the motion and offer of him whom we trust Affiance in the vital power of the soul is the fortitude and venturing all upon this chosen Trustee which is the quieting in some measure disturbing fears and the exitus or conatus or first egress of the soul towards execution And whereas the quarrelling pievish ignorance of this age hath caused a great deal of bitter reproachful uncharitable contention on both sides about the question How far obedience belongeth to faith whether as a part or end or fruit or consequent In all this it is easily discerned that as allâ—giance or subjection differ from obedience and hiring my self to a Master differeth from obeying him and taking a man for my Tutor differeth from learning of him and Marriage differeth from conjugal duty and giving up my self to a Physician differeth from taking his counsel and medicines and taking a man for my Pilot differeth from being conducted by him so doth our first Faith or Christianity differ from actual obedience to the healing precepts of our Saviour It is the covenant of obedience and consent to it immediately entering us into the practice It is the seed of obedience or the soul or life of it which will immediately bring it forth and act it It is virtual but not actual obedience to Christ because it is but the first consent to his Kingly Relation to us unless you will call it that Inception from whence all obedience followeth But it may be actual common obedience to God where he is believed in and acknowledged before Christ And all following acts of Faith after the first are both the root of all other obedience and a part of it as our continued Allegiance to the King is And as the Heart when it is the first formed Organ in nature is no part of the man but the Organ to make all the parts because it is solitary and there is yet no man of whom it can be called a part but when the man is formed the heart is both his chief part and the Organ to actuate and maintain the rest Object But Faith as Faith is not obedience Answ Nor Learning as Learning is not obedience to your Tutor Nor plowing as plowing is not obedience to your Master Or to speak more aptly the continuance of your consent that this man be your Tutor as such is not obedience to him but it is materially part of your obedience to your Father who commandeth it and your continued Allegiance or subjection as such is not obedience to your King but as primarily it was the foundation or heart of future obedience so afterward it is also materially a part of your obedience being commanded by him to whom you are now subject And so it is in the case of Faith and therefore true Faith and Obedience are as nearly conjoyned as Life and Motion and the one is ever 〈◊〉 in the other Faith is for Obedience to Christs healing means as trusting and taking a Physician is for the using of his counsel and Faith is for love and holy obedience to God which is called our Sanctification as trusting a Physician is for health Faith is implicite virtual obedience to a Saviour and obedience to a Saviour is explicite operating Faith or trust I. In the understanding Faith in Gods Promises hath all these acts contained in it 1. A belief that God is and that he is perfectly powerful wise and good 2. A belief that he is our Maker and so our Owner our Ruler and our chief Good initially and finally delighting to do good and the perfect felicitating end and object of the soul 3. A belief that God hath expressed the benignity of his nature by a Covenant or Promise of life to man 4. To believe that Jesus Christ God and Man is the Mediator of this Covenant Heb. 8 6. 9.15 1â— 24 procuring it and entrusted to administer or communicate the blessings of it Heb. 5.9 5. To believe that the Holy Ghost is the seal and witness of this Covenant 6 To believe that this Covenant giveth pardon of sin and Justification and Adoption and further grace to penitent Belâ—evers and Glorification to those that persevere in true Faith Love and Oâ—edience to the end 7. To believe that the Holy Scriptures or Word delivered by the Aâ—ostles is the sure Record of this Covenant and of the history and doctrine on which it is grounded 8. To believe that God is most perfectly regardful and faithful to fulfil this Covenant and that he cannot lye or break it Titus 1.2 Heb. 6.17 18. 9. To believe that you in particular are included in this Covenant as well as others it being universal as conditional to all if they will repent and believe and no exception put in against you to exclude you John 3.16 Mark 16.15 16. 10. To believe or know that there is nothing else to be trusted to as our felicity and end instead of God nor as our way instead of the Mediator and the foresaid means appointed by him II. In the Will Faith or Trust hath 1. A simple complacency in God as believed to be most perfectly good as fore-described 2. It hath an actual intending and desiring of him as our end and whole felicity to be enjoyed in Heaven Gal. 5.6 7. Ephes 3.17 18 19. Col. 3.1
3 4. 1 Cor. 13. Heb. 11. Mat. 6.20 21. 3. It is the turning away from and refusing all other seeming felicity or ends and casting all our happiness and hopes upon God alone 4. It is the chusing Jesus Christ as the only way and Mediator to this end with the refusing of all other Job 14.6 and trusting all that we are or hope for upon his Mediation III. In the Vital Power it is the casting away all inconsistent fears and the inward resolved delivering up the soul to the Father Son and Holy Spirit in this Covenant entering our selves into a resolved war with the Devil the World and the Flesh which in the performance will resist us And thus Faith or Trust is constituted and completed in the true Baptismal Covenant Direct 28. In all this be sure that you observe the difference between the truth of Faith and the high degrees The truth of it is most certainly discerned by as consisting in THE ABSOLVTE CASTING or VENTVRING not part but ALL YOVR HAPPINESS and HOPES VPON GOD and the MEDIATOR ONLY and LETTING GO ALL WHICH IS INCONSISTENT WITH THIS CHOICE and TRVST This is true and saving Faith and Trust Pardon me that I sometime use the word VENTVRING ALL as if there were any uncertainty in the matter I intend not by it to express the least uncertainty or fallibility in Gods Promise For Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of his Word shall not pass till all be fulfilled But I shall here add 1. True Faith or Trust may consist with uncertainty in the person who believeth if he believe and trust Christ but so far that he can cast away all his worldly treasures and hopes even life it self upon that trust Every one is not an Infidel nor an Hypocrite who must say if he speak his heart I am not certain past all doubts that the soul is immortal or the Gospel true but I am certain that immortal happiness is most desirable and endless misery most terrible and that this world is vanity and nothing in it worthy to be compared with the hopes which Christ hath given us of a better life And therefore upon just deliberation I am resolved to let go all my sinful pleasures profits and worldly reputation and life it self when it is inconsistent with those hopes And to take Gods Love for my felicity and end and to trust and venture absolutely all my happiness and hopes on the favour of God the mediation of Christ and the Promises which he hath given us in the Gospel I know I shall meet with abundance of Teachers and people that will shake the head at this doctrine as dangerous and cry out of it as favouring unbelief that any one should have true saving Faith who doubteth or is uncertain of the immortality of the soul or the trâ—th of the Gospel But I see so much in hot-brained proud persons to be pittied and so much of their work in the Church to be with tears lamented that I will not by speech or silence favour their brainsick bold assertions nor will I fear their phrenetick furious censures If it be not a mark of a wise and good Minister of Christ to be utterly ignorant of the state of souls both his own and all the peoples then I will not concur to the advancement of the reputation of such ignorance It is enough to pardon the great injury which such do to the Church of God without countenancing it Though this one instance only now mind me of it abundance more do second it and tell us that there are in the Churches through the world abundance of Divines who are first taught by a party which they most esteem what is to be held and said as orthodox and then make it their work to contend for that orthodoxness which they were taught so to honour even with the most unmanly and unchristian scorns and censures when as if they had not been dolefully ignorant both of the Scriptures and themselves and the souls of men they would have known that it is the fool that rageth and is confident and that it was not their knowing more than others but their knowing less which made them so presumptuous and that they are themselves as far from certainty as others when they condemn themselves to defend their opinions Even like our late Perfectionists who all lived more imperfectly than others but wrote and railed for sinless perfection as soon as they did but take up the opinion As if turning to that opinion had made them perfect So men may pass the censure of hypocrisie and damnation upon themselves when they please by damning all as hypocrites whose faith is thus far imperfect but they shall never make any wise man believe by it that their own faith is ever the more certain or perfect As far as I can judge by acquaintance with persons most religious though there be many who are afraid to speak it out yet the far greater number of the most faithful Christians have but such a faith which I described and their hearts say I am not certain or past all doubt of the truth of our immortality or of the Gospel but I will venture all my hopes and happiness though to the parting with life it self upâ—n it And I will venture to say it as the truth of Christ that he that truly can do this hath a sincere and saving faith whatsoever Opinionists may say against it For Christ hath promised that he that loseth his life for his sake and the Gospels shall have life everlasting Mat. 10.37 38 39 42. 16.25 19.29 Luke 18.30 And he hath appointed no higher expressions of faith as necessary to salvation than denying our selves and taking up the Cross and forsaking all that we have or in one word than Martyrdom and this as proceeding from the Love of God Luke 14.26 27 29 33 Rom. 8.17 18 28 29 3O 35 36 37 38 39. And it is most evident that the sincere have been weak in faith Luke 17.5 And the Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our faith Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Luke 7.9 I have not found so great faith no not in Israel The weak faith was the more common 2. And as true Faith or Trust may consist with doubts and uncertainty in the subject so may it with much anxiety care disquietment and sinful fear which sheweth the imperfection of our Faith Shall â—e not much more clothe you O ye of little faith Mat. 16.8 O ye of little faith why reason you among your selves c. Mat. 8. â—6 Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith Mat. 14.31 Peter had a faith that could venture his life on the waters to come to Christ as confident of a miracle upon his command But yet it was not without fear v. 30. When he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid which caused Christ to say O thou of little faith wherefore didst
of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised James 4.6 He giveth grace to the humble Matth. 18.4 Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 23.12 He that shall humble himself shall be exalted James 4.10 Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Prov. 3.34 He giveth grace to the lowly 12. Promises to the peaceable and peace-makers Matth. 5.9 Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God James 3.17 18. The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace 2 Cor. 13.11 Be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you Prov. 12.20 To the councellours of peace is joy Rom. 15.33 16.20 Phil. 4.9 The God of peace shall be with you c. shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Grace and Peace are the blessing of Saints 13. Promises to the diligent and laborious Christian Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Prov. 13.4 The soul of the diligent shall be made fat 1 Cor. 15.58 Be stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fail 2 Pet. 1.5 8. Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you 1 Cor. 3.8 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour Matth. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force See Prov. 3.13 c. 4. to 14. 6.20 c. 7.1 c. 8 9. throughout 14. Promises to the patient waiting Christian Heb. 6.11 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises James 1.3 4. Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Psal 37.7 9 34. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Those that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exaâ—â— thee to inherit the Land Prov. 20 22. Wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Isa 30.18 Blessed are all they that wait for him Isa 40.31 They that wait on the 〈…〉 renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint Isa 49.23 They shall not be ashamed that wait for me Lam. 3.25 The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Rom. 8.25 But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith 2 Thes 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and the patient waiting for Christ Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may inherit the promise 15. Promises to sincere Obedience Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gate into the City John 3.22 Whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight v. 24. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him John 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him John 15.10 If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the Commandments of God See Psal 112.1 119.6 Prov. 1.20 21 22 c. Isa 48.18 Psal 19.8 9 c. Heb. 5.9 He became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Rev. 14.12 Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the 〈◊〉 of Jesus 1 John 5.3 For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments Eccles 12.13 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work unto judgement c. Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God James 2.24 You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only Rom. 2.6 7 10. Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Acts 10.35 In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Rom. 6.16 Of obedience unto righteousness 1 John 3.7 He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous James 3.18 The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit â—â—ap life everlasting Rom. 8.13 If by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 16. Promises to them that love God Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them that love God 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him James 1.12 He shall receive the Crown of life which God hath promised to them that love him James 2.5 Rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him John 14.21 He that loveth me shall
true Suppose that the Law do pardon a fellon if he can read as a Clerk and one that is a fellon be in doubt whether his reading will serve or not this is not to deny belief to the pardoning act of the Law Suppose one promise a yearly stipend to all that are of full one and twenty years of age in the Town or Country To doubt of my age is not to doubt of the truth of the promise Object But do not Protestant Divines conclude against the Papists that saving Faith must be a particular application of Christ and the Promise to ourselves and not only a general assent Answ It is very true and the closer that application is the better But the application which all sound Divines in this point require as necessary in saving Faith is neither an assurance nor perswasion that your own sins are already pardoned or that they ever will be But it is 1. A belief that the Promise of pardon to all believers is so universal as that it includeth you as well as others and promiseth and offereth you pardon and life if you will believe in Christ 2. And it is a consent or willingness of heart that Christ be yours and you be his to the ends proposed in the Gospel 3. And it is a practical Trust in his sufficiency as chusing him for the only Mediatour resolving to venture your souls and all your hopes upon him Though yet through your ignorance of your selves you may think that you do not this thing in sincerity which indeed you do yea and much fear through melancholy or temptation that you never shall do it and consequently never shall be saved He that doubteth of his own salvation not because he doubteth of the truth of the Gospel but because he doubteth of the sincerity of his own heart may be mistaken in himself but is not therefore an unbeliever as is said before If you would know whether you believe the Promises truly answer me these particular questions 1. Do you believe that God hath promised that all true Believers shall be saved 2. Do you believe that if you are or shall be a true Believer you shall be saved 3. Do you chuse or desire God as your only happiness and end to be enjoyed in Heaven and Christ as the only Mediatour to procure it and his holy Spirit as his Agent in your souls to sanctifie you fully to the Image of God Are you truly willing that thus it should be And if God be willing will not you refuse it 4. Do you turn away from all other waies of felicity and chuse this alone to venture all your hopes upon and resolve to seek for none but this and to venture all on God and Christ though yet you are uncertain of your sincerity and salvation why this makes up true saving faith 5. And I would further ask you Do you fear damnation and Gods wrath or not If not what troubleth you and why complain you If you do tell me then whether you do believe Gods threatning that he that believeth not shall be damned or not If you do not what maketh you fear damnation Do you fear it and not believe that there is any such thing If you do believe it how can you chuse but believe also that every true Believer shall be saved Is God true in his Threatnings and not in his Promises This must force you plainly to confess that you do believe Gods Promises but only doubt of your own sincerity and consequently of your salvation which is more a weakness in your hope than in your faith or rather chiefly in your acquaintance with your self Direct 8. Yet still dwell most upon Gods Promises in the exercise of love desire and thankfulness and use all your fear about the threatnings but in a second place to further and not to hinder the work of love Direct 9. Let faith interpret all Gods Judgements meerly by the light of the threatnings of his Word and do not gather any conclusions from them which the Word affordeth not or alloweth not Gods Judgements may be dangerously misunderstood CHAP. VII How to exercise Faith about Pardon of sin and Justification THE practice of Faith about our Justification is hindered by so many unhappy controversies and heresies that what to do with them here in our way is not very easie to determine Should I omit the mention of them I leave most that I write for either under that disease it self or the danger of it which may frustrate all the rest which I must say For the errours hereabout are swarming in most quarters of the Land and are like to come to the caâ—s of most that are studious of these matters so that an antidote to most and a vomit to the rest is become a matter of necessity to the success of all our practical Directions And yet many cannot endure to be troubled with difficulties who are slothful and must have nothing set before them that will cost them much study and many peaceable Christians love not any thing that soundeth like controversie or strife As others that are Sons of contention relish nothing else But averseness must give place to necessity If the Leprosie arise the Priest must search it and the Physician must do his best to cure it notwithstanding their natural averseness to it Though I may be as averse to write against errours as the Reader is to read what I write we must both blame that which causeth the necessity but not therefore deny our necessary duty But yet I will so far gratifie them that need no more as to put the more practical Directions first that they may pass by the heap of errours â—â—ter if their own judgements prevail not against their unwillingness Direct 1. Vnderstand well what need you have of pardon of sin and Justification by reason of your guilt and of Gods Law and Justice and the everlasting punishment which is legally your due 1. It must be a sensible awakening practical knowledge of our own great necessity which must teach us to value Christ as a Saviour and to come to him in that empty sick and weary plight as is necessary in those who will make use of him for their supply and cure Matth. 9.12 11.28 29. A superficial speculative knowledge of our sin and misery will prepare us but for a superficial opinionative faith in Christ as the remedy But a true sense of both will teach us to think of him as a Saviour indeed 2. Original sin and actual the wickedness both of the heart and life even all our particular sins of omission and commission and all their circumstances and aggravations are the first reason of our great necessity of pardon And therefore it cannot but be a duty to lay them to heart as particularly as we can to make that necessity and Christs redemption the better understood Acts 2.37 Acts 2â— 8 9 c. 3. The wrath of God and the miseries of this life
is above Gods nor can bind us against him but it is all received from him and subordinate to him 51. No Humane Power can bind us to the destruction of the society which it governeth because the publick or common good is the end of Government 52. The Laws of Kings and the Commands of Parents Masters and Pastors in cases where they have true Authority do bind the soul primarily as well as the body secondarily But not as the primary but the secondary bond It is a wonderful and pittiful thing to read Divines upon this point Whether the Laws of men do bind the conscience what work they have made as in the dark when the case is so very plain and easie some are peremptory that they do not bind conscience and some that they do and some calling their adversaries the Idolizers of men and others again insinuating that they we guilty of treason against Kings who do gainsay them when surely they cannot differ if they would 1. The very phrase of their question is non-sense or very unfit Conscience is but a mans knowledge or judgment of himself as he is obliged to his duty and the effects and consequently of the obligations which lie upon him It is a strange question whether I am bound in knowledge of my self But it were a reasonable question whether I be bound to know or whether I know that I am bound It is the whole man and most eminently the Will which is bound by Laws or any Moral Obligations The man is bound But if by conscience they mean the soul it is a ridiculous question For no bonds can lie upon the body immediately but Cords or Iron or such like materials The soul is the first obliged or else the man is not morally obliged at all If the sense of the question be whether it be a Divine or a Religious obligation which mens commands do lay upon us The answer is easie 1. That Man is not God and therefore as humane it is not Divine 2. That Mans Government is Gods institution and Men are Gods Officers and therefore the obligation is Religious and Instrumentally or Mediately Divine Either mens Laws and Commands do bind us or not If not they are no Laws nor authoritative Acts If they do bind either it is primarily by an authority originally in themselves that made them and then they are all gods And then there is no God Or else it is by derived authority If so God must be the Original or still the Original must be God And then is the high way any plainer than the true answer of this question viz. That Princes Parents c. have a governing or Law-giving power from God in subordination to him and that they are his Officers in governing And that all those Laws which he hath authorized them to make do bind the soul that is the man immediately as humane and instrumentally or mediately as Divine or as the bonds of God As my Covenant bind my self to conscience if you will so speak rather than that they bind my conscience so do men a Laws also bind me You may as well ask whether the writing of my pen be its action or mine and be an animate or inanimate act which is soon resolved 53. To conclude these Rules as the just impress of the Spirit and Image of God upon the soul is Divine Life Light and Love communicated from God by Jesus Christ by the holy Spirit to work in us and by us for God in the soul and in the world and by Christ to bring us up at last to the sight and fruition of God himself so this Trinity of Divine principles must be inseparably used in all our internal and external duties towards God or men and all that we do must be the work of Power and of Love and of Wisdom or a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 II. Having been so large in opening the Order of our Duties I must be briefer than our case requireth in telling you our Disorders or contrary disease O what a humbling sight it would be if good Christians did but see the pittiful conâ—â—sions of their minds and lives They find little melody in their Religion because there is little harmony in their apprehensions affections or conversations If the displacing one wheel or pin in a clock will so much frustrate the effect it is a wonder that our tongues or lives do ever go true which are moved by such disordered parts within that were it not that the Spirit of grace doth keep an order where it is essential to our Religion between the End and the Means c. we should be but like the parts of a watch pulled in pieces and put up together in a bag But such is Gods mercy that the body may live when many smaller veins are obstructed so that the Master vessels be kept clear I. There are so few Christians that have a true method of Faith or Divinity in their understandings even in the great points which they know disorderly that it is no wonder if there be lamentable defectiveness and deformity in those inward and outward duties which should be harmoniously performed by the light of this harmonious truth And no Divine in the world can give you a perfect Scheme of Divinity in all the parts but he is the wisest that cometh neerest to it Abundance of Schemes and Tables you may see and all pretending to exactness But every one palpably defective and confused even those of the highest pretenders that ever I have seen And one errour or disorder usually introduceth in such a Scheme a confusion in all that followeth as dependant on it Some confound Gods Attributes themselves nay who doth not They confound the Three great Essential Principles with all the Attributes by similitude called Modal and Negative and they use to name over Gods Attributes like as they put their money or chess-men into a bag without any method at all Some confound Gods Primary Attributes of Being with his Relations which are subsequent to his Works and with his Relation-Attributes Some confound his several Relations to man among themselves and more do confound his Works as they flow from these various Relations The great works of the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and their several designs significations and effects are opened obscurely and in much confusion The Legislative Will of God de debiâ—â— institutive which is it that Damascene Chrysostome and the School-men mean by his Antecedent will if they speak properly which ever goeth before mans actions duties or sins or as the Fathers called them merits or demerits is confounded by many with the acts of his Judgment and Execution called his consequent Will because it ever presupposeth mens precedent actions Or his works as Law-giver Judge and Executioner are oft confounded And so are the Orders of his Precepts Promises and penal Threats and the Conditions of his Promises and the order of his Precepts among themselves and of his Promises
are duties which are also mans felicity And the exercise of these in Praises and Thanksgiving are the proper pleasure of the soul Give up thy self wholly to study the Goodness and Love of God in Jesus Christ till thou feel thy heart enflamed with his Love and spend half thy godly conference in Gods praises and half thy daily prayers in that and in thanksgiving and this will comfort thee not only by the reasoning way of evidence but as a feast pleaseth thy taste and as the fire warmeth thee or as the loving of thy friend delighteth thee or as health it self is the pleasure of thy flesh As the sins themselves of not knowing God not loving him nor delighting in him are the greatest part of the penalty or rather misery of the sinner which hath its peculiar way of remission so the knowledge and love and praise of God and delighting in him is instead of a reward unto it self and a beginning of Heaven to the heavenly Believer Direct 15. Dwell much in Heaven if you would dwell in comfort Comfort your selves and one another with these words that we shall for ever be with the Lord. Heaven is the place or state of our everlasting comfort and all that we have here must come from thence And Faith and Hope and Love must fetch it He that will have carnâ—l joy must go for it to pastime or lusts and pleasure to an Ale-house or a Whore or to a Gameing-house or a Play-house or to his wealâ—h and worldly honours But he that will have heavenly joy must go for it by Faith to Heaven and dwell there every day by Faith where he hopes to dwell for ever Heaven will nor comfort either them that believe it not or them that remember it not but them whose conversation and hearts are there Phil. 3.20 21. Direct 16. Set your selves wholly to do good Resolve that you will be faithful to Christ and do all the good that you can in the world and let him do with you what he will And in this way you shall quickly find that the soundest consolation will come in to your souls before you could expect it Though no works of our own can add any thing to God nor must be trusted to at all in a legal sense and though blind Libertines tell you that all comfort is legal and unsound which came by the thoughts of any thing in your selves or any of your own doings yet God is no such enemy to godliness but he that will hereafter judge you to Heaven or Hell according to your works will now judge you to joy or sorrow of heart usually according to your works Well doing shall afford you peace and ill doing shall disquiet you when all â—s said Direct 17. Lastly Be sure while you want the comforts of assurance to hold fast those comforts which rationally belong to common grace and to them that have the Gospel offers of salvation When the Gospel came to Samaria Acts 8. there was great joy in that City It is glad tidings in it self for guilty souls to have Christ and pardon freely offered to them Can you not say I am sure that I am regenerate justified and adopted For all that if you be not Infidels you can say I am sure that Christ and Pardon and Heaven are freely offered me and Ministers are commissioned to intreat me to accept it and nothing but my wilful and final refusal can deprive me of it and shut me out This is certain take but so much comfort as this much should rationally inferr To which I might add the comforts of your probability when you are in some degree of hope that your faith and repentance are sincere though you are not certain But this I have more largely spoken of and the rest which is needful to be spoken on this subject in the fore-named Treatise long ago The ordinary and long troubles and unsettledness of honest Christians are caused most 1. By unskilful Guides who are most confident where they are most ignorant and revile those Truths and Methods which God hath appointed for the settling of mens peace 2. And by their own lazy and unskilful course who take up most with examining and complaining instead of learning more understanding in Gods Methods and diligent â—â—â—nding what is amiss that the cause of their trouble might be taken away CHAP. XXI How to live by Faith in the Publick Worshipping of God I May not be so tedious nor do that which is done elsewhere as to direct you in the several parts of Worship distinctly but shall only give you some brief Directions about Publick Worship in the general Direct 1. Come not before God with Pharisaical conceits of the worthiness of your selves or Worship as if you offered him something which did oblige him But come as humble receivers that need him and his grace who needeth not you and as learners that hope to be wiser and better by drawing neer to God You know Christs instance of the prayers of the Pharisee and the Publican And remember that many a ones heart saith I thank thee Lord that I am not as other men or as this Publican whose tongue can spend an hour or more in sad confessions yea and that it is those very copious confessions of their badness that puff them up as if they were so good Yea many a one that in opinion is most vehement against all our works in our Justification or looking at any thing in our selves at all to make us acceptable with God as being against free grace in Christ do yet look so much at that which is or is conceited to be in themselves that feâ— Churches on earth are thought worthy of tâ—â—â—r communion Note also that it is sacrificing which is commonly the Hypocrites Worship in the Old Testament and hearing and obeying which he neglecteth and God calls him to As you may see at large in Isa 1. throughout and many other places Psal 40.6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst noâ— require Mine ears hast thou opened c. So Psal 50.8 9 c. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices and burnt offerings to have been continually before me I will take no bullock out of thy house For every beast of the Forest is mine c. If I were hungry I would not tell thee for â—he world is mine and the fulness thereof Offer to God thanksgiving and pay thy vows to the most High And call upon me in the day of trouble But to the wicked saith God What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Hath the Lord delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams Psal 4.3 4 5. Know that the Lord hath chosen the man that is godly for himself
12.12 Esther 8.15 So that it still remaineth clear that loving our neighbours as our selves doth entitle us to the comforts of all mens health estates prosperity honours yea and their holiness and wisdom too and this without any such participation of their sorrows as should be any considerable ecclipse of our delights if we do it all regularly as God requireth us 6. If I love my neighbour as my self I am freed from all the trouble of cross interests in buying and selling in trespassing in Law-suits It will comfort me as much if he get by me as if I get by him If his bargain prove the better as if mine did if he have the better at Law as if it were judged to my self Yea all his successes prosperity and whatever good befalleth any that I know of in the world will all be mine 7. And I shall never be loth by death to leave the world while I have no cause to fear the missing of salvation because whatever I leave behind me will be possessed by such as I love as my self They will have life and time and health and comforts and whatever my nature is loth to leave Therefore whilest I live why should it not be as comforting to me to think that so many shall live and prosper whom I love as my self as if I were my self to live and prosper 8. Yea more than so I have by Love a part in the Joyes of Heaven before I am actually there For the Joyes of all those blessed souls and of those holy Angels are mine by participation so far as to cause me to rejoyce in their felicity as if it were my own as far as I can now apprehend it Yea the Glory of the Lord Jesus and the eternal blessedness of God himself would rejoyce us more than our own felicity if we loved him as much above our selves as we ought to do we should partake of our Masters joy And now judge whether loving God as God and our neighbours sincerely as our selves would not cure almost all the calamities of our minds and give us a kind of Heaven and be a cheap and certain way to have what we can wish in all the world and even to make all the world our own And whether it be not sin it self which is the first part of all mens hell and misery Object But my neighbours meat will not fill my belly nor his health doth not ease my pain nor his fire keep me warm Answ The flesh hath got the dominion indeed when men cannot distinguish between soul and body between the pain and pleasures of the body and of the mind I do not say that Love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies but of your minds Your appetites will not be satisfied with your neighbours food but your minds may be comforted to see his welfare Your pain is not eased by your neighbours health but your minds may be pleased by it as much as if it were your own if you loved him as much as you do your self And therefore many in a danger have saved the life of a Prince a Captain a Parent a Child a Friend with the voluntary loss of their own Object This is all true but who is there in the world that doth it or findeth it possible to love another as himself And how can that be a duty which is to nature it self an impossibility Therefore let us first know what this duty is of loving our neighbours as our selves Answ Doubtless if it be the summ of the Law all true Christians do it in sincerity though not in perfection And as to the sense of it 1. You must distinguish between that sensitive and passionate affection which is in the soul as sensitive and is common to beasts with men and that rational appetite which doth will and chuse and is pleased according to the conduct of pure reason The first we doubt not will be still more to our selves than others and it is not the use of grace to destroy it but to rule and moderate it 2. You must distinguish between Love and outward actions which are the expressions of it When our Love is due as much to one as to another yet our outward actions may be under a particular Law which obligeth us to do that for one which we are not bound to do for others As to maintain our own children families servants and so our selves rather than others And the reason is because the difference of individuals maketh that fit for one which is not fit for another and so maketh every man the fittest chuser for himself and those that are neerest to him and nature instigateth him to the greatest care in doing it And all good must be done in a regular order or else confusion will destroy it And nature maketh this most orderly As every Parish must keep their own poor and yet must love other poor as well 3. You must know that Love is formally nothing but complacence as aforesaid but Love joyned with a will and purpose to do good to another is called Love of benevolence when yet the Love there is one thing and the doing good or purpose to do it is another and I may in obedience to God purpose and do more good to one whom I am bound to Love not more but less And now you may see what it is to love our neighbours as our selves 1. God must be loved above our neighbours and our selves and both must be loved purely as related and subordinate to him and for his sake There is a double respect which all things have to God 1. As they contain that excellency which he hath put upon them which is some likeness representation or signification of himself and is called his Glory shining in the creature that is it 's derived Goodness 2. As they conduce to his further service and may honour him and please him Thus all creatures must be loved only as a means even a means declaring God being derivatively and significantly good and useful and as a means to serve and please him 2. Therefore this being the formal reason of our Rational Love must also be the measure of it à quatenus ad quantum As it is certain that I must love that best which is best because I must love it only as good so it is certain that that is best which hath most likeness to God and most of his Glory upon it and that which is most pleasing to him and useful to his service Therefore if my neighbour be better than I am I must judge him better and love him better 3. Though natural self-appetite and self-preservation by which all creatures are for themselves only not feeling the hunger cold pain of others be not sinful but the effect of creating individuation yet Reason was perfect and the Will could perfectly follow Reason in its complacency and choice till sin corrupted it Reason could judge that best which was best and the Will
Psal 5.4 5. 9.7 James 1.15 By this time methinks you should better know what the use and meaning of the Gospel and Grace and Ministers is and what is the design of Preaching and in what manner it should be done Would you have us silent or talk to you as in jeast while we see such a day as this before us Every true Preacher spaketh to you with Judgment and Eternity in his eye Our work is to prepare you or to help you to prepare to meet the Lord and to be ready for your final sentence O then with what seriousness should we speak and should you bear and should both we and you prepare It 's pitty to see people hear Sermons many years and not so much as know what a Sermon is or what is the use and nature of it If our business were to draw away Disciples after us and to make our selves the admired heads of factions then we would speak those perverse things contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught by which our ends might be carryed on Acts 20.30 Rom. 16.17 Or if our design were to be high and great and rich we would flatter the great ones of the world that we might rule you with violence instead of love Or if we consulted our case we should spare much of this labour and let you silently alone at cheaper rates to the flesh than now we speak to you But O who can be silent who is engaged in this sacred office when he foreseeth what will shortly be the issue of our prevailing or not prevailing with you Now as we love Christ we must feed his sheep and necessity is laid upon us and woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 Our preaching Christ is to warn every man and teach every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1.22 And to perswade men as knowing the terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 9.10 11. Heb. 12.25 29. If it were only that we loved so to hear our selves talk or to be cryed up by many followers we deserved to pay dear indeed for such Preaching But when our Lord loved and pittied souls at the rate of his sufferings and bloody death surely our rates are not above the worth of souls O what a doleful sight is it to us to foresee by faith how loud how earnestly you would knock and cry when the door is shut and hope is gone And what you would then give for one of these daies which you now are a weary of and for a drop of that mercy which now doth beg your entertainment What then remaineth but as ever you believe that day and as ever you care what becometh of your souls and bodies for ever and as ever you would not be chargâ—d and condemned as final and obstinate refuâ—ers of mercy and salvation yea and for wronging the Ministers of Christ by making them study and preach in vain That you harden not your hearâ—s but hear Christs voice to day while it is called to day before the door of grace be shut O cry while crying and begging may do good Meet Christ now as may best prepare you to meet him then Meet him now as the Prodigal met his Father Luke 15. Saying I have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me one of thy hired servants Meet God as Abigail met David 1 Sam. 25.32 34. with an offering of peace even Christ apprehended by an obedient faith When she heard from David Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me all had been destroyed Meet him to enquire of his sacred Oracle what is like to become of thy soul as the King of Syria sent Hazael with a present to Elisha to meet him saying Shall I recover of this disease 2 King 8.8 Or as Paul met with Christ when he humbled and converted him saying Who art thou Lord and what wouldst thou have me do Acts 9. Meet him as the men of Israel and Juda did David their King 2 Sam. 19. striving who should first own and honour him Amos 4.12 Meet God thus nâ—w when hâ— caâ—â—eth you by his Word when he perswadeth you by his Mâ—â—â—sters when he moveth you by his Spirit when he allureth and obligeth you by his mercies while he driveth you by affliction while he waiteth on you by his patience and by all thâ—se calleth you to repent to love him and to obey to set your hearts on Heaven if ever you hope it should be your portion Meet him thus now and then you may joyfully meet him in his glory II. And O all you that are true Believers lift up your heads with hope and joy for your final deliverance draweth nigh The world hath but a little while longer to abuse you Satan hath but a little while more to molest you The blinded Sodomites shall not long be groping for your doors You shall not long walk among snares and dangers nor live with enemies nor with troublesome unsuitable friends You have not long to bear the burden of that wearisome body of that seducing flesh of those unruly passions or those disordered thoughts you have not long to groan under the misery of that troubled and doubting conscience that darkened mind those dull affections those remnants of unbelief stupidity and carnality nor to cry out with weariness from day to day O when shall I know God better and love him more Death is coming and quickly after Christ is coming One will begin and the other perfect your full deliverance and put an end to these complaints And remember that though Death hath somewhat in it which to nature is terrible God having made the love of Life to be the pondus or spring of motion to the great engine of the sensitive world yet what is there in the second coming of Christ that should seem unwelcome to you You shall not meet an enemy but a friend your surest and your greatest friend one that hath done more for you than all the world hath done and one that is ready now to do much more and shew his love and friendship to the height One that will be then your surest friend when all the world shall cast you off You go not to be condemned but to be openly justified yea honoured before all the world and sentenced to endless glory You go not to be numbered with the enemies of holiness or with the slothful and unprofitable servants but to be perfectly incorporated into the heavenly society and to see the glorified faces of Henoch Moses and Elias of Peter and John and Paul and Timothy and all the Saints that ever you knew or whose writings you have ever read or whose names you ever heard of millions more You go to be better acquainted with those Angels that rejoyced at your repentance and that ministred for your good and that bore you in their hands and were your continual guard both night and day You go
a God is it whom I am bound to serve and who hath taken me into his Covenant as his child How happy are they who have such a God engaged to be their God and Happiness And how miserable are they who make such a God their revenging Judge and enemy Shall I ever again wilfully or carelesly sin against a God of so great Majesty If the Sun were an intellectual Deity and still looked on me should I presumptuously offend him Shall I ever distrust the power of him that made such a world Shall I fear a worm a mortal man above this great and terrible Creator Shall I ever again resist or disobey the word and wisdom of him who made and ruleth such a world Doth he govern the whole world and should not I be governed by him Hath he Goodness enough to communicate as he hath done to Sun and Stars to Heaven and Earth to Angels and Men and every wight and hath he not Goodness enough to draw and engage and continually delight this dull and narrow heart of mine Doth the return of his Sun turn the darksome night into the lightsome day and bring forth the creatures to their food and labour doth its approach revive the torpid earth and turn the congealed winter into the pleasant spring and cover the earth with her fragrant many-coloured Robes and renew the life and joy of the terrestrial inhabitants and shall I find nothing in the God who made and still continueth the world to be the life and strength and pleasure of my soul Psal 66.1 c. Make a joyful noise unto God all ye Lands sing forth the honour of his Name make his praise glorious say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works Come and see the works of God He is terrible in his doing towards the children of men He ruleth by his power for ever his eyes behold the Nations let not the rebellious exalt themselves O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard who holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Psal 86.8 9 10. Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and dost wonderous things thou art God alone Psal 92.5 6. O Lord how great are thy works thy thoughts are very deep a bruitish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this Faith doth not separate it self from natural knowledge nor neglect Gods Works while it studyeth his Word but saith Psal 143.5 I meditate on all thy Works I muse on the work of thy hands Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide Sea c. Nay it is greatly to be noted that as Redemption is to repair the Creation and the Redeemer came to recover the soul of man to his Creator and Christ is the way to the Father so on the Lords day our commemoration of Redemption includeth and is subservient to our commemoration of the Creation and the work of the ancient Sabbath is not shut out but taken in with the proper work of the Lords day and as Faith in Christ is a mediate grace to cause in us the Love of God so the Word of the Redeemer doth not call off our thoughts from the Works of the great Creator but call them back to that employment and fit us for it by reconciling us to God Therefore it is as suitable to the Gospel Church at least as it was to the Jewish to make Gods works the matter of our Sabbath praises and to say as Psal 145.4 5 10. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty and of thy wonderous works And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declare thy greatness All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee Psal 26.6 7. I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compass thine Altar O Lord that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wonderous works Psal 9.12 I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart I will shew forth all thy marvelous works Direct 14. Let Faith also observe God in his daily Providences and equally honour him for the ordinary and the extraordinary passages thereof The upholding of the world is a continual causing of it and differeth from creation as the continued shining of a Candle doth from the first lighting of it If therefore the Creation do wonderfully declare the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God so also doth the conservation And note that Gods ordinary works are as great demonstrations of him in all his perfections as his extraordinary Is it not as great a declaration of the Power of God that he cause the Sun to shine and to keep its wonderous course from age to age as if he did such a thing but for a day or hour and as if he caused it to stand still a day And is it not as great a demonstration of his knowledge also and of his goodness Surely we should take it for as great an act of Love to have plenty and health and joy continued to us as long as we desired it as for an hour Let not then that duration and ordinariness of Gods manifestations to us which is their aggravation be lookt upon as if it were their extenuation But let us admire God in the Sun and Stars in Sea and Land as if this were the first time that ever we had seen them And yet let the extraordinarniess of his works have its effects also Their use is to stir up the drowsie mind of man to see God in that which is unusual who is grown customary and lifeless in observing him in things usual Pharaoh and his Magicians will acknowledge God in those unusual works which they are no way able to imitate themselves and say This is the finger of God Exod. 8.19 And therefore miracles are never to be made light of but the finger of God to be acknowledged in them whoever be the instrument or occasion Luke 11.20 There are frequently also some notable though not miraculous Providences in the changes of the world and in the disposal of all events and particularly of our selves in which a Believer should still see God yea see him as the total cause and take the instruments to be next to nothing and not gaze all at men as unbelievers do but say This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes Psal 118.23 Sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath done marvelous things Psal 98.1 Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well
have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us For when we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly God commended his Love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us So Ephes 3.17 18 19. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by Faith and it would help you to be rooted and grounded in Love and to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge and so to be filled with the fulness of God If Faith be the way to see Gods Love and Faith be the way thereby to raise our Love to God then Faith in Christ must needs be the continual instrument of the Spirit or that means which we must still use for the increase of the Spirit Direct 25. The works of the Spirit next to the excitation of Life Light and Love do consist in the subduing of the lusts of the flesh and of the power of all the objects of sense which serve it Therefore be sure that you faithfully serve the Spirit in this mortifying work and that you take not part with the flesh against it A grat part of our duty towards the Holy Ghost doth consist in this joyning with him and obeying him in his strivings against the flesh And therefore it is that so many and earnest exhortations are used with us to live after the Spirit and not after the flesh and to mortifie the lusts of the flesh and the deeds of it by the Spirit especially in Rom. 8.1 to the 16. and in Gal. 5. throughout Rom. 6. 7. Col. 3. Ephes 5. Direct 26. Take not every striving for a victory nâ—r every desire of grace to be true grace it self unless grace be desired as it is the lovely Image of God and pleasing to him and be desired before all earthly things and unless you not only strive against but conquer the predominant love of every sin There are many uneffectual desires and strivings which consist with the dominion of sin Many a fornicator and glutton and drunkard hath earnest wishes that he could leave his sin when he thinketh of the shame and punishment and hath a great deal of striving against it before he yieldeth But yet he liveth in it still because his love to it is the predominant part in him Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death We are buryed with him by Baptism Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin V. 12. Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof V. 13. Neither yield your members servants of unrighteousness unto sin For sin shall not have dominion over you Know ye not that to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live See Gal. 5.16 18 19 20 21 22 23. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts V. 24. and 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity Object But it is said Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that ye cannot do the things which ye would Answ That is every true Christian would fain be perfect in Holiness and Obedience but cannot because of the lustings of the flesh But it doth not say or mean that any true Christian would live without wilful gross or reigning sin and cannot that he would live without murder adultery theft or any sin which is more loved than hated but cannot We cannot do all that we would but it doth not follow that we can do nothing which we would or cannot sincerely obey the Gospel Object Paul saith Rom. 7.15 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not and what I would that I do not Answ The same answer will serve To will perfect Obedience to all Gods Laws was present with Paul but not to do it He would be free from every infirmity but could not And therefore could not be justified by the Law of Works But he never saith that he would obey sincerely and could not or that he would live without heinous sin and could not Indeed in his flesh he saith there dwelleth no good thing but that denyeth not his spiritual power who so often proposeth himself as an example to be imitated by those that he wrote to Thousands are deceived about their state by taking every unâ—ffectual desire and wish and every striving before they sin to be a mark of saving grace misunderstanding Mr. Perkins and some others with him who make a desire of grace to be the grace it self and a combatâ— against the flesh to be a sign of the renovation by the Spirit whereas they mean only such a desire of grace as grace for the Love of God as is more powerful than any contrary desires and such a combating as conquereth gross or mortal sin and striveth against infirmities And of this this saying is very true Direct 27. Strive with your hearts when the Spirit is striveing with you and take the season of its spâ—cial help and make one gale of grace advantageous to another This is a great point of Christian wisdom The help of the Spirit is not at our command take it while you have it Use wind and tide before they cease God will not be a servant to our slothfulness and negligence As he that will not come to the Church at the hour when the Minister of Christ is there but say I will come another time will have none of his teaching there so he that will not take the Spirits time but say I am not now at leisure may be left without its help and taught by sad experience to know that it is fitter for man to wait on God than for God to wait on man More may be done and got at one hour than at another when we have no such help and motions Direct 28. Be much in the contemplation of the heavenly Glory for there are the highest objects and the greatest demonstrations of Gods Love and Goodness and therefore in such thoughts we are most likely to meet with the Spirit with whose nature and design they are so agreeable We fall