is as careful to do its services as to partake of its priviledges if it throw it self into the arms of Christ to save it it will throw it self at the feet of Christ to serve him as Paul Lord what wilt thou have me to do 3. It must be such a Trust as ariseth from a believing disposition within There must be a seed and habit of faith before there can be an act of faith Although the acts be discerned before the habits yet there must be a habit a believing disposition within before we can act I know there are many who in case of danger lying upon their death bed or some present wrack and disquiet will make shew of doing this act of faith but yet wanting this believing disposition within like Jonahs Gourd or the untimely fruit of a woman or the stony ground-seed having no root soon withers decays and cometh to nothing God respecteth not the act of faith if it arise not from a believing disposition within but God hath sometimes accepted of the believing disposition and desires of faith when there hath not been strength enough to erect any vigorous act of believing I believe help my unbelief 4. It must be a perfect Trust 1 Pet. 1.13 Trust perfectly in the grace revealed Perfect I say not in respect of the measures and degrees of Trust there is none such here But yet perfect in respect of the nature of it i. e. there must be a full carrying of the soul over to Christ and a full rowling and resting on him It cannot be meant of the perfection of degrees for there can be no such absolute perfection to which another degree may not be added there is none so perfect in faith but that he may be more perfect none so strong but that he may be stronger although we cannot be more justified to day than we were yesterday in the sight of God For we say that Gratia remittens or justificans the justifying grace of God admits of no degrees is not capable of magis minus Yet the assurance of our Justification is a man may be more assured of his Justification to day than he was yesterday As justifying faith doth imply imperfection in the subject so the faith it self whereby we are justified is imperfect whilst we are here in respect of degrees But in the nature of it it must be so perfect that it carrieth the soul over wholly to Christ alone resting and rowling on him for an imperfect trust in this kinde is as good as nothing He that doth not rest the full weight and stress of his soul on Christ doth nothing for the matter of trust It is not every faint stirring and moving of the heart not every incompleat resting but such a full rest of the soul upon Christ that if he fails us we are sunk and undone for ever As you know a man is said to lean upon a thing not when he bears up himself onely by his own feet but when he rests a great part if not the whole weight of his body upon some thing or person else so that if it fail he falleth so thus it is to lean to rest upon Christ to commit the whole weight and stress of our souls to him that if he fail me I am undone I am lost for ever I see I am in a miserable condition I see he is an all-sufficient Saviour I see that there is nothing but death in me I see there is life enough in him and he invites me to come over to him he intreats beseecheth promiseth and therefore I will go over to him I will cast my self wholly on him I will look no other way therewill I trust and if I perish I perish I will dye in his arms I will dye believing This indeed is that great act of faith which entituleth us to Christ and gives us an interest in him even in the dusk of the morning the soul hath an interest And therefore on the contrary there is no readier way to be mistaken and so to miscarry than to trust equally to two stays to trust to Christ and to trust to our selves too As there is no way whereby a man is likelier to fall than to trust equally to two boughs whereof the one is sound and the other rotten whereof if one break it is as bad as if both did the man is sure to come to the ground whereas had he pitched his whole weight on the sound one onely he had been born up So here in leaning both on Christ and our selves whereas if we commit our souls and all their burdens to Christ onely if we fail he sinks with us We are sure to be upheld the Promise Covenant the Oath of Christ even Christ himself and all would sink if we fail If thy trust be thus qualified I pronounce thee a justified person no soul ever miscarried in a trusting way it is such an act as doth ingage all the Attributes of God his Justice Truth Mercy Power and all to do us good Object 2. But I have put forth this act of faith and yet alas I am not justified Answ Thou sayest thou puts forth this act of faith and thus qualified and yet thou sayest thou art not justified How knowest thou that Thou sayest thou art not because thou dost not know thou art I know that will be the next For thus poor hearts reason to their own discouragement I want assurance of Justification therefore I am not justified I want that inward peace and therefore fear my peace is not made with God Though there be nothing more clear than this that a man may have peace with God and yet want the peace of this in himself it is possible for a man to be justified and yet want assurance of it within Affiance doth justifie in the Court of God Assurance justifieth in the Court of Conscience to be justified is one thing to be assured is another In the object all is sure in the subject there may be much uncertainty It is possible for a man to put forth the act of faith yea and to continue in so doing and yet walk without peace and apprehensions of his own safety thy condition may be safe in the promise to the eye of faith though not to thy self in the evidence of sense Thy condition may be safe and secure although thou for the present dost not apprehend thy own safety or the security of it It is secure in the promise in respect of God though stormy and troubled to sense in respect of our selves Thou must not therefore look for a clear day and that the shower be over as soon as thou hast taken shelter nor for a calm so soon as thou hast cast anchor but thou must abide under the shelter and ride at anchor till the shower and storm be over and wait till times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord. Godly security and apprehensions of safety do not ever presently attend
by unbelief do slight all the threats of God denounced against sin if you make childs play of them as the word signifies 2 Pet. 3.3 If you look upon these but as Bug-bears things to keep men in awe and not real things No marvel if you bee not Humbled But if by Faith you would Realize these things to your selves and behold them not as Fancies and sad dreams but such things as are infallibly true real things not as painted Hell painted fire but as reall you would them finde them to work These mingled with Faith would lay a man in the dust Now this is a property of Faith to Realize the Object or thing beleeved and hence comes an influence on the soul to humble and abase it 3 Faith doth not only take up humbling Considerations and Realizeth all these to the Soul But Faith makes all this present Faith doth give a present being to all this Hence Heb. 11.13 Faith imbraceth the promise The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith kisseth the promise gives a present being to the promise And as it gives a present being to the promise or word of comfort so to the threatning and word of terror Faith discovers death and hell and all at hand for Sin Faith looks upon sinne in all it's Doomes-day apparrel and array smels fire and Brimstone in sin Whereas unbeleevers they look on these things at the wrong end of the Prospective and that makes things neer seem a far off and that afar off is not seen at all But Faith looks upon them through the right end of the prospective And there things a far off are seen at hand present Hence it is called The Evidence of things not seen As it was said of Abraham Hee saw the day of Christ and rejoyced and yet Abraham was dead many hundred of years before Christ yet by vertue of his prospective by vertue of his Faith hee saw it as if it had been present though it were never so far off So here though the second day of Christ the day of judgement bee a far off yet Faith sees it and is humbled Faith gives it a present Being 4. Faith applies and brings home all this to Soul As the word of Comfort the Promise is applyed and brought home to the Soul by Faith so the word of Terror the Threatning is brought home to the soul by the same Faith by which the Soul is cast down and humbled The manner of Faiths Application is by a practical Syllogisme where the Major or first Proposition is the Word of God The Assumption or second Proposition is the Testimony of Conscience and the conclusion is inferred from them both as hee that beleeveth not but continueth in sir is for the present guilty and obnoxious to wrath at the last Judgement But I beleeve not but continue in sin Therefore I am for the present guilty and obnoxious to wrath to bee inflicted at the last Judgement Seventh Royalty 7. Faith is an Heart-softening-Grace Such a Grace as doth not only humble us but soften us not only break us 7. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-softening-Grace but melt us In the Law it humbles us it breaks us but the heart like a flint every dust still reteins its flinty stony Nature is a stone And therefore in the Gospel it melts us it dissolves us Thunders of Sinai terrifie but Dews of Sion mollifie So much Faith so much Sorrow they are like the Fountain and the Stream whereof the one ariseth no higher than the other So much Faith and apprehension of Mercy so much brokenness of spirit for sin Where Unbelief doth stony the Heart harden the Heart dries up the spring and issues of sorrow No Heart is so hard as an Unbeleeving-heart neither the Promises nor Threatnings neither Mercy nor Justice neither Word nor works will melt it Faith on the contrary turns the Soul into Water dissolves a man into tears opens all the deep springs of sorrow in the Soul 1. Faith looks upon Heart-melting-Promises Takes a survey of the Riches of Gods Love and Mercy in making such precious Promises which doth exceedingly melt 2. Faith takes up Heart-softening-Considerations from the Love and Mercy of God towards us which are Heart-melting-Mercies from the goodness and sweetness of God Faith makes us see God as hee is It makes God no otherwise than hee is not more gracious not more merciful than hee is But Faith discovers him as hee is a gracious and a mercifull God It doth but undraw the Curtain but take off the Mask which Satan and Infidelity have put on and makes us to behold God as hee is in all his glorious excellencies Soul saving attributes and Mercies which who can behold by Faith but must needs mourn and dissolve into tears that they have offended him Thus you see Ezek. 36.31 when God had discovered himself in his Pardoning-Mercy his washing Forgiving-Mercy to the beleeving soul then they shall mourn and bee humbled Oh! There is nothing breaks the heart more than Mercy nothing melts a man more than the smiles of God the Mercies of God which being discovered to the Soul the Soul is not able to stand stubborn under it 3. Faith looks upon a Soul-melting a Soul-softening Object upon Christ a wounded a broken Christ And who can behold him but with an Humbled and a broken-heart A bleeding Christ without a bleeding Heart Oh! Here is enough in this Object to open all the springs of sorrow in us wee need not to go to Bellarmines Twelve Considerations to open the Fountain of tears in us wee need not bring in the miseries of mankind for one nor the sad condition of the Souls in Purgatory for another Wee need not bee beholden to him for such considerations as these to help us to mourn Oh! Here is enough in Christ in a broken and wounded Christ to open all the springs in thee and if thou hadst a Fountain of tears to spend them all The Considerations of his sufferings 1. Either in themselves 2. Or in their cause 3. Or as the Effects of sin 1. The Considerations of his breakings and sufferings as they were in themselves 1. The sufferings of his Body What woundings breakin gs scourgings crownings peircings did hee endure upon his Body 2. The sufferings on his Soul What conflict and struglings with the wrath of God the powers of darkness what weights what burdens what wrath did hee undergo when his Soul was heavy unto death be set with terrors as the word implies When he drunk that bitter Cup that Cup of bitterness that Cup mingled with Curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip's of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell 2. The Consideration of his sufferings in the Cause as the meriting cause of all our good procurer of all our Peace Life Salvation Hee was wounded that wee might bee healed scourged that wee might bee solaced drank the
punishment of his sin it is his mercy that wee are not consumed Thus Faith brings to remembrance our sins Such a time such a place c. It laies the finger on the sore place discovers the cause which causes a man to make himself the subject of Gods anger and turns a mans anger against himself This was some ground of Davids patience when Shimei cursed Go up thou Bloody man It made him smel his own sin his Blood and so became patient 3. Sometimes from the end of Gods dealings 1. In general And that is for good though it be not bonum yet it is in bonum Though it bee not good yet it is for good It is a Chastising-mercy not in vindictive-Justice There is a Misericordia-puniens and there is a Justitia-parcens A punishing-Mercy and a sparing-Justice As God doth exercise his Sparing-Justice towards the wicked when hee suffers them to go on in sin and doth not punish them as wee read Hos 4 14. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredome nor your Spouses when they commit Adultery the like Ezek. 16.42 I will cause my fury towards thee to rest and I will bee quiet and will bee no more angry Upon which one saith Solo auditu tremisco I tremble at the very hearing For if God will correct no more then hee will destroy next This is a Sparing-Justice And as God doth exercise this towards the wicked so hee exerciseth a punishing-mercy toward the good Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.32 Wee are chastised of the Lord that wee might not bee condemned with the World That wee may not bee condemned with the World Hee suffers the World to condemn us That wee may not love the World hee suffers the World to hate us That wee may bee crucified to the World hee suffers the World to crucifie us Therefore wee meet with Crcrosses with abuses in the World because hee will not have us perish with the World God takes liberty to chastise our carkasses to heal our consciences to afflict our bodies to save our souls And wee have oftentimes occasion to bless God more for crosses than for comforts As there is a curse hid in the best things to the wicked so there is a blessing hid in the worst things to the Godly There is a blessing in sickness a blessing in crosses in losses c. Hence All his wayes are wayes of mercy His correcting and comforting wayes His scourging and solacing wayes The wayes of health and the wayes of sickness wayes of prosperity and wayes of adversity All are in Mercy All things shall work together for good unto them that love God Thus in the general Faith doth clear to the soul whereby it doth possess the Soul with patience under any evil and laies the tumults and quarrels of the Soul 2. In particular Faith discovers at what end God aims 1. It may bee the trial and exercise of our Graces as in Job 2. It may bee for the Destruction of sin and ruine thereof Either Pride Worldly-mindedness Adherency to the Creature with many more To humble us to wean us to win us to make us more thankful with many such ends All which discovered and cleared by Faith to the Soul do exceedingly calm and still the heart in every condition Fifth Royalty 5. Faith is a Soul-Securing-Grace It is such a Grace that doth shelter and secure the Soul from all evil Hence 5. Faith is a Soul-securing Grace Prov. 29.25 They who trust in the Lord shall bee safe or shall bee lifted up on high as the word signifies above men above the World above all storms above all troubles shall bee set out of danger out of Gunshot As Noahs Ark was carried above all waters So Faith shall carry the Soul above all dangers Hee that trusts shall bee safe So that you see Faith is an Heart-securing-Grace Wee may sit down securely under the shadow of Faith It is a Soul-Securing-Grace Nothing else will secure you but beleeving Build as many Towers of succour as you can Raise up as many Castles of strength as your provisions will reach yet all these are but Castles in the Air there 's no foundation for them nor shelter in them Beat and cast out as many Anchors as you can yet you will but Anchor on the waves you shall never finde a bottom to rest on to secure your souls from trouble All the provisions in the Creature All that thy power thy Policy can do and finde out will not compass thee with safety if thou do not trust There is nothing doth secure the Soul and set the Soul out of danger but a Resolved-Trust And no Trust but a Trust in God 1. Not a Trust in Riches The Rich mans wealth is his strong City but it 's so in his conceit only it is weak 2. Not a Trust in Friends Deceitful Friends Job calls them Waters that fail as Jeremy calls them But broken Walls and tottering Fences as the Psalmist stiles them Psal 62.3 3. Not a Trust in Princes If any could secure the Soul one would think they might but these cannot Psal 62. throughout Psal 146.3 4. Prov. 10.15 Nahum 3.12 13. Wee read the Children of Israel would trust in the shadow of Egypt Egypt was a Wel-spread-Tree it promised security under her boughs and branches but it could not there was no security Jer. 2.37 God threatens hee would reject their confidences and they should not prosper thereby So that no Trust but a Trust in God will compass the Soul with safety and this will it is an Heart-Securing-Grace 1. It sets a man upon a Soul-Security-Bottom which is God himself Christ himself This is that Bottom David cryed to bee set upon Set mee upon the Rock that is higher than I. Why one would have thought David had been secure enough upon his own Bottom Hee had a good bottom to stand on if there bee one in the World Hee was a King and had provisions for safety If any man might be secure then he But hee sees hee could not be secure in himself His feet began to sink And therefore crys out for a better bottom Oh! Set me upon the Rock that is higher than I. Time was a Man was his own bottome A bottome to himself But it was but a Sandy-bottome Even in his Innocency there was no Security in it But now God hath appointed our Bottome to bee out of our selves and to bee in him And therefore our conditions are secure the Soul that stands on this bottome is safe is secure This Christ sets down in the Parable of the Hoâ—se built upon a Rock that is upon himself Though The winds blow the waves and billows beat yet there is no danger of our fall We stand upon a Rock Why but may not a Weak and Tottering house bee built upon a strong foundation And what is it then the surer for the Foundation It may bee blown down though the foundation bee never so strong Yea But no
bitter Cup of wrath that wee might have the draught of Mercy Hee was slain But not for himself saith Daniel But wounded for our transgressions broken for our iniquities The Chastisement of our peace was upon him Faith looks upon these his sufferings as the meriting causes of our good 3. The Considerations of his sufferings as effects of sin as the effects of our sin as that which our sins have brought upon him Which Consideration must needs effect and break our hearts When the soul shall look upon Christ and say It was I that have been the murderer I that have been the Traitor my sins which brought all this evil on thee I sind and thou sufferedst It was I that did eat the soue Grape and thy teeth were set en edge My sins were thy death yet by thy death thou brought'st the sinner life I have wounded thee yet thou hast healed mee even out of that wound which my sins have made hast thou sent out a Plaisâ—er even thy Blood for my sins Oh! This must needs fill the heart with sorrow Faith still looks upon an Humbled Christ with an Humbled Heart upon a Broken Christ with a Broken Heart upon a Bleeding Christ with a Bleeding Heart upon a Wounded Christ with a Wounded Heart Hence Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have peirced And how shall that sight affect them It follows They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and lament for him as one lamenteth for his first born In that day there shall bee a great mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Vallie of Megiddon God made the same Organ for seeing and for weeping And the soul that sees well weeps well Never soul that did by the Eye of Faith look upon this Son of Righteousness but their frozen hearts did melt within them Would you ever bee mourning men and Women for sin would you bee in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his first born Oh! Steep your thoughts in the blood of the Lamb Dwell a little on Christ crucified Look wistly upon Christ by Faith and this will solvere Gelicidium melt and thaw our frozen hearts turn us from stones into flesh Eight Royalty 8. Christ is an Heart-transforming-Grace 8 Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-transforming-Grace Such a Grace as doth transform the Soul into the nature of the Object Faith is as powerful in this spiritual conception to work in us the image of the Object seen as Fantasy is oftentimes in the natural conception The Poets tell us of some that did transform such as beheld them into stones such a power there was in the Object the thing beheld as to transform say they But here it is true If by Faith wee cast our Eyes upon Christ of stones wee shall bee turned into men of sinners into Saints of a hard heart to a soft and fleshly of Children of Satan to the Sons and Daughters of God Joh. 1.12 As many as beleeved on him to them hee gave power to bee the Sons of God Sons not born of the flesh or the will of the flesh but of God who begets like himself As that which is born of flesh is flesh So that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hence wee are said to bee made partakers of the Divine Nature To bee transformed into the image and likeness of God To bee Holy as Hee is Holy Pure as Hee is Pure To bee as hee is in this World Never soul that looked on him by Faith but came away with another heart They looked to him and were enlightened saith the Psalmist Psal 34.5 But plainly you shall read the Transforming Power of Faith 2 Cor. 3.18 Whiles beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord wee are changed into the same image from Glory to Glory Such a Glass hee is that never did the Eye of Faith behold him but the Soul was changed with the sight from a Wolf into a Lamb from a sinner into a Saint from Darkness to Light You were once Darkness now are you Light in the Lord. It turns a man upside down wholly transforms him Indeed there is no change of the substance of soul and body nor of the faculties of soul and body but the qualities of the faculties are cleer changed The Head is transformed where before was darkness now there 's Light where before it did judge highly of carnal things and low esteemed spiritual it doth now the quite contrary The Will is transformed where before it was full of obstinacy and stoutness contradiction and rebellion now there is pliableness to good and conformity between Gods Will and his They are not two but one Will. Gods Amen is his Amen Gods Fiat his Fiat Gods Will his will So the Heart that is transformed whereas before it was nothing but a noisome sink of sin nothing but a Cage of unclean birds the womb of sin a seminary of lust Now it is washed purged purified sanctified made a fit Receptacle for Christ an Habitation for God by his Spirit Thus you see Faith is an Heart-transforming-Grace Wee cry and say Oh! If I had another heart I could beleeve If my heart were more holy more sanctified why the way to get another heart is to beleeve do but beleeve and you shall see another heart come into you another Spirit another Soul Do but look upon Christ and you shall bee transformed It is such a look as sends a man away with another heart As the Wise men It is said After they had seen Christ beheld Christ they went home another way So when by Faith wee have seen Christ it sends the Soul another way with another spirit with other Principles with other Resolutions There is this Power of Faith to transform the Soul into the nature of the Object beleeved Belief of the Promises breeds Principles in the Heart suitable to the Promises Belief in Christ breeds a Spirit suitable to Christ As Faith Belief in God a Father breeds Principles of Love Fear Reverence and Obedience in the Soul such things as are agreeable So the belief in Christ a Saviour breeds Principles of Trust of Love of Desire with the like Ninth Royalty 9 Faith is an heart-pacifying Grace 9 Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-pacifying-Grace Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staied on thee because hee trusteth in thee A place alledged by One who lying on his death-bed and injoying abundance of peace and calmness of spirit being demanded how it came to pass hee was not now assaulted with Satan replyed Hee knew no ground no cause save this God had promised To keep that soul in perfect Peace whose mind was staied on him who trusteth on him Hee relyed on Christ and therefore injoyed rest Isa 27.5 Let him take hold of my strength That is by Faith lay hold on my Covenant my Christ and I will bee at peace with him Hence the Apostle Rom. 5.1
light into the world saith Christ that whosoever beleeveth in mee should not abide in darknesse The least touch of Christ by Faith doth raise up and revive the Soul in this sad Condition As the dead man was raised to life and revived but by touching the dead bones of Elisha 2 King 13.21 so the Dead Soul if it do but touch the Dead and crucified body of Christ by Faith is raised up and revived Such a vertue and influence comes from Christ as doth raise up and comfort the Soul Thus Faith doth raise the heart by laying hold of Christ He who raised up himself will raise up all his members If our head had been still under water wee had then perished but he being risen will raise us up also being his members 4 Faith inables a man to put up Soul-raising-prayers indites Soul-raising-prayers strong Prayers and cries to God As Prayer helps Faith So Faith helps Prayer It inables a man to wrestle with God now in the Dark of desertion as it did Jacob in the Dark of the Night Yea and to wrestle with him by his own strength the strength of his Covenant of his promise of his Christ In which Encounter Faith will take up arguments 1 From it self 2 From God 1 From it self By presenting its miserable Condition in the absence of God That all his own work is ready to sink and dy to come to nothing if hee help not Oh! will Faith say Lord my flesh fails my heart fails my strength fails my spirit fails Oh! Come down before I dye come strengthen the things that are ready to dye in me This argument David took up Psal 143.7 Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit fails Oh! Hide not thy face from mee lest I bee like unto them that go down into the Pit So Psal 39.10 12 13. Take thy plague from mee I am consumed by the stroke of thy hand c. Hear my prayer O Lord hearken to my cry Keep not silence at my tears for I am a stranger with thee a sojourner as all my Fathers were Oh! spare a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more 2 Faith will take up arguments from God 1 From the justice and truth of God He hath promised never to leave nor forsake his people 2 From the immutability of God Thou art JEHOVAH thou changest not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 Thou never repentest of thine own work Thou never hast wooed my heart to lose it again Thou never tookest my heart to leave it again and take thy heart clean away Thou never didst set thy heart on mee to take it off again 3 From the power of God Abraham at a plunge was supported with this strong staff of Comfort when though by Gods command hee was to sacrifice his Sonne Isaac yet hee accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Heb. 11.19 Lord if thou wilt thou canst Mat. 8.2 4 From the mercy of God Lord thou art gracious and merciful ready to relieve It 's true I am a sinner but thou art a Saviour I am sinful but thou art mercifull I am impious but thou art gracious I have done that Ego admisi undè me damnare potes Tu non amisisti undè me salvare soles for which thou mightest damn mee but thou hast not lost that by which thou mayest save mee True I am not worthy of a smile from Heaven I have deserved to bee sent from darkness here to everlasting darkness hereafter from this partial to total and universal darkness But Lord proportion not thy dealings to mee according to my deservings from thee Let not the strong God take a pattern from my weakness good God do not ever remember my evil least thou forget thine own goodness thine own mercy O bone Do-â—â— mine noli recordare malum moum ne obliviscaris bonum tuum But thou who art found of them who seek thee not Oh! Be mercifully found of a soul who seeketh thee Thus will Faith work it self out of trouble and gather arguments to prevail with God for deliverance It will take up arguments From Soul-raising-Attributes From Soul-raising-Promises From Soul-raising-Relations From Soul-raising-Experiences It will incompass God with Gods own strength And God cannot because hee will not deny God will not reject his own strength not strive against his own mercy not resist his own Spirit not falsifie his own Truth but will raise up and revive the Soul Thus you see Faith is a Soul-raising-Grace Where Unbeleef holds the soul under water buries the soul in these sad conditions Faith raiseth up and reviveth it A beleeving soul cannot long lye under trouble If all the Power Truth and Mercy of God will fetch him out hee shall bee sure to bee delivered Faith ingages and sets a work all these to help Oh! The Reason my Brethren why you lye so long in spiritual Agonies buried up in spiritual troubles is because you let not Faith come in to work for you let Faith have her perfect work and it will raise you Sixteenth Royalty 16. Faith is an Heart-chearing-Grace 16. Royalty Faith is an Heart-chearing Grace Faith is such a Grace as doth chear and comfort the soul with unexpressible Consolations It is such a Grace as makes an inlet of all the Consolations of God into the Soul Faith brings a report to the Soul that God is his God Christ is his Christ that his Name is written in the Book of Life his sins are pardoned his soul shall bee saved And such news as this must needs fill the soul with unexpressible Consolations with joyes unspeakable and full of glory All other joyes are but mad and disorderly joyes They are carnal not spiritual outward not inward joyes they are but painted not true Joyes imaginary not real Joyes unsatisfying not tull Joyes inconstant not stable Joyes The best false Raptures Anabaptistical Illusions not true Joyes But this Joy The Joy of Faith it is grounded joy it is 1. A spiritual Joy for the Nature of it 2. A Hearty Joy for the Nature of it 3. A Satisfying Joy for the fulness of it 4. A Constant Permanent Joy for the duration of it My Joy shall no man take from you Alas what are all other joyes to the Joy of Faith The least morsel of this Joy is worth all the full meals of worldly delights The least gleaning of this Joy is worth the whole Harvest of carnal mirth The least drop of this is worth an Ocean of any other There is more moisture in one drop of this than in a flood of temporal and carnal delights True Joy grows upon the stock of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no true Joy Faith is the Root and Joy is the Fruit. It is call'd The Joy of Beleevers Beleevers are the Subjects of it and a Joy in Beleeving Beleeving is the Root of it Rom. 5.1.2 Being justified by Faith wee have
greatest of difficulties this kinde came forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting which shews the work was of more than ordinary difficulty yet because their Faith was posed in it hee tells them they were a faithless Generation and hee was weary of them it put him to the utmost exercise of his patience to bear with them And you see the like of Peter whose Faith was so great as to carry him upon the waters to walk upon the waves upon a bare command and word of Christ yet afterwards the wind growing strong and corruption working hee was affraid and begins to sink and then cryed Lord save mee Mat. 14.30 31. And how much was Christ displeased at him who had put forth so glorious an act of Faith as to walk upon the waters upon a bare command yet because hee held not out Christ reproved him Oh thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt was this a little Faith c. But wee will pass this and in the prosecution of this Doctrin wee will shew these eight things 1. That wee are slow of heart to beleeve 2. What are the grounds that wee are slow of heart to beleeve 3. What are the reasons why this slowness of heart is so offensive to God For the first that wee are slow of heart to beleeve This will bee demonstrated to you if you consider with mee these five particulars 1. The greatness of that power which God doth put forth in the working Faith in an unbeleeving heart Faith it self is called the work of Gods power nay of his almighty power The same power which God put forth in the raising of Christ from the dead even the same power hee doth put forth in the working of Faith in an unbeleeving heart Ephes 1.19 20. There are many mighty works of God which are not saving works As the works of Creation the works of Providence These are mighty works but they are not saving works But there are no saving works of God which are not mighty Every work of mercy is a work of might too every work of grace is a work of power too though every work of power bee not a work of grace yet every work of grace is a work of power And the work of an almighty power Actus omnipotentis Actus omnipotentioe Not only an Almighty God doth work but also according to the Almightiness of God when hee works Faith and Grace in a graceless heart There are two names given to this in Scripture both which speak the greatness of Gods power in the working of it 1. It is called a resurrection from death to life not of a dead body but a dead soul Psal 88.10 wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise to praise thee hee speaks not there of a natural death but of the condition which hee was in lying for the present slain and dead as it were under the apprehensions of God wrath Shall a soul that now lyes dead and slain with the apprehensions of thy wrath and displeasure arise by Faith to praise thee Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise to praise thee That is wilt thou shew the greatness of thy power in working Faith in an unbeleeving soul this is no less than a resurrection from the dead the dead arise c. And therefore this must needs require the greatness of Gods power to effect it It is a great work to recover a sick man but more to restore a dying man but to raise a dead man to life this is the work of God only Yet all this is nothing to the resurrection of a dead soul To raise our bodies when consumed by fire when vanished into air when corrupted in the water when turned into dust and rottenness is not so great a work as to raise a dead soul a soul dead in sin to work Faith in an unbeleeving heart This is the Almighty work of God 2. And hence Secondly It is called a work of Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 thus in Christ And you know Creation is the work of God only it is the production of something out of nothing Men may produce something out of something but to produce something out of nothing is proper to God alone There is lesse distance between the least dust and the most glorious Angel in Heaven than there is between it and nothing Wee say and its true inter ens non ens nulla proportio there is infinite distance between something and nothing Such a distance as none but a God can bring together Now this work of Faith and Grace in the heart in an unregenerate and unbeleeving man is a new Creation A Creation of light in a dark heart of life in a dead heart of Faith in an unbeleeving heart of Grace in a graceless heart which is a work which requires the almightiness of Gods power for the effecting of it And that is the first demonstration 2. If you do consider the complaints of Beleevers when they first come to beleeve What sighs what tears what groans what pains what struglings with unbeleef with doubts with fears Crying out with the man in the Gospel Lord I do beleeve help my unbeleef It may bee now the doubt of Gods power of Christs al-sufficiency to pardon sin to forgive so great and hainous wickednesse and say with him Lord if thou canst do any thing help Mark 9.22 or if not so yet they doubt of his wâ—ll whether God will pardon them yea or no and say with another in the Gospel Lord if thou wilt thou canst make mee clean Matth. 8.2 Every dayes experience tells us how hard a thing it is to cast a man out of himself and when that is done Oh how hard a thing is it to bring that soul over to Christ and the promise Now a thousand objections are raised the soul is now as full of scruples of doubts as the Sun is full of motes Oh what swarms of unbeleeving thoughts what multitudes of doubts and objections that it is beyond the power of any but of him alone that can deal with the heart either to discover them or answer them or if answered yet the soul is still unsetled till God come in This is plain in cast down and humbled souls 3. If you look upon the Rhetorick God useth to bring a poor humbled and cast down sinner to beleeve Read Isa 40. beginning Comfort you comfort yee my people saith my God Speak yee comfortably Say your warfare is accomplished your iniquities are pardoned c. But least any should say alas tell not mee of this no comfort belongs to mee hee is buried up in troubles God doth not regard him why see how hee saith in vers 27. Why sayest thou Oh Jacob and speakest Oh Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my Judgement is passed over from my God Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the
was all this glorious fabrick of Gods mercy and councel which was the greatest thing that ever came upon his heart Gods master-peece which went to the height of his skill and wisdome to the height of his mercy and love Beyond which there is a non ultra in Gods thoughts there was no further or more God could go no higher than himself all was infinite but thou in standing off dost annul and make void all the thoughts of his mercy and his love if others should do the like to what purpose then were all it would make all this void and to no purpose thou dost it as much as in thee lyest If a man should make a curious peece that should publish his skill his greatness wisdome and a man come and break it all in peeces would hee not bee greatly offended And what a fearfull thing is it to make void that wherein God set himself to make himself glorious to obscure that in which God set himself to make himself visible in but thou who art slow of heart to beleeve as far as it lyes in thee dost this and therefore what a provocation of God must this bee 3. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void all the purposes of Gods mercy to thee The great end which God aimed at in this great work of sending Christ into the World was that thou mightest beleeve in him and live Now if thou stand out and will not come in will not close with him thou dost what lyes in thee to make void all the purposes of God to thee for good I say what lyes in thee for thou shalt never do it the election shall bring thee in Gods purpose shall bring thee to his Promise Our sins may alter Gods conditional purposes of temporal mercies as hee tells them 1 Sam. 2.30 I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy Fathers should walk before mee for ever but now saith the Lord bee it far from mee for they that honour mee I will honour c. But thou shalt never bee able to make void Gods eternal purposes of good to thee but yet take heed of tempting God provoking God God may make thy body smart for it though he save thy soul at last make thee know better not try conclusions But I say what lyes in thee thou dost disanul all the purposes of God to thee for good which is a fearful thing 4. Thou dost what lyes in thee frustrate the expectation of God You know it is a great affliction to a man to have his expectation frustrated and the greater the good which was expected the greater the cut and wound to be disappointed and frustrated Why I say may I speak after the manner of men thou dost what lyes in thee to frustrate all the expectations of God Why what were Gods expectations but that thou shouldest receive his Son if hee sent him that thou shouldest imbrace Christ beleeve in him And this seems to be sweetly insinuated in the parable Mat. 21.37 Mark 12.6 Surely they will reverence my Son though they had abused the Prophets c. yet surely they will reverence my Son they owe so much homage to mee or they will look upon him so great a person the Son of God Surely they will reverence my Son But however his Person and Parentage should not procure reverence yet the service he came about will be a grateful service hee comes to be Saviour hee comes to redeem them from Hell Certainly hee will bee a welcome guest to them Oh how willing will they be to receive him how glad to entertain him with what open armes will they imbrace him how ready to obey him Surely they will reverence my Son And in reason who would not have thought so what welcome might not the King of glory expect the Prince expect who came upon such a business What might not a Prince expect who came to loosen the captives to redeem vassals to relieve distressed break chains Sure in all reason hee should have been received with all joy with all acclamations and willing imbraces This God expected But now when in stead of receiving we reject Christ sleight Christ undervalue Christ when we will not close with him c. how doth this cross the expectation and frustrate it 5. We do what lyes in us to make void Gods end in sending Christ What was the end which God aimed at in this plot in contriving such a way in sending Christ into the World this was his end that we might beleeve and live his glory in our salvation Surely the end must needs be glorious when the means and work was so glorious if the foundation of this work were so glorious what will the whole structure bee Now this was one part of Gods end in sending of Christ that thou shouldest receive Christ beleeve in him And so long as thou standest out thou crossest Gods end frustrates the end of God And this must needs be a great provocation of God If a man did take a great deal of pains in a work spent all his time and indeavours for some end and at last be crossed in the end the work is nothing to him This provokes c. Why thou dost frustrate Gods end 6. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void the death of Christ thou makest all his sufferings and all his blood shed to be to no purpose What was the end that Christ shed his blood what was the end Christ dyed why it was no other but this that we might beleeve in him and have a pardon c. But now so long as thou standest out thou frustratest all this if all were like thee I pray thee to what purpose were the death of Christ the expence and shedding of his blood And therefore this provokes much if one of us should suffer much for the obtaining of such an end if after hee had indured to bee disappointed of it this much provokes us 7. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void all the Promises of God to Christ God promised and entred into Covenant with Christ that if hee would lay down his life and blood hee would make him King over Saints hee would give the Heathen for his inheritance c. Isa 53. Hee shall see of the travel of his soul and bee satisfied God promised Christ that if hee would lay down his life for a people hee should have them hee would give a people to him And thy standing out doth what lyes in thee to make this Promise void to make God a lyar to his Son c. Thou shalt not bee able Christ shall have a people God will yet set his King c. yet if all were like thee where were Christs people Nay and thou robbest Christ of the reward and fruit of all his death and sufferings this was the reward Christ was to have for his death c. If a man had sweat or shed his bloud for such a thing
Christian as a Christian ibid. 2 Reas Because a false professor may have a compleat resemblance of a Christian in all those things which are not essential to a Christian p. 269 Thus the first thing is cleared now wee come to the second thing propounded Secondly How it may stand with 1 Gods end 2 Satans end 3 A mans own ends to abound in duty and yet not bee sincere First It may stand with Gods ends both 1 Towards the good and they are merciful ends 2 Towards the bad and they are partly merciful and partly judicial First It may stand with Gods ends towards the good and they are merciful ends ibid. p. 270 First That God may serve his own glory by them for the bringing in and building up of the godly ibid. Secondly God suffers unsound hearts to abound in duties to maintain an holy jealousy and watchfulnesse in the hearts of his own people p. 271 Thirdly To make us see there is something in duty more than duty which sets a value upon duty and makes it of worth ibid. Fourthly To tell us that there are other things to bee done of a Christian than meerly to pray here p. 272 Fifthly To make his people more solicitous after surer more stable and proving evidences than these are ibid. Secondly As it may stand with Gods ends to the good so it may stand with Gods ends to the bad 1 His merciful ends p. 273 2 His judicial ends ibid. Secondly It may stand also with Satans ends and that 1 Towards the good p. 274 2 Towards the world ibid. 3 Towards themselves ibid. 1 It may stand with Satans ends towards the good 1 Hereby Satan doth labour to cause Gods people to throw off the work to desist in their way ibid. 2 If hee cannot prevail with Gods people to throw off the work yet hee hath a second end and that is to discourage Gods people in the work ibid. 3 If Satan cannot prevail thus far yet hee labours by these men to scandalize the godly to bring evil reports on all that walk in the wayes of life p. 275 You know how wicked men argue viz. 1 Either from particulars to generals ibid. Or 2 By the failing of the person ibid. Secondly It may stand with Satans end in respect of the world as 1 To keep them off from entring upon the way of life p. 276 2 To strengthen the prejudice of wicked men against the wayes and people of God ibid. 3 Hereby hee hardens them in a way of sin ibid. Thirdly How it may stand with Satans ends towards themselves that thus abound in duty and yet are unsound ibid. 1 To aggravate their condemnation ibid. 2 Because such men are surest his of any and that on two grounds ibid. 1 If hee stands in that condition hee thinks hee is sure enough ibid 2 If hee falls hee thinks him sure enough because the hazard is great p. 277 3 It may stand yet further with Satans ends because hee hopes to have some further good of them another day p. 278 For the Devil knows 1 They will bee the surest and trustiest servants to him of any p. 279 None in the world have more of the infernal nature than they p. 280 Thirdly How it may stand with their own ends who having corrupt hearts yet should notwithstanding abound in duty 1 To answer the cases of conscience ibid. 2 To pacifie the quarrels to satisfie the gripes and gnawings of conscience p. 281 Conviction doth arise from some common not saving light and that 1 Because it discovers grosse sins not secret sins 2 It discovers open sins not spiritual sins ibid. 3 It discovers no sin as sin in the nature of it ibid. Other ends there are which are more low than the former as 1 For ostentation and gifts of pride p. 282 2 For affection credit and esteem in the world ibid. 3 For the advancement of their worldly designes ibid. 4 That by this means they might procure Gods blessings on them in this life ibid. Next thing is to shew what the grounds are whence it ariseth that a corrupt heart may abound in outward performances p. 283 First ground is natural conscience ibid. Second ground is some present distresse and trouble on the conscience or upon the bodies of men upon the spirit or flesh of men ibid. p. 284 1 Some present distress upon the spirit 2 Outward pressures on the body ibid. The fourth thing remains which is four where the fault lies or how it comes to passe and that in six particulars p. 285 1 Hee fails in the latitude or extent of his obedience Hee is limited 1 Either to some command most suitable 2 Or to the flesh that is to the outwards of the command ibid. 2 Hee is faulty in the manner of his obedience p. 286 3 Hee is faulty in his aims and ends ibid. 4 Hee is faulty in that hee resteth upon what hee doth and looks no higher p. 287 4 Hee makes it self his obedience which should quicken his Obedience ibid. 6 These spiritual performances do not arise from spiritual Principles ibid. There is a fourfold change 1 A Moral change p. 288 2 A Partial change ibid. 3 A Formal change ibid. 4 A Spiritual change But not new ibid. 1 For substance of soul and body p. 289. 2 For faculties of soul and body ibid. Object Nature cannot act ultra sphaeram above it self nature cannot go any further than Nature Answered ibid. It is true in the main but Nature may bee strengthened from above ibid. Nature considered in diverse forms and ranks 1 There is a meer Nature with those reliques as some say But I say restored Principles ibid. 2 Nature civilized and moralized 3 Nature sublimated p. 290 Thus you see the Doctrin cleared and the fourth thing answered 1 Hee is a man who was never humbled for sin ibid. 2 Hee is a man that was never truly cast out of himself ibid. 3 Hee is a man that was never fully changed ibid. 4 Hee is a man who is carryed upon holy works with a slavish heart ibid. There are two great weights that carry him about 1 Fear of Hell p. 291 2 Hope of Heaven ibid. Use If a man do thus much and yet fall short of Heaven what then shall become of them that do nothing ibid. Sincerity lyes in labouring and how ibid. These things are necessary 1 Necessitate Precepti God hath commanded them 2 Necessitate Medii they are the way to life ibid. Object This discourageth us If a man may do thus much and yet fall short of Heaven then it is as good to sit still and do nothing Answered p. 292 Wee should argue after this manner Because I may do all this and yet not bee sincere therefore I will labour to bee sincere in the doing of them ibid. Second Use Discovers the sandinesse and unsafenesse of those bottoms to rest a mans soul upon ibid. To stir up those that fear God to get better
are on the Body the Estate the Name but this is An Inward Evil. An evil upon the Soul which is the Greatest of Evils 2. All other evils are but of a temporal nature They have An End Poverty Sickness Disgrace all these are great evils but these and all other they have An End Death puts the conclusion to them all But This Evil of sin is of an Eternal nature that shall never have end Eternity it self shall put no period to this 3. All other evils do not make a man the subject of GODS wrath and hatred A man may have all other evils and yet be in the Love of GOD. Thou maist be Poor and yet Precious in GODS esteem thou maist be under all Kinde of miseries and yet Dear in GODS thoughts to thee But now this is an evil that makes the soul the subject of GODS wrath and hatred As the Absence of all other goods the Presence of all created evils will not make thee Hateful to GOD if Sin be not there So the Presence of all other goods and Absence of all other evils will not render thee Lovely if sin be there 4. All other Evils do but oppose your well-being nay and your well-being for present for they cannot rob you of future happiness But this opposeth your well-being for ever For you cannot be Happy if you be not Holy Nay this opposeth your Being It brought Death you would sin your selves into Nothing again if GOD did not hold you up To be that you might Be miserable for sin 5. All other evils are but Destructive to a mans self fight but against Particulars But this is contrary to the Universal Good contrary to GOD and as far as it may Destructive to the very Being of God As I shall shew hereafter 6. All other evils are GODS creatures and so far good He owns all the rest he is the Author of all the rest Is there any evil in the City that I have not done Amos 3.6 meaning All the Evil of Punishment Penal not Sinful Evil But this is the Devils Creature yea and worse than he being All sin 7. All other Evils are Gods Physick and used as Medicines either 1. For prevention of this Or 2. For the cure of this 1. For prevention of this That you might not be condemned with the world he lays afflictions and evils upon you 1 Cor. 11.32 He suffered Satan to tempt Paul and gave him up to his buffetings which yet is the Greatest Evil in the world next to sin the Greatest penal Evil in the world And all to prevent sin as the Apostle himself saith 2 Cor. 12.7 God sent a Messenger of Satan to buffet him And what was the reason why it was to prevent sin Lest he should be exalted above measure that is left he should be proud And as he useth all other Evils for Prevention So 2. For the cure of sin And you know no Medicine can be so bad as is this Disease Now all other Evils God hath laid upon his people for the cure of sin or for the recovery of them out of the state of sin And to speak as much as I can at once There is not so much evil in the Damnation of a Thousand worlds of men for sin As there is evil in the Least sin the least sinful thought that riseth upon your spirits inasmuch as the good of these falls short of the good and glory of God Thus you see by Collation and Comparison of this Evil with others in which I might much more inlarge my self that Of all Evils Sin is the greatest Evil We will now come to 2. The Demonstration of the Point 2. Demonstrations 1. Demonstration 1. That which fighteth against and opposeth the greatest Good 1. Demonstration or Reason Sin opposeth the greatest good 1. God must needs be the greatest Evil But now Sin opposeth and fighteth against the greatest Good Hence a Father calls sin Dei-cidium God-slaughter that which strikes against the Being and Essence of God that which were it strong enough were it Infinitely evil as God is Infinitely good would labor to Un-Be God God is Summum Bonum and indeed Non datur Summum Malum sin cannot be infinite If Sin were as evil as God is good that is Adequately and Proportionably if Infinitely evil as God is good sin would be Too hard for God to pardon it would be Too hard for God to subdue Too hard for God to Conquer Sin would endeavor to conquer God Indeed there is more evil in the least sin than there is good in any nay all the Angels of Heaven and therefore you see it conquered them spoiled all their goodness made them Devils which it could not have done if the good in them had been greater than the Evil in sin And though it be not able to conquer God to overcome him there is more goodness in God than Evil in Ten Thousand Hells of sin and so it cannot overcome the power of God the mercy of God the holiness of God yet it fights against God and makes party against him every day It musters up all its strength against God and comes into open field to Bid Defiance against him every day Nay when it is beaten out of the open field by the power of God and his Ordinances then it hath strong Holds as the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 10.4 and from thence fights against him and opposeth him there it lusts against him it wills against him the heart riseth against him When sin is beaten out of the field yet a long time it will be before it be beaten out of strong Holds When sin in Practise is overcome and conquered yet sin in Affection is hard to be overcome That Contrariety that is between God and your Heart is hard to be conquered It will cost you many a battel many an assault before you can conquer sin in its strong Holds overcome sin in the Heart Though sometimes it may seem to be overcome and to render up all yet afterwards it gathers together again and will make new and fresh assaults upon you to weaken and to wound you Nay and herein lies the Malignity the poysonous and venemous nature of sin that though God hath conquered it though it be never so weakned yet will it act against God spit its venome still An Emblem of it you have in the Thief upon the Cross that when he was nailed upon the Cross his hands and feet made fast and had but one member loose yet that one member could spit its venome at Christ revile Christ so though God hath crucified sin yet so long as there is any life in it it will act it self and spit venome against God which shews that Great Contrariety betwixt God and sin And this Contrariety and Opposition of the Chiefest Good must needs shew sin to be the Greatest Evil. 2. Demonstration â— Demonst sin universally evil All evil 2. That which is Universally Evil all Evil
and no good must needs be the Greatest Evil in the world But sin is All evil As we say of God There is no Evil in him He is All Good Quodcunque in Deo Deus est So I may say of Sin There is no Good in it It is All Evil Quodcunque in Peccato Peccatum est There is some good in the worst things in the world and some thing in the worst things to make them capable of our choice of them in some cases some good in sickness some good in Death But now there is no good in sin nor can any considerations in the world make sin the Object of our Choice Though you might avoid Death by sin yet because sin is Universally Evil and No good in it you may not make use of sin to avoid Death And therefore you shall read That when the Apostle would speak the worst of sin he could finde no Name worse than its Own to set it out by Rom. 7.13 ad finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinful-sin He calls it Sinful-sin Nothing but Sin 3. Demonstration 3. That which is the sole Object of Gods hatred 3. Demonstr Sin the sole object of Gods hatred must needs be the Greatest evil But sin is the sole Object Not onely the Object but the sole Object of Gods hatred He hates nothing but Sin His love runs in divers streams towards all things he hath made But his hatred runs in One Chanel alone and that is Towards Sin If Man were made the Center of all other Evils in the world God could Love him under All if sin were not there And if there be a Confluence of all other Goods Health Beauty Riches Learning c. God hates you if Sin alone be there Gods love cannot be there but his wrath abideth there 4. Demonstration 4. That which separates the soul from the chief good that which divides between the soul and God the chiefest good 4. Demonstr Sin Separates the soul from the chief Good i. God must needs be the Greatest Evil But sin divides betwixt God and the soul Isa 59.2 Your iniquities have Separated betwixt you and your God Betwixt your souls and my Grace your souls and my Comforts your souls and my Blessings It was said of Naaman That he was a Great man an Honorable man a mighty man of War But he was a Leper 2 Kings 5.1 So whatever Ornaments a man hath whatever Gifts Parts Riches Beauty c. yet if he be a Leper though a Learned man a Rich man But a Wicked man that spoils all the rest 5. Demonstration 5. Demonstr Sin is the root of all other evils 5. That which is the ground and cause of all other Evils must needs be the Greatest Evil But sin is the cause of all other Evils Is the Old world drowned with water it is for sin Is Sodome destroyed with fire and turned into an Asphaltite-lake to this day it is for sin Is Jerusalem laid on heaps Sin hath done it Should I enter on this I should finde no end 1. Of National evils 1. Sin is the cause of All National Evils We will name some and but name them 1. Wars 1. Wars Judg. 5.8 They chose new Gods Then was War in the Gates James 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you is it not from your lusts 2. Famine 2. Famine Psal 107.34 He turneth a fruitful land into a Desert for the wickedness of them that dwell therein Amos 4.6 Therefore sc for their sins have I given you cleanness of teeth in all your Cities and scarceness of bread in all your places c. 3. Pestilence 3. Pestilence as Davids sin here of Numbring the people Read Deut. 28.21 The Lord shall make the pestilence to cleave to thee till he hath consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it And as sin is the cause of National so also 2. Of Personal evils 2. Of personal Evils and those are 1. Temporal 2. Spiritual 3. Eternal Sin is the Cause the Meriting the Procuring Cause of all All Evils are but the Births of sin sin is a Big-bellied Evil and all other Evils are but the births of sin 1. On Body Those upon your Bodies Sickness Aches Pains Weaknesses 2. On Soul Those upon your souls Fears Heart-breakings Terrors Horrors If you could rip up sin you would finde all these to lie in the bowels of the least sin Shall I tell you Sin was the first Founder of Hell that which laid the Corner-stone of that Dark Vault for before Sin there was no Hell Nay and it is Sin that Built up Hell and hath fitted Hell with those Treasures and Riches of Wrath Fire and Brimstone Nay and that which still Addes to it and increaseth the Fewel Rom. 2.5 It treasures up wrath against the day of wrath And therefore being an Universal Evil a Catholick Evil the Womb of Evils and Cause of all it must needs be The Greatest Evil. 6. Demonstration 6. That which is worse than the Utmost Evil 6. Demonstr Sin worse that the utmost Evil. must needs be the Greatest Evil But sin is worse than the Utmost Evil. That which is Greater than the Greatest Evil must needs be Exceeding Great Hell is the Utmost Evil but Sin is worse than Hell it self Hell separate from sin is but miserable not sinful A Penal Evil not A Sinful Evil. I say separate Hell from sin though we cannot really separate Hell from sin yet an Intellectual Separation we may make we may in our Understandings abstract Hell from sin And then I say sin is worse than Hell because Hell is but A Penal Evil sin is A Sinful Evil And there is no Penal Evil so bad as A Sinful Evil. There is good in the Punishment the good of Justice But no good in sin And therefore sin in it self is the Greatest Evil. Now we come to the Second which is the Main As sin is in it self so 2. In the Apprehensions of Gods people sin is the Greatest Evil. 1. Their sighs for sin 2. Their sufferings to avoid sin do shew they apprehend sin the Greatest Evil. 1. Their sighs for sin you may look into Davids Penitential Psalms and see what sighs and groans for sin Look into Psalm 51. Why what was the reason of them All the Sufferings all the Evils in the world would not so much have affected him as his sin Paul Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Death of his body was nothing to him in comparison of This Body of Death Paul went through many tribulations endured a great deal of sufferings as you may read 2 Cor. 11 23 24 25. at large yet all these Scourges these Prisons and Persecutions did not go so much to his heart as sin even the presence though not the power of sin Though he suffered much yet we do not read that ever he cryed OH
hee shewed what care hee expressed to us what earnest prayers hee put up to God for us read Joh. 17.9 to the end of the chapter Yea and what provision hee made for us hee would not leave us comfortless but send his Spirit to comfort us to guide us And now hee is in Heaven are not his thoughts on us did hee not tell us hee went to prepare a place for us hee went to do our work to intercede for us to plead for us The Church of Christ is never a moment off from the thoughts of Christ Isa 49.15 16. And therefore his Heart is exceedingly taken with his Church That which a man doth affectionately and indearedly love that the heart is much taken withall bee it Husband bee it Wife Child the World whatever Now Christ doth exceedingly love his Church wee are said to bee the dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12.7 and read here hee loves us beyond all expressions so God loved the World Joh. 3.16 so Christ hee loves us beyond all conceptions Ephes 3.19 it is a love which passeth knowledge In the former verse the Apostle went about to measure this love height depth breadth length But hee found his line too short his measure would not reach therefore hee concludes it a love beyond all knowledge A man may express much love but hee may conceive of more than hee can express Why this love of Christ is above all wee can conceive above knowledge It is an infinite love It is I say an infinite love which is more than if I should lay all the bowels in the Creature together c. A greater love than all Witness what is done suffered and yet love above all And therefore Christs Heart is exceedingly taken with his Church and People That which a man doth glad his heart with and which hee rejoyces over hee must needs bee taken with A man will not rejoyce over the injoyment of that hee loves not The rich Fool rejoyced over his full Barns but it was because his heart was taken with his possessions Joy is a fruit of the hearts being taken with any thing you rejoyce in your riches Husbands c. in the possession of what ever your heart loves Now the Heart of Jesus Christ doth exceedingly rejoyce over his Church and People they are his by donation God gave them to him they are his by purchase hee laid down his life for them if wee lay down our life to compass a thing sure wee rejoyce in it Wee are his Riches wee his Treasure his Ammies Ruhama's and Hephzibah's his precious ones his People his Spouse and therefore hee must needs rejoyce over us Isa 62.4 5. Thou shalt bee called Heph-zibah for the Lord delighteth in thee yea as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Zeph. 3.17 The Lord will rejoyce over thee with Joy hee will rest in his love hee will joy over thee with singing And therefore seeing Christ doth rejoyce Ergo is the Heart of Jesus Christ exceedingly taken c. That which a man doth delight to converse withall that his heart is taken withall Now Christ doth delight exceedingly to converse with his Saints hee loves to speak to them and hee loves to hear them speak to him Cant. 2.14 Oh my Dove let mee see thy countenance let mee hear thy voice for thy countenance is comely and thy voice is sweet When the Disciples are talking of him Christ joyns himself to them Ergo is the Heart of Christ much taken When the two were going to Emmaus Luk. 24.15 Christ comes and joynes with them delights in their talk Mal. 3.16 when Gods people were gathered together the Lord hearkened and heard 5. That which a man thinks nothing to dear for nothing too much to give for to do for or suffer for that the heart must needs bee taken withall But thus it was with Christ to his Church 1. Hee suffered in his Body those spittings buffetings scourgings c. that was dear to him which hee gave his heart bloud for 2. Hee suffered in his soul even the wrath of God for her 3. Hee emptied himself of his own glory took upon him the form of a servant with all our infirmities penal not culpable as it is said of Jacob hee counted all his labours but little for Rachel because hee loved her Gen. 29.20 6. That which a mans soul is satisfied and contented withall in the injoyment of it that a mans heart is taken withall If a mans heart were not taken with the love of a thing hee would never think himself happy never bee contented and satisfied with the injoyment of it Whereas on the contrary where the soul is filled with satisfaction in the injoyment of it what ever it bee the heart is taken with it Now you shall see that the Heart of Jesus Christ is fully satisfied and contented with the injoyment of his Church though it have cost him so much pains so much sweat and bloud yet the injoyment of it is reward enough to him It is the reward which God promised him for his work Psal 2.8 Ask of mee and I will give thee the Heathen c. here merit of mee lay down thy life and I will then give thee a Church a People And that which doth satisfie Isa 53 11. Hee shall see of the travel of his soul and bee satisfied hee shall see the fruit of his sufferings in the saving of souls and shall bee satisfied with it It shall bee reward enough to him for all pains that souls are saved Isa 62.11 his reward is with him and his work before him hee is the salvation of his people And this is that which some think is meant by the joy set before him in Heb. 12.2 Who for the joy that was set before him indured the Cross despised the shame Which Joy saith an holy and learned Interpreter is nothing else but the fruit of his sufferings the redemption and salvation of his Church and People according to that in Isa 53.12 Therefore will the Lord divide him a portion with the great and hee shall divide the spoil with the strong because hee hath poured out his soul unto death And it is an Interpretation may bee backed Well then seeing whatever the heart of man rests satisfied in the injoyment of the heart is taken withal And that Christ doth rest satisfied in the injoyment of his Church and People though it cost so much to obtain it Ergo needs must it follow that the Heart of Jesus Christ is exceedingly taken That which a man is exceeding chary of dear of his heart must needs bee taken with those things which take our hearts wee are exceeding dear and chary of them If it bee the World Husband Wife Child a man is exceeding chary of them Deal gently with the young man Absolom 2 Sam. 18.5 his heart was taken with him and hee was chary of him Now Christ is exceeding chary over his Church
the Church Cant. 3.4 Christ had withdrawn himself Shee makes inquiry after him but could not hear of him At last after all her trouble Christ appears to her soul And you may read there how exceedingly her heart was taken with his return I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go untill I had brought him into my Mothers house Cant. 3.4 3. When the soul doth sit down to contemplate and read over the beauties and loves of Christ when it is in the contemplations of those surpassing excellencies and admired sweetness which is in Christ And Christ whiles the soul is busy in feeding on these thoughts doth make a discovery of himself to the soul makes the soul to see a vision of his glory Oh! how is the heart taken with him it is even drowned and sunk in a Sea of glory Ah! what clasping what imbraces what loves are there then betwixt Christ and the soul It is impossible for mee to express or for mee or you to conceive It is a vision of glory the porch of Heaven 4. When the soul is under outward pressures afflictions prison sickness upon death-bed Then a visit of Christ a discovery of himself doth exceedingly ravish and take the heart Here is kindness indeed riches for the poor liberty for a prisoner a cordial for the sick Here is all in Christs manifestation Well then wouldest thou know whether thy heart bee taken with Christ dost thou know Christ didst thou ever see the face of Christ in a promise what apparitions hath Christ made to thee what manifestations within thee in the work of Grace what manifestations to thee in the beginning of glory You who know not Christ cannot love Christ 2. Sign An heart taken with Christ is not excessively taken with any thing else The sweetness of Christ doth overcome all the sweetness in other things in the Creatures Vincit dulcedo dulcedinem As it is nothing but ignorance which makes men admire any thing here on earth if men knew the excellencie of other things they could not admire such trifles as they do So here it is nothing but ignorance of better things which makes us dote upon things here below Did wee see his beauties all the World would bee blackness Did wee see his fulness all the World were but emptiness I say did wee but know the excellencies and beauties of Christ and the satisfying-sweetness of his love Nothing should have a room in our hearts save hee only The higher wee ascend toward Heaven the lesser will the things on earth appear If you go to the top of the Mountains men would appear but small but if it were possible to go up to the Sun the Mountains would appear nothing The love of Christ hath a raising-power working our hearts as high as Heaven and being there all things here below are of no account and esteem to the soul So saith Paul a man on fire with the love of Christ Yea doubtless I count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ And do count them but dung that I may win Christ Phil 3.8 Well then they whose hearts are taken with the Creature taken with the World taken with sin and vanity These are too gross to bee taken with spiritual loves 3. Sign What the heart is taken withall the soul seems to live more in it than in it self Do but examine it in any thing the heart is taken withall whether your comforts your delights your happiness lies not in them The Worldling hee lives in his possessions The Voluptuous man in his pleasures And can no more live out of them than the Fish out of the water the Salamander out of fire So here If thy heart bee taken with Christ then thou livest more in Christ than thou doest in thy self I live yet not I but Christ saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 Thou canst no more subsist without him than the Beam without the Sun than the spark without the fire Nay no more live without him than the body without meat nay the body without the soul Christ is to the soul as the soul is to the body Now as the body cannot live without the soul So the soul cannot live but in Christ who is Anima Animae the Soul of the Soul for mee to live is Christ I say if thy heart bee taken with Christ thou livest in Christ more than in thy self Thy life thy comforts thy happiness they are all folded up in him As Judah said of Benjamin Jacobs life was bound up in the Lads life Gen. 44.30 So the Soul of Christ my life my joyes my comforts they are all bound up in thee All my fresh springs are in thee saith God of his Church Psal 87.7 And whom have I in Heaven but thee and in earth in comparison of thee Psal 73.25 saith the inamoured soul of God his heart was taken with God and hee lived in God more than in himself It was the speech of Luther who being in a great distress and spirituall trouble had writ about the walls and table in his study in great letters Vivit A friend comes to him and demands the reason Hee replies Vivit Christus si non non optarem unam horam vivere His life was in Christ Hee lived more in Christ than in himself Which makes the life of a Christian so safe none can hurt him and so sweet too being a life in Christ out of himself The best of others lyes in themselves but the best of a Christian those precious things in him lies out of himself and lies in Christ 4. Sign What the heart is taken withall that the comforts of the life are upheld by from day to day Wee have many a weary step to go and can no more go without comfort than Elijah without food Comfort is to the soul as the soul is to the body As the body without the soul is dead so is the soul of men without comfort Now would you know what your heart is taken withall see what the comfort of your life is upheld by from day to day Is Jesus Christ the comfort of your life is hee the joy of your hearts Ex quovis fonte Wicked men have varity of springs If one bee drye they go to another But the Saints have but one Christ And if hee bee gone all is gone 5. Sign An heart taken with Christ hath high appretiations and valuations of Christ It values and esteems him above all the comforts and contentments in Heaven and Earth Psal 73 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and in the Earth in comparison of thee Here is the breathing of a soul taken with Christ Hee prizeth Christ above all the comforts and contents in the World For the better unfolding of this sign there is 1. Something considerable in the Act. 2. Something in the Object Christ prized 3. Something in the Measure above all the comforts contents c. 1.
Person 2. The Conveniency This is fully made out in the necessity of it and that with an advantage there is such a conveniency as that it riseth up to a necessity in all the former particulars so that to an holy heart there is a moral impossibility of the contrary How can I do this great wickednesse and sin against God said Joseph Gen. 39.9 This is the first way of Faiths purifying the Heart Argumentativè or by way of Argument 2. Operativè As Faith doth operate and work for the cleansing of our nature making use of Christ who is called A Fountain Zach. 13.1 A Refiner Mal. 3.3 A Purger Joh. 15.2 Hee is said to come with Refiners fire with Fullers Sope to purge and purifie us And thus Faith makes use of Christ by the least touch of whom the sinfull flux of sin is dryed up and staid And Faith makes use 1. Of the Merit of Christ the Blood of Christ which is apt to purge us and cleanse us from sin And for this end was his Blood shed even to cleanse us from sin Tit. 2.14 Hee gave himself not only to bee a Redeemer to redeem us from Hell and the guilt of sin but to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Ephes 5.26 27. Hee gave himself for us that hee might sanctifie us and cleanse us by the washing of Water through the Word So Faith makes use of this Fountain to wash and cleanse the soul it opens this Fountain to the washing of the soul 2. It makes use of the Prayer of Christ John 17.17 Sanctifie them through the Truth thy Word is Truth 3. Faith makes use of the Promise of Christ wherein his Fidelity and Truth is ingaged for our Purification Jer. 33.8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against mee Ezek. 33.25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall bee clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you Isa 4.4 The Lord shall wash away the filth of the Daughter of Zion and purge away the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof Hence they are called Purging-Promises Thus Faith makes use of Christ of the Merit of Christ of the Blood of Christ of the Prayer and Promise of Christ whereby it sets on the work of Self-cleansing whereby it purifies the soul By vertue of which it washes the soul from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 Third Royalty Faith is a Heart-commanding Grace Christs Vice-Roy here in the Soul which Governs Rules Third Royalty Faith It s an Heart-commanding-Grace and bears sway in the soul by vertue of the power and Scepter of Christ Christ hath made Faith his Deputy here in the Soul and not any other Grace but Faith Hee knows Faith will rule by Christ by his power not its own So Rule as not to wrest the Scepter out of Christs hand It will rule for Christ and to Christ for his Glory and to his Glory not its own and therefore hee hath given Faith jurisdiction in the Soul So that it is a Soul-commanding Grace It is the Taskmaster of the Soul puts every Grace upon its work and burden It will not suffer any Grace to bee idle but puts every Grace to its work Nay it inableth the Soul to Doe what it Commands the Soul to Doe To every Precept wee have still a Promise Nay every Precept is a Promise Where God Commands us to Repent and Beleeve to make our selves new hearts to wash and cleanse our selves to circumcise our hearts Hee hath promised in his new Covenant to do what hee hath commanded to give us Faith to work Repentance in us to make us new hearts to circumcise the heart to wash and cleanse us from our filthiness And Faith urging the Precepts of God makes use of the Promises of God sues out the Promise and fetches strength from the Promise to perform the Precept Lord thou hast commanded mee to make mee a new heart and thou hast promised to take this stony heart from mee and to give mee an heart of Flesh Lord performe thy Promise to thy Servant in which thou madest mee put my trust Thou commandest mee to bee Holy and thou hast promised to make mee holy Thou art the Lord that Sanctifies Lord make mee Holy Da quod jubes jube quod vis sic enim implebitur voluntas tua obedientia nostra give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt and so both our obedience and thy Will shall bee fulfilled Thus you see as God so Faith ruling by God from God doth not only authoritatively impose commands and lay duties upon the soul but mercifully and friendly helps and inables the soul to do what is commanded It is not a Rigid-Master Reaping where it sows not commanding fruit from that ground whereon it sows no seed but sows strength to reap Obedience inables to do what is commanded to do It is said by Faith Abraham obeyed Faith did inable him to obey and made his obedience fruitfull and acceptable Faith inabled him to obey even in that great act of Obedience when his Son his only Son the Son of his Love the Son of the Promise the Son of his Old Age c. was to bee taken away by death killed murdered and that by his own hands c. And yet Faith inabled him hereunto Fourth Royalty Faith is an Heart-quieting Grace an Heart-calming and stilling-Grace It is a Grace thay layes all the tumults in the Soul all the insurrections in the Soul Fourth Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-quieting-Grace When Passions are up and unruly Affections do stir Faith doth allay and hush them When Passions of Fear are up Faith laies them will not suffer unruly fears to come into the Throne to command the Soul When Passions of Anger are up Faith doth quench their heat when Grief stirs Faith doth bridle and moderate this when Discontent is up and the Soul is ready to murmur and quarrel against God and his dealings Faith doth lay all these risings Faith hath a special art to still the Soul to strike it dumb in these cases Hence you see David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it was thy doing Faith struck him dumb Wee read indeed Zacharie was dumb but Infidelity struck him dumb David saith here hee was dumb but Faith struck him dumb The former was a Penal-dumbness God silenced his Tongue because hee suspended his Faith But this latter was a dutiful-Dumbness such a Dumbness as Faith hath caused in the Soul which shut up his lips from murmuring not from praying Psal 39.9 hee praies there I was dumb and opened not my mouth and yet Take thy Plague from mee I am consumed by the stroke of thy hand c. The like power of Faith you see in the case of Aaron when it silenced his Soul in such a sad condition Levit. 10.3 4. And Moses said unto him This
is that the Lord said c. And Aaron held his peace Why what was his tryal why it was the loss of his Sons the loss of his Eldest Sons when they were young and without posterity in the first day of their Ministration in the sight of all the Congregation and by so fearful a Judgement as fire from the Lord and in the act of their sin offering strange fire Nay and which some think was joyned with Drunkenness too whereupon immediatly follows the prohibition of Wine So that the Congregation might suspect they went but from fire to fire from a destruction by fire to a preservation in fire from a temporal to an eternal burning Yet now in all this mark the Power of Faith Moses having declared the Author God the cause their sin It 's said Aaron was dumb and held his peace Auditâ voluntate Dei silet having heard the Will of God hee was mute and silent his Tongue was chained up hereby confessing saith Calvin Justo Dei Judicio extinctos esse That they were slain by the Just Judgement of God The like you see in Eli when Samuel had declared what God had said to him concerning the destruction of his house why saith he It is the Lord let him do what pleaseth him 1 Sam. 3.18 And remarkable was that in Job You may read in the first Chapter how one wave came upon the neck of another 1. The Sabeans fell upon his Oxen and his Asses and slew his Servants 2. Another comes and tells him Fire from Heaven had burnt up his Sheep 3. A third tells him The Caldeans had taken away his Camels 4. A fourth hee comes and tells him His Sons and his Daughters were eating and drinking and a wind blew down the house on their heads and buried them all in one grave His whole stock was lost in one day Nay Hee lost not his stock of Cattel only but of his Children also My Brethren these were great trials enough to put a man out of patience enough to make the most composed man besides himself To lose his goods his Cattel his Substance and all in a day Nay to lose his Sons and his Daughters which were his whole Posterity the stay and hope of his Family yea and all at once at one clap and that so suddenly yea and in the midst of their merriments These were great Tryals where Yesterday it might have been said who so rich as Job now to day who so poor as Job Yet mark here now the Power of Faith how it silenced the Soul In stead of murmuring hee fell down and worshiped and said The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away Blessed bee the Name of the Lord. Thus you see the Power of Faith And my Brethren you had need of Faith As the Apostle said of Patience So I of Faith You have need of Faith As you walk in the way of this life you shall meet with such things as will move you as will put you besides your selves If Faith do not settle and compose you you cannot bee undique sursùm like a Dye light upon your square if Faith bee not your bottom You may have crosses and losses before you die You may lose your Husbands your Wives your Children your Goods Jobs lot may befall you And every one of these may cause a man to rise up against himself may cause an uproar in the Soul Wee are not Stoicks wee are not without Passions nor sinfull-Passions mutinous-Affections And therefore wee had need of something in the Soul to sway and keep down these unruly distempers And this is only Faith which can stil and calm the soul in all storms and tempests A man without Faith in such a case as this is like a naked man in a storm like an unarmed man in a battel like a Ship unballanced and unanchored in a Tempest A man without Faith is under no command Passions of Anger Fear Grief and all command him And Passion without Faith is violent breaks down all banks drowns overwhelms and destroies the Soul And therefore you had need of something to ballance the Soul to charge the Soul to calm and still the Soul in such a condition Now you see Faith is an Heart-calming an Heart-quieting and stilling-Grace which it doth after this manner 1. Imperiously 2. Perswasively 1. Sometimes Imperiously and that either 1. Commanding or 2. Checking the Soul 1 Imperiously commanding the Soul Laying charge on the Soul to bee quiet to bee still My Soul bee silent to Jehovah said David As Christ did the Waters and the Wind. Peace and bee still and there was a great calm So here when the Waves are up and threaten to overflow the banks to overwhelm the soul Faith laies her command upon the soul Peace and bee still No more words Leave your murmurings Leave your impatiency Thus sometimes Faith calms the soul 2. Imperiously checking the the soul You do not well to bee angry You do not well to grieve You do not well to bee discontented to bee impatient You offend God cause him to scourge you more to lay more load upon you seeing you bear this so impatiently As the Town-Clerk of Ephesus stilled that uproar with these words Act. 19.40 Wee shall verily bee called in question for this dayes uproar seeing there is no cause can bee given-of this concourse So Faith doth sometimes lay the tumults in the soul You shall verily bee called in question one day for this Passion this Discontent this Murmuring this Uproar seeing no cause can bee given that you should quarrel with God as you do 2. Faith doth sometimes calm the Soul in a Mild and perswasive-way wherein it reasons with the Soul Why art thou so much cast down oh my Soul Why art thou so troubled so disquieted within mee In which reasoning Faith will take an Argument of Patience 1. From the Author of Afflictions That is God Afflictions troubles arise not out of the dust but from God which was the ground of Davids patience I was dumb c. Because it was thy doing So of Jobs The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away So in case of Shimei his cursing David David did not bite at the stone and never minde the thrower but hee looks up discovers the hand as well as the stone Let him alone It may bee God hath bid him go forth and curse David 2. Sometimes from the ground of Gods dealings and that is sin Faith produceth sin to bee the cause For this cause and this stops the mouth Psal 51. That thou mayest bee just when thou judgest This laies a Soul in the dust makes a man accept of the punishment of his iniquity As you have the phrase Levit. 26.41 That is lye down justifie God clear God in all his dealings bee so far from murmuring that the Soul will take Gods part in all clearing God and condemning it self Thus you see the Church Wherefore doth a living man complain A man for the
Christ is such a Rock as doth derive vertue and strength unto the structure and building Indeed a man may build a weak house upon a strong foundation and the house fall for all that because the rock is a dead thing and cannot impart any of its strength unto the structure But it is not so here Bee the building never so weak yet this Rock can hold it up because it diffuseth its strength into the building Hence 1 Pet. 2.4 5. Christ is called a living not a dead Rock A living stone To whom comming as to a living Stone wee also as lively-stones are built up a spiritual house Which shews the transformation of the building into the nature and firmnesse of the Rock Thus you see Faith is a soul-securing-grace It sets a man upon a soul-securing-bottome It makes God our security who is called The strong-God The mighty-God The Rock of Refuge A defense A Shield A Tower A Fort. An High-place Mich. 4.8 The Tower of his Flock The strong hold of the daughter of Sion A Covert from the storm Isay 32.1 2. Faith makes All-God our security It ingages all-God to be our security His Power And is not this able to secure us His Wisdome And will not this secure us His Truth And will not this secure us His Mercy And cannot all this secure us Hee who trusts in the Lord Mercy shall compasse him on every side Hee is hemm'd in with Mercy Or mercy imbraceth him on every side to secure him As trust doth compasse mercy so mercy doth compass trust As trust imbraceth mercy so mercy imbraceth trust It is not Faith it self that doth secure us But Faith doth make God our security It sets a man upon a soul-securing-bottome on a soul-securing-God on a soul-securing-Power on a soul-securing-Mercy Therefore needs must a Beleeving a Trusting-soul be secure 2. It instates the soul in soul-securing-promises The promises of preservation from trouble Promises of Deliverance out of trouble All the promises which God hath made of Security Faith instates the soul into them all Hee hath promised When wee passe through the waters he will be with us and the waters shall not overflow us When we pass through the fire the flame shall not kindle upon us Isa 43.2 Hee hath promised Hee will stand at our right hand and wee shall not bee moved Psal 16. He will never leave us neither forsake us Heb. 13.6 The Gates of Hell shall never prevail against us Mat. 16.18 Hee hath promised to bee a Tower a Rock a Refuge a Covert from a storm an hiding place in time of Danger c. And it is faith that doth instate us into these Soul-securing-Promises As there is no promise to us till wee beleeve so if once wee beleeve all the Promises are ours Look into the word of God and what promises soever there are made for securing the soul All these are thine 3. Faith doth instate us into soul-securing-Priviledges 1 It makes us the Sons and Daughters of God John 1.12 13 As man as received him to them hee gave power or priviledge to become the Sons of God Even to as many as beleeved in his name Gal. 3.26 You are the children of God by faith in Christ And will not a father secure his child 2. Faith makes us the Spouse of Christ the members of Christ It ingrafts us and unites us into him And will he not secure his members 3. It make us the inheritance of Christ Hee hath promised to bee a Tower to his Flock A strong-hold to the Daughters of Sion These are all soul-securing-priviledges And therefore beleeving souls shall be secure Oh! Then Would you bee secured from the evil-day would you bee secured in the evil day Labour for Faith This alone secures the soul It sets a man upon a soul-securing-bottome Instates a man in soul-securing-promises Gives him right to soul-securing-priviledges Abrogate fears Surrogate Faith Down with fears which betray the succour of the soul and set up beleeving Sixth Royalty 6 Faith is an heart-humbling Grace 6 Royalty of Faith It s a soul-humbling Grace Whether it bee a Legal or whether it be an Evangelical Faith it works humiliation The one a Legal humiliation and casting down The other an Evangelical-humiliation we shall in this cheifly deal with the first It is said of Ahab that he humbled himself put on sackcloath and went softly And this was the fruit and effect of his Legal-Faith whereby hee beleeved the truth and certainty of Gods Judgements denounced against him and his house The men of Nineveh when Jonah preached that sad Sermon Jonah 3.4 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall bee destroyed It is said They beleeved God That is The truth of that message which Jonah brought from God And it follows as an effect of this Faith They humbled themselves and proclaimed a fast and put on Sack-cloath and sate in ashes from the King upon the Throne to the meanest of them And my Brethren Faith hath a great influence into the work of self-humbling 1 It takes up self-humbling Considerations From God the justice of God the threatnings the curses God hath denounced against sin 2. Faith doth Realize all this to the Soul which God hath said against sin Faith doth not make these things more reall then they are but doth Realize things to the Soul not imaginary but real things which being lookt upon as reall things do humble This is the Reason why one when he hears of Gods threatnings denounced against Sin goes home and lyes in the dust is humbled and cast down as Josiah when hee read the book of the Law And another stands up out-faceth Hell and the curse He is never humbled nor cast down It is because the one he looks upon these things are reall and true the other hee looks upon them as fancies Imaginary things If men beleeved that all that evil which God hath threatned against Sin were true they could not drink down sinne as water nor eat the bread of Sin with such delight as they do If the swearer did beleeve there were a flying Rol gone out against him as Zachary saith If the Drunkard did see death in the Pot c. If I say wicked men beleeved the Reality and Truth of these things they could not go on so quietly in their wicked courses but would be humbled Hence the Apostle sets this down for the ground why the Preaching of the word was not profitable to them Because it was not mixed with Faith in them that heard it They did not beleeve what they heard and so neither the word of Terror nor the word of Comfort did profit them As the promises of God are not quickning raising comforting except there bee Faith so the Threats are not Killing humbling working if Faith be not there Wee may preach till our spirits fail and spend our labour in vain our strength and pains for nought if the things which God speaks and we preach be not beleeved If you
made the Spouse of Christ Christ doth en-noble his Spouse Christ doth adorn and beautifie his Spouse Ezek. 16.10 11 12 13. I cloathed thee with broidred work and shed thee and covered thee with silk I decked thee with Ornaments c. Wee shine with the beams of his Justice Holiness Riches Graces Christ is made to us Wisdome Justification Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Of his fulness wee all have received and Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 Nay 5. Faith makes us the Members of Christ who is such an Head as doth en-noble his Members Christ throws more Glory and Honour upon the meanest Member of his Body than all the World is able to make us heirs of It were better to bee the meanest Member of Christ than to have all the Glory of the World out of Christ better to bee the meanest twig in this Vine Meliùs non â—â—se quà m sine Christo esse than to bee the most glorious branch in the World out of Christ Better it is not to bee at all than not to bee in Christ 3. Faith puts us upon Soul-in-nobling imployments It puts a man upon Prayer Holy exercises Communion with God which are noble Imployments above the World Faith makes the soul live high above the World above the Earth Faith carries the soul to Heaven makes it live were it had its First breath and being makes our way to lye above our Conversation to bee in Heaven our joyes to bee there our affections there our hearts there By Faith Enoch walked with God hee conversed with God had to do with God daily the great God of Heaven and Earth daily in supplications and meditations and holy conversation All which are noble imployments The higher the person wee have to do withall the more noble are the imployments And they are such as do in-noble the Soul No man hath to do with God in any way but hee is in-nobled by it Moses face shone when hee had been conversing with God God doth shed Glory upon all those who have to do with him None have to do with a glorious God but are made glorious None with an Holy God but are made holy If you have to do with him in Prayer or any of his Ordinances hee sends you still better away 4. Faith doth intitle us unto a Soul-in-nobling Inheritance unto Heaven unto Glory It makes us not only Sons of God but Heirs Every Son is an Heir nay and a Joint-Heir with Christ unto that eternal inheritance of Glory Rom. 8.17 Hence the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.2 Now wee are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what wee shall bee but wee know when hee shall appear wee shall bee like him for wee shall see him as hee is Then when Christ who is our life shall appear wee shall also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.4 Wee shall bee Citizens of Heaven Faith doth intitle us to Crowns of Glory To that House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 To an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.5 To a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 1 Cor. 4.17 Which Inheritance is so certain by Faith to Beleevers that the Apostle saith Wee sit together with him in heavenly places Ephes 2.6 wee sit now with him in respect of our Union by Faith and shall sit with him hereafter in our Communion with his Glory when wee shall bee invested with those Royal Robes of Glory Thus you see Faith is a Soul-in-nobling-Grace It makes God a Father Christ a Brother Angels fellow-servants Heaven our Inheritance It brings a man into a noble kindred a noble family the family of Heaven and makes all the family of Heaven our kindred It brings a man unto noble acquaintance puts a man upon noble imployments intitles a man unto a noble inheritance invests us with in-nobling Priviledges and begets us a noble spirit a spirit suitable to all these suitable to our Father our Kindred our Acquaintance our Imployments our Inheritance The whole frame of Christianity turns upon the hinge of Faith As the Bloud through the veins so Faith runs through every vein of the whole body of Religion It is the staff of our strength the support of all our comfort and the life of our soul In my discourse of which I have though indeed the Priviledges of Faith requires an Angel rather than a Man to make relation of it yet I say I have adventured to lay down diverse Royalties and Priviledges of this Grace wherein all that I have said or can say falls short of the excellency of it When I have told you what I can you may say as the Queen of Sheba when shee found the Truth to exceed the Relation that the one half hath not been told you Coelum Deus so Coelum fides non patiuntur Hyperbolen I cannot here Hyperbolize I cannot play the Mountebank to set down more in the Bill than is in the Physick more in the Relation than is in the Balsome All I can say will fall short of the preciousness of Faith Yet mistake mee not whatever I have said or shall say of Faith I speak not of Faith absolutely but of Faith relatively The Act with its Object Wee will not make a Christ of Faith nor raise up Faith any higher than wee may set up Christ with it by it above it Well then to proceed wee have laid down diverse glorious Priviledges or Royalties of Faith wee have yet more remaining such as these Twelfth Royalty 12. Faith is a Soul-fatning-Grace The beleeving Christian is the thriving Christian 12. Royalty of Faith In a Soul-fatning-Grace It is such a Grace as doth nourish and strengthen the soul It weakens corruption but strengthens Grace It starves the flesh but fattens the spirit It is indeed a sin-starving-Grace Faith will not feed and fuel lust It will neither entertain nor maintain corruptions Faith will abridge sin of that nourishment those dainty bits which it met withall in an unbeleeving heart It will not lay in provision for lust Unbeleef is the Caterer and the Provider for sin Sin hath its full desire in an unbeleeving heart whatever it lusts after it shall have nothing shall bee wanting to feed lust If a man bee addicted to the lust of uncleanness there is nothing the lust doth desire but an unbeleeving heart will make a supply of It shall have Books Ballads Plaies for the purpose It shall have obscene objects and pictures to gaze upon There shall bee nothing wanting for the fomenting and cherishing of the corruption nothing shall bee denied that may oile and increase the flame of lust All a man hath all his power all his riches his estate shall bee laid out for the fewelling of his corruption and so I might shew in other lusts But now Faith it starves sin it will not hold out the dugg to nourish a corruption It will not provide
fellow-Graces When Faith hath had a good meal here all the Graces of Gods Spirit are bettered by it our Love Humility c. All are strengthened by it Now Faith feeds upon Christ 1. In the Word 2. In the Sacrament Christ is Bread 1. Spiritual Panis Spiritualis 2. Sacramental Panis Sacramentalis Christ is Spiritual Bread in the Word to beget and increase life Christ is Sacramental Bread in Eucharist to nourish and augment our Spiritual life in us The one is Christ in Ordinary Christ in the Word is the Dayly-Bread for Faith to feed upon The other is Christ Extraordinary for Festival Gaudy-dayes And in this order Faith feeds on Christ First Faith feeds upon Christ in the Word and then Secondly Faith feeds upon Christ in the Sacrament None feed on Christ in the Sacrament but they who have fed on Christ in the Word By the one wee have Union by the other Communion with Christ By the one ingraftment into Christ by the other we have nourishment from Christ Christus grandescit in Sanctis By the one Christ is formed in us by the other Christ grows up in us to a perfect man Faith thus feeds upon Christ who is the summe of all nourishing things who is the heart the staff of nourishment Hence hee is called Bread which is the staff of nourishment Christ is the heart of nourishment in the Word in the Sacraments in every Ordinance All which are but empty things convey no spiritual strength to us if wee feed not upon Christ in them If Christ do withdraw himself from the Ordinances If wee feed not upon Christ in them they will do us no good If wee feed not upon Christ in the Word the Word will not profit If wee feed not upon Christ in the Sacraments the Sacraments will not nourish Men may live out their dayes under the Ordinances come to the Word and to the Sacraments and yet when all is done bee like Pharaohs lean Kine never the fatter for all this food if they feed not upon Christ in them And it is suspitious when men live under such precious Ordinances and yet grow no more that surely they feed not on Christ Alas Could wee bee so barren in our Graces so lean in our lives seeing wee go in such rich Pastures and are fed with such precious dainties the Word and Sacraments if wee fed upon Christ in these No my Brethren this is the great reason why wee have such pined and starved souls This is the reason of all our weaknesses our spiritual faintings our declinings our consumptions under the Ordinances wee feed not upon the Spirits of nourishment wee feed not upon Christ in them Panem Domini non Panem Dominum Purum Elementum non est Alimentum wee let not Faith feed on Christ and so are not nourished Wee eat the Bread of the Lord but not the Bread which is the Lord wee feed upon the Elements not upon Christ It is true here The pure Elements are no nourishment If Christ run not through the Bread and Wine they nourish not Well then would you have your Soul nourished take your fill of these Soul-refreshing-Dainties whereby you may get strength Here drink your fill The best measure is no measure Bibite Inebriamini Feed upon the Promises feed upon Christ whereby you may bee nourished Feed on Christ daily Sometimes wee have such a Feast on Christ as in the strength of which with Elijah wee go many dayes God sometimes gives such abundance of Refreshments that the Soul goes cheerfully a long time But this is not Ordinary And therefore there is need of our Daily feeding upon Christ Christ must bee Daily-Bread for Faith to feed on And it must bee our Prayer for the Soul as well as for the Body Give us our Daily-Bread Bread for the Soul as well as Bread for the Body That Day wherein Christ hath not been fed on is a Declining-day Thirteenth Royalty 13. Faith is an Heart-Emptying-Grace 13. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart emptying-Grace There are two things which are the most natural acts of Faith 1. It empties a man of himself 2. It fills the Soul with Christ The Soul cannot bee fill'd with Christ whilest it is full of it self And therefore Faith doth first empty a man of himself cast a man out of himself and then fills the Soul with Christ Faith doth cut a man off his own stock the stock of Nature the stock of Death before it doth ingraft us into Christ the Stock of Life Faith doth strip a man of his own cloaths his own Garments which are too short to cover him before it puts on the Robes of Christ It throws us off from our own bottom whereon wee stand before it set a man upon another Foundation It makes a man poor in himself before it inrich him with Christ It empties a man of himself before it fill the Soul with Christ Now there are two things in general which Faith doth empty the Soul of 1. Of all Opinion of Righteousness in our selves 2. Of all Opinion of strength to help our selves 1. It doth empty the Soul of that windy conceit that Pharisaical Opinion of Righteousness in our selves Faith doth not empty a man of any Righteousness but of the false Opinion of Righteousness It doth not empty us of any worth in our selves there is none but of that fond conceit of worth in our selves Faith makes us see wee are worthless Creatures Rev. 3.17.18 Thou saiest I am rich and increased with goods I have need of nothing And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked I counsel thee to buy of mee Cold that thou maiest bee rich c. My Brethren wee are all of us naturally full of our selves full of our selves full of the self of Pride full of the self of Love Self-love full of Self-conceits full of Self-sufficiency wee are apt to think highly to our selves Wee all hold of Adam in Capite wee are all full of Pride As Pride was the Fall of Adam so it would bee the ruine of us Wee think wee are Rich full need nothing As the Church did in the place afore quoted Rev. 3.17 18. Thus where Faith comes it empties a man of himself his Self-conceits it doth discover our selves to our selves makes us see our selves as wee lye weltring in blood in our own blood Ezek. 16.2 3 4 5 6. even in the Blood of Guilt and the Blood of Filth It puts down those Towering thoughts those Ayery imaginations those Mountainous conceits which men had of themselves It casts us out of our selves makes us Nothing in our selves makes us poor in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is Mat. 5.3 Beggars in Spirit Poor Beggars It makes us miserable in our selves empty in our selves blind naked lost in our selves Faith makes us to see all this in our selves Faith makes us see in stead of Righteousness
there 's nothing but Sin in us in stead of beauty blackness in stead of comliness deformity It discovers there 's nothing but Damnation and Hell in us nothing but Hell in our parts Hell in our Principles Nay Hell in our prayers That not our persons only but our prayers stand in need of Christ that if hee save not our prayers as well as our persons our Prayers will damn us Faith is such a Grace as is raised up upon the ruines of our selves not the Substance but the Sin the ruine of our sinful selves the ruine of our self of Pride of Self-confidence self-sufficiency all which are thrown down before Faith bee raised As the Shipmans Fatal Star which they say is never seen but before wrack and death so Faith is never seen but before the wrack and death of sinful nature which hath one wrack by Faith but the Universal wrack by death And this is the first work and the mighty work of Faith which must bee done before wee come over to Christ As the Opinion of something in themselves was that which kept off the Jews from comming to Christ so it doth us And therefore Faith empties us of this Opinion makes us poor that so wee may bee fit to receive the Gospel The poor receive the Gospel The Gospel is but a merciful Hospital for the relief of the Poor Blind Naked Lame and lost sinners Here 's nothing for those who are Rich and Full and think they want nothing Faith empties the Soul of that Opinion of strength to help it self Though a man were convinced hee had nothing yet if hee have such a conceit as this That hee can help himself that hee is able to recover and winde himself out of that condition wherein hee is hee would then stand upon his own bottom bee a Buckler to himself and would never come over to Christ That which kept the Prodigal from his Father was not the Opinion of any worthiness in himself hee saw hee was poor and ready to famish but hee thought hee could recover himself live of himself without the help of a Father And this conceit kept him off So the Woman with the Bloody-Issue It was not her opinion that shee had no need of Christ which kept her off from comming to Christ but shee thought shee was able to purchase help out of her own store without going to him And even to the last penny shee conceited shee should have help when shee had spent all not before Then shee came And whilest a man hath a conceit that hee is able to work out his own Peace compass his own happiness Though hee bee poor yet conceits hee is able to inrich himself Though naked yet hee is able to weave a web of Righteousness to cloath himself Though in debt yet hee is able to make payment Though undone yet hee is able to recover himself I say so long as a man hath this conceit thinks hee hath any strength of his own to winde himself out of the misery into which hee sees himself to bee plunged so long hee will never come over to Christ This conceitedness will keep off the Soul from Christ Men you know will rather make use of their own gold than of others of their own cloaths than of others of their own friends than of others of their own power than of others Men will dig to the Clay as Pliny saith before they will go borrow water of their neighbours Such a spirit there is in man that hee will sound the bottome try the utmost what hee can do before hee will call in for anothers help But now when Faith comes and discovers us not only to bee miserable but unable to extricate our selves out of this misery not only to bee poor but unable to inrich our selves not only under the burden of sin but unable to cast off this burden not only indebted but unable to pay in prison but unable to come forth then will the soul hasten and come over to Christ Now this is that which Faith doth It doth not only empty a man of all opinion of Righteousness in the discovery of his misery but also it empties a man of all that opinion of strength to help himself out of this misery 1 Neither do 2 Nor suffer That hee can neither do nor suffer any thing to relieve himself That all his doings and sufferings are too short to help him That the state of nature is not only a state of misery but a state of impotency and utter disability to do any thing to help it self Hence the Apostle saith Rom. 5.6 8. That wee were not only sinners but without strength not able to help our selves out of this condition of sin Wee were dead in trespasses and sins So that wee were unable to do or if any thing yet dead works such as set us further in debt but wipe off no score Hence Christ saith Without mee yee can do nothing All our actions are so many Cyphers so many Nothings 1. Wee can do nothing to please God our best works but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gift of an Enemy The Sacrifice of Fools They that are in the flesh cannot please God 2. Wee can do nothing which is truly really and substantially Good What Nathaniel spake doubtingly concerning Christ Joh. 1.46 Can there any good thing come out of Nazaret may preremptorily bee here affirmed No good can come out of an evil heart No good fruit from a bad root Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean It 's impossible 3. Wee can do nothing to settle a sound and substantial Peace in our Consciences though wee skin them over for a time calm and still them for a time yet wee cannot work a sound cure nor settle a substantial Peace there 4. Wee can do nothing which may purchase any blessing or favour from God Non ex merito operis sed ex largitate donantis Though God reward the works of wicked men sometimes as hee did Ahab Jehu Nebuchadnezzar yet it is not That the works deserve a reward but because hee is a plentifull rewarder Thus Faith discovers the impotency and utter dis-ability to help our selves Hence wee are said 1. Not to bee able to think a good thought 2. Cor. 3.5 Not that wee are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves All our sufficiency is of God 2. Not to bee able to understand 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him nor can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned 3. Not able to will any thing that is good Phil. 2.13 God worketh the will and the deed of his own good pleasure 4. Not able to begin a good work Phil 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that hee that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ
day and poor to morrow The Lord hath given Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit the Lord hath taken away Both with one breath Hence the wise man Riches make themselves wings and flye away But these are abiding Treasure A Treasure whose spring is in Heaven whose Foundation is in Christ Our life is hid with Christ in God not only hid for secrecy but hid for safety It is a safe life an abiding life Nay but if they should continue yet will they do us no good in the day of trouble They cannot save our souls from nor in the day of wrath They cannot save us from sicknesse nor from death not from Hell Nor are they able to mitigate our Torments to purchase one drop of water in that lake of fire What profit had Ahab of his Vineyard Baltazar of his cups Dives of his wealth Judas of his thirty-pence Agrippa of his gay apparel The rich fool of his full barns All these would do them no good Neither quench nor bribe these flames but rather afford Oile to increase them But now Grace that riches which Faith doth inrich us withall it is such as will uphold us in sickness bee a choice cordial in that bitter potion it will deliver us in death save us in the day of wrath and inable us to lift up our heads with joy and boldness in the day of Judgement that terrible day of the Lord when the wicked shall tremble before the Judge and call upon the Mountains to fall upon them and the Hills to cover them from the presence of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Hast thou other riches and wantest thou Faith Hast thou Mountains of Gold Rocks of Diamonds shores of Rubies And wantest thou Faith wantest thou Grace Oh! thou art a poor man Thus you see Faith is an Heart-inriching-Grace A Beleever hath title to all A Beleever is the poorest and the richest man in the World As none is poorer than a godly man in himself so none is richer than a Beleever in Christ Hee is as having nothing and yet possessing all things Christ is the Heir of all things All are yours if you bee Christs No sooner can the soul say Christ is mine but hee may say His Blood is mine his Spirit mine his Glory mine all is mine Christ and all his are conveyed and made over by the same Deed of Gift Hence the Apostle saith Wee are made partakers of Christ Not of some part but of Christ all Christ not of Justification only but say Christ and there is all Fifteenth Royalty 15. Royalty Faith is an Heart-raising-Grace 15. Faith is an Heart-raising-Grace There is a threefold Death that Faith doth raise up the soul from 1. The Death of Sin 2. The Death of inward Trouble 3. The Death of outward Trouble 1. Faith raiseth up the soul from the Death of Sin Wee are all of us Dead by nature in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 Dead-Born And as dead men so wee have no notion to spiritual things no motion no strength to any good no sense being insensible of the weight of sin insensible of mercies and judgements wee have no desires after any thing good no affection to them And a Death it is not only Privative A meer absence and privation of spiritual life but a Positive Death wherein there is an Introduction of a Positive vitious Habit. As in Natural Death there is not only a Privation of Life of the former form but the Position of another form there is another form left in the body So in Spiritual Death there is not only a meer Absence a bare Privation of Life But there is a Positive Evil and Vitious Habit left in the soul Hence Heb. 9.14 The works of natural men are called Dead works There would bee a contradiction in calling them Dead works if unregenerate men were only deprived of spiritual life and had not another positive evil form in them Thus dead wee are then not only Privatively but Positively And it is Faith which doth raise up the Soul from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace Faith is the Resurrection of the Soul from under the spiritual death the Death of Sin The first rise of the Soul from the Death of Sin is by beleeving Vita sancta aâ— fide sumit initium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fide regeneramut Calv. Resipiscentia non modo fidem subsequitur sed ex ea noscitur Calv. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fides justificationem praecipit sanctificationem efficit Tilen An holy life hath its rise from Faith The Fountain of all our spiritual Graces The worker of all good things That which begets Love Fear Repentance Hence Calvin saith Faith regenerates Repentance doth not only follow Faith but doth arise from Faith Hence Clemens Alexandrinus Faith is the first awakening the first inclination of the Soul to Christ. Hence by some Faith and the New Creation Faith and Sanctification do differ as much as the Cause and the Effect Faith is the Instrument of Justification but the efficient of Sanctification They who distinguish Regeneration which is part of our Vocation and Sanctification do make Faith and Sanctification differ as much as Cause and Effect Vocation say they produceth Faith â—nd Faith being begotten produceth Sanctification both habitual and â—ctual Hence it 's called the Mother-Grace But they who make Vocation and Sanctification all one and both to bee nothing else but our inherent Righteousness or those Habits that frame of Grace implanted in the Soul whereof Faith is a part they do say Faith doth not produce the Cause of the Habits of Graces but Faith produceth the acts of Grace of Love Repentance c. Faith doth not produce the Habits but the acts of Grace For the clearing of this Sanctification may bee considered as it is either In actu primo vel secundo 1. Habitual Or 2. Actual 1. For our Habitual Sanctification There wee say the Spirit of God is the only Cause and Faith is an Effect as well as others Faith is a part of our inherent Sanctification 2. For our Actual Sanctification or as those Habits do act and exercise and there wee say Faith doth help to produce the acts of Grace of Love of Repentance 1 Tim. 1.5 Love out of a pure heart and a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned Faith doth not only lend an hand to its Fellow-Graces for the perfecting of Grace but Faith doth help to produce the Acts of Grace the Acts of Love of Repentance Zeal Patience c. Though at the same time they bee all implanted yet in Nature Faith hath the precedency and helps to produce the Acts of all the rest As God the Father is before the Son in Nature yet not in Time Hee is not a Father till hee have a Son So is it to bee understood concerning Faith and all other Graces 2. Faith raiseth us up
consulting with Faith and following the guidance thereof she was resolved to do the duty though see perished in the doing thereof And it was her safety The like in Abraham You see what an Exigent hee was put unto Hee was to part with his Son his only Son the Son of his Love the Son of his old age a Son of so many Prayers and so many Promises No doubt if hee had consulted with flesh and bloud and carnal reason they would have bid him to spare his Son but following the guidance of Faith hee was willing to sacrifice his Son Heb. 11.17 By Faith Abraham when hee was tryed offered up his Son Isaac of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed bee called Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead c. So it was Faith whic guided Moses to leave the pomp and glory of Pharaohs Court and to chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.24 If hee had followed the guidance of Reason or sense hee had miscarryed That would have told him that hee was to regard himself and his present happiness and not throw himself out of all But then hee had been mis-led But following the guidance of Faith hee forsakes all This Guidance of Faith they wanted Joh. 12.42 Who durst not confesse Christi for fear of being thrown out of the Synagogue If they had had Faith it would have guided them to Jesus Christ bee the Issue what it will The like of the Young-man Hee went far but when it was put to him to leave all to follow Christ to sell all it is said Hee went away sorrowful Hee consulted with Sense and Reason hee wanted the Guidance of Faith which would have directed him to part with all to cast away all rather than to leave Christ The like of Balaam Either hee must forsake the wages of Unrighteousness or curse the People but hee had more desire of mans reward than hee had Faith to expect God and so hee miscarryed And my Brethren such like straits wee may meet withall in our way to Heaven And if wee follow not the Guidance of Faith wee are sure to bee mis-led It hath been the ordinary choice that the Saints have been put to Either forsake thy God or forsake thy Goods Either leave Christ or leave thy Comforts Either renounce Christ or lose thy Friends thy Father thy Mother nay thy liberty thy life To these exigencies and straits Gods people have been driven And had they not had Faith they had surely been mis-led but having Faith it guided them to suffer losse of friends loss of goods loss of liberty loss of life it self for Christ as you see up and down in Abraham in Moses in Jeremy in Paul and the rest of the Apostles who accounted not their lives dear to them for Christ And it was the usual speech of the Primitive Martyrs when they were perswaded to leave Christ rather than to suffer Parce precot Imperator tu Carcerem ille Gehennam Spare good Emperour thou canst but cast into prison God into Hell The like of Cyprian of Policarp The like of Frederick the Elector of Saxony who was prisoner to Charles the fifth and was promised inlargement and restitution to his former dignity If hee would come to Mass It was Faith guided him to return this answer In earthly things I am ready to yeeld to Caesar In heavenly only to Christ And Christ is more welcome to mee in Bonds than Caesars Court without Christ Thus I might run down in particular examples in all ages and shew you how Faith hath guided men in these straits which had they followed the direction of Reason and Sense they had been lost for ever It is Faith which guides the heart in these difficult cases It is an Heart-guiding-Grace And this is the way Faith doth reject the wisdome of the flesh and goes by Gods light It shuts our eyes and walks by Gods light It follows God as the blinde man follows his Guide all his dayes Hee who makes Gods Word all his Reason shall have God a Counsellor Faith will not own the wisdome of the flesh the carnal minde is enmity to God It will not bee subject It is full of contumacy and stoutness against God and his wayes Faith will neither own the Flesh as a King nor as a Counsellor As it will not obey the commands of the flesh so it will not follow the counsels of the flesh Peter would not consult with flesh and blood but was obedient to the heavenly vision where is implied if hee had hearkened to flesh and bloud hee had been disobedient to the heavenly vision But Faith makes God its guide Psal 48.14 This God is our God for ever hee shall bee our guide unto death Faith seeks direction from God who is the Counsellor the God of all wisdome And the Soul that leans upon God for wisdome shall not want it He who trusts in the God of wisdome shall not want direction I say hee who shuts his own eyes and sincerely falls down at the feet of God for counsel shall have direction from him If indeed wee seek as Balaam with a double heart or as the Children of Israel did Jer. 42. who asked counsel but were resolved of their way wee then may miscarry But hee who seeks with an humble and upright heart that asks the way to Sion with his face thitherward resolved to go as God directs Such will God direct in his way such hee will guide in all the wayes of Judgement As the Moon by darting her beams and influence into the Sea doth move that great body backward and forward which they say is the cause of the ebbings and flowings of the Sea so God doth in difficult cases dart such a beam of light into the Soul such strong influences into the Spirit as doth carry the soul the way it should go A man may follow his own wisdome and miscarry but hee that shuts his eyes and follows God is sure not to bee mis-led Hee who rejects the counsel of the flesh and is resolved to walk by the direction of the Spirit though never so unlikely to flesh and bloud is sure to go right You see an example of this in Balaam in Saul sparing of Agag and the best of the flock in sacrificing before Samuel came to him But I 'le name but one Jer. 41.10 to the end of the Chapter Johanan who was the Captain of the Residue of the Jews left in Jerusalem desired Jeremy though with a double and deceitful heart to enquire of the Lord whether hee should go down to Egypt or abide at Jerusalem And bound himself with a vow that Whatever the Lord said hee would do it Jeremy comes and tells him hee must abide at Jerusalem and God would preserve him
But Johanan wanted Faith to beleeve there was safety where was no means of safety And therefore hee chose rarher to go down to Egypt than to abide at Jerusalem And if that mans reason might direct it 't was the likeliest way for in Jerusalem was nothing but Penury Want Famine and War In Egypt there was Plenty Peace and all abundance But now observe Though the way were never so likely yet following his own wisdome and rejecting the counsel of God I say following his own wisdome and counsel and neglecting the direction of God hee ran upon his own ruine it was his utter undoing You see there the thing hee thought hee should avoid hee fell into Hee thought to have avoided the Sword Famine and Pestilence but all these followed him God would make him know it was better to follow the guidance of Faith though the way were never so dangerous unlikely to carnal wisdome than to bee led by his own wisdome though 't were never so likely Men that would avoid danger out of Gods way do surely run into it Hee that will follow his own wisdome not Gods shall run into mischief You see this in Jeroboam It was a likely project in carnal reason in mans way To continue his Throne and Kingdome by making of Calves that so the people might bee kept from Jerusalem and might not revolt back to Judah But in Gods way it was the way to his ruine the overthrow of him and all his house Eighteenth Royalty 18. Faith is an Heart-establishing-Grace 18. Royalty Faith is an Heart-establishing-Grace It settles a man upon such a Foundation as nothing can unsettle him Psal 125.1 They who trust in the Lord shall bee as Mount Sion which cannot bee removed but abideth for ever Such a man is Homo quadratus Fall hee which way hee will hee lights upon his square Psal 112. His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord his heart is established hee will not fear Whereas Unbeleef doth unsettle the soul fills a man with unsufferable perplexities sets a man upon the rack of fears It is that which keeps a man in fears and that which causeth a fresh return of doubts and fears If you do not beleeve yee shall not bee established And Unbeleeving man is an house without a foundation a man without a bottom like a ship unballassed in a Tempest tossed hither and thither Faith on the contrary doth make a man a rock in a storm doth stablish and settle the heart in the greatest Tempest The lesse Faith the more Fear the more Unsettledness The more Faith the lesse Fear the more Stability Faith doth unburden our hearts of all our fears and all our cares When a man beleeves not all the burden lies upon a mans self But when wee beleeve wee cast all the burden upon the Lord. Wee are troubled and affraid what shall become of our souls what of our bodies what of our Children But Faith doth unburden the soul of these cares and thoughts it doth quit and discharge the soul of these fears Faith casts the whole burden upon the Lord makes God to bear all the burden not only the burden of sins but the burden of cares and fears comming to him weary and heavy laden and by Faith casting our burden upon him hee bears all Pro. 16.2 Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall bee established Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and hee shall sustain thee There are two things Faith establishes the soul against 1. Against Fears 2. Against Falling 1. Faith establisheth the heart against fears When a man beleeves not hee is nothing but fears and scruples But when once Faith comes it doth answer all cases silences all doubts stablisheth the heart against all fears There are five Fears which Faith doth establish the heart against 1. The Fear of Men. 2. The Fear of Want 3. The Fear of Death 4. The Fear of Hell 5. The Fear of Judgement 1. Faith establisheth the heart against humane Fears the fear of men Faith will banish these unlawful and tyrannical fears It will not suffer them to enter the Throne and take possession of the heart Psal 27.1.3 The Lord is my light and my Salvation There was his Faith Whom then shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life Of whom then shall I bee affraid Though an host should incamp against mee my heart shall not fear in another Psalm God is our hope and strength a help in trouble ready to bee found Therefore will not wee fear though the Earth bee moved though the Mountains bee hurled into the midst of the Sea Psal 46.1 2. 2. Faith doth establish us against the Fear of Want Many there are that fear to out-live their labours to out-live their Riches their Comforts Oh! say they I shall one day want and bee in misery Now Faith settles the soul against these fears Why will Faith say hath not God said The Lions shall hunger and suffer want That is as the Septuagint read it the mighty Nimrods the great ones of the World who have their baggs full They shall sooner want than they that fear the Lord shall want any thing that 's good Why will Faith say Doth God cloathe the Lillies feed the Ravens and will hee not take care for thee Mat. 6.24 to the 34. what hath not God ingaged himself to bear thy charges to Heaven Hath hee not promised to give thee all things necessary both for life and godliness not only for Godliness for Spirituals but for Life too for Temporals Hath not Godliness the promise of this Life that now is and of that that is to come Doth God take care for Ravens for the Beasts of the field Doth hee feed his Enemies and will hee forget his friends Hath hee given thee a Christ and doubtest thou hee will give thee a crumb will hee not give us all things who hath not withheld himself from us Thus the Apostle doth reason Nonnè dabit sua qui non dâ—tinuit se Rom. 8.32 Hee that spared not his own Son but freely gave him for us how shall hee not with him freely also give us all things Sure hee who trusts God for his soul will trust God for his Body Faith doth not single and chuse out its Object to beleeve this not that but all comming from the same Truth Fides non eligit Objectum the same God it beleeves one as well as another Hee who depends on God for the many will depend on him for the less Hee who trusts God for pounds will trust him also for pence If I tell you earthly things saith Christ to Nicodemus and you beleeve not how will you beleeve if I tell you heavenly things So if you will not beleeve God for earthly things how can you beleeve him for heavenly things If not for sustentation how then for salvation 3. Faith doth stablish the heart against the Fear of Death the King of Fears as Job
it hath in Adherence Ask any who are weakest in Faith whether they would sell their part in Christ for a World whether they would deny Christ to gain a World and they will quickly answer it with an earnest Negative as Naboth did Ahab when hee would have bought of him his Vineyard 1 King 21.2 3. Whereas a temporizing Faith doth hold to Christ for want of a temptation as the Weather-cock that stands this way for want of another wind A true Faith though weak will hold to Christ out of Love nothing shall take it away in the midst of all temptations It is of the Nature of true Faith though never so weak to adhere and cleave to Christ Rom. 3.8 Thou hast but a little strength yet thou hast kept my Word and hast not denyed my name A little Strength a little Faith will hold to Christ will not give up Christ I say not but Gods people may fall and in some respect forsake Christ as Peter did But this may arise from the violence of temptation the strength of corruption which over-powers Faith It is as said of the Nature of Faith to cleave to Christ Well then to conclude with a word to them that are weak you that can clear this to your own hearts that You have Faith though it bee weak Bee not yee discouraged bee not troubled though it bee weak Consider 1. That the smallest degree of Faith is true is saving Faith as well as the greatest A sparkle of fire is as true fire as any is in the Element of fire A drop of water is as true water as any is in the Ocean So the least grain of Faith is as true Faith and as saving as the greatest Faith in the World 2. Though it bee weak yet it is a growing Faith As all the works so all the Graces of God begin in weakness The tallest Cedar was at first but a sprig The strongest Oak at first was an Acorn The greatest fire at first was a spark so the greatest measure of Faith at the first was but as a little seed It had a beginning Those things God intended not for growth hee made perfect at first as the Sun the Moon c. But those hee intended for growth hee at first makes imperfect as Men Beasts Plants c. Christ compares Faith to a grain of Mustard-seed Not to a stone but to a seed Stones are not capable of growth but seeds are Hee compares it to a Mustard-seed which though it bee the least of seeds yet grows up highest And such a seed is thy Faith Though it bee small though weak bee not discouraged the Mustard-seed will grow 3. The weakest Faith doth give the Soul Union with the strong Redeemer as well as the strongest The smallest measure of Faith if never so little if it bring but the soul over to Christ it ingrafts thee into him as well as the stronger makes thee a Member of this Body a Branch in this Vine 4. The weakest measure of Faith gives thee Communion with Christ as well as the strongest Wee know the least bud draws sap from the Root as well as the greatest bough so the weakest measure of Faith doth as truly ingraft thee into Christ and by that draw life from Christ as well as the strongest The weakest Faith hath communion with the Merits and Blood of Christ as well as the strongest hath communion with the Spirit of Christ the Graces of Christ as well as the strongest Though thou art weak Christ is strong His strength is thine as well as the strongest Thou art impure Christ is pure His Purity is thine as well as others Thou art ignorant Christ is wise His wisdome is thine Thus the soul hath a communion with Christ in all his Graces The least Faith marries the soul to Christ And where there is this union there is a communion also with all of Christ The least Faith ingrafts into Christ and being once ingrafted the soul draws sappe and spiritual life sense and motion from Christ 5. Aequè licet non aequaliter The weakest Faith hath as equal share in Gods Love as the strongest Wee are beloved in Christ And the least measure of Faith makes us members of Christ The least Faith hath equal right to the Promises as the strongest And therefore let not our souls bee troubled discouraged for weakness There is difference betwixt Want and Weakness canst thou clear this to thy soul That thou hast Faith though it bee a weak Faith Yet therein rejoyce and bee comforted The least Faith sets as wide a difference between thee and unbeleevers as is between Heaven and Hell And therefore study to bee thankful for the least degree of Faith if it bee true Faith Do not so much look as to over-look So look for more as to over-look what thou hast received Neglect not that Comfort your present Faith affords by reaching after more Now having thus laid down the Evidences of a weak Faith wee shall now proceed to lay down the Evidences of a strong Faith Now where there is a strong Faith there is 1. An high prizing of Christ which yet a weak Faith partakes of 1 Pet. 2.7 Unto you that beleeve hee is precious The soul doth rate and value Christ above all the Comforts and contentments Riches and Happiness in Heaven and Earth Thus you see David Psal 73. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none in the Earth that I esteem in comparison of thee Though hee esteemed of other things yet Christ was the first figure The estimate which his soul set on Christ did infinitly exceed the rate which hee set upon any thing besides Christ As Paul said They were all but drosse and dung in comparison with Christ The most excellent things were loss and vile in respect of Christ There are two things which make Christ precious to a man 1. The Knowledge of Christ 2. The Apprehension of our Interest in him 1. The Knowledge of Christ and that 1. Of the Want of Christ 2. Of the Worth of Christ 1. The Want of Christ When the soul apprehends the Necessity of Christ in respect of Pardon Purging Grace Glory When the soul sees hee is under the guilt of sin and stands in need of Christ for Justification Hee is under the filth of sin and stands in need of Christ for Sanctification Hee is under the power of sin and stands in need of Christ for the subduing and mortification of sin His person and performances are unclean and filthy and stands in need of Christ to wash and sprinkle him This makes Christ precious sets a rate upon Christ 2. The Knowledge of the Worth of Christ It is not the worth of things that makes things precious to us but our Knowledge of the worth of them What is it that doth commend the Jewel to the Lapidary but his knowledge of the worth of it By others that know it not it is not valued nor esteemed So that
as well as in broad waies in rugged waies as well as in plain smooth waies In difficult as well as in easie waies You see this in Abraham concerning the sacrificing of his son In which act hee might seem to disobey in his Obedience And the dutiful yeelding to it might seem to contradict duty There seemed not only Nature and reason to cry down this act of Obedience but even the word too The yeelding of Obedience did seem to justle against the Precept of Obedience Yet you see hee obeyed God It is said By Faith Abraham obeyed God By Faith indeed It was a strong Faith That strong Faith that beleeved hee should have a Son did now obey God in offering of his Son Strong Obedience proceeded from his strong Faith Strong Faith produceth strong Obedience 1. Strong for Active 2. Strong for Passive Obedience The same Faith doth supply the soul with Active strength for doing duties and with Passive strength for suffering duties 1. A strong Faith is strong to bear Reproaches for Christ As Moses Hee esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 And Paul Therefore wee labour and suffer Reproach because wee trust in the living God 1 Tim. 4.10 2. A strong Faith is strong to bear losses for Christ As they Heb. 10.34 Who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods as if the enemy had done them a great courtesie A strong Faith is strong to bear Persecutions Scourges Death it self for Christ You see what the Apostles indured what Stephen indured Why saith the Text Hee was a man full of Faith Act. 5.8 Strong Faith did inable them to suffer and bear and to go through difficulties prisons persecutions scourgings c. for Christ A strong Beleever doth rejoyce if hee can hold up God as it were though himself bee down if hee can raise up Gods Glory though it bee by the ruine of himself save his honour by losse of himself What Epaminondas said who having resolved concerning his Buckler either to defend it or to dye for it being wounded to death brake forth into these words Num salvus est Clypeus meus Is my Buckler safe If that bee safe I am well So the Beleever in the midst of all his sufferings if hee can keep his Buckler safe hold up God and his Glory All is well 3. A strong Faith will beleeve nothing contrary to his belief All the temptations of Satan all the arguments of men shall never bee able to reason him out of his Faith A weak Faith is quickly brought to deny his conclusion to yeeld up the cause Satan may make a man unsay what formerly hee hath said But a strong Faith will hold the conclusion against all Satans sophistry His Faith hath been gotten up by many invincible experiences from Gods behaviour to him as a Father from the souls behaviour to him as a Child And all that Satan can do shall not out-reason his Faith What a man saith by feeling a temptation may make him unsay but what a man saith by Faith nothing can make him unsay If Satan do assault such a man and tell him God doth not love him God is not his Father yet will the soul binde it self to this Mast and hold his conclusion against all with the Church Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father thou Lord art our Father our Redeemer Say Satan takes up arguments from Gods 1. Inward Or 2. Outward dealings with us 1. From his Inward dealings May bee a man is in some present Desertion and wants the clear Evidences which formerly hee had and Satan from thence doth argue That God is not our God hee is not our Father yet will not a strong Faith bee reasoned out of his Faith The soul will yet conclude it though it cannot clear it and beleeve it when it cannot see it The strong Christian lives by Faith not by feeling and knows God may bee His God though by sense it bee not discerned but that God is not his God You see this in Psal 22.1 My God! My God! There 's Faith Why hast thou forsaken mee There 's sense Faith held the conclusion against sense That God was his God though sense could not apprehend but that hee was forsaken of God And therefore when the eye of Sense and Evidence is put out yet hee hath the eyes of Faith to see and beleeve And Blessed is the man saith our Saviour to Thomas who beleeves and sees not Joh. 20.29 A strong Faith will trust God further than hee sees him Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Faith will trust upon the Promise of Mercy in the want of Sense of Mercy Our Faith is not begotten by sense and feelings but by the Promise and therefore in the want of sense and feelings the soul may beleeve Isa 50.10 Though a man walk in darkness and sees no light yet may hee trust in the Lord and lean upon his God A weak Faith if it want feeling it is gone but the strong Faith will Hope against Hope Beleeve against Sense Reason and present Evidence and can say God is mine though it want the present Sense and Evidence of it It will trust in God a Father when his dealings seem to argue him an Enemy Faith will read Love in his angry looks and look through the mist of Desertion and see the affections of a Father under the expressions of an Enemy Thus did Job by Faith Though thou kill mee yet will I trust in thee Full well it knows Though God hide his face yet hee cannot deny himself 2. Say hee takes an argument from Gods outward dealings in chastising and afflicting of us and say If God loved thee hee would not so afflict thee If God were thy Father hee would not so chastise thee However the weak Faith may bee born down with such a temptation as this yet the strong Faith is not moved with such a temptation it is able to retort on Satan because God loves mee therefore hee scourgeth mee that I might not bee condemned with the World That I might not love the World therefore hee suffers the World to frown on mee That I might bee crucified to the World therefore hee suffers mee to bee crucified in the World Because I am a Child therefore hee afflicts mee Hee scourgeth every Son whom hee receiveth Rom. 12.6 7 8.9 c. God takes liberty to chastise our bodies to save our souls And God loves tenderly when hee corrects severely Job 5.17 Pro. 3.11 Thus doth a strong Faith hold up the conclusion of Faith against all the Reasonings of Satan against it Let him produce never so many Evidences to the contrary yet will hee not bee born down in it It 's a maxime of Faith hee will hold to against all opposition whatsoever You see it was thus in Job When God had taken away his goods when his hand was upon his body and upon his spirit too not only withdrawing himself from
David cryes Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth for the Water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O Lord. My soul thirsteth for God when shall I come and appear before God! 2. Strong Faith hath strong desires that Christ would come to Judgement It is not well contented there should bee a distance betwixt Christ and it And therefore cryes with the Spouse Cant. 8.14 Make haste my Beloved VVhy are the Chariots so long in comming Though in another case it bee true that the Prophet saith Hee that beleeves makes not haste yet in this case Hee that beleeves most makes most haste Here are but some broken Rings passing betwixt Christ and us Here is but the contract and espousals made betwixt Christ and the soul But the day of Judgement is the great solemnization of the marriage As the espoused Bride longs for the marriage day so the soul that is espoused to Christ longs for the consummation of this blessed marriage Weak Faith desires the comming of Christ but yet would fain bee fitter and readier for him as the Wife desires the presence of her Husband but yet would have her house in order before hee come so they But a strong Faith hath all in readiness and desires nothing more than a consummation of these daies of sin and the eternal fruition and injoyment of her best Husband Use of Exhort Wee are now fallen at last upon the last use the Use of Exhortation wherin I shall exhort you 1. To get Faith 2. To exercise Faith 3. To grow in Faith 1. Let mee exhort you to labour to get Faith Let the chief of your pains and choice of your indeavours bee for the getting of Faith It is a thing to bee lamented how men do labour and toil for earthly things and how they neglect Heavenly Oh! That men should rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness for the compassing of earthly things But in the mean time the things of Heaven are neglected no man labours for them Faith and Grace are the great druggs of the World they lye upon our hands they will not off no man bids mony for them no man indeavours the compassing of them Oh! that men should care for the Body and neglect the Soul feed the Body and starve the Soul cloathe the Body and the Soul go naked That men should labour after other things and never set themselves to the indeavour and compassing of this one thing necessary Shall I urge some motives 1. Consider the greatness of this sin of Unbelief 2. The Necessity of Faith 3. The Excellency of it 1. Consider the greatness of the sin of Unbelief It is such a sin as offers injury and wrong to All-God It wrongs all the attributes of God As Faith doth honour all Gods attributes It is said of Abraham that Hee gave glory to God by beleeving Rom. 4.20 Hee honoured his Mercy his Wisdome his Power c. So on the contrary unbeleif is such a sin as wrongs all The Wisdome Power Mercy Truth and Justice of God 1. You wrong the Wisdome of God you slight and undervalue the Glorious thoughts of his Wisdome Rejecting the Counsel of God against your selves Luk. 7.30 2. You wrong the Mercy and Love of God even the most precious thoughts of Mercy that ever his breast did conceive towards sinful men the most glorious expression of love Angels wonder 3. You wrong the Power of God you straiten and limit his Power Psal 78.41 They tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel in the wilderness by their Unbelief So wee read in the Gospel Mark 6.5 Christ could not do any miracles in that place because of their Unbelief 4. You wrong his Truth As Hee that beleeves hath put to his seal that God is true that his Word is true his Promise true hee will save sinners so on the contrary Hee that beleeves not makes God a Lyar 1 Joh. 5.10 Indeed God is true and whether wee beleeve or beleeve not God is faithful as the Apostle hath it 2 Tim. 2.13 But inasmuch as in us lies wee make God untrue make him a Lyar. Our unbelief doth give God the real lye in all And of what a fearful nature then is Unbelief God hath promised the pardon of sin and hath annexed his Oath to his Promise and his Seal to his Oath and if wee beleeve not Uae nobis si nec juranti Deo credimus wee make him untrue in his Promise his Oath his Covenant c. 2. Unbelief is a Mother-sin it is a Root-sin the summum genus of sin such a sin as hath all sins folded up in the bowels of it a catholick sin And therefore the Apostle expresseth sinners of all sorts under this general Children of Unbelief which is as much as Children of all ungodliness such as had all sin in them Unbelief is the Womb of sin If you could rip up Unbelief you shall finde all sin in the bowels of it There is Pride Prophaneness Rebellion contempt of God contempt of his Word hardness of Heart love of the World Covetousness There is all all sins lye in the belly of this monster Unbelief An unbeleeving man is a proud Person an unbeleever is an hard-hearted person an unbeleeving person is a prophane spirited person a rebellious man hee is all Unbelief is both the Entertainer and Maintainer of sin It is not only the Mother but the Nurse of sin Every sin doth suck the dug of Unbelief It is a sin-succouring a sin-nourishing sin Not only the Breeder but the Feeder of sin Not only the Begetter but the Nourisher of sin It is such a Root as doth nourish and succour all the branches of sin There is nothing holds up the Kingdome of sin but Unbelief If men would beleeve the Kingdome of sin would totter and come down But whiles men beleeve not the hands of sin are strengthened the kingdome of sin is held up in us Sin goes to Unbelief for protection and there it hath it Unbelief will bee a shield to keep off any blow that is given to sin Sin goes to Unbelief for security and unbelief secures and warrants sin sin dwelleth where unbelief keeps the house sin sits down securely under the shadow of unbelief Let curse and Hell bee threatned against sin yet unbelief will secure it It makes but childes-play of all the threats of God Sin keeps the house and unbelief bars the door and keeps out all that would indanger sin It will secure it Sin goes to unbelief not only for defence but for maintenance and unbelief will maintain sin it will fetch in provision for lust It is not only the Entertainer but the Maintainer of sin It shall want no morsels unbelief will furnish it 3. Unbelief is a soul-killing-sin a Soul-damning-sin It is a controversy among many Whether Negative unbelief damn men But wee will not enter on the controversy For Positive unbelief of which nature ours is now
matter of conscience not to beleeve they ought not to beleeve should such sinful creatures such vile wretches so polluted c. Should they beleeve this were to presume to sin against Gods Justice in the closes with his Mercy this were to give holy things to dogs c. Satan presents sin And some there are so witty as to object against all that can be brought as if they took a pride to argue themselves into a condition of misery setting the pride of their own carnal reasonings against the riches and freeness of the mercy of God if you bring a promise to them when cast down for sin and indeavour to fasten a promise on them they can tell you that this is not the meaning of the Promise or certainly this Promise doth not belong to mee Alas will they say all this is but lost labour you might as well caâ—â—y a cordial to a dead man as bring a Promise to them it is a â—â—uâ—tless thing if upon examination wee shall discover some spots oâ— a Child in them some undoubted evidences of one whom God â—peaks mercy unto Yet they will tell you all these are false all â—â—â—se are in Hypocrisy It s true if these things were in truth 〈◊〉 I could then conceive some hopes of mercy but I know â—â—ey are all in Hypocrisie they are all unsound and counterfeit c. Ergo no Mercy Thus doth many a poor soul take pains to reason himself into misery and side with Satan and take part with the corruptions and unbeleevings of his own heart against himself And what will bee the end of it sure it will breed bitterness in the latter end for the present it is thy sin and for the future it will bee thy misery either it will cause God to withdraw himself from thee as hee tells them Deut. 32.20 Or cause thee to withdraw thy self from God As the Apostle speaketh Heb. 3.12 Take heed least there bee in you an evil heart of Unbeleef in departing from the living God Hee that withdraws himself from the Promise cannot long keep close to the Precept hee that keeps at a distance from Mercy will not long walk in the wayes of duty When the workings of natural conscience are done when fears are allayed when troubles are blown over then will all service bee done too if not yet the continuance of troubles and fears will make you cast of all and say there is no hope or will discourage your hearts in your walking that your life will bee little better than a martyrdome with continual racks and troubles It was before thy sin not to beleeve but now it will bee thy misery before thou wouldest not now thou canst not Thou soughtest arguments before to keep thee off from the Promise and thou wilt now seek as many arguments against such arguments which might bring thee over to the Promise And this miserable unbeleef is the fruit of sinful unbeleef This disability to come to the Promise is the punishment of thy former slowness to come to the Promise And this temper you shall see in many who have reasoned themselves down do finde it now a harder work to reason themselves up again Who have put themselves into a greater incapacity to close with the Promise by those wayes which they have thought to bee helpful to them It is easier to give entertainment to carnal reasonings to the suggestions of Satan and the objections of our own fleshy hearts than to get rid of them again Many have given willing entertainment to these at first who would more gladly bee rid of them afterward if they could But the continuance of them is a fruit of your entertainment of them If you will entertain doubts and fears and set up your own carnâ—l reasonings against the Promise then you shall have doubts and feaâ—s and caâ—nâ—l reasonings when you would not to keep you from the Promise As God said in another case Hos 8.11 Because you have made many Altars to sin thâ—râ—fore Altars shall bee unto you to sin So here because you have set up your carnal reasonings and your unbeleeving thoughts against the Promise to hinder you from closing with the Promise therefore carnal reasonings c. shall bee a hinderance c. Thus is miserable Unbeleef a fruit of sinful Unbeleef which the more miserable the lesse sinful the more seen the more sorrowed for the more lamented and mourned for the lesse sinful while it was your sin it was not seen it was not sorrowed for and now it is c. and the more misery the lesse your sin in Gods account Carnal reasonings were before your pride now your grief you sought them before you would bee rid of them now they were your delight before now they are your trouble your misery which is something But they had not now continued to bee your misery if they had not before been entertained as your sin c. This is the fruit of slowness of heart to beleeve Use 2. Is of Exhortation If so then three things 1. Bee convinced of the greatness of the sin 2. Bee humbled for it 3. Bee quickened to beleeve 1. Bee yee convinced of the greatnesse of the sin it is a sin whereby you wrong God gratifie Satan wrong your own souls 1. You wrong God in it you obscure his glory you limit his power you contemn his wisdome you give a lye to his truth you abuse his love you sleight and reject all the precious and peerlesse thoughts of his Mercy and Grace I told you not long since that God was more severe against Unbeleef than any sin because Unbeleef was most severe to God No sin was more cruel to God God hath no greater enemy in the World than Unbeleef It is an enemy to whatever is most dear and precious unto God Therefore is hee such an enemy to Unbeleef if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 2. You gratifie Satan I beleeve thou wouldst not willingly if thou knew it gratifie Satan for a World I tell thee in thy standing off thou dost not only gratifie him but thou canst do Satan no greater a pleasure no greater a courtesy in the World In this Satan hath all his desire of thee that which hee desires is to make void all the great things of God that which hee desires is to make the death of Christ in vain to make the bloud of Christ to bee shed in vain to make the great counsel of God the great things of his wisdome and mercy to no purpose in the World And by this standing off thou dost what lyes in thee to answer his desire and therefore this must needs glad him Besides Satan knows full well if hee do not wound thy Faith thy Faith will wound him break the head of the Serpent and therefore it is that which hee laboureth after in all his temptations if hee cannot keep thee from beleeving yet to wound and weaken thy Faith that thou
themselves to some general and common duties of a Christian And there are many men who are mended thus They will hear a Sermon and do some outward duties But they are not new made And this is but like the putting of a new peece of cloath into an old garment the rent will bee made worse Christ sets this down in the parable The unclean spirit is cast out for a time but afterward returneth with seven spirits worse than himself and so his last end proves worse than his beginning Mat. 12.43 c. 3. There is a Formal Change when men in outward appearance do seem to walk in all duties of holiness and to forbear the commission of any gross sin And yet never had their hearts wrought upon All this while it is but their practises not their Principles that are truly changed And these are the men that do so much Of these St. Paul speaks 2 Tim. 3.5 Having a form of godliness yet denying the Power From such turn away By which phrase I told you was implied that though an Hypocrite hath nothing in him which is essential to a Christian as a Christian yet may hee bee the compleat Resemblance of a Christian in all those things which are not essential to him Hee may bee the compleat picture of a godly man from top to toe in every member every limb every duty for the externals of it 4. There is a Spiritual Change wherein the frame and constitution of the inward man is changed and all is made new 1. Not new for substance of soul and body 2. Not new for faculties of soul and body As new understanding new will c. Here a mans new Practises flow from new Principles Here are not only new Wayes but here is a new Heart Hee hath a new Life in him a new Spirit in him by which hee is moved And the want of this is the great Crack the great Fault the Ground why a man may do much in the wayes of God and yet miscarry at last But there will bee one great Objection which seems to throw down all this The Objection is this Object Nature cannot act ultra Sphaeram above it self Nature cannot go any further than Nature As wee say of the Water Quantum descendit tantum ascendit Water can rise no higher than it falls So may it bee said of Nature Nature cannot act above Nature cannot act above her Principle But to do these things is above the power of Nature Therefore hee who doth these duties is above a state of Nature Answ For answer of this Wee say it is true in the Main A man that hath no more than meer Nature in him cannot act above meer Nature But Nature may bee strengthened from above There may bee higher Principles set in Nature which may inable a man to go higher than common Nature though not yet above one in state of Nature A man may bee inabled to act above Nature yet the Principle is not so high as to inable a man to act above a man in the State of Nature For the better clearing of this Wee may consider Nature in diverse forms or ranks 1. There is meer Nature with those reliques as some say But rather I say restored Principles which God gave to man after hee had lost all that hee might bee a Man not a Devil For when by sin wee had lost all if God had not out of pitty to mankinde restored something wee should have been as bad as Devils in the world one devoure murther commit all outrage upon another Now in this state something may bee done not much 2. There is nature civilized and moralized Nature refined by moral Principles which whether they bee in nature before and so but husbanded and improved or whether they were some common gifts of the Spirit wee will not now dispute but conclude this latter Now by these a man may bee inabled to do above the common sort of men hee having higher Principles than meer nature fallen and therefore is able to do more in all the works of morality works of Justice Righteousness Charity c. This you see in the Heathens who far excelled the common sort of men their Principles being far higher 3. There is Nature sublimated and raised yet higher by implantation of higher Principles than these are by the help of which a man may bee inabled to do above the purest natures of the Heathens and yet but Nature The knowledge of God of Christ of Sin of Grace Heaven Hell together with the implantation of some general Principles common gifts and graces of the Spirit may so sublimate a man that by the help of these a man may not only bee wrought up to do more than meer Nature fallen but more than Nature strengthened with moral Principles is able to do You see this in Judas Demas Herod c. whose actions were above meer Nature as comming from higher Principles but yet not above men in the state of Nature This work upon men though not so much as spiritual yet it is more than meer Moral Though hee have not so high a Principle as a spiritual man yet is his Principle higher than a meer moral mans And by the help of that common Illumination general workings of the Spirit broken workings of humiliation hee may bee inabled to pray hear read confer fast profess and what not for all outwards and yet want the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ There may bee a supernatural work of the Spirit upon some men whereby nature may bee strengthened from above and yet they may want the saving work of the Spirit You see then distinguished Heb. 6.4 There were some who were inlightened and had tasted of the Heavenly gift This was a Supernatural work but yet this was not a Saving work vers 9. I am perswaded better things of you and such as accompany salvation though I thus speak Thus you see the Objection cleared And the fourth thing laid open viz. Where the fault is that a man may do thus much and yet bee unsound I adde but thus much to it more 1. Hee is a man who was never humbled for sins And this is a sure Rule The heart never broken was yet never sound 2. Hee is a man that was never truly cast out of himself and therefore can go no higher than himself in all hee doth 3. Hee is a man was never fully changed hee walks in new wayes with an old heart 4. Hee is a man who is carryed upon holy works with a slavish spirit Hee would sin but dares not Hee doth Duty but hath no minde to do it What the Apostle saith of himself the good I would do I do not and the evil I would not do that do I Hee on the contrary must say if hee speak truth The good I would not do I do and the evil I would do that I do not I dare not Hee is a man who hath no principle of spiritual life in him Hee
it is sufficient to evidence a mans sincerity Indeed if a man had a Male in his flock and should offer to the Lord a female If â—â—ee had a better and should give God a worse If hee had strength and yet served the Lord with weakness this would declare the heart to bee unsound But when a mans strength is in the work though that strength bee but weakness yet it will evidence the sincerity of the heart And there is no reason that you should look upon those Prayers as cast as lost Prayers where your strength is in them When thou hast been with God and performed a duty although but weakly many imperfections in it much unbeleef much hardness much deadness and coldness yet if your strength have been in the duty you may rise up without confusion and shame upon this ground your strength hath been in it your heart doth not condemn you you are able to clear this to your spirit your strength hath been in the work But now such are here condemned and cast who have a Male in their flock and offer to the Lord a Female God curseth such Cursed c. Mal. 1.14 When you have strength and serve God with weakness when you will turn off God with your cold your lazy sleepy and formal devotions and will not take any pains with your own hearts in these holy works This discovers your spirits to bee unsound and false to God 2. Character Where the heart is sincere in Prayer there is no rest or content to the soul till the heart bee wrought into the work A sincere heart in Prayer is an heart-sincerity in Prayer not a tongue in Prayer not an head in Prayer but an heart in Prayer Prayer is not lip-work or head work but heart work And where the heart is sincere hee is not content till the heart bee in the work Hee is not content to bee down on his knees if his heart bee not up To have an hand in the work if his heart bee not also in it A sincere heart labours to get his heart into the work Hee prayes in prayer Jam. 5.17 There is an affective collation with the duty If hee confesseth sins hee desireth to get affections sutable to the confession of sin An heart wounded and broken under the sight and sense of sin If hee prayes for pardon hee labours to get an heart apprehensive of the want and also of the worth of mercy and seeks a mercy as a condemned man a pardon If hee pray for Grace or the subduing of lusts still hee labours to get an heart sutable to the things hee wants and that which hee doth desire It was the speech of Bradford that hee would never leave a duty till hee had brought his heart into the frame of the duty Hee would not leave confession of sin till his heart was broken for sin Hee would not leave petitioning for Grace till his heart was quickened in desire He would not leave gratulation till his heart was inlarged with the sense of the mercies he enjoyed and quickned in the return of praise But now an unsound heart if hee can but post over a duty If but say his prayers though hee have never laboured to get his heart into them yet he is well enough This is to draw neer with our lips when yet our hearts are far from God This is to offer God a bulk and carkass of duty without the life and spirit of duty and so it is abominable to God A body without a soul stinks so here your Confessions of sins are Commissions of sins Iterations of sins when your hearts are not sensible and affected with sinnes you confesse Hee that remembers sinne with delight doth commit the sinne again He that remembers sin without sorrow doth but revive his former guilt hee removes it not A man may displease a man as much with the Confession of a fault as in the Commission of the fault If a man had offended you and should come in a sleight way to confess his fault you would be more offended at him for his confession than for his fault So when you shall come before God and confess your sins without any compunction for your sinnes without any sense of sin or sorrow for it you do aggravate your sins and increase guilt instead of removing guilt from your souls An hard heart and a dry eye in the confession of sin is an aggravation of your sins 3. Character An heart sincere in Prayer doth thirst after Communion with God in Prayer If a duty leaves the soul on this side God unlesse it have carried the soul over to God and brought a man to some further Communion with him with his mercy his love his grace his Spirit the soul is not content with duty Others they make duty the end of duty prayer the end of prayer And therefore if they can but rid their hands of a duty though they had no communion with God in it yet they are well enough But now a sincere heart hee looks above a duty hee looks upon duty but as a bridge to convey him over to God as a means to bring God and his soul into neerer communion and if yee have not seen God and found God in a duty if his spirit hath not conversed with God as a Father as a friend as a child with his father as a man with his friend he hath no content in duty Obj. But you will say how shall a man know when he hath Communion with God in duty Answ For the answer of this I must first tell you that there is a great mistake among men and women of a tender spirit about this point that they think they have no communion with God unles they have met with God in an heart-chearing and an heart-comforting way when God comes in with joy with comfort with chearings and inlargements Then they are willing to grant you they have had communion with God But if God have come in in an heart breaking humbling and casting down their souls in the sight and sence of their sinnes and imperfections They do not think they have Communion with God And therefore I must tell you first in the general That you may have Communion with God as well in an heart humbling as an heart reviving an heart Comforting way In the life to come in heaven all our Communion with God is with Comfort with fulness of joy At his right hand is fulnesse c. Psal 16.11 with thee there is a fountain of joy Then all tears shall bee wiped away from our eyes But in this life on earth we have mixed communion and have communion with God as well in humblings as in comfortings You go upon a duty and you think to meet God one way and hee comes in another way Sometimes you expect God in a comforting and God comes in in a quickning way Sometimes thou expects God in an heart breaking way and God comes in in a comforting
another use and conclude Use of Exhortation Which hath four Branches 1. Branch 1. Get a sincere heart Otherwise all you do is worth nothing I speak unto you who do abound most in duties in performances you who pray who hear Oh! do you labour to get a sincere heart in the midst of your performances When you do any publick work look to your hearts beware of base ends base aims least they creep in and poison all your works Beware of a double eye an eye towards God and an eye toward your selves when in opposition Let it bee said of all you who put your hand to any publick works in these publick times as it was said of a Royal Commander that in all his actions hee placed ostentation behinde and conscience before him and sought not the reward of a good deed from fame but thought the deed it self done a sufficient reward Oh so do you And when you have to do with more private duties look to your hearts let your tongue and heart answer one another beware least your heart give your tongue the lye in speaking that your heart doth not desire I have shewed this may bee done Do you go labour that your heart may go with your tongue your affections may go hand in hand with all your expressions Nay rather let your expressions bee but as so many breathings from the like affections within so many streams issuing from a fountain and spring of affections within My Brethren this is the great thing I would press upon you The power of his Word and light of his Truth hath brought you I suppose to a form I hope few are among you but will seem to carry the outward face of Religion Few but will pray will hear will do duty Many favour Religion who have no savour of it It is my desire to exhort you who do much that you would not lose what you do do much and yet perish at last I tell thee if thou couldest heap up mountains of prayers if weep a Sea of tears if thou couldest macerate thy self with fasting and humbling thy self as many thousand years as the World hath stood minutes from the Creation yet without sincerity all this is nothing What the Apostle saith of charity I may say of sincerity if I speak with the tongues c. Wee read there shall many come to Christ at the last day and say have not wee preached have not wee prayed and prophesied fasted c They thought they had great wrong done them why should not Christ save them as well as any others why not accept of their works as well as of others and meaner than these too Why here was the ground and reason there was a want of sincerity they had but served themselves in serving him and therefore hee doth not own them Oh! then let mee exhort you all who are much in duties labour to get sincerity to accompany all You hear you pray c. get sincere hearts in hearing in praying c. The rather 1. Motive 1. Because sincerity sets a value and price upon the meanest work it makes the meanest action acceptable unto God Wee read Cant. 5.1 Christ is said to drink of the Milk as well as the Wine to eat of the Honey c. That is to accept of the meanest work and performance when there is sincerity to accompany it Milk c. A sigh a groan a tear a breathing of the spirit shall finde acceptance where the heart is upright which I told you cannot bee if there bee the love and liking of the least sin God delights more in the imperfect breathings of a sincere heart when there is not strength to bring forth an expression than hee doth in all the flourishes and glorious expressions of an unsound heart Sincerity makes the meanest works mighty with God it puts weight and value to all A work doth not make up the want of sincerity but sincerity vvill make up the want in a work as in Asah 1 King 15.14 hee vvill ovvn the vveakest duty if sincerity bee in it Hee vvill not refuse our vvorks as vvee do gold not because it vvants goodness but greatness hee vvill not reject them for vvant of grains if the gold bee good Hee hath a merciful allovvance for such vvorks vvhere the heart is sincere in the doing of them though the things done bee attended vvith many imperfections And that 's the first Motive 2. Motive 2. Because sincerity distinguisheth all our works from the works of others The day is comming vvhen the persons and vvorks of men shall bee distinguished one from another And as you vvould have your persons distinguished from others at the great day vvhen Christ shall come to separate the precious and the vile the Sheep from the Goats the good from the bad you vvould then bee glad to have your vvorks distinguished vvhen all the vvorks of men are to bee tryed and burned vvith fire to see whether they will indure tryal yea or no you would bee glad then to have something in your works to distinguish them from others that are to perish Why then if ever you would have that labour now to get Sincerity Sincerity will do this it will set such a stamp such a Character upon them as no false coin no work of any Hypocrite can have and therefore labour for it 3. Motive 3. Because otherwise all thy prayers thy tears thy duties all is lost and that is a sad case If a man had laid out much pains and cost about a work hee would bee sorry to lose all hee had done for want of a little more You have done much it may bee suffered much in the wayes of God would you not now lose all your former labours all your prayers all your tears your many sad hours spent in the wayes of godlinesse would you not lose all in conclusion Oh! labour to get a sincere heart if not you will assuredly lose the things you have wrought God will never own them Though the things bee materially good in themselves as what better than praying hearing c. yet if the heart bee not sincere in them God will never own them You see it in the first of Isaiah the works were good and such as God had commanded such as his soul delighted in yet wanting this sincerity all was nothing c. 4. Motive 4. Because sincerity is the chiefest thing God eyes in men the main thing which God now desires under the Gospel God looks not for a legal perfection from you in respect of legal actual universal personal Obedience hee desires sincerity and that under the Gospel is perfection 5. Motive 5. Sincerity will afford us comfort in the saddest times of our soul or body in our spiritual and temporal sorrows c. when other things cannot minister comfort when duties and prayers must stand afar off and are not able to reach forth any comfort to us yet sincerity can In the greatest darknesse of the soul
it and you came trembling to this Ordinance fearing lest you should prophane it and by that eat and drink your own Condemnation But now the custome of prophanation hath taken away the terror of prophaning this Ordinance now you come and tremble not So for the word time was when Conscience was green and tender that the word came with more majesty more authority on your spirits Every command came with power every threat came with trembling but now you can sit under the most powerful quickening convincing awaking dispensations of it and your souls never moved And hence is it that your custome with the Ordinances in a customary way takes off the life and power and workings of Ordinances As custome in sin doth harden the heart and makes the heart more difficult to bee wrought upon so custome in duty if it bee done in a formal customable way I would rather deal and should have more hopes of doing good to him who is openly prophane notoriously wicked than such a man who lyes soaking under Ordinances and goes on in a formal and customable performance of these dutys without any spirit or life in the doing of them Thus you see the first 't is a difficult cure 2 It is a painful cure It is a painful cure It will cost thee much pain many gripes and greifs many Prayers and tears much humiliation and sorrow before it can be wrought Nay t is a cure wrought by undoing all that thou hast done thou must unravel all unpray thy prayers undo thy services Thou must not go forward in the way wherein thou art but must come back all the way thou hast gone and go another way if ever thou come to heaven And this will cost a man some pain Suppose a man were going to some place and had gone much of his journey were now come as hee thought near his journeys end and one should come to him and tell him Sir you are clean out of the way you must go back again unride all this way you have come c. O! how irksome how hardly would this down with a man at the end of his journey especially the way being pleasant wherein hee was and full of delight but the other rough and foul in which hee was to go Alas would hee say is there no way but turning back is it not possible to strike over this is irksome Why so is it with a man here it may be thou hast set out for heaven and thou hast gone all thy life in a fair smooth way and art now come as thou thinkest even to the end of thy journey And will it not bee a hard thing for a man to turn back to begin in another way and that a straiter a rougher and a deeper way Why I tell thee this must bee done before ever thou come to heaven It is with a sound Christian and an Hypocrite as it is with two men at the top of two houses in a narrow street one would think that they could easily come to one another easily reach but the truth is hee must come down the height where hee is before hee can go up to him A grosse and open sinner is nearer to him than a formal hypocrite As Christ saith Easier for Publicans and Harlots c. And now judge is it not a very hard thing and difficult for a man to undoe all hee hath done to give up all for lost to come down from the height to which hee hath attained not without much pains To turn back that way wherein hee hath ridden with much difficulty This is a hard thing c. what flesh and blood can bear this So that it is not only a difficult but a painful cure 1 In respect of the medicines that are to bee applyed hard physick humbling lancing cutting dismembring cutting off right hands c. 2 In respect of the distemper wherewith these medicines are to encounter 3 In respect of the pains gripes griefs you must endure in the cure But this I cannot insist upon The truth is the cure is so painfull that your spirits would rather continue the disease than submit to the plaister But now though the cure be difficult 't is possible 't is easy with God though hard to us And if God have given thee a heart to desire a cure and a spirit willing to submit to any means may bee used it is a fair way towards the cure Well then to come to the cure it self Having searched thy spirit and upon diligent search discovered Hypocrisy Means of cure 1. Labour to convince thy heart of the evil and mischief of an unsound spirit It is a thing which makes thy person thy performance odious unto God hee hates thy person hee hates thy prayers as you see Isa 1.14 Your new Moons and your Sabbaths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth them which yet were high extraordinary services And now judge what a fearful thing it is to stand under the hatred of the great God of Heaven and Earth What dost thou think will bee the end of thee why you shall see Matth. 24. and the last Thou shalt bee cast into the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone and not only cast in but into the hottest place where there shall not bee a drop of water to a lake of fire For it is said of all other sinners that they shall have their portion with Hypocrites The Hypocrite shall have the largest portion hee is the top of that black crew of damned souls For the present thou losest all the good in Earth which others do injoy and for the future thou losest all the good in Heaven which others shall injoy Nay and thou gainest sorer sharper more unsupportable damnation than others shall have Thy duties thy prayers thy hearings which would have ministred comfort to thee if they had been right do now aggravate and increase thy torment being unsound Every Sermon Prayer Duty is but as another stick carried to that structure of fire to make it hotter and greater for thee because done with an unsound spirit 2. Consider there is a God 2. Means Atheisme is a great ground of Hypocrisy and there is no man more an Atheist than an Hypocrite Well then think there is a God I tell thee the very beleef of this would strike down many base ends which thou hast in thy service of him And think him to bee such a God as hee is That this God is an all-seeing God one who searcheth the heart who tryeth the reins One who knows the secret turnings and windings of thy deceitful soul Though thou mayest dissemble it with men bee one thing upon the stage another thing in the tyring house one thing in action another thing in heart and affection Yet thou canst not dissemble with God before whom thou liest open cut up to the back bone anatomized all thy internals are seen as the Word signifies in Heb. 4.13 This thought brought home and
a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendâ— Aug. because he hath ingaged himself to us by many great and precious Promises Gods Promises are ingagements upon him God hath made himself our Debter Not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us God hath made many precious promises to us 1 Promises of Preservation Isa 33.16 Hee shall dwell on high his place of defence shall bee the munition of rocks bread shall bee given to him his waters shall bee sure A Promise than which I know none more full in the Book of God wherein all Objections that a fearful heart might raise are answered and taken away Let us view it over 1 Hee shall dwell on high If hee were among his enemies hee might bee in danger But hee shall dwel on high nay on heights as the Word is many Ascents many Heights above the reach of danger out of Gun-shot 2 But suppose they could raise up Mounts and come as high as hee yet they shall not hurt him Hee is in a place of defence 3 But what then His defence is not so strong but it may bee broken thorough No saith the Text that is impossible for his place of defence shall bee the Munitions of Rocks many Rocks and many Munitions of Rocks and therefore impregnable to guard him 4 Why but hee may bee starved out his supply will not alway last There is no plowing and sowing upon Rocks hee may bee famisht out No saith the Text. Bread shall bee given him Hee shall bee provided for 5 But what shall wee do for Water There is no Water to be had out of Rocks You see it was that which posed the Faith of Moses to fetch Water out of a Rock But saith the Text hee shall have Water too 6 Yea but his Water may be spent It will not alway last No saith the Text His Waters shall be sure never failing Waters sure Waters Again in the same Chapter vers 21. The Lord will bee to us a place of broad Rivers and streams wherein shall go no Gallie with Oares nor shall gallant ship pass thereby Shewing the defence God would bee to his People Hee will bee a Stream nay a River between us and our enemies And a broad River a River that cannot bee passed over Why but they may use Oares No saith the Lord Hee will bee a River wherein no Gally with Oares shall pass But a Ship may No nor gallant ship shall pass thereby for the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King hee will save us But what if any ship should attempt You shall see vers 23. God will untackle them Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the saile 2. And as hee hath made promises of Preservation from So hee hath made promises of Deliverance out of trouble Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all So Psal 50.15 Call upon mee in the time of trouble I will deliver thee So Psal 91.15 I will bee with him in trouble and will deliver him So Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And an excellent promise wee have Isa 43.3 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Seba for thee God speaks here as the Lord and Possessor of the whole Earth Egypt was his and Ethiopia was his and both these hee gave for to redeem his Church The Church was in bondage and captivity you know in Egypt And God gave Egypt for her ransome And how because shee could not bee ransomed and delivered without the loss of Egypt Therefore God gave Egypt for her That is hee would rather lose all the Land of Egypt than his people should not bee ransomed hee would sink the whole Kingdome of Egypt if it stood betwixt his People and Deliverance And so it follows in the 4. vers I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life As if hee had said I love thee thou art more dear to mee than all the World and I do not stick to give the lives of thousands to uphold thine Multitudes shall bee destroyed rather than thou shalt not bee preserved I love thee and therefore I will give men for thee Thus you see God is ingaged to do wonderful things for his Church because of his Promise That love which hath moved him to make these precious promises to us will never give him rest till it hath caused him to make good those promises which hee hath made 3. A third loving Ingagement which causes God to do wonders for his People is because they trust in him Trust is a kinde of Ingagement upon a man although hee had made no promise A man will not deceive another who reposeth his whole trust in him though hee were not ingaged by Promise There is a kinde of Ingagement in Trust it self And shall wee then think that God will when hee hath made so many precious promises to us This were the greatest deceit in the World a Soul-deceit If God should call us off from all other succours from other shelters and tell us that if wee will trust in him hee will bee our succour our security And should God fail the soul this were an undoing-deceit the greatest deceit in the World No my Brethren there was never man who laid up his confidence in God but hee found God to bee that to him which hee expected Faith ingageth all the Power all the Wisdome all the Mercy and Truth of God to help us And if the Power Wisdome c. of God can do wonders for thee God will then do wonders for thee if thou beleeve in him Beleeve saith Christ and thou shalt see the wondrous works of God 4. A fourth Ingagement which causeth God to do wonders for his People is because they seeke him Hee doth not say to the seed of Jacob seek yee mee in vain Hee hath stiled himself The God hearing prayers and bids us call upon him in the day of trouble and hee will hear The Prayers of Gods People they are as so many Ingagements upon God to move him to do for them Faith and Prayer will set All-God awork It will set the Power Wisdome Mercy of God a work for you Faith and Prayer will remove Mountains Nothing shall bee too hard for that people to do whose hearts and spirits God holds up to beleeve and to pray Bee it to thee even as thou wilt Luther having been in his study and earnest with the Lord about the business of the Church receiving a gracious answer hee comes down and cryes Wee have overcome the day is ours And so it fell out saith the story For the Church prevailed There is a kinde of Omnipotency in Faith and Prayer because these two set the Omnipotent God and the Omnipotency of the Power of the Omnipotent God to work for us And I beleeve
The great work of Reformation hath gone so slowly forward because Gods People are not so strongly carried on in seeking 3 The third thing wee have to do is to shew you 3. Quere What are those wonders which God doth for his Church and People 1 God doth wonders for the souls of his People 2 God doth wonders for the body and outward man 1 Gods Wonder◠to the soul 1 For the soul And wee will give you a glance of these The first Wonder and indeed the Wonder of Wonders which God hath done for his Church and People is 1 Wonder for the soul 1 The giving of Christ for us and to us All wonders are swallowed up in this wonder Nothing is wonderful if compared to this God manifested in the flesh Hence the Apostle 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh That such greatness and such meanness such finiteness and such infiniteness such riches and such poverty such strength and such weakness Tantus Deus tantillus Homo So great a God and so mean a Man all in one Here is a Wonder There is four great Wonders conspicuous in this 1 Here is a Wonder of Humility which will appear if you consider 1 Of Humility 1 Who hee was 2 What hee became 1 Who hee was Hee was the Son of God The express Image of his Fathers person One equal with God and thought it no robbery to bee equal with God hee was God blessed for ever As the Apostle stiles him 2 VVhat hee became Hee took not upon him the Nature of Angels which yet had been a greater discent than if all the Angels in Heaven had been turned into Worms But hee took not the Nature of Angels but hee took upon him the Nature of Man and that not at the best but of Man fallen subject to infirmities Penal not Culpable General not particular And what a wonder of Humility was this There is not the meanest Angel in heaven but would have thought it a wrong above amends to have been so low abased Here was a wonder of Humility Factor terrae factus in terrâ The maker of the earth to bee made of earth 2 Here was a wonder of wisdome That God should find out such a way to recover us when we were lost If all the united Consultations of men and Angells had been laid together they could never have found out a way to Reconcile Gods mercy in the salvation of man and yet his Justice in the damnation of sin If God should have helped us thus farre You are miserable Creatures But I am a merciful God The demands of my justice I must not deny neither will I deny the intreaties of my mercy Find mee then but one that can satisfy my justice and I will shew my mercy to you Ah! where should wee have found one who was strong enough to bear sinne and to satisfy the wrath of God for us No it was his own wisdome that found out the way Here was a wonder of wisdome which wee adore and admire 3. Here was a wonder of Love An Heighth a depth a length a bredth a Love beyond all dimensions Hence said to bee a Love passing knowledge a Love that may bee apprehended by faith not comprehended by reason it was an infinite love And this is more than if wee could gather all the bowels of the Creation together Hence saith Christ who knew the greatnesse of it John 3.16 i. e. So God loved the world so infinitely so incomprehensibly that hee gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 4. Here was a wonder of mercy which will bee more conspicuous if we consider 1. The Person 2. The Time 1. The Person who undertook this It was the second Person in the glorious Trinity the Person against whom the first Sinne was in some special respect committed Hee is the wisdome of the father and called wisdome Prov. 8. And this sinne was an affectation of wisdome to bee like to God As the falling-sin is now the sinne against the Third Person Sinne against the Holy Ghost so the sin which did occasion the fall was in some special respects against the second Person And therefore the greater is the wonder of mercy That he against whom the first sinne was so committed should undertake the expiation of it 2 Consider the time when hee took our nature And that was when wee were brought to a desperate losse when it was made evident that nothing else could help us Heb. 10.6 7. Sacrifice and burnt-offerings thou wouldst not have Then said I Loe I come When Legal washings were declared unable to pacify God or to work our peace Then Christ comes into the world Christ came not into the world till it was made Evident That without him God could not be satisfied nor man bee saved And this is the first Wonder The sending of Christ in whom all is wonderfull His Incarnation the Hypostatical union of two natures in one Person His Passion Resurrection Ascention Session Intercession They are a chain of holy wonders Hence Isa 9.6 Christ is called wonderful because all in Christ is wonderfull 1 He is wonderful in his person and natures God-man and mortall-immortall finite and infinite so great and yet so mean so rich and yet so poor Here is a wonder 2 Hee is wonderfull in his Offices A King Priest and Prophet 3 Hee is wonderfull in his government That hee should bring us to life by death to glory by misery to honor by shame All wonders This is the first wonder and the root of all the rest 2 Another wonder God doth for the souls of his People is The second wonder to the soul 1 In Conversion 1 The work of Conversion and regeneration that a man should partake of another begetting of another birth of another nature than others have in the world Nay than hee himself had This is a wonder That a man should bee the same and not the same The same man for body yet as different in qualities as if another soul did dwell in the same body That hee should live by another life bee fed by other food refreshed by other comforts than others are Here is a wonder that of a Lyon should become a Lamb of a Wolf a sheep of a Saul a Paul a Persecutor become a Preacher Here is a wonder And the greater is the wonder if you look upon the weaknesse and contemptiblenesse of the means God works this by The ministery of a weak man It had been no great wonder if the Walls of Jericho had fallen down by the battery of a Canon But this made it the wonder that the blast of Rams-horns should bring down the walls of Jericho And this is that which makes this work more wonderful that by such weak and Contemptible means and men in the eyes of carnal men this great work should be effected When a man
him but positively inflicting of his displeasure upon his soul yet all that Satan could do by himself all that hee could do by his friends who joyned with Satan in the battel could not make him unsay what his heart and the Spirit of God had so often said nothing shall make him to eat his own words Nothing shall cause him to deny his integrity The root of the matter was still in him and hee will live and dye with this in his heart with this in his mouth that notwithstanding all this God is his God God is his Father his heart hath been sincere before him And this was a strong Faith that would bee thus resolute in beleeving when hee had so much reason on the other side to bear him down 4. A strong Faith will trust in God in difficulties in difficult cases in exigents Here is the tryal of Trust It will trust in God 1. With small means 2. Without means 3. Against means 1. With small means Strong Beleevers know full well bee the means never so small if God bid them to bee effectual they shall do the work As Jeremy was drawn out of the Dungeon with old rotten Raggs so God can make use of weak and contemptible means to effect his own purposes to draw thee out of the Dungeon of affliction Faith knows God can help with few as well as with many with a small hand as well as with a great all is one to him It was that that Asa said to God when Zera the Ethyopian came against him with such a great hoast that hee seemed to bee but a Centry in the midst of a large circumference 2 Chron. 14.11 Lord it is nothing with thee to help with many or with few Help us Lord for wee trust upon thee and in thy name wee go out against this great multitude And the day was theirs But in another hee was overthrown when the difficulty was less because hee trusted not on the Lord. The like wee read of Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.1 2 3 4. and many others 2. Strong Faith will trust in God without means Zeph. 3.12 I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people a people stripped of all means and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. So 2 Cor. 1.10 11. Wee had the sentence of death in our selves wee saw no help no means and all this was That wee should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead 1 Tim. 5.5 Shee that is a Widdow in deed and desolate Trusts in God c. Thus you see strong Faith will trust in God in the absence of means when all means are wanting It knows God is able to do his purpose without as well as with means A strong Faith makes God all its confidence And therefore when all means fail when all props are taken away yet confidence is not Unbelief will trust God no further than it sees means to bring about the thing it desires You see the unbeleeving Noble Man when the Prophet Elisha told him in that great famine that the next day there should bee such great plenty What! saith hee If God could open the windows of Heaven how could this bee Though there were a famine on earth hee had no reason to think there was a dearth in Heaven God was able to do it his hand was not shortened But here it was Hee saw no means whereby this might bee effected and therefore hee could not beleeve it God may work wonders and yet in an ordinary way You see here in this Famine A wonder it was that they should have such plenty in so short a time And it was too big for the noble mans Faith to beleeve But yet you see it was a wonder wrought in an ordinary way The like you see in the Israelites Psal 78.19 20. Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness Indeed hee smote the Rock and the waters gushed out But can hee provide flesh for his people also One would have thought that the former experience of Gods power should have satisfied them in this that they that granted the one could not have denyed the other that God was able to do that also But the former was over and here was a new strait they were in and they saw no means how it should bee effected therefore they could not beleeve it The like of Ahaz Isa 7.11 12. God told him that his enemies that were come against him should not prevail against him God would fight for him And that hee might bee certain of this hee bids him Ask a sign in Heaven or in the deep for the confirmation of his Faith But saith Ahaz I will not tempt God What 's that I will provide for my self I will not trust in the want of means I should tempt God in so doing And many such Ahazes wee have in the World They think to trust in God in the absence of means is to tempt God What say they doth God work wonders that hee should do this without means Why God can do wonders and yet in an ordinary way Thus strong Faith will trust without means God is not trusted at all if not trusted alone If wee take in any thing with God in our trust wee trust not God at all as wee ought When men are brought to the lowest strait they are nearest to the highest God And then will Faith work best when it works alone and then is God nearest to help when mans strength is small Mans extreamity is Gods opportunity The ancient Tragedians when things were brought to that pass that they saw no possibility of humane help they used to bring down some of their Gods Hence that Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not much unlike that Proverb among the Jews In the Mount of the Lord it shall bee seen 3. A strong Faith will trust against means in the opposition of all means Such know that hee that can help without means can help if hee please against all means Is any thing too hard for the Lord Thus Moses trusted in God when the Red Sea was before them the Egyptians behinde them and the Mountains on each side of them Fear not stand still behold the salvation of the Lord c. Thus David when the people would have stoned him The Text saith David comforted himself in the Lord his God Thus Daniel and the Three Children Abraham also both in the receiving and offering of his Son Isaac 5. Strong Faith is accompanied 1. With much Peace 2. With much Joy 1. VVith much Peace Strong Faith lives in the upper Region above all storms There 's much variety of weather here below now calms now storms but if a man were above there 's a continual serenity and clearness Strong Faith lives in Heaven above all storms and therefore there 's nothing but calmness and quiet Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith wee have Peace with God Isa 26.3 Thou wilt preserve him in perfect Peace whose mind