Cures on the bodies and Heavenly Truths on the Souls of Men or admirable patience under great sorrows and at last upon a tormenting Cross where he drunk the bitter cup of wrath up to the bottom and over and above all the rest sweet Love and Obedience run through them all with a pure intention to his Fathers Will and Glory And Oh! what a Samplar of Grace is here and how strongly can Faith press for an imitation what shall I not tread in such pure steps my Saviour being before Of whom shall I learn if not of my Redeemer Did he sweat and bleed and die on a Cross for me and shall I not follow him Can I rest on his Merits and precious Obedience and wave his holy Pattern Was he to fulfill all Righteousness and I none at all If I abide in him must I not walk as he walked If I know the truth as it is in Jesus must not those very Graces which were true in him be true in me also Why doth the Spirit come and work those Graces in my Heart but that they should be actuated Unto what was I created in Christ if not to good works I find nothing but vanity in my self and my own ways and shall I not walk in Christ and his holy Graces If I follow him fully shall I not see the Heavenly Canaan at last and there receive a Crown of Life Such a Pattern so pressed on a Believer must needs be a strong motive to the exercise of Grace The Apostle would have us run our race looking unto Jesus Heb. 12.1 2. Fancy as Naturalists tell us hath done strange things a Woman much looking on a beautiful Picture brought forth her Child very like it as Galen relates to be sure Faith looking unto Jesus brings forth his Image in the Heart and Life Thirdly Faith holds out the Promises as incentives to the work The Believer is an Isaac a Child of Promise the new Creature with its Graces is born of the Covenant and ever after lives upon it Every Grace hath some Promise or other to feed on Love hath God dwelling with it Fear hath his secret Meekness his Salvation Patience a crop of Comforts and all of them have an entail of Eternal Life And when Graces are acted there is a Promise of encrease To him that hath that is useth Grace more shall be given more of the same Grace his Talent shall be doubled his Path shineth more and more to the perfect day in Heaven and withal more of the Divine Indwelling Secret Salvation and Comfort promised and at last more of Glory Thus St. Peter speaking of divers Graces saith That if they be and abound in us we shall have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Christ 2 Pet. 1.8 11. Every Grace hath an entrance into it and abounding Grace an abundant entrance and all these Promises are sure in themselves sealed by Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and sure to the Believer being realized by Faith and therefore must needs be very attractive to Obedience Faith in a meer Command will make a Man follow God though like Abraham he know not whither he go Much more impulsive is Faith in a Promise when he knows in so following he is going into an abundance of Grace and Glory The lying Promises of Sin received into a carnal fancy will draw out Corruption into act as we see in Men who are drawn into Sins carnal and spiritual much as their Father Adam was by some Apple of Sensual happiness or appearance of Self-excellency how much more attractive must the precious true Promises of God be when entertained by Faith at the sight of these the Believer as old Jacob at the sight of the Chariots revives and puts himself forth in the exercise of Grace that he may inherit the Promises and the vast treasures of good in them Fourthly Faith observes Seasons and Providences and stirs up Graces suitable thereunto Insidels smother the greatest Works of God some have said That Sodom happened to sire as standing on a Sulphureous soil Others that Moses did but take the advantage of a low-tide to carry the Israelites over the Washes Nay in the Jewish Church the Pharisees and Sadducees though great Rabbies could not because without Faith discern the Signs of that glorious time wherein the Messiah shewed himself on Earth in such excellent Doctrines and Miracles But Faith where it is understands the language of Providence and calls for suitable Graces under a storm of Judgments it calls for the mourning Graces of Repentance and Humiliation lamenting after the Lord under a Sun of Prosperity it awakens the Psaltery and Harp Praise and holy joy in God the Fountain of all When Iniquity abounds it is for Davids rivers of tears to weep over it When Gods Name or Worship or Truth are at the Stake it blows up the fire of Zeal as we see in Paul's Paroxism at Athens Epiphanius his renting the Veil and Athanasius's ardent adherence to the Truth against an Arrian World As the Poor appear Charity must come forth and scatter Alms. As Injuries and Reproaches fly abroad Meekness must shew it self and rather than revenge turn the other cheek In Asslictions Patience must have her perfect work And in Desertions there must be an humble waiting on him that hides his face As God comes forth in this or that Providence so Faith meets him in this or that Grace Every Grace is one time or other called out by a Providence and every Providence hath some Grace to answer it Fifthly Faith actuates Graces in a way of dependence on the Spirit of Christ This is instar omnium Commands Patterns Promises Providences are ineffectual without it The New Creature moves not but by influence from the Head the holy Spirit must first stir up the nest of gracious Principles and then Love and Joy and all other Graces shew forth themselves As the Humane Nature of Christ never acted in a separate way but did all in Union with the Divine So the Believers Graces do nothing apart but all in Union with Christ Those who think that gracious Powers or Principles may go alone and act themselves know not the life of Faith in which all Graces hang upon Christ as beams upon the Sun The Milevitan Council pronounces an Auathema on those that deny the Adjutorium gratiae which worketh to will and to do And the Arausican speaking of that Adjutorium saith Quoties bona agimus Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur When we do good God works our works in us and with us What the life of Faith is St. Paul excellently describes I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith he Gal. 2.20 And again I labour yet not I but the grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Faith is ever in dependence leaning on its Beloved and breathing after the holy Spirit that the gales thereof may make the spicy Graces flow out and upon this
Father and himself would come and make their abode in such an one ver 23. The Abode of the Father and the Son in such an one is in a glorious manifestative way such as gives an experience of their being there and where the Father and the Son are there also is the holy Spirit Thus our Saviour in the 16. and 17. verses of that Chapter saith That the Spirit should abide in them and abide in them in a manifestative way Ye know him for he dwelleth with you saith he And in the 20th verse he saith At that day that is the day of the Spirits in-dwelling Ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Oh what rich glorious Experiences of the Sacred Trinity are here and how happy the Faith and Obedience which arrives at them Godly Men should labour to perfect Holiness to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to get to the top of Godliness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3.14 to be Masters and eminent Presidents in good Works that they may arrive at this great Experiment Thus far touching that center of Divinity the Sacred Trinity In the next place I proceed to the rare Supernatural Truths touching Jesus Christ all which Faith may experiment And here I shall begin with his Incarnation Venit universitatis Creator venit ad homines venit propter homines venit homo saith St. Bernard He was Immanuel God with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man in one Person The Eternal Word was made flesh 1 Joh. 1.14 God was manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And what say the Socinian Rebels to this Truth Rationi sanae repugnat duae substantiae proprietatibus adversae coire in unam personam nequeunt ut sunt mortalem immortalem esse principium habere principie carere mutabilem immutabilem existere saith the Racovian Catechism One and the same Person cannot be Mortal and Immortal have a Beginning and no Beginning or be Mutable Immutable But reason it self though too low a bar for this Truth to appear at will absolve this truth from repugnancy Body and Soul meet in one Person adverse in Properties the one being Corporal the other Spiritual the one Visible the other Invisible the one Rational the other Irrational the one Mortal the other Immortal This is done naturally how much more may it be done Supernaturally It would be against reason to say That Christ were Secundum idem Mortal and Immortal having a Beginning and none Mutable and Immutable But it is not repugnant to say That he is so in respect of the two Natures Humane and Divine Had not Christ been Man he could not have suffered had he not been God he could not have satisfied The Blood was from the Humane Nature and the excellent Merit from the Divine He that disbelieves either must cast away Scripture which asserts both This Truth stands firm in Scripture as might be shewed at large but for the Point in hand Faith may experiment it The Believer may find in himself such fruits of Christs Incarnation as carry a resemblance thereunto and are a kind of inward Seal thereof The humane Nature of Christ was not brought forth of the blessed Virgin generatione sed jussione not in an ordinary way by knowing a man but in an extraordinary by the power of the highest and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost Answerably in the Believer the new Creature is not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.13 He that is such hath not known man nor his power in this great Work but hath had the holy Spirit and its gracious overshadowings on the heart They that dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his shadow shall return saith the Prophet Hos 14.7 Unless the mighty Power of God come upon us we shall have no hearts to return to him This resemblance is excellently set forth by Fulgentius Forma praecessit in carne Christi quam in nostrá side spiritualiter agnoseamus De Incarnat Christi cap. 20. ex eodem spiritu renati sumus ex quo natus est Christas eodem Spiritu Christus formatur secundum fidem in corde uniuscujusque credentis quo Spiritu secundum carnem formatus est in utero Virginis The very same Spirit which formed Christ in the womb forms him in the heart The Humane nature in Christ was united to the Divine in an Hypostatical Union God and Man met in one Person that they might meet in the Covenant of Grace Answerably the Believer is united unto God in a spiritual Mystical Union He is made one Spirit with the Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 Christ was one flesh with us and we are one Spirit with him God is at one with us in Christ and we may approach to God with holy boldness The Humane Nature of Christ had no natural Subsistence but subsisted in the eternal Word sutably the new Creature hath no spiritual Subsistence in it self but subsists in God and his Grace By the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15.10 St. Paul looked on his spiritual Being to be only by Grace In Christ God was manifested in the flesh and tabernacled in it nay the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it Col. 2.10 As low abject a thing as Humane nature is the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it and will dwell in it for ever sutably in Believers the Tabernacle of God is with men he dwells and walks in them and they may be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.19 that is have abundance of his gracious Presence with them A Believer may find that he hath these resembling fruits in himself and withal that unless the Son of God had been incarnate none of them would have been no new Creature but all men lying in the old rubbish of the Fall no Union but an unpassable gulf such as is between Heaven and Hell no spiritual Subsistence but a corrupt one upon the dregs of Free-will no heavenly Fulness but a vacuity of all Grace And from hence he may have an experimental proof of Christs Incarnation the Mystical Union being a proof of the Hypostatical and God manifest in the Spirit of God manifest in the Flesh St. John lays down this as a glorious Truth That Jesus Christ is the Son of God 1 John 5.5 and for proof of it he produces six Witnesses Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost ver 7. and Three on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood ver 8. By the Spirit we may understand the holy Spirit breathing in the Scripture and witnessing in the heart by the Water the sanctifying Graces and those sealed in Baptism and by the Blood the precious Sufferings of Christ which pacifie the Conscience A Believer may experience all these three Witnesses on Earth
cloud upon it and Guilt as a wound in it Make it as lightsome as thou canst from Scripture that as a pure glass it may be fit to reflect the Gospel-Comforts on thy Soul Get a through cure of thy old Wounds or else sooner or later it will cry out against thee Joseph started up in his Brethrens mind a good while after their unnatural sale of him John the Baptist rose again in Herods Conscience upon the fame of Christs Miracles Theodorick having cruelly murdred Boethius and Symmachus was affrighted at the great head of a Fish at his own Table as if it had been one of theirs whom he unjustly put to death Apply therefore Christs Blood by Faith that thy Wounds may be healed David after his great fall prays first to be purged with hysop and then for the joy of Gods salvation Psal 51. The Hysop which was used to sprinkle the Blood under the Law figured out the office of Faith in sprinkling Christs Blood on the Conscience that 's a soveraign Balm to heal thy Wounds and able to make Conscience give thee an answer of Peace I have read a notable story of a sick Man who when Satan appeared and shewed him a long scrole of his Sins in writing saying Behold thy Virtues replied True Satan but thou hast not set down all set down also The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Such a purifier is this that a Man may be able as is said of St. Austin to think of his former Evils without fear as having no spot of unpardoned Sin in him Thy Conscience being made pure walk after it A reciá Conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum said the Orator Leave it not lest thou fall and wound thy self afresh When Conscience summons thee to this or that Duty up be doing God calls thee to it by thine own Heart when it tells thee of such a snare in thy way avoid it pass by it as thou wouldst by Hell God warns thee against it by thy self Conscience will measure out Comforts or Terrors to thee according as thou behavest thy self well or ill towards it If like Saul thou force thy self and rebel against light and give stabs to Conscience what hast thou to do with Peace Thy Heart will reproach thee Conscience will strike again and give thee wound for wound thou shalt doom thy self and like the Devils carry thy Chains and Hell about with thee Tiberius professed to the Senate That he suffered death daily he meant in the torments of his accusing Conscience On the other hand if thou turn thine eyes inward and observe Conscience and walk by the line and level of it thy Heart shall be at rest Conscience shall be a thousand witnesses for thee thou shalt be thine own Comforter and like the Angels carry an Heaven and Paradise aboat with thee Pauls joy shall be thine the testimony of Conscience that thy conversation hath been in godly sincerity and what is this but Assurance That Conscience which faith That thou art sincere tells thee also That thy Sins are pardoned These two are inseparable companions and never part the one from the other Again If thou wouldst have Assurance thou must be much in self-examination Commune with thy own Heart dive into the abyss of it reckon with thy self summon thy self to the Tribunal in thy own bosom The Philosophers espied out this Rule Pythagoras would not have us sleep till we had reviewed the day asking our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What have I transgressed what done and what omitted This though done by the candle-light of Nature much promoted Virtue and the comfort of it Qualâ—s ille somnus post recognitionem sui sequitur quam tranquillus altus liber saith Sencea After a review of ones self Oh what manner of sleep is there how still deep and free is it Much more must such a search into ones own Heart conduce to the Christians Graces and Comforts if done by the pure Sun-light of Scripture Self-examination is a root which bears Self-knowledg and at the top of it grows Assurance which is the knowledg of gracious self Awake therefore O Believer down into thy own Heart rifle the labyrinths and break open the false bottoms there see what of Sin is in thee Is there any darling Sin such as cogs with thy complexion or falls in with thy calling or any way steals away thy Heart and Affections from God Be sure that this is an accursed thing a Deliah as the word imports an exhauster of thy peace and joy However fair it may look to sense it is virtually sorrow and wrath See again what of Grace is there in thee do thou repent of Sin and believe on the Lord Jesus and love God and his holy Ways Are thy Graces genuine such as act thee in the power of the Spirit and square thee to the holy Canon of the Word and level thy Thoughts and Intentions at the Glory of God If thou thus search into thy Heart and do it in truth and faithfulness to the holy Light I dare say thou art ready for the sealing of the Spirit and the very frame of thy Heart is a real prayer for it O how soon may the Spirit come and by a Divine irradiation on thy Soul tell thee That thy Repentance is a Repentance unto Life and thy Faith precious Faith and thy Love Love in Sincerity How soon may it apply and seal the Promises to thy Heart as if it should say to thee Thou repentest indeed and the Mercy in the Promise is thine Thou believest indeed and the Salvation in the Promise is thine Thou lovest indeed and thine are the supersensual superintellectual good things prepared for the lovers of God And now thou maist say much better than Seneca Qualis somnus O how sweet is the rest and repose which the self-searching Soul finds in the bosom of Christ and Grace He that comes to that sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper must prepare himself for the Sâ—ul by Self-examination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man examine himself faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 Examine as a man would do Gold or Silver by the fire or by the Touchstone in like manner must he do so that he may fit himself for the Seal of Assurance of which the Sacramental Elements are Symbols Again If thou wouldst be assured exercise thy Graces and grow therein It much conduces to Assurance to render thy Graces as visible as thou canst Grace however it always carry a Divine lustre in it is not so visible when dormant in an habit or principle as when it is put forth into act and exercise neither is it so visible in its Initials in the smoking flax or bruised reed as in its Progresses and statures in Christ In point of Comfort talents not used are as none Comforts lie dead in Believers as their Graces do the holy sire raked up affords no light to them Awake therefore O Believer to
thee in intimate Communion and sup with thee in the acceptance of thy Graces and thou shalt sup with him at a Banquet of Love Thou mayst experimentally say That the Gospel is come to thee in power and in the holy Ghost and in much Assurance as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess 1.5 In Power in the first work of Conversion in the holy Ghost in the gracious indwelling of it after Faith and in much Assurance in the Sealins of Truth and Love upon the heart Next to that of the Word I recommend Prayer to thee This is an excellent Ordinance it wrestles with God and like a Prince prevails with him It unlocks the Treasury of Grace and fetches down all Blessings it hath a king of Omnipotency in it and if with reverence I may so allude As God brought forth all things by the breath of his mouth so the Believer produces all Blessings by the breath of Prayer Apollonius as Sozomen relates never asked any thing of God but he obtained it And of Luther it was said Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit This man could do what he would with God Ask and thou shalt have Ask the sealing Spirit and thou shalt have it ask in the Name of Jesus Christ His Merits are as pure Incense able to perfume thy Prayers and as a powerful Orator to perswade the Comforter to come down to thee Ask in the holy Spirit in the Grace and sweet Gales of it That the Spirit may be an answer to it self the Spirit as sealing Gods Love an answer to it self as inspiring thy Prayers Ask in Faith Hath not God told thee of a witnessing Spirit Hath he not said That he will speak peace to his Saints Are not his Promises as so many Bonds upon his Truth to make the things promised good Prove him by Prayer if he will be as good as his Word see if he will not own his own hand in the Promise wrestle with him till the day break in the light of his Countenance lifted up upon thy heart Ask in fervency that whilst thy heart is burning with Love towards God his Love which is the Fountain of thine may reveal it self to thee The old Token of acceptance was firing the Sacrifice and it is still a pledg of success when there is warmth in Prayer Ask in sincerity in a pure intention not for self-ease not that thou mayst fare deliciously upon the Love of God but that thy Spirit may be the freer to his service that thy Zeal may be more inflamed towards his Glory The prayer of the upright is his delight in so praying thou shalt meet the favour of God It is very remarkable what posture Paul was in when Ananias was sent to comfort him Behold he prayeth saith God go let him be filled with the Holy Ghost In the beginning of Psal 13. Davids Faith run very low How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ver 1. A while after it lifts up it self a little Consider and hear me O Lord my God lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death ver 3. but praying on it is in the altitudes I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy Salvation ver 5. Prayer is one of Gods sealing times in it thou approachest and drawest nigh to him who is the fountain of Life and Joy Whilest thou art opening and pouring out thy Heart to him Who knows but he may open his Heart and incomparable Love to thee the holy Spirit may come and tell thee as the Angel Gabriel did Daniel in the same posture That thou art greatly beloved a man of desires with God In the last place make use of the Lords Supper There God makes a Royal feast a feast of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well resined he sets forth Christ crucified whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed Come eat his flesh and drink his blood that you may live for ever Eat and let thy Soul delight it self in fatness drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Soul or as the Original Text may be read Be drunk or happily inebriated with the sweet Love of Christ the same crucified Christ which in the Sacrifice on the Cross satisfied Gods heart at this Sacrament can satisfie thine Never any Feast like this which chears the Heart of God and Man How will God manifest his Love here in Salutations Kisses and Unctions The Jews at their Feasts used many demonstrations of Love such as Salutations faying to their Guests Peace be unto thee Kisses from whence afterwards Christians derived their Kiss of Charity or as Tertullian calls it Oscuculum Pacis A Kifs of Peace and Oyl poured out upon the Head called therefore Oleum laetitiae The Oyl of gladness And cannot God do much more at his Table Cannot he salute thee and say Peace Peace to thee because thou trustest in him Cannot he kiss thee with the kisses of his mouth and cause one Promise or other to drop sweetness into thy heart Cannot he give thee the rich anointings of the holy Spirit and sill thee with all joy and peace in believing Let thy Spikenard thy Faith and Love and other Graces send forth their smell that he may break a Box of Spikenard in thy heart and fill and perfume it with the sweet odours of his Love Wait upon him in this Ordinance there he doth by outward and visible Elements seal Pardon and Salvation to thee and believe it he that puts one Seal to thy Sense can put another to thy Heart unto the Seal of Elements he can add the Seal of the Holy Spirit with the outward Bread and Wine thou mayst have the hidden Manna and heavenly refreshments from Christ Whilst thou art renewing thy Covenant and avouching the Lord to be thy God he can own thee and avouch thee to be one of his Children and this will be more to thee than a World Again If thou wouldst be assured walk in Vprightness this is Gospel-perfection the Believers Beauty the soundness of all his Graces the desire and delight of God himself as being a Beam from his own Truth and Simplicity In Scripture he seldom mentions an upright man without setting some mark of Honour upon him Enoch walked with God as one familiar with him Gen. 5.22 and as the Septuagint and after them the Apostle Heb. 11 hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pleased God and how great a Character is this Caleb followed God fully and he is stiled a man of another Spirit such as is above the rate of common Souls Job was a perfect and upright man and God calls him a none such in the Earth The Jews say That the Seventy Souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were worth as much as all the Seventy Nations in the World I am sure the upright the Israelites indeed are the Pearls and Excellent ones in the Earth Now
off from the Will and mountains of earthiness off from the Affections outward miracles in the Churches infancy followed believers for a while Mark 16.17 but inward miracles are ever found in them and no wonder for the exceeding greatness of Gods power is unto them that believe Eph. 1.19 Secondly This precious faith doth compleat the noblest instinct in man I mean that natural pulse which he hath after happiness All men would be happy but none ever hit upon it till faith came The Pagans by natural light have some knowledge of God the supream good but the only access to him is by faith The Philosophers whose profession was the study of wisdom and whose lamp of reason burned brighter then others were no better then the blind Sodomites unable to find the door of happiness De civitat Dei l. 19. c. 1. Hence as St. Austin relates out of Varro the Philosophers might be divided into two hundred eighty eight Sects about the chief good which faith can indubitably immediately point at Some Philosophers placed mans happiness in pleasures which yet are but the sad transformations of men into bruits Some in honours which yet are but great servitudes which made the Noble Charles the fift weep over his Son upon whose shoulders at his retire out of the world he left the burden of a Crown Some in riches which yet are but thorns choaking that precious seed of the word which would grow up if embraced into life eternal Others which were better marks-men in moral virtues yet even these as a learned man observes are but circa res humanas their sphear is but humane converse and they do not as faith elevate the soul into a conjunction with God which is the only true happiness When the Apostle in his Catalogue of graces which minister an entrance into the everlasting kingdom puts in temperance and patience 2 Pet. 1.6 he speaks of them as Graces not as meer moral virtues but as Christianized by Faith which in that place is set in the van But waving the Pagan world let us come to the Christian There the way of life is clearly manifested yet none void of faith ever trod a right step in it nay nor spiritually discerned it unto them that are without all things are in parables Mark 4.11 to the unbeliever though never so great a Scholar Christ and grace and heaven are but as it were in parables The Kohathites whose name as a learned man observes is derived from stupidity carried the holy things covered and so do all the unregenerate Rabbies in the Church till faith waken them out of the stupor of the fall they discern not spiritually the beatitude objectively exposed to view in the Gospel till faith draw off the vail from their hearts but as soon as that is done the way into the holy of Holies is manifest and passable and so the 〈◊〉 instinct after happiness receives a compleature Now this precious faith being precious in the least minim of it may be considered either in its first and lowest measure or in its fruits and glorious progresses In its first and lowest measure it is the very condition of the Gospel and puts a man by virtue thereof into a state of salvation whosoever believeth even with the least degree of precious faith shall be saved I shall therefore first treat of it according to the lowest measure which hath salvation entailed on it and then proceed to the progresses and fruits thereof and according to the lowest measure it may be thus described Precious Faith is a grace of the holy Spirit whereby the heart supernaturally illuminated doth so believe the testimony of God in the sacred Scriptures as in a way of trust or dependance to resign and yield up it self unto Jesus Christ as Mediator and in and through him unto God according to his word In general it is a grace of the holy Spirit in special there is in it first a supernatural illumination which is as the womb of the morning in which this child of light is conceived and then which is the first-born of that light there is a belief of the testimony of God and lastly which makes up the total sum of this grace there is a dependant yielding or resignation of the soul unto the Mediator and through him to God according to the word I shall in order treat of all these and so unsold the description at large The first thing is in generall faith is a grace of the holy Spirit The famous St. Austin once let drop a strange word It is said saith he God worketh all in all but not he believeth all in all therefore that we believe is our own but that we work good it is Gods who giveth the holy Spirit to believers but the good man soon called it back again Aug. Retract l. 1. c. 23. Profecâ—o non dicerem truly I should not have said it if I had then known faith to be the gift of God The Pelagians of old understood by grace only their own free-will and the Gospel-doctrine hence that impious saying of theirs refuted by St. Austin à Deo habemus quòd homines sumus à nobis ipsis quòd justi sumus faith with them was but the issue of their own free-will and it is no other with the Socinians Peccatum originis saith the Racovian Catechism nullum pâ—orsus est quare nec liberum arbitrium vitiare potuit there was not so much as a bruise of free-will in the fall we have a free power of our own to believe but what saith the Scripture Vnto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is gratuitously given to believe Phil. 1.29 and faith is called the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 because it is not from our own spirit and in express terms the grace of God Acts 11.23 it lodges in mans heart as a beam of that eternal grace which is in Gods and to make this clear I shall offer three things First This precious faith is a thing above the natural faculty of man There is in man a natural faith or believing faculty and the very Phiosophers would call for it from their Scholars but as it is in the fall of a house not this or that beam falls but all comes down at once so it was in the fall of man not this or that natural faculty fell but all together and among the rest the believing faculty fell also hence as it lyes in the dust and rubbish of the fall it centers in the creature and without the elevation of grace it can in no wise lift up it self to God and Christ We are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.3 Observe there must be a touch from Christ in glory or else there will be no elevation Christ must first apprehend us Phil. 3.12 or else our believing faculty is but as a dead hand unable to apprehend him Secondly This precious faith is
reason with the Gospel before him arrive at so great a notion of Divinity as is before admitted I answer the key to open this is in the Text the natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned A man by reason and its furniture of learning may in the perusal of the holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions and so know the things of God notionally but he knows them not spiritually and by consequence not congruously to their spiritual nature For the opening of this we must consider that there is in the holy Scriptures something humane or which may be inventoried among the things of man as the letters and words made up of them and sentences made up of words not as if these were not dictated exactly by God himself but that they are common to humane and profane Authors I mean not for the divineness of the matter but for the phrases and forms of speech And there is in them something Divine or which must be computed among the things of God as the mysteries and spiritual things themselves which are represented by those words and phrases I may illustrate this distinction farther by that of our Saviour If I have told you earthly things and you believe them not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things Joh. 3.12 I pray what earthly things did our Saviour tell them was not he there preaching on that divine Theme of Regeneration Very true but Christ spake to them of Regeneration under the shadow of a birth and a wind and not according to the heavenly and spiritual nature thereof in it self Thus the words and phrases in Scripture being of common use are as it were humane types and shadows but the mysteries and spiritual things themselves are altogether divine Now to apply this distinction reason improved reaching to the things of man as its proper line may know the words and sentences in Scripture and so gather up a great notion of Divinity But unless inlightned by the holy Spirit which searcheth the things of God it goeth not beyond its own line it knows not spiritual things spiritually Reason without the light of faith Take it in a Jew at a Sacrifice and it saw the type only and not Christ in it Take it in a Christian at the holy Supper and it sees only the outward elements and discerns not the Lords body Take it in the greatest Rabbi sitting with the Scriptures before him and it sees them only in the shell or letter and not in the mystery And no wonder for even in common Sciences it may be so a man may construe and know the Grammar of a principle in Euclide and yet be ignorant of the Mathematical sense of it much more in divine truths may a man be spiritually ignorant who knows a great deal literally Therefore all Scholars may do well in their studies to do as Zuinglius did who having arrived at Arts and Tongues yet in the reading of the holy Scriptures looked up to heaven As for the great Doctor the holy Spirit when he comes in supernatural illumination then we know the things of God not by our own spirit but Gods the very same spirit which breaths in the Scriptures shines in the heart Hence spiritual things are discerned spiritually by a light congruous to their nature the spirit glorifies and shews forth Christ as the expression is John 16.14 Holy truths are as it were transfigured and shewn forth in glory which before were seen but in the flesh or weakness of the Letter the Deity sparkles out in the beauty and spiritual lustre of Scripture-mysteries which before only appeared in the humanity of words and phrases Now heaven opens and free-grace passes before us the secret of the Lord is with us and we are of his Privy Councel This is the first and fundadamental difference Reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light congruous to spiritual things but the light of Faith is Out of this all the other are derived Secondly Meer Reason digging in the Letter of Scripture arrives but at notions and shadows of knowledg and though these be as the sands on the sea shore they are but a form of knowledg Rom. 2.20 but when the light of faith comes there is sound wisdom Prov. 3.21 or as the original word is essence a thing which can no more be made up of meer notions then a body can of shadows Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Without it notions and literal knowledge have no hypostasis in the heart the spiritual world is as it were lost God and Christ and Heaven are but notions But as soon as faith comes and makes the day-break in the heart the spiritual world subsists afresh God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven to the soul all of them are reallized by faith there is a good treasure in the heart far more substantial then Arts and Tongues and School-notions can make Thirdly Reason with its notions arrives but at a knowledge falsly so called for it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known those things are proposed to be known not as meer notions but as practical things to be in the first place chosen loved embraced and practised but it knows them only notionally and not practically That knowledge whilest materially true hath a secret lye in it thus the Apostle He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.4 'T is not in him in a practical way so as to ballance the will and affections with the excellency of the things known but as soon as faith comes those things are known as they are proposed to be known as practical things to be improved in heart and life The supernatural light digests truths into blood and spirits and turns mysteries into godliness It knows Law and Gospel in their true tendency which is holiness not to be holy is to blast and prophane the meaning of both Fourthly The meer notional knowledge acquired by reason hath no spiritual life or sense in it it hath no life in it meer notions are but a dead faith but faith is a living notion In an unbeliever the notions are all dead affording no pulse of holy affections or motion of true obedience they are all buried in a grave of corruption and covered in the dust of earthly things But as soon as faith comes there is a resurrection in the soul the notions before dead now wake out of the dust and rise in life and power every truth lives in the heart and springs up into the new-creature This supernatural knowledge is a well-spring of life Prov. 16.22 and all the vital acts of grace stream from thence Nay as our Saviour tells us it is life eternal John 17.3 heaven doth dawn and appear in it Meer notional knowledg hath no spiritual sense in it
his passion in drinking of the brook in the way there 's his ascension in lifting up the head there 's his intercession in sitting at Gods right hand there 's his Church Catholick a willing people made so by the power of his grace This was Symbolum Davidicum Davids Creed as a learned man hath it reaching in a manner as far as ours Moreover the Saints of old by their faith kenned a resurrection and life eternal Jobs faith looked through worms and dust to the vision of God Job 19.26 Abrahams faith travelled beyond Canaan unto the heavenly city and country Heb. 11.10 David is in a rapture at the full joys and right-hand pleasures with God Psal 16.11 When Cain talked with Abel his brother Gen. 4.8 the Hebrew text sets not down what he said but it hath an extraordinary pawse implying further matter the Jerusalem Targum says Cain asserted that there was no judgment no judge no world to come no rewards of evil or good but believing Abel said there were all these and then his brother slew him It seems the first fall out was about the future world Wisdom causes her lovers to inherit substance Quid est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nisi futurum saeculum or essence as the original word imports Prov. 8.21 and this substance or essence is as some Jews affirm no other then eternal life in the world to come Now to make my inference from all this If faith were in a measure explicite in those early Saints who had but the twilight of the holy types and cock-crowing of the Prophets how much more should it be so in us who live in the noon-day of the Gospel and as it were directly under the Sun of righteousness in such a Church-state wherein the least is greater then John Baptist we should expand and spread abroad the fails of our faith to take in the larger gales and effusions of the holy spirit Secondly Faith unless explicite cannot arrive at those ends for which it is ordained viz. to raise up the heart to a reliance on the free grace of God in Christ to inslame the heart with the love of God and holy things to sanctifie the heart through the truth and to overcome the world with its lusts A meer implicite faith cannot reach these it cannot raise the heart up to a reliance on Gods grace in Christ to that reliance is prerequired not only a belief that God is true in the Scriptures in general but also a belief that God is true in the precious promises in special We are like Jacob not believing in the mercies of God till we see the chariots the gracious promises which he hath sent down from heaven to carry up our faith to himself They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Psal 9.10 they and they only Neither can it inflame the heart with the love of God and holy things light and heat ever go together Implicite faith is a dark and cold thing affording no spiritual warmth at all he that hath no more is but a Nabal a fool in religion and his heart as dead and cold as a stone within him till the love of God in the explicite notion of it shine into the soul it will not like the disciples at Emmaus burn within us with love to God and his ways neither can it sanctifie the heart through the truth the word did not profit them not being mixed or tempered with faith saith the Apostle Heb. 4.2 Where there is only an implicite faith the word lies upon the heart all in a lump whole and undigested affording no blood or spirits of sanctity to the soul it is explicite faith only which breaks the truth in the heart and mixes and tempers every holy particle therewith from whence the soul comes to be changed and assimulated into the truth receiving a divine likeness from it according to the measure of its faith more or less digesting the same truth in the heart neither can it lastly overcome the world and the lusts thereof this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.4 And this Faith doth by putting a right estimate of things into the heart whereby it manifestly appears that heavenly things do infinitely outweigh earthly in themselves and should do so in the minds of men A man of a meer implicite faith is a man without a ballance or judgment he knows not how to estimate or weigh the excellent things of God and therefore is ever poized down by the world and the lusts thereof It is the explicite faith only which is in the soul as the ballance of the Sanctuary rightly determining the true weight of things and thereby giving heavenly things the victory above earthly in the heart Oh! where this is what a feather a vanity a nothing is the world what in it can weigh against God or Christ or the exceeding eternal weight of glory surely nothing wherefore the followers of faith become conquerors of the world Fourthly This belief must be total and absolute without any salvoes or limitations The Gospel must captivate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the intellect or every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 The Reason must not go at large or random but be kept in safe custody under the Gospel and the divine mysteries thereof it is not to be trusted to never since the fall put an enmity into it against God The Socinians believe the Scriptures only so far forth as they are congruous to reason thus Socinus professes that if this proposition that Jesus Christ satisfied God for our sins were once and again extant in the sacred monuments yet non ideirco he would not therefore believe the thing to be so as we ordinarily conceive of it And another laies down this for a rule Nihil credi potest quod à ratione capi intelligi nequeat that cannot be believed by faith which cannot be comprehended by reason It seems they will trust God no further then they can see him and depend more on their blear-eyed reason then the divine oracle Touching this Socinian faith I shall endeavour to shew first the inrationality of it and then the nullity First The Irrationality of it will evidently appear if we distinguish between the two states of reason before the fall of man and since Reason before the fall was a pure and virgin light without any spot in it afterwards it was destoured and overshadowed with the fall and by that means all that is in the mind of man in his lapsed estate is not reason the blinds and dark shades there are not so but only that which is the relique of the pure primitive light and congruous thereunto the blemish in the eye is not the light the rust in the gold is not the pure metal neither is all that is in lapsed reason to be reckoned reason If then in this case we would know what is rational we
must consider what reason so far as it is pure and right doth dictate to us in this point and what is that but that God as the first unerrable truth must be believed in his words for himself and above all other things even above reason it self Ronand l. 3. dist 23. Justum est saith the Schoolman ut intellecius noster ita captivetur subjacoat summae veritati sicut affectus noster debet subjacere summae bonitati nec potest esse anima recta nisi intellectus summe veritati propter se super omnia assentiat affectus summae bonitati adhaereat It's just and purely rational as to love the supream goodness so to assent to the supream truth for it self and above all that is without any salvocs or exceptions at all the authority being infallible the belief should in all reason be absolute Reason says that God should be believed as a God one that cannot lye no more then cease to be and if as a God then for himself and above all That in the Socinian which adds a salvo to his belief of the holy Scriptures is not his reason but the rust and proud flesh and spiritual corruption of it and to believe such stuff before the truth of God and make it the allay and supream ruler of our faith is desperately and monstrously irrational How this rust grew upon our reason at first is evident in the fall of man the Serpent creeps in upon the woman with an yea hath God said Gen. 3.1 his plot was to weaken the authority of Gods word and when she began to waver about it and diminish the peremptory threatning of death with a least ye dye v. 3. her reason began to corrupt and become dreggy which while pure could not but assert the truth and veracity of God Hence the Apostle speaking to the Corinthian Church as a chast virgin espoused to Christ adds this caution least as the Serpent beguiled Eve so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 3. ver That is take heed of falling off from the pure doctrine of the Gospel the head of every man is Christ so much adherence and subjection as reason hath unto him and his holy truth so much chastity and virginity it hath Virginitae mentis est integrasides Aust in Joh. but as soon as it elapes it becomes an adulteress and should not be suffered to speak in holy things Morcover the irrationality of it will further appear if we consider that the sphear of reason and the sphear of revelation are two distinct things The sphear of reason is filled with natural notions the elements of mans spirit but the sphear of revelation is filled with supernatural truths the dictates of God Reason so far as it is reason is a divine spark a petty Prince in its own dominions but when it leaves these and passes over into the supernatural region and there instead of sitting down at Gods se et to be taught and inlightned assumes the magisterial chair and falls a judging divine mysteries it is no longer reason but a fool and a brute and speaks as simply in matters of Religion as a beast if it could speak would do in matters of reason Thus when our Saviour discoursed Nicodemus about regeneration reason prattled after a strange rate How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born So soolishly and absurdly doth carnal reason carry it self in supernatural things To make this more plain let us compare the weakness of reason with the sublimity of holy mysteries and then the fallibility of reason with the certainty of them First Let us compare the weakness of reason with the sublimity of holy Mysteries Reason having a bruise in the fall is weak even in its own sphear With how much toil doth it creep from letters to words and from words to Arts and Sciences And when it is there how little doth it know Can it span the heavens or measure the vast back-side thereof or number those golden letters the stars therein or understand the Sun which to have done Eudoxus would willingly have been burnt up by it or in one of its beams tell what light is touching which there are no less then seven opinions in one of the Schoolmen which verifies the old saying Non constat ex lumine naturae quid sit natura luminis To come lower can it enter into the treasures of the snow or ride a circuit with the winds or take a rational turn with the flux and reflux of the sea or tell how the massie earth hangs upon nothing or unkennel an occult quality and draw it out to an open view or unriddle a loadstone in which a late Philosopher would have the atomes of both Poles to meet and incorporate Nay in a common stone can it dive into the form or nature thereof dic mihi quid est lapiditas said a Learned man can it strip the meanest creature of the investing accidents and look upon the pure naked essence thereof can it comprehend a drop or a dust in which saith the profound Bradwardine there are infinite figures and numbers De Causâ Dei l. 1. c. 1. pars 32. and consequently infinite Geometrical and Arithmetical conclusions following one another in order and having a mutual dependance between themselves such as no Philosophers can ever reach unto because being capable only of finite conclusions they leave behind them infinite unknown Or if it look about its own mansion-house the brain can it tell where the cells of memory or the play-house of fancy or the shop of the animal spirits are scituate or whether all these live together in a family thousands of such things there are which may make every one cry out with Socrates Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio And shall such a weakling as this dunced and posed in every atome within its own sphear usurp the crown and rule over sacred mysteries and pure revelations which come out of the bosom of God to be the wonder of Angels and faith of men and are in a transcendent excess infinitely above and beyond the capacity of both of them shall it take up the ocean in a little shell measure the sacred Trinity in its shallow understanding And if it will not lye in so narrow a room cast it away as no article of Faith as a thing inter impossibilia mentis not consistent with reason shall it s dim eyes pry into the Ark I mean into that great mystery God in the flesh and there because it cannot see how two such natures as mortal and immortal temporal and eternal mutable and immutable can come together into one person throw it away as Smalcius doth with this rationi sanae repugnat it is repugnant to right reason When reason thus exalts it self in the things of God it sinks below it self into brutish
then in thy heart and then tell me what is fittest to be the rule that which is perfect or that which is imperfect that greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture or that lesser far lesser measure of the spirit in thy heart common sence will tell thee it belongs to the Scripture Moreover the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is it plainest and most obvious where can it be most easily discerned to be the very spirit of God indeed all that is in the Scripture is indubitably of the holy spirit but all that is in thy heart is not so it may be it is from thy own spirit what thou didst suppose to have been from Gods nay it may be it is from Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light The Disciples would have called for fire from heaven as Elias but Christ tells them ye know not of what spirit ye are Luk. 9.55 as if he had said you think this motion came from an extraordinary spirit such as was in Elias but alass it is but from your own spirit nay from the gall and bitterness of it that which you take for zeal is indeed but revenge When upon our Saviours discourse of his sufferings Peter said be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee no doubt he thought himself right in the thing but our Saviour calls him Satan for it Mat. 16.23 his meaning was pious and as he might think from the same holy spirit which a little before inspired him to make a glorious confession of Christ but alass the devil acted secretly therein Of what I find in Scripture I can immediately and without any more ado pronounce that it is the very voice of the holy spirit but of what I find in my own heart I cannot do so First the light must be divided from the darkness Gods spirit must be distinguished from mans and Satans And how such a piece of spiritual Chymistry should be done without the Scripture I cannot imagine There may be three different spirits in my heart and unless I reduce them in a way of trial to the one pure spirit in the Scripture I may be easily cheated by my heart wherefore the Scripture in which the characters of the spirit are more plain and legible then in my own heart must needs be the rule Once more let me ask thee O Enthusiast who criest up the spirit the spirit above Scripture dost thou seek the spirit aright or follow him faithfully I fear thou doest neither Thou doest not seek the spirit aright because not in his own way which now is not in visions and immediate revelations but in the Scripture Thou wouldest have the spirit but wilt not stay upon the mountains of the Prophets and Apostles for him Thou doest like Joseph and Mary they sought Christ among their kindred and acquaintance when he was in the Temple Thou seekest the spirit among thy own fancies and imaginations when he is in the Scripture My spirit and my words shall not depart out of thy mouth saith God Isa 59.21 Observe the spirit and the word are by Gods own ordinance in a sweet conjunction together he that sunders them loses both of them For a man to wave the Scripture and seek the spirit is as if he should forsake the beams and search after the Sun in some place where it shines not The French Kings use to be crowned at Reims because there is the sacred oil which as they say came down from heaven If thou wouldest be crowned with heavenly wisdom be in the Scriptures there and there only is the holy Unction which will teach thee all things Neither dost thou follow the spirit as thou oughtest the spirit if followed in his own way will lead thee into all truth but if thou wilt follow the spirit in an extra-scriptural way thou doest not follow it indeed but thy own fancy and whilest thou seemest to soar above Scripture thou art like to fall far below it into the ditch of error and wickedness In no better place have thy predecessors been after all their high-flying imaginations Montanus that early Enthusiast called himself the Paraclete and magnified the writings of his two Prophetesses above the sacred Gospel The Messaliani thought they could corporeally see the sacred Trinity and dance upon devils and receive the holy spirit in a visible way Oh Satanical illusion John of Leydens visions teemed out Poligamy and a bloody Rebellion Into what wild assertions did Swenckfield and Henry Nicholas come by their Enthusiastical spirit the first saying that the Gospel is the Essence of God nay faith in the heart is so The other blasphemously alledging That the believer is Godded with God and the spirit of love is God incarnate How did Valdesso run into Familism and Antinomianism And what else did Saltmarsh in his book called Sparkles of Glory making as if Christ were but a mystical sigurative man and God in the flesh were only God in his Saints Oh mystery of iniquity whither will not this extra-scriptural spirit go what errors will it not broach what sacred foundations of truth will it not demolish how little Gospel or divine rule will it leave to Christians Leave it then O Enthusiast or else thou canst not follow the spirit of truth Thus much by way of question to the Enthusiasts Secondly I shall in a word say somewhat to their Allegations they say That the Scriptures are but the Christians Alphabet and for beginners only But let us remember the spirit which is in believers in an ordinary way was in the Pen-men of Scripture in an extraordinary I was in the spirit saith St. John Rev. 1.10 he saith not the spirit was in me but I was in the spirit as a vessel in the sea every way surrounded and overruled by it And who can believe that the spirit in its ordinary way should exceed it self in its extraordinary that in believers it should utter high mysteries which in Prophets and Apostles gave out only an Alphabet If it be no more I dare say no man no not the most perfect Disciple of God on earth ever throughly understood his Alphabet no mans knowledge ever dived into the bottom of Scripture no mans holiness was ever parallel to its precepts nor no mans faith ever traced the unsearchable riches of grace there unto the uttermost and shall we say it is only an Alphabet for beginners Is it not the wisdom of God in a mystery is it not able to make the man of God perfect hath St. Paul milk only and not strong meat was St. Peter to seed the lambs only and not to feed them into sheep and when they were such doth St. John write only to the little children and not to the young men and fathers also He writes to them all plainly shewing that no man of what stature soever in grace did ever outgrow the Scripture Again they say the Scriptures are but a
of grace and breaths beams of light and utters sparkles of glory nothing but mysteries and rectitudes and words of eternal life ever came from him and to make these come home to thee he is an inward Ecclesiastes one who can unlock thy secrets and come into the midst of thee and there express himself in words of life and power and all the while his Majesty shall not swallow thee up He speaks through an humane nature and vail of flesh in rare condescension and compassion towards thy weakness Whilest faith is in the high praises of this great Prophet the heart cannot chuse but be upon the wheels ready to run to him and say speak Lord for thy servant heareth Secondly It doth it by humbling and softning the heart Before faith a man is in the ruff of pride and there 's no speaking to him his heart is as a stone or Adamant and beats off holy truths but after it the man becomes as a little child and Christ may say any thing to him his stony heart is turned into flesh and so made ready for God to be manifested in it Faith doth so meeken the heart that it will sit down at Christs feet and hear him even in his hardest Lectures Let Christ talk of racks and bloody persecutions for the Gospel and the believer will be ready to get up the cross on his back Let Christ preach of high and transcendent mysteries such as reason cannot fathom and the believer will subscribe in silence what ever reason mutter against it Secondly Faith having discipled the soul yields it up to Christ to be taught And because now he doth not teach in person as once in the days of his flesh faith yields up the soul to him to be taught by his spirit The discipled believer loves to stand as Adam in the wind of the day in the gales of the holy spirit And this will appear in two-things First Faith waits upon the Spirit in the Means and when the spirit comes in holy motions it welcomes him into the soul Faith waits upon the Spirit in the Means there it cries out as Elisha at Jordan where is the God of Elijah here 's the mantle but where 's the God here are the Scriptures but where 's the Spirit that endited them to make holy impressions and seal divine truths upon the heart here are the ordinances but oh for the moving of the waters awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon the garden that the spices may flow out And when the spirit comes in holy motions faith opens the everlasting doors and welcoms him in as Laban did Abrahams servant come in thou blessed of the Lord stand not only without in the Scripture-letter come in thou that comest in the name of the Lord. Take the throne of my heart and bid the world go down and sit at thy footstool Take the keys of the soul and unlock every faculty set up thy lamps in every dark corner and discover the accursed things there Speak O heavenly Rabbi speak in words of life and power and shew me the path of life and righteousness Secondly Faith is very chary and loth to lose the teaching spirit Like the Spouse in the Canticles it holds him and and will not let him go Cant. 3.4 This is to the believer as the apple of his eye he would not have a dust of earth fall into to lest it grieve and weep out some of the holy light and as the fire in the Temple it must not go out if there be but a live coal or single spark it must be brown up into a flame Holy motions are very precious to the believer as it were beams of heaven better in Faiths account then the great Sun which quickens the animal world and like so many good Angels sent from God to give the soul a visit rather then these should be violated and abused faith will offer all its worldly comforts as Lot his daughters to be defloured If the holy spirit depart faith writes scabbed upon all other things and the believer becomes as a dead man unable to breath in prayer or walk in holiness or live or have a being in the spiritual world The Sun is down and it is night with him the dew is off and his fleece dry the gales are wanting and he is at a stand in his voyage to heaven Thus faith yields up the soul to be taught by the spirit Secondly In and through Christ the Mediator faith yields up the soul to God to be taught by the spirit I say in and through Christ the Mediator Without a Mediator God will not speak to a sinful creature unless out of the fire in words of wrath like those at the last day Go thou cursed one If he speak and commune with us in words of peace and salvation it must be from the mercy-seat that is through Christ who is called Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or propitiatory Rom. 3.25 Hence Christ is called the wisdom of God because through him that wisdom doth manifest it self and as God speaks so faith hears and resigns both are in and through the Mediator I say in and through the Mediator faith yields up the soul to God to be taught by the spirit the very same teaching spirit as it was procured by the Mediator so it is given out by God Therefore faith for the teaching thereof resigns up the soul as to the Mediator the procurer so to God the donor of it And in this resignation faith climbs up to him by that noble Attribute of his infinite wisdom Are there transcendent mysteries in Scripture Faith will resign and cry out with Zophar Oh! that God would speak and shew me the secrets of wisdom Whilest the Scripture is in its hands it sighs and looks up for the key to unlock and shew forth this and that truth in its spiritual glory or at least in some such beams of it as it is capable of the Original Languages will not serve its turn without the Original Author nor the Learned Commentators without the great Interpreter that only wise God who endited the Scripture can illustrate the heart and whilest the believer reads the one he waits for the other Is there a practical case dubious and perplexed like an intricate Labyrinth or way-less wilderness and when the believer goes about to put all circumstances into the ballance doth he tremble and demurr like Origen at the Idol-incense and cannot be satisfied In such a case Faith runs and Esra-like hangs upon God for a right way the All-wise can make a way in the wilderness and guide thee with his eye saith Faith one cast or glance from his wisdom will disintricate thy doubts and make thy way plain before thee Doth the outward world grow stormy and tempestuous is the sky of the times overclouded with troubles and dangers faith stands in the posture of Jehoshaphat we know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2
Chron. 20.12 we know not but thou knowest how to deliver there is nothing but confusion below but all is clear and serene in thy wise counsels there is no one way or method of deliverance in our reason but there are insinite millions of ways and methods with thee Such a faith as this made Luther in the troubles of the Church cry out That it was far otherwise concluded in heaven then at Norimberg and in the blackest tempest inspirits the believer to do as the Mariners in the Acts cast anchor and wish for the day roll himself on the wise God and wait for the dawning of comfort from him Thirdly Faith yields up the soul for instruction unto the word And here are three things considerable First Faith resigns to the word as a warrant for both the former resignations If you ask a believer why he presumes so far as to go to Christ and God for the teachings of the spirit his answer will be this I find in the word divers promises that we shall be taught of God that the spirit shall lead us into all truth that there is an holy annointing dropping from Christ which teacheth all things And all these promises are very true the counterpanes of Gods heart and exactly congruous to the grace there God speaks in them and without complement he speaks as he means therefore I resign up my soul unto Christ and God for instruction teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy commandements saith David Psal 119.66 where by commandements some Divines understand all the word including in it Promises as well as Commands however the believer hath a warrant to pray teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy promises of instruction Secondly Faith resigns to the word as a rich mine and treasury of knowledge there are pretious ous mysteries such as have the divine wisdom flowing in them Them Hungarians have a tradition that their golden Crown dropt down from heaven to be sure the mysteries in Scripture did so they are pure Revelations come down from God to be as golden Crowns on the head of Faith The window of the Ark was as some Rabbins say a pretious stone which gave light to all the creatures and indeed the Original which we translate window Gen. 6.16 imports a splendor or clear light Understanding is our window but the Scripture mysteries make it a window of pearl Humane learning is but painted glass but these make windows of agates such as are in the taught of God Isa 54.12 13. These are riches of understanding pearls and intellectual rubies fit to be laid up in the very middle and Center of the heart There the holy precepts and precious promises beauties of holiness and glories of grace lye open to the embraces of Faith There the invisible God whose dwelling is in light unapproachable and whose pure glory our eyes cannot look on may be seen in the reflex in the Scripture image and condescension In a word so rich are the veins of knowledge there that faith as a day-labourer is ever digging therein to draw out a stock of holy understanding from it Thirdly Faith resigns to the word as the only way in which a man may be taught of God All men are ambitïous of so grand a priviledge The very Gentiles in the puddle of their filthy Idolatries thought themselves taught of God in their Oracles The Mahometans think themselves more sure of it in their Alcoran at which say they the devils themselves rejoyced and turned to God no question they rejoyed at such a bundle of lies and blasphemies but that they turned to God is a wild delusion The Jews boast themselves no less in their Oral Law which say they God delivered over to Moses and Moses to Joshua and Joshua to the Elders and they to the Prophets and they to the Sanhedrim and they at last to writing in the Talmud calling it lux illa magna that great light which yet is but a dark labyrinth of errors and horrible falsities The Papists run to their traditions and unwritten verities as Divine and so bring in a load of fopperies and vain superstitions The Enthusiasts cry up the spirit in an extra-scriptural way and so turn aside from the main principles of Religion In such false ways do men lose themselves and the Divine teaching whilest the believer knows where to sind it even in the Scriptures in reading them he sits at Christs feet and every where looks for Maschil instruction from God In them is the Oracle the Vrim and Thummim by which God answers him here he opens his heart and spreads abroad all his sails to take in the gales of the holy spirit and be filled in all the will of God Col. 4.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filled with it as the sails are with the wind Whilest the Eunuch was reading the Prophet Esaias the spirit joined Philip to his chariot Act. 8.29 Whilest the believer hath his being in the Scriptures the spirit joyns himself to his heart and by the infusion of holy light makes him go on rejoycing in the way of knowledge Here and only here doth he wait to be taught of God such is and since the sealing up of the Canon ever hath been the way of knowledge And what of extraordinary dispensation hath been since hath either directly turned men to their Bibles Confess l. 8. c. 12. Melch. Adam in vità Zuinglii as the voice to St. Austin tolle lege tolle lege pointing him to the Scripture or else hath quoted or ratified some Scripture-truth Thus when it was objected to Zuinglius that the word est in Scripture-parables may be taken for significat but not in verbis coenae in the Sacramental phrases and his thoughts were busie about it an answer was suggested to him in a dream a monitor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 telling him Quin ignare respondes ei quod in Exodo legitur est enim phase hoc est transitus Domini in which there is nothing extra-scriptural but a Scripture-instance given for that which before was a Scripture-truth the Scripture is the only place where we can look for Divine teaching To conclude that of the Father is remarkable qui sacrâ non utitur Scripturâ sed ascendit aliunde non concessâ viâ fur est he that goes not into knowledge by Scripture is a thief the believer keeps the divine road Thus far of the first thing resignation for instruction in the ways of God Secondly Faith resigns up the soul to be pardoned and justisied before God unto justification and pardon there are three things prae-required First An act of free grace in God All men are naturally sinners and as such Gods holiness cannot but hate them Gods justice cannot but punish them wherefore free-grace stepped in and found out a way how God who cannot justifie the ungodliness might yet justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 and that in a way of compliance both with his
because God is love and grace free and partly by the Attribute of Almighty power sin is strong but not infinitely the Almighty who subdues all things to himself can easily subdue it The heart is a dead womb and not able to teem out the least particle of grace but the Almighty can quicken the dead and raise up a divine seed therein The fingers which made an Heaven and an Earth can make a new heart and a new spirit Faith takes hold on the power of God for the working sanctification in the heart Thirdly This resignation is made to the word and that upon a double account It is made to the word as the warrant of both the former resignations and made to the word as the engine in Gods hand for the working of sanctification it is made to the word as the warrant of both the former resignations The word is full of promises of mortifying and quickning grace and these promises stream out to us from the pure fountain of free-grace through the bleeding wounds of the Mediator and are all Yea and Amen Hence faith resigns to God and Christ for all sanctifying grace It is also made to the word as the engine in Gods hand for the working of sanctification The word is a mighty weapon able through Gods power to cast down the heights and strong holds of sin and an immortal seed able through Gods grace to quicken the heart and spring up into the new-creature Faith therefore resigns to it that the heart may be sanctified through the truth Thus far of the third thing resignation for sanctification Fourthly Faith resigns up the soul to be ruled as to its actings I say as to its actings That I may clearly distinguish it from the but now mentioned sanctification which consists in inward principles of grace And still to press in my old steps First This resignation is made to Jesus Christ the Mediator Faith translates the soul into the kingdom of Christ and loves to live no where else the world in its eyes is but a house of bondage but it loves to live in Christs dominions Where holiness is there 's the King of Saints where meekness and patience there 's the throne of the Lamb where righteousness there 's his Scepter where Gods will prevaileth there he sits in Power and Majesty at the last day sense will discover this great King Jesus coming in the clouds in power and glory But faith sees him here coming in state in every holy command and riding as it were on the wings of the wind in every motion of the holy spirit The posture of faith herein is like that of the Israelies when the pillar of cloud and fire went before them then they journied otherwise they staid in their place when the spirit and word of Christ goes before the believer faith follows after else it will not stir a foot out of its place it is really in the believers heart to be ruled by Christ in all things Take him in holy ordinances these saith faith are the throne of Christ here below in these he fits at the right hand of power here the believer waits to see the power and the glory as the man with the withered hand in stretching it forth waited for a power to restore it and as the blind man in his going and washing in Siloam waited for a power to recover his sight so the believer in every ordinance waits for the power of Christ if he break the rocky heart melt it into the divine will the believer cries out the Lord reigneth here is the day of power indeed Take him in the works of his calling and there he is ruled by Christ one would think the servant were only toiling and drudging in his servile employments but if he be a believer he is serving the Lord Christ Col. 3.24 and by a divine praerogative above other mens his deeds are wrought in God such was the posture of pious Musculus in the town-ditch as well as in the Pulpit Faith is such an engine as brings down the kingdom of Christ though not of this world into the meanest trades the believer acting therein as Peter let down his net at the command of Christ and therein as in his calling abiding with God which is more then the unbeliever doth under divine ordinances nay take him even in natural actions the believer when himself cats and drinks and sees and hears and speaks and sleeps and wakes and walks after another rate then other men doing all under the Law of Christ that 's a knife at his throat a covering to his eyes a stopper to his cars a bridle on his lips when he sleepeth that keeps him when he waketh that talks with him when he walketh that leads him the kingdom of heaven which is not meat or drink or any such thing is by faith brought down into all these The genius of faith is to be ruled by Christ in all things Secondly This resignation in and through the Mediator is made to God I say in and through the Mediator because without him we can expect to be ruled by God in no other way then by the iron rod of his power and justice dashing us in pieces to all eternity but in and through him the believer may and doth yield up himself to God to be ruled And here he makes use of two Attributes Gods soveraignty and Gods holiness God is the supream Lord and must be obeyed he is the holy one and must be sanctified in each command the beams of his majesty and holiness sparkle out and these faith takes in to melt the heart into a compliance with the divine will Plato being asked by one of his Scholars how long his precepts were to be obeyed answered Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui sontem veritatis aperiat the believer desires to be ruled by God because an higher and holier cannot come Thirdly This resignation is made to the word Ask a believer how he knows himself to be where he would be in the dominions of God and Christ his answer will be I know it by the command in the word and in the command his faith eyes two things the truth of the command and the soveraignty his faith eyes the truth of it the command is true as coming from God himself and being the very counterpane of the holiness in his heart This is the will of God even your sanctification saith St. Paul 1 Thess 4.3 Gods will is in himself but the command is the counterpane of it thy word is true from the beginning saith the Psalmist Psal 109.160 or as the Original is the head of thy word is truth the body of the command in Scripture answers to the head of it in the holy will of God Faith looks on the command as issuing out of the very heart of God and exactly agreeing thereunto and upon this account resign to it as to the good and acceptable will of God Again
darkness and see little or no light their light may be like that in the Prophet Zach. 14.6 neither clear nor dark they may live in crepusculo in a kind of twilight in a mixture of light and darkness Secondly Faith goeth before justification but assurance followeth after it Faith goeth before justification Scripture is express in it by him all that believe are justified Acts 13.39 with the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10.10 the righteousness of God is upon all them that believe Rom. 3.22 we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified Galat. 2.16 might justification go before faith it were possible that a man might be saved in his sins a child of wrath might be in the arms of divine love a captive of Satan might be a son of God a man out of Christ might be justified in him all which are impossible but assurance follows after justification justification is necessarily presupposed to assurance for to believe my sins forgiven that they may be forgiven is absurd to believe my sins forgiven before they be forgiven is false to believe my sins forgiven because I believe so is vain and foolish Remission must first he before it can be manifested to be it must first be granted out of the Court of heaven before there can be any true Copy of it in conscience unless we allow a distinction between a faith of resignation before and a faith of assurance after justification we cannot possibly deal with the Romanists Bellarmine speaking of that special faith whereby a man believes himself just before God in and through Christ puts this Quaere De notis Ecclesiae l. 4. c. 11. Cum incipio credere me esse justum vel sum justus vel injustus si justus non justificor per fidem banc quia ista fides posterior meâ justitiâ si injustus ista fides est falsa when I begin to believe my self just am I just or unjust if just I am not justified by this faith which is after my righteousness if unjust this faith is false neither is there any imaginable way to dissolve this knot regularly without such a distinction between faith as antecedent to justification and faith as consequent Thirdly Faith justifieth us in foro Dei before God assurance justifieth us in foro conscientiae in our feeling and declaratively only Faith justifies us before God all those expressions in St. Paul touching justification by faith are meant of a justification before God I shall name but one or two that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith Gal. 3.11 the justification before God here denied to the Law is attributed to faith And again a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2.16 He doth not say faith declares a man justified for that even the excluded works may do but saith justifies Faith uts on Christ and his righteousness assurance only bears witness that the wedding garment is on Faith waits at the footstool of free-grace to have a pardon sealed in heaven assurance copies it out and proclaims it in conscience unless we admit this distinction we open the flood-gates to Antinomianism Fourthly Faith is a permanent thing an immortal seed which never dies it is built upon the rock of ages and cannot be moved it hangs upon an infallible word the least jot or tittle thereof cannot fall to the ground it is fed with an everlasting spring the holy spirit being in the believer as a well of water springing up to eternal life but assurance is transient now the believer hath nothing but wine and honycombs of grace and a little after he hath a cup of gall and wormwood now a sheet full of celestial joys and comforts is let down to him and then all is taken up into heaven again he is much like Joseph sometimes in the coat of many colours in the visible badges of his fathers love and anon stript and cast into the pit like poor Heman free among the dead and laid in darkness he is a spiritual Heliotrope who is all day in heavenly amours wheeling and turning about to the light of Gods countenance and anon when night approaches contracts his leaves and hangs down his head till there be another Sun it the effence of faith be in assurance the believer stands as it were upon a sea of glass in a very lubricous condition 't is well with him whilest he hath the light of Gods countenance whilest Gods spirit bears witness to his that he is a child of God but what if God withdraw and retire as it were into his unapproachable light what if the crannies of the heart be all shut up so that neither the sunny beams of Gods favour nor yet the starry graces in the heart can appear what if the arch-enemy Satan come with those instruments of death the threatnings and rake in the old wounds of sin and join the darkness of temptation to the darkness of corruption in the believer to cause if it were possible utter darkness must he be an Apostate a cast-away a man fallen from grace God forbid St. Bernard speaking of the manifestation of Gods love cries out Rara hora brovis mora O si durâsset it is a rare hour but a short stay Oh that it would continue with me the believers standing is not in it but in his union with Christ this was notably exemplified to us in Christ when he cried out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me Math. 27.46 the hypostatical union was not dissolved but the present vision substracted in like manner the believer the man in Christ when in desertions and temptations hath a sure conjunction with Christ even whilest there is a suspension of comforts unless we own this distinction we cannot maintain the doctrine of perseverance against the Remonstrants Fifthly Faith is the first-born of all graces and leads the van to all the rest it is the mother-grace and as it were teems out all other graces and no wonder for it unites us to Christ out of whose fulness we receive grace for grace and into whose image we are changed from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord but assurance follows after faith and all other graces This will be evident if we consider the manner how assurance is produced it is not an Enthusiasm a voice an internal locution speaking to the heart some such words as these thou art in Gods favour or thy sins are forgiven or thou art a son of God no it is in another way the holy spirit doth so irradiate the heart in its reflections and all the pretious graces lodging there that it plainly appears that the grace of God is there of a truth as it was with the blind man in the Gospel when his eyes were opened he could look abroad in the world and say here 's the earth
Here am I Isa 58.9 as if he were always at hand to answer the request Thirdly Adoption ushers in an Heavenly freedom whilest the Law is only without in the letter and the terrors of Sinai flash in the Conscience the man with his old heart of enmity drudges in the ways of God and brings forth all his Duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in the power of nature in a dead carnal servile manner Moses with the cords of Hell and Death drags the outward man to this and that Duty but old Adam with his lusts reigning within holds back the love and the joy and the delight from the work all renders to bondage till Adoption come and spirit him for holy things Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts Gal. 4.6 The same Spirit which led the Humane Nature of Christ into all Sinless Obedience leads the Adopted into a true willingness to all the Ways of God that Spirit engraves a Law within answering the outward one and inspires such a Divine Love as casts out the Bond woman and her Son I mean the servile fears and services the Will is set upon the wheels of Faith and Love and the Duties are brought forth in the power of Grace and of the Promise that Promise I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 is sweetly experimented in every act of Obedience this glorious and almost Angelical freedom grows upon Adoption and no where else no will of man ever seemed out such a thing should any man go about to strike it out of his own power it would fare with him as it did with the person reported of by one of the Jewish Rabbies who in the night lighted his Candle and it went out lighted it again and again and still it went out at last weary of such vain labours he resolved with himself to wait for the Sun Such an one may strike and strike again to fetch such a liberty out of his own will but at last the Conclusion must be If the Son make us free we shall be free indeed Joh. 8.36 and Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Fourthly Adoption brings us into sweet Communion with God thus the Apostle I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 6.16 I will dwell in them and walk in them who can express it In the Sons of God there is an Ark with the Tables of the Law in it and a Sanctuary with the Shechinah or Divine Majestly in it Gods gracious presence is Spiritual shew-bread and his Love burns upon the heart as the fire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar when they are sacrificing in holy Duties God doth wonderfully by his quickening and elevating influences and when they are suffering in the briers and flames of affliction God is in the Bush supporting and preserving them if Conscience breaths sweetness and peace God is in the still voice if their Graces be set forth God is a supping with them nay if there be but a poor spirit and weak desires God will sup with these the holy light and integrity in their heart is a kind of Vrim and Thummim to direct them and the Heavenly motions and inspirations are as it were a Bath Kol a voice from Heaven for their instruction in a word all the appearances of God in the worldly Sanctuary and outward Symbols of Glory under the Old Testament are spiritually accomplished under the New in the Adopted who are an habitation of God through the Spirit Fifthly Adoption assures protection and provision Israel Gods own People had a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire to defend them and these Pillars are still in the Church though not always visible God hath said it That he will create upon her a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night upon all the glory shall be a defence Isa 4.5 Rather than his Adopted ones who carry his Glory about them shall want a defence he will put forth an act of Creation Israel when in the Wilderness had Bread from Heaven and Water out of the Rock and to the upright God saith Their Bread shall be given them and their Waters shall be sure Isa 33.16 Rather than fail He will make rivers in the desert to give drink to his People Isa 43.20 When there 's a pinch in the Kingdom of Nature his own Family and Houshold shall be provided for The young Linons may lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 34.10 That Distich Est Deus in coelo qui providus omnia curat Credentes nusquam deseruisse potest Was a Cordial to Musculus in his streights Faith fears no Famine neither shall the Adopted feel any Sixthly Adoption carries with it Perseverance Once a Son of God by Adoption and ever so One of the Jewish Doctors Commenting on that excellent passage With thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light Psal 36. saith That the Israelites were made free by Moses and then brought into bondage again and made free by Barak and divers others and yet brought into bondage again at last they shall be saved by the Lord their God with an eternal Salvation that is by the Messiah If meer notions make us free we shall be in bondage again if Church-priviledges make us free we shall be in bondage again but if Adopting Grace make us free we shall ever be so God hath said nay sworn to Jesus Christ His seed and such are all the Adopted shall endure for ever and his throne part whereof is in their hearts as the Sun before me Psal 89.36 and to make them endure the holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life Joh. 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 Nay though they break his statutes and thereby bring the rod upon their backs yet God hath promised Not to take away his loving kindness nor suffer his faithfulness to fail Psal 89.33 Upon such unshaken foundations do the Sons of God stand Seventhly Adoption makes them heirs of Heaven Though they may lye among the pots and in the eyes of the World be the refuse and off-scouring of all things yet are they heirs of Glory thus the Apostle If children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 That Glory which Christ hath purchased shall they be brought into that Heavenly Inheritance which is sealed without in the Promise is inwardly assured to them by the Seal of the Spirit which by holy impresses marks them out for Heaven and is a sure earnest in their hearts that the whole sum of glory shall be paid to them above each of them
God in Christ and that must needs in flame the Heart towards him Tamum amamus quantum credimus Hence Aquinas himself confesses That though Faith and Hope may be without Charity yet without Charity they are not properly Virtues And Durandus saith Credere in Deum non est praecise actus fidei sid actus fidei charitatis simul To believe in God is not precisely an act of Faith but of Faith and Charity together So Inseparable are these two Graces But leaving the Schoolmen I shall proceed Faith connects all Graces together in a triple way it connects them in the fontal cause the boly Spirit which it receives all Graces are from the Spirit and the Spirit is received by Faith hence rivers of living water flow in the Believers heart Joh. 7.38 that is All Graces flow there as waters from a fountain it connects them in the Rule the Command of God which it universally respects It is observed by Divines That the five last Commands in Deut. 5. run thus Thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit Adultery and thou shalt not Steal and thou shalt not bear false Witness and thou shalt not Govet The word And points out to us that all the Commands are coupled together by God like the Curtains of the Tabernacle all are as it were one body and Faith hath a respect to every one of them and in every one owns the same stamp of Divine Authority He that said Love thy God said also Love thy Neighbour He that said Be Zealous said also Be Meek and Patient and Obedient and abundant in all Grace It connects them also in the end the Glory of God which it looks at in all things all Graces tend to that Glory and Faith is the single eye which guides them all thither Bonum opus intentio facit Enarr in Psal 31. in Pras intentionem sides dirigis saith St. Austin Faith knows what that is wherein God would be glorisied All Graces being thus connected in Faith which is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or firmament as the word is Col. 2.5 to them all it comes to pass that Faith in actuating any one Grace gives a strength and further growth to every other Grace Thus it is in Graces respecting distinct Tables the more we act our Love to God the more will be our Love to our Neighbour this though belonging to the second Table flows ex fonte pietatis out of that fountain of Piety which respects the first Thus it is in those Graces which are seemingly contrary as in Zeal and Meekness the more we act our Zeal for God the more will be our Meekness towards Men. Hence in the Primitive Christians who were so hot for Christianity was found a very meek Spirit and the reason is because a Man cannot truly actuate one Grace but he will have more of that Spirit which is fontally all Grace and graciously multiplies Talents in the use of them Neither can he truly obey one Command but it will render his Heart more Obediential and ready to obey others also as being enjoined by the same Authority nor can he in one thing look at Gods Glory but it will in some measure encline him to seek it in other things also and so the New Creature grows in every part and his Path shines more and more to the perfect day in Heaven CHAP. XI Precious Faith considered in the Crowns and Statures thereof The Divine Experiences of Faith as it Experiments the Divinity of Scripture in the Precepts Promises Threatnings and Supernatural Truths thereof Concerning the Blessed Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence Jesus Christ the Mcdiator and the Efficacy of Grace HAVing treated of Justification Adoption and Sanctification which are Fruits of Faith and are more or less in all Believers I now proceed to some other which are The Crowns and Statures of Faith and to be found not in all Believers at least not at first but in such as have made a good progress in Grace Faith have made a good progress in Grace Faith having obtained the Holy Spirit with all its Graces doth now go on like The Baptized Eunuch rejoycing in the ways of God glorying in Free Grace triumphing in Jesus Christ warring against Corruptions actuating Holy Graces bowing down under the Commands of Heaven sucking the Sweet-Breasts of the Promises and waiting for the Heavenly Dews and Distillations of the Spirit and in this holy Progress gathers up many choice Experiments more worth than a World All learned Men are for Experiments and every one would cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it the Sages of the Law are for tried Cases which have been sub judice the Physitian sets a probatum est on approved Medicines the Anatomists hunts after the arcana of Nature by Dissection of Bodies and the Chymist by Dissolution thereof Experience is procreatrix Artium the very Parent of Arts whose universal Precepts are collected by an induction of particulars but there are no Experiments like those of Faith Dr. Dees Spirits made as if they would reveal great Mysteries to him such as they called the Cabbala of Nature the Numbers of the World the linea Spiritus Sancti the Mirabilia Dei and the Nova terra bringing forth without Tillage but all these were but Dreams and Impostures and so I suppose are many things in Chymistry like Helmonts Alkahest wonderful if true But the Experiments of Faith are great Realities and withal Divine as much above those in the Sphear of Nature as Souls are above Bodies and Heaven is above Earth God in the Prophet calls on his People to baing in the Tythes for his House and so by their Obedience to prove him If he would not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3.10 When Faith goes on in a Tract of Obedience proving of God Heaven opens in wonderful Experiences of him the Manna of holy Truth is then tasted the Hony-combs of Free-Grace drop upon the Heart Promises are realized exemplified in Providences Divine Helps and Salvations come down and call for Eben-Ezers to be set up for them and Discoveries of heavenly things in their certainty and excellency are in a manner made as if a Man could look into the Holy of Holies and see God Face to Face Some such Experiences I suppose the learned Rivet had in his last Sickness in which he said of himself In these ten days I have made a greater progress in Divinity than in all my Life but leaving Generals I shall come to Particulars One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God a Believer in his holy Progress comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding as the Apostle speaks Cal. 2.2 At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledg but after Experience Riches and all Riches of it at the first
God 1 King 18.39 answerably when the Believer in the doing of Gods Commands feels the illapses of the holy Spirit inflaming and comforting his Heart he sweetly experiences that God is in the Command of a truth Thirdly Faith experiments it in that the hope of Heaven is enlarged and heightned in the doing of Gods will The more a Believer doth it the livelier is his Faith the warmer his love the stronger his other Graces the meeter his Soul for Heaven and the richer his entrance thereunto 2 Pet. 1.11 He shall not go to Heaven poorly or with a seant wind but with full gales and rich Plerophories by successive acts of Obedience his Hope rises higher and higher and so gives an experimental proof That the Command is the very will of God and way to Glory otherwise Hope would not grow and flourish in it but flag and wither as it uses to do in us when we pursue our own ways The Apostle would have men diligent in good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the full assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 Vt plenissimè in animis vestris spes confirmetur faith Beza Immediately after the giving the Law God adds these words Where ever I record my name there will I come and bless you Exod. 20.24 a blessing attends his Service If God bless Obedience with an assurance of Hope which is a fore-taste of Heaven and presage of Glory it is a full proof that his name is recorded in the Command When a Believer walking therein comes to assurance and so to be within ken of Heaven he is sure that the way is right Another excellent part of Scripture stands in the Promises These are the Pearls of the Gospel breasts of Consolation and wells of Salvation flowing out to Believers in temporal spiritual and eternal good things each of these Faith more or less experiments to be Divine As touching Temporal Promises Faith experiments them in every blessing which the Believer hath Indeed outward things are but the nether-springs and blessings of the left hand dispensed promiscuously as if they were ludibria fortunae the sports of chance Providence is still ringing the changes here an Ishmael may have his portion and full cup even Crowns and Kingdoms which lie at the upper end of the World may come to the basest of men Dan. 4.17 All things come alike to all the Sun of Prosperity shines on the Bramble as well as on the Flower the tempest of Adversity falls on the Garden as well as on the Wilderness Love or Hatred cannot be known by these things not by them as they are in themselves or meerly issuing out of Providence But the Believer hath them by a singular Priviledg and in a way of Promise and by reflection may know that he hath them so When he doth not arrogate ought to himself or like churlish Nabal all in his Possessives say My bread my water and my flesh but really confess God to be supream Lord of all and himself but an accountable Steward of them When he can cast his goods on the waters and as it were send them to Sea in a voyage of Charity expecting no return but in the other World where these Corruptibles so used will rise in the incorruption of eternal glory When he can charge all outward things to stand without in their own station and not approach that heart which is a facred Temple or holy place for God to dwell in When he looks on all the World as forfeited by Sin and new founded by Christ the Mediator and so tasts his precious blood in every good thing and gathers all his comforts from his reconciling Cross When upon a just call to Suffering he is willing to venture all his part in this life upon the meer Promise of a better and had rather cast all his Mundane pearls over board than hazard a wrack of Faith or Conscience When the purest sweetest Comforts here below do not satisfic his Soul as smelling of the cask and chanel of Creature-vanity but in the fullest affluence of them he crys out Dulâ—ius ex ipso fonte a single God is insinitely sweeter than all and none but he can sill up the gaping chinks and chasmes of my Hear Deus meus omnia My God and my all Then undoubtedly he hath outward blessings not upon the common title of Providence only but in a way of Promise and by reflection on such things as these he may know that he hath them so and arrive at a sweet experience of Temporal Promises Such an experience multiplies the Loaves and wonderfully doubles and trebles the sweetness and comfort of every Blessing Some learned Men have observed a difference between Jacobs Blessing and Esaus Jacobs runs thus God give thee of the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth Gen. 27.28 Esaus thus Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the Earth and of the dew of Heaven from above ver 39. In Jacobs the name of God is mentioned not in Esaus it s true all Blessings are from God but his name is mentioned in the one not in the other The experienced Believer hath more of God and his federal Love in every Blessing than other Men. The Jews by a pious custom used to say over their Bread Blessed be God who brought Bread out of the Earth over their Wine Blessed be God who created the fruit of the Wine over their Fruits Blessed be God who created the Fruit of the Tree nay and over their Flowers Blessed be God who made the sweet smelling Herbs and in general they added this Whosoever takes ought out of this World without a benediction is as it were a robber of God But the experienced Believer as he hath a sweeter title to these things so he may raise up his Praises for them to an higher strain than other Men not only saying Blessed be God and his Providence for such and such things but blessed be God and his Promise also All good things as well those of this life as those of the other issue out of the Covenant of Grace You will say the Believer cannot yet make this experiment for though he have some of the Temporal Blessings mentioned in the Promises yet often and ordinarily he wants other of them To which I answer The Promises of Temporal Blessings are not absolute but carry a tacit limitation of expediency The main design of the Promises is Mans Salvation and to this Temporals are not as Spirituals are simply necessary but only have a remote tendency thereunto and that not of themselves but as they are over-ruled by God who makes omnia cooperari in bonum all things work together for good to them that love him And hence the Believer expects from the Promises no other measure or proportion of outward things than what may conduce to his Salvation and because he knows not what that measure or proportion is he refers himself to the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to order all
Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. 5.7 This Truth hath had many Opposites as the Arrians Samosatenians Sabellians Photinians and of late the Socinians who have strained their subtile Wits to undermine it if possible tell them That Baptism is in the Name of the Trinity They will reply That The Israelites were Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 Tell them That There are Three that bear Record in Heaven 1 Joh. 5.7 They will say These Words are not to be found in the Ancient Greek Copies nor in the Syriac nor in the Ancient Latin Version but these are but Evasions As for the first They were Baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Moses there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Acts 7.53 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears by comparing that place with Gal. 3.19 where Saint Paul of the same thing saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so To be Baptized unto Moses is only to be Baptized by the Ministry of Moses who led them through the Red Sea Hence in the Syriack it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the hand of Moses Again it is one thing to be Baptized unto Moses another to be Baptized in the name of Moses Paul Baptized but none in his own name 1 Cor. 1.13 And again the Israelites were improperly Baptized into Moses they were not aspersed or immerged in water neither was Baptism then an Ordinance of God as now it is As for the second in St. John that place undeniably proves the Trinity The learned Stephens saith That place is wanting in seven Greek Copies but it is found in nine more ancient St. Cyprian de Vnitate Ecclesie alledges this place for the Trinity Athanasius urged this place against Arrius in the Council of Nice and then no exception was made against it Had it not then been in St. John Arrius would have easily rejected it I believe in the times of Constantius and Valens the Arrians blotted out these words as most pregnant against them out of divers Copies St. Jerom asserted the truth of our reading from the Greek Copies which he had publickly contesting That in those Copies where it was wanting it was razed out by the fraud of Hereticks And St. Ambrose saith That the Hereticks did erade that place This Truth stands fast in Scripture for ever and ever and Faith embraces it And which is more and to the Point in hand Faith in its holy progress may as I conceive experience it My reason is the Church in all Ages down from the Apostles have worshipped the Sacred Trinity Their Baptism hath been in its Name their Doxology and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proclaim it their Creeds all publish it their Catechumeni were trained up in the knowledg of it they ever worshipped as Athanasius hath it in his Creed one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity and that uno indiviso cultu as Divines speak This in all Ages hath been the Christian Worship and upon this Worship answers and returns have come down from Heaven in abundance of Glorious Spiritual Blessings such as are comprized in that Apostolical Prayer The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 The whole Trinity is adored and the whole Trinity vouchsafes Gracious returns Gratia quae datur in Trinitate datur saith Athanasius Every Believer so worshipping hath returns from Heaven and the Progressive Believer may know that he hath them and in the experience thereof may experience That there is a Sacred Trinity of a truth If the Trinity be a nullity or as Servetus blasphemously said An Idol or three-headed Cerberus Or as Socinus belched out his impiety A ridiculous invention of humane curiosity Then the Christian Worship is no other than strange fire vain ' Will-worship and Idol-worship nay it is no Worship at all none because the Trinity its supposed Object is a nullity none because God looks on it as none As when the Samaritans feared the Lord and served their Idols 2 King 17.33 The Text saith in the very next ver That they feared not the Lord their fear was as none because of the mixture of Idol-worship So when Christians worship one God and a Trinity which is not their Worship is as none at all Upon such a Worship God will not open his eyes unless to punish it nor make any returns but those of Wrath. When the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf Gods Wrath waxed hot and was ready to consume them much more may it do so if Christians worship a Trinity which is not In that of the Calf as they meant it there was only error in modo for they intended not to terminate their Worship in the Calf but in God as appears by their own words To marrow is a feast to Jehovah Exod. 32.5 But in this of a Supposititious Trinity there is error in objectio ultimo which is more provoking to God If the Trinity be but the Idol of the brain God will no more be enquired of by its Worshippers than he would by those who set up their Idols in their heart Ezek. 14.3 no gracious returns are found in such a salfe way A Believer therefore who in Worshipping one God in Trinity finds returns srequently and successively after Duties from the Mercy-scat carries an inward seal and proof in his bosom that there is a Trinity This experimental proof of a Trinity seems to me evident in many places of Scripture St. John saith Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 He saith not barely Our fellowship is with God but with the Father and the Son neither doth he say it at peradventures but as a sure known thing such as hath the joy of the holy Spirit with it St. Paul would have the Colossians to be knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2.2 Here is a Plerophory of understanding nay riches and all riches of it Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as one saith Illustrior notitia rei prius cognitae A further knowledg orpractical acknowledgment of a thing before known and these must needs import somewhat of experience Our Saviour saith If a man love me and keep my words my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him Joh. 14.23 In the 21. ver he told them That he would manifest himself to the obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he conspicuum meipsum exhibebo I will exhibit my self though Spiritually yet clearly as it were to eye palam in media luce as Beza hath it Hereupon Judas asks him Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us unto which our Saviour answers That the
and so may experience the Incarnation of Christ But to go on unto this of the Incarnation I shall add two instances more touching Christ the one is his Death and the other is his Resurrection The experiment of both is emphatically set forth by St. Paul That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death Phil. 3.10 Tune recte cognoscitur Christus saith Calvin dum sentimus quid valeat Mors ejus Resurrectio Then we truly know Christ when we feel the power of his Death and Resurrection in our own hearts Jesus Christ died for us His Soul was an offering for Sin his Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for many He satisfied Gods Justice opened a door of Mercy and procured the effusion of the holy Spirit and all this Faith may experiment In the calms of Conscience the Believer may feel the atoning Blood of Christ purging his heart from dead works to serve the living God In the mortifying of Lusts he may find a secret virtue from Christ crucified enabling him for the work In all the sweet gales and operations of the holy Spirit he hath a proof of that meritorious Passion which procured them and when he stumbles and falls into sin and drives away that Spirit for a time in its return he hath a proof that Christ is a Priest after the Power of an endless life The vexed grieved Spirit might utterly forsake such faultring backsliding Creatures as we are and leave us desolate for an habitation of Devils and unclean spirits for ever but the endless life of Merit in Christ causes it to return to us again and thereby gives us a most precious experiment thereof At Swerin in Germany there was a little drop of Blood included in a Jasper-stone given out to be the very Blood of Christ This every Friday at a certain hour was shewn and upon view seemed to open and draw out it self as it were in three parts and then to go together again It was followed by great concourses of people and esteemed very Sacred for 300 years Had this Toy been true and genuine I might yet say as Maius the German Divine did to one who asked him If it would not be a great Consolation to a poor Thief ready to die to be told That Christ according to the Flesh is so near him that even in fune he may have him At melius in corde 't is better having the Blood of Christ in the heart than any other way such an having produces the glorious Experiments before spoken of And as the Death of Christ is experimented so is his Resurrection In the Peace of God the Believer may read that the Debt is fully paid and the Surety out of the prison of the Grave In the inward spiritual Resurrecton he may find that Almighty power which raised up Jesus from the dead In heavenly elevations and affections he may feel holy touches from Christ sitting at Gods right hand and attracting his Heart into the upper world In the excellent ministerial Gifts in the Church he may know that Christ is above and le ts drop these for the perfecting of the Saints and in his lively hope of the incorruptible Inheritance he may prove the Resurrection of Christ by which he is begotten again unto it Such Experiments as these wonderfully ratifie the Faith of Believers oyl their Obedience and multiply their Joy and Peace in Believing and make each of them able to say in particular Christ died for me and Christ rose again for me and lo here are the Witnesses of it in my heart Unto these faced Truths of the Trinity and Christ I shall only add one Instance more touching the efficacy of Grace in the hearts of men The Pelagians those Inimici gratiae ascribe almost all to Free will and little or nothing to Free-grace making Grace rather to consist in the external Doctrine than in internal Operations or if they admit any thing internal it is rather in the illumination of the Understanding than in the change of the Will But the Scriptures tells us clean contrary of opening the heart and new-making it of working the Will and a day of power causing it of raising the spiritually dead and creating us again in Christ of putting his Spirit into us and causing us to walk in his Statutes These and many more Scriptures loudly proclaim the power of Grace and the Believer may experience it This is the clearer because the sensus communis of Christians hath in all Ages run this way David upon the willing Offering utters his experience of Grace in a way of admiration Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For all things come of thee 1 Chron. 29.14 All things come of thee even willingness and All In so Offering we do but give of thine own as the Greek Christians use to say in their Oblations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thine from thine St. Paul upon his experience ascribes all to Grace I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And I labour yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me He acknowledges no I-ness but ascribes all his Spiritual Being to Grace By the Grace of God I am what I am saith he St. Cyprian might find in himself what he so excellently said In nullo nobis gloriandum quando nostrum nihil est St. Ambrose speaking of Cain and Abel saith Cain as his name is Possession acquires and arrogates all to himself but Abel who knew his own Vanity and that he had nothing de suo nisi mendacium peccatuni referred all to God The former he calls improbum dogma the latter bonum dogma the good opinion which the just Abels are of and experience in themselves And in the last Chapter of that Book he saith Quicquid sancium cogitaveris hoc Dei munus est Dei inspiratio Dei gratia which I suppose was his own experience Blessed St. Austin that noble assertor of Free-grace of whom Prosper said Dum nulla sibi tribuit bona sit Deus illi omnia Whilest he attributed no good to himself God became all things to him could never have wrote so magniticently of Grace had he not had great experience of it In his Book De Peccatorum Meritis he gives a caution Ne putemus nastrum esse quod Dei and adds Qui error multum est Religioni pietatique contrarius To attribute that to our selves which is Gods is an error much contrary to Religion and Piety Christian sense is against it Prosper who came after St. Austin hath this passage Non est devotionis dedisse prope totum Deo sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum gratia Dei repellitur tota nisi tota recipiatur To give 999 parts to Grace and reserve one only to Mans Will is too much true Devotion will not bear it Tutius
other of Hope which afforded her great Comfort in her Torments Caspar Olevian a German Divine being asked by one Whether he were certain of his Salvation answered just at the brink of death Certissimus I am most sure of it Mr. Bolton being near death expressed himself thus My whole heart is filled with joy I feel nothing within but Christ Mr. Hieron said His Soul was full of joy as if be had seen Heaven open to receive him Such Paradises of Joy Sabbatisines of Spirit and Prepossessions of Glory have the Saints found in their way to Heaven Again there being an infallible Connexion between truth of Grace and Pardon and also between Perseverance in Grace and Salvation a Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon and again he may be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation These two demonstrated will make good the Point First I say A Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon which cannot but be where those are And for the truth of Grace a double Testimony may be vouched one from Conscience the other from the holy Spirit the Apostle mentions both The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it co-witnesseth with ours and in the mouth of two such Witnesses there must needs be establishment Hence St. Chrysostome on these words breaks out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What scruple can remain after such a Testimony I shall begin with the testimony of Conscience Conscience is a spy in our bosom which marks every thing a spiritual Eccho which returns our actions and makes them sound again after they are past and gone from us By it the Soul turns its eyes in ward and becomes a Speculum or Looking-glass to it self representing to it self its own acts By it it bends back the beams of general Truths and applys them to Particulars That Righteousness and Virtue should be followed is an universal Truth but Conscience can reflect it back upon us and bids us do so in particular and if we indeed do it Conscience will say Euge this or that is well done by us The Testimony of Conscience was of great repute among Pagans Plato calls it his Daemon and Menander a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Conscience is a God to Mortals And Seneca Deus in humano corpore hospitans God dwelling in an humane body Hence came Pythagoras's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-reverence And Sextius his parly with himself every night what Vice he had in the day resisted and Virtue promoted And the Satyrists complaint touching the neglect of the reflexive faculty Vt nemo in sese tentat descendere nemo few or none would descend into themselves Among Christians the Testimony of Conseience must needs be sacred their Consciences not lying as the Pagans in their blood or natural pollution but being purified by the precious Blood and Spirit of Christ their lamps of Reason not lying as the others in the damp and darkness of the fall but brought forth and new-lighted at the Scripture and Sun of Righteousness shining therein as in its orb Conscience in a Believer is as St. Bernard hath it Purum Religionis speculum a pure glass of Religion And as another Major pars clavium the greatest key in the Church such an excellent Witness may well speak in this Point In David it speaks thus O Lord I have walked in my integrity Psal 26.1 that is in the exercise of Faith Love Obedience and other Graces which as so many Pearls make up Sincerity In Hezekiah it speaks much after the same manner Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Isa 38.3 And it is the more to be noted because Conscience saith so in a way of appeal even to God himself and by a right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holds up the truth of its Graces to so pure a Sun This is such a Testimony as St. Paul joys and glories in 2 Cor. 1.12 Est quidam modus in Conscientia gloriandi ut noveris fidem tuam esse sinceram spem tuam certam caritatem tuam sine simulatione saith St Austin There is a kind of glorying in conscience when thou knowest thy Faith sound Hope certain and Love undissembled A Man that repents believes and loves may by the pulse of Conscience know that he doth so True saith Bellarmine he may know that he doth them but not that he doth them sicut oportet as he ought to do them Unto which I answer Conscience according to its Light and Line of Principles can bear Witness to Integrity natural Conscience to natural Integrity and renewed Conscience to gracious Integrity An instance of the former we have in Abimelech whose Conscience told him That he meant not to take away another mans Wise Gen. 20.5 and of the latter in St. Paul whose Conscience told him That his Conversation was in simplicity and godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Conscience which Witnesses Integrity must look beyond the meer matter of Acts into the modus for therein Integrity especially such as is gracious consists more than in the Acts themselves Unless a man know that he repents believes and loves sicut oportet he cannot know his own Sincerity and if he know his Sincerity he knows that he repents believes and loves aright A Believer converses much between Scripture and Conscience fetching his Notions from the one and his Evidences from the other In the Word he sees the Characters of Grace and in the Conscience the state of his Soul True Repentance mourns over sin as sin hates it as the greatest evil and casts it away as an accursed thing saith the Word and such is thy Repentance saith Conscience True Faith prizes Christ overcomes the World and works by Love saith the Word and such a Faith is thine saith Conscience True Love is inflamed from Gods sweetly acquiesces in him and obedientially resignes to him saith the Word and such a Love is thine saith Conscience Interroga cortuum Ask thy heart If Love be there saith St. Austin Ask again If Faith and Repentance be there thou hast an Oracle within that can tell thee what thou lovest most trustest in most and grievest for most that can shew thee thy Uprightness witness the Truth of thy Graces and feast thee with Divine Comforts such as pass understanding It was a great Comfort to the Nobleman when his Servants met him and told him Thy Son liveth John 4.51 But oh What is it to the Believer when such an one as Conscience comes and saith Thy Faith liveth or thy Love burneth towards God or thy Repentance is pure godly forrow Then the Oyl of Joy is upon every Grace and the Cup of Consolations runneth over Conscience becomes a banquetting-house and Assurance as Latimer calls it is the Sweet-meats We have heard one Witness but the Supream who drops all
the Suavities and dictates all the comfortable words in conscience is the Holy Spirit The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God saith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Gifts or Graces but the very Spirit it self beareth witness that not only out wardly in the Word but in wardly in and with our spirit and its Testimony is That we are the children of God And the import of that Testimony over and above the title of Sonship is That our Faith which makes us his children Gal. 3.26 is true and our Love and other Graces which manifest us such are so also And what a Testimony is this To call it dubious or opinionative or conjectural is blasphemy Cornelius a Lapide as one under a necessity confesses this Testimony certain in it self but as a Salvo to the Doctrine of doubting adds That it is not certain to us But this is to forget the Apostles words That the Spirit witnesseth it in and with our spirit and withal absurdly to say That the Spirit indeed witnesseth but would not be believed or rather That it witnesseth and witnesseth not because an unheard Testimony is as none Bellarmine saith The Spirit witnesseth not by an express word but by an Experiment of internal peace and suavity which begets but a conjectural certainty I answer It 's true that it is not by an express word but as Learned Dr. Ward well observes The Question is not de modo Testandi but de Re. It is certain there is such a Testimony and that proceeding from the Spirit of Truth must be infallible and being made to our spirit must be known to us and so beget a true certainty in our hearts Nevertheless to illustrate this Point I shall a little consider the Modus of it The Spirit bears witness to ours partly by an application of the Promises to the heart partly by an irradiation of the Graces there These two make up the sealing of the Spirit of Promise given after believing Ephes 1.13 The Spirit applies the Promises to the Heart that is one part of the Seal As the spirit of bondage applies threatnings and thereby makes a kind of Hell in Conscience so the Spirit of Adoption applies Promises and by it makes a kind of Heaven there The same Spirit which endited the Promises of Pardon and put them into Scripture Seals and in a way of appropropriation puts them upon the Heart as if it should say This and that Promise is thine like that in the Prophet Speak to her heart that her iniquity is pardoned Isa 40.2 Now when the Promises come so close and pour out their sweetness into the heart the Believer may not guess only but know that true Faith and Repentance are there God and his Promise speak peace only to Saints and not a comfortable Word to impenitent sinners I have read of one who apostatized from his profession and on his sick-bed began to apply the Promises to himself but alas after a little seeming ease he cried out in despair That the Plaister would not stick God only can make it do so and he makes it do so only to penitent Believers and they may conclude the Truth of their Graces when the Gospel and its Promises come to them in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance as the Expression is 1 Thessal 1.5 Again as another part of he Seal The Holy Spirit irradiates the Graces in the Heart The same Spirit which formed them there at first comes and owns them as its own off-spring bringing in such a Divine light and making such an efficacious representation thereof that the Believers Conscience may as the Apostle speaketh in another case Rom. 9.1 Bear witness in the Holy Ghost and say This is sound Repentance indeed and that is Love undissembled and the other is Faith unfeigned and so of other Graces in the new Creature These Graces carry in themselves a kind of heavenly light rendring them visible But when the Spirit comes it puts such a gloss and oriency on them that the Believer may know them to be freely given to him of God that this and that Grace are so given and such and such are the sure marks of the truth thereof Such a Testimony as this made learned Rivet at his dying hour break forth into these words Expecto credo persevero dimoveri nequeo Dei Spiritus meo spiritui testatur me esse ex filiis suis O amorem ineffabilem I expect believe persevere and cannot be moved Gods Spirit witnesseth to mine That I am one of his Children Oh ineffable Love This anointing is truth and no lye as St. John tells us 1 Joh. 2.27 It manifests its testimony and it self together The Believer cannot doubt who the Witness is or what he speaketh both are plain and satisfactory Our Saviour Christ speaking of the Spirit of Truth tells his Disciples Ye know him for he dwelleth with you Joh. 14.17 If the Spirit do but pass by and drop in an holy motion into the heart he may be known in it much more when he dwells and witnesses there Cul. White-stone The eloquent Culverwell compares him to the Sun The Sun saith he by its glorious Beams does Paraphrase and Comment upon its own glittering Essence and the Spirit Displays himself to the Soul and gives a full Manifestation of his Presence And a man may sooner take a Glow-worm for the Sun than an experienced Christian can take a false Delusion for the Light of the Spirit We have heard the two Witnesses the Holy Spirit by an application of Promises and irradiation of Graces witnessing to the Conscience and the Conscience ecchoing and resounding that Testimony to the Believer And hence it appears That he may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon It remains to treat of the second thing that is That he may be assured of his perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation He knows That his Graces are true and withal That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things having or containing Salvation Heaven buds and Eternal Life begins in them He that believeth hath everlasting life Joh. 5.24 He hath it in the first-fruits and irrevocable earnest of it The Seed of God in him will grow up into Immortality the Well of living Water will spring up into everlasting Life Only it may be alledged That these Graces may be lost Unto which I answer Abstractively in their meer creature-essence they may but in their dependance they cannot Their Standing if on mans Will only might fail but their Foundation on the Covenant of Grace cannot The Believer may not only see his own Graces but beyond them that Eternal Election which is the great Fountain thereof Reflecting on the true Graces in his heart he may say Here is the Faith of Gods Elect and Here is the Love and Patience of Gods Elect. Spiritual Blessings are given according to Election
he had a true Virtue in him or no but seeming afraid of the Judgment-Seat unto some who begged his Prayers when in Heaven he made this Answer The way thither is not so easie I should esteem it a great Blessing from God if I might obtain Purgatory for many years Into such labyrinths do their Principles lead them The Reason whereof is They espouse Hagar the Covenant of Works and that gendreth to bondage and servile fear They corrupt the great Fountain of Peace and Joy I mean free Justification by Christ and Grace and their Comforts cannot run pure They would compound those two incompatibles of Grace and Merit and patch together Christs Righteousness and their own which in the Apostle is to fall from Grace and make Christ of none effect Gal. 5.4 And what Peace can follow Whilst they look at the Law Conscience will be still murmuring Non recte sacrificasti non recte orasti as Luther hath it This and that was omitted or not well done The Levite and the Priest pass by their Wounds the good Samaritan will not come but alone and without a co-partner to make a Cure If therefore thou wouldst have Assurance thou must build on the right Foundation and lie at the true Fountain of Comfort Thy Love and thy Obedience are but Evidences Christ and Grace are the only Foundation Thy Faith is but a receiver an empty vessel Christ and Grace are the Fountain of Comfort Expect no rest but in his bleeding Wounds look for no comfortable words but from the Mercy-Seat Think not that thy Conscience shall be appeased unless by that Blood of Atonement which appeased God himself or that thy heart may be satisfied in a Righteousness less than that perfect one which satisfied Gods Conscience is his Deputy and cannot go off at lower terms than he himself doth Fix thy heart on Christ and Grace lay the whole stress of thy Soul and Salvation there Lean on thy Beloved appropriate his Merits and Righteousness to thy self Thus Luther tells the menacing Law O Lex Immergo Conscientiam meam in Vulnera Sanguinem Mortem Resurrectionem Victoriam Christi praeter hunc nibil plane videre audire volo O Law I drown my Conscience in the Wounds Blood Death Resurrection and Victory of Christ besides him will I see and hear nothing This is the true way of Peace Jahannes a Berg a zealous Papist in his life found it so at last by his own experience When a Protestant-Friend admonished him then lying on his sick-bed That now he would by Faith apprehend the Merit of his Saviour and acquiesce in the full Expiation by him made for sin he immediately swallowed it as the richest Comfort in the World looking on those in Popery but as so many vain Fig-leaves When Assurance which is the top-stone of Faith is laid in our hearts we have reason to cry out Grace Grace Christ Christ These whatever our Duties and Works have been are the Fundamental Reason of all Peace and Comfort Again He who would have Assurance must not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit but cherish and follow it It cannot but be a great and marvelous thing in his eyes that the holy Spirit should make his heart a Temple or Sanctuary for himself To grieve it is unnatural and to grieve it expecting comfort a contradiction If thou wouldst be assured grieve it in nothing indulg not any lust This is filthiness and to be carried out of the Sanctuary this is an Idol and must not stand in the Temple Bury thy excrements thy superfluity of naughtiness that the holy one may walk in the midst of thee Take away the accursed thing lest his Presence depart Away with thy vomits thy sensual sins lest he complain that there is no place for him left in thy heart Pride not thy self in gifts or graces this is as a smoak in his nose to force him away from thee grieve not him whereby thou mayst be sealed to the day of Redemption He comes to seal Pardon and Peace and Heaven it self to thy Soul why shouldst thou grieve him If thou dost so How canst thou expect to be sealed by him Instead of Sealing he will turn to be thine Enemy as he did to those Rebels Isa 63.10 He will meet thee in some straits of Providence and by one threatning or other as by a drawn Sword stop thee in thy perverse way Oh! do not grieve him gather out of thy heart and life every thing that offends and his Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace and Joy shall be in thee When an holy Truth appears to thee smother it not for a World it comes from the pure Spirit to light thee to Heaven Walk in the Light of it Who knows but that whilst thou art in the way the Spirit may drop some heavenly Cordials upon thy Heart Obedience is the true Road to Comfort Excellent is that in the Prophet Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going is prepared as the morning and he shall come to us as the rain Hos 6.3 Follow him in his Truths and thou shalt know him in his Comforts Gods Face shall be as an aurora or morning lighter and lighter on thy Soul and his Spirit as the dew or rain distilling Divine Consolations on it Believe it every ray of Truth if followed leads to the Joy unspeakable When an holy Motion comes remember who is the Speaker That Spirit who can seal the Promises and print Gods Love on the Heart now calls thee to one Duty or other Hear and thy Soul shall live open thy Sails and the Gales will blow thee to the fair Haven of rest I may say of the Spirits Motion as he in the Prophet doth of the Wine in the Cluster Destroy it not for a Blessing nay the greatest of Blessings a Paraclete a Divine Comforter is in it Follow on and thou shalt come to the Vintage and Wine-cellar of pure Consolations such as Earth assords not The Holy Spirit can witness to thy Graces and seal up Gods favour to thee and be to thee an earnest of Heaven and eternal Life As thou wouldst be assured welcome every motion close with every dictate cherish every illapse of this blessed Monitor let every inspiration find thee as the Seal doth the Wax and the spark the Tinder let thy Soul follow hard after him pursuing him E vestigio step by step as near and close as thou canst possibly This is the true way to rest Again if thou wouldest have Assurance first make Conscience pure and then walk after it That Pardon and Salvation which is founded in Christs Blood and sealed by his Spirit must be recorded and reported in Conscience or else there can be no Assurance If our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.21 He allows what his Deputy doth in us I say make thy Conscience pure Two things chiesly impure it Ignorance is as a
that it were no sin spare it not but cause it to dye as a sure Pledg that all other sins shall do so Believe it This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the path of life or of those two lines of Holiness and Comfort If ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live saith the Apostle Rom. 8.13 an eternal life in Heaven and a comfortable one in the way thither Who knows but that whilst thou art mortifying thy sin God may come and speak to thee much as he did to Abraham when he was offering up his Isaac Now I know that thou repentest indeed and believest indeed seeing thou hast not withheld thy Sin thy Darling Sin from the work of Mortification Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee Thy Comforts shall be as the Stars and as the Sand. When thou hast been a-slaying thy Lusts Jesus Christ will meet thee as Melchizedek did Abraham when he came from the slaughter of the Kings Bringing forth Bread and Wine Supportations and Divine Consolations to thy Soul Melchizedek's Bread and Wine were to Abraham Pawns of Canaan the Land of Promise and Christs Supports and Comforts shall be to thee Earnests of Heaven See what pure strains of Grace flow in the precious Promises made to the Overcomer To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it Rev. 2.17 O what things are here Comforts fall about the Overcomer and are preserved in his heart as the Manna fell about the Camp and was preserved in the Golden Pot. Pardon is the white stone and Adoption the new name and all these though secret to others are well known to himself But you 'l say These are promised to the Overcomer and who can say that he is such Is not the Canaanite still in the land Are there not reliques of Corruption in the best Doth not the flesh still lust against the spirit and the body of Death send out its stench and rottenness And who may call himself an Overcomer I answer The Canaanite is in the land but subdued Reliques of Sin are in thee but they do gravitare press and lye heavy as a thing out of its proper place and force thee to groan and cry out O wretched man The flesh lusts against the spirit but thou opposest might and main and if it be ready to prevail thou criest out as the forced Damosel under the Law for help against it as being too strong for thee If there be in thee a nolle peccatum a bent of heart against Sin and thou doest in purpose and endeavour fight against it and thou wouldst pursue it to death and if possible here to utter extirpation then assure thy self not withstanding the indwelling sin That thou art an Overcomer in Gods account who accepts the Will for the Deed and in the Gospels all whose Promises are made not to sinless perfection but sincerity To this purpose the Original in that famous place is remarkable It is not to him that overcometh but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that is overcoming to him that is praying striving wrestling fighting against Sin to him that is in an overcoming posture though the enemy be not quite out of the field to him shall those great Comforts in the Promise be given This made St. Paul maugre all the reliques of Corruption sound a Triumph to Free-Grace I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.25 as being sure of compleat Victory at last Again If thou wouldst have Assurance Be much in the holy use of Ordinances These are vehicula Spiritus the Chariots in which the Holy Spirit rides Circuit to do good to Souls These are canales Gratie the Conduit-pipes whereby Graces and Comforts are derived to us There God records his Name and commands the Blessing even Life for ever-more There he meets those that work righteousness and remember him in his ways David was so sensible of this that it was his one only desire to dwell in Gods house and behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beauties or sweet Amenities of the Lord Psal 27.4 If ever thou meetest with the Suavities and ravishing Beauties of Free-Grace it must be in the Sanctuary of Ordinances Christ when here on Earth was very ready to give a comfortable Testimony to those that came to him and brought their Graces with them Seeing upright Nathanael he said Behold an Israelite indeed Joh. 1.47 Seing their Faith he said to the poor Paralytick Son thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Neither now though in Heaven is he wanting therein he hath a secret way of testifying by his Spirit unto those who in an holy manner approach to him in Ordinances Seeing thy holy fear at an Ordinance he can tell thee That thy Soul thall dwell at ease in the bosom of Mercy Seeing thy Faith there he can tell thee That as a true Believer thou hast everlasting life Whatever Grace thou bringest into his presence he can make one Promise or other drop sweetness upon it Wait on him in his own ways that he may speak Peace to thee more particularly Converse much with the sacred Word In the Gospel great things are set before us there 's a Glass of Gods Glory The more thou lookest into it the more thou wilt be transformed into the Divine Likeness there 's a Mass a Treasury of rich Grace the more thou searchest into it the more thou wilt taste how gracious the Lord is till thou come to the highest gust of it in Assurance there are the Breasts of Consolation suck on and thou shalt be satisfied as with marrow and fatness there thou hast the demonstration and ministration of the Spirit get as much as thou canst of it that thou mayst be sealed by it There the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith from a Faith of Adherence to a Faith of Assurance There is the savour of Life unto Life of a gracious Life unto a comfortable and glorious One. Be much in reading and hearing the Word but do it in an holy manner do it attentively take heed to it till the day dawn and the day-star arise in thy heart do it desiring the Word as the Babe doth the Breast that thou mayst grow into all the measures and statures of Christ do it in faith that the Word may profit and effectually work unto all Graces and Comforts do it in love to Truth and Righteousness that the oyl of gladness which is upon Christ thy Head may run down upon thee do it obedientially hearken to the Commands that thy Peace may be as a River flowing in the joys of Faith If thus thou wilt hear and open to Christ who stands and knocks at the door of thy heart He will come in to thee and sup with thee and thou with him Revel 3.20 He will come in to
in Charity draw out thy Alms and with them thy Soul give outward Things and which is more thy Self in real compassion Cast thy Bread upon the Waters upon the Tears of the Poor that it may be carried into the Ocean of Eternity and there found again in a glorious Reward When an Object of Charity meets thee Say not Go and come again pass not by as the Priest and Levite did but as the good Samaritan immediately pour in thy Wine and Oyl into the Wounds of thy Brother omit no Season of Charity Now is thy Seed-time scatter thy good Works Sow upon Blessings as the Phrase is 2 Cor. 9.6 Now Christs Bank is open put in thy Money upon holy Usury and God himself will be thy Pay-Master Be still a-doing of good that in thy little sphere thou mayst resemble him who doth good in the great sphere of Nature His Sun shines and Rain falls every-where Be as like him as thou canst shining in good Works and dropping in Charities upon all occasions Give a Portion to seven and also to eight saith the Preacher Eccles 11.2 From this Text the Jews ground a Custom to give an Alms to seven or eight poor people every day However that be we should be much in Charity Look on the Poor as Gods Altars erected on purpose That upon their Backs and Bellies thou mayst offer up thy Charity as an Odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God Be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up a good Foundation against the time to come This is the way to Assurance Works of Mercy and Charity make Faith visible and withal put the Believer into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to him They make Faith visible no Assurance can be had unless that Query Whether we be in the Faith be resolved in the Affirmative That cannot be done unless Faith become visible and more visible it cannot be than in such good Works which as the holy Blossoms of it prove that there is Life at the root The Mercy and Charity which hang upon it may tell thee That thou hast indeed closed by Faith with the infinite Love and Grace above and from thence brought down all those drops and models of Goodness which thou sheddest forth in thy Conversation The Fruit may prove thy standing in Christ the true Root of fatness and sweetness The Image of Goodness limmed and drawn out upon thy Life shews it self to be from the pure Spirit St. John exhorting the little children to a real practical Love adds this as a singular Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this Love we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 John 3.18 19. It thou love thy Brother in Deed and in Truth assure thy self that thou art of the Truth That the holy truth of the Gospel is mixed with faith in thy Heart and there grows up into the Divine life and likeness Say not That thy Faith is dead or idle as long as it can shew forth the Coats and Garments the Alms and good Works which it hath done these shew the life and labour of it Nay further these put thee into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to thee God in the Prophet commands them to deal their bread to the hungry to cover the naked not to hide themselves from their own flesh and immediately after lets out himself in sweet Promises to them Thy righteousness shall then go before thee Isa 58.8 that is thy Graces shall visibly appear to thee And again Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here am I ver 9. that is He will be very near and ready at hand to reveal himself to thee And which is more as St. John tells us he will dwell in thee He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 He dwells in the Divine Life and the Divine Presence dwells in him He hath a Shechinah nay and an Oracle in his own bosom God will speak peace to his Saints Psal 85.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his merciful ones with them he will shew himself merciful to them he will speak from the Mercy-seat they give but ordinary Bread but receive from him hidden Manna they draw out their Souls to their Brethren and he draws out his Soul to them In the last place if thou wouldst be assured set thy heart on God and Christ and Heaven stay no longer in the straits of this lower World take thy flight by Faith and Love into the sphere of Infinity where thy Soul may open and dilate it self for ever Hang no longer about the drops and little particles of Being put forth thy Soul might and main into the great ocean of Sweetness and Perfection which is able to fill up thy two vast Capacities of Mind and Will with its unmeasurable Truth and Goodness Warm thy Heart no more among the little sparks of Good here below soar up upon the wings of Desire and ardent Affection to that pure immutable Sun of Love and Goodness one of whose golden rays of favour will be more to thee than a World Thou hast O Believer a Soul twice Heaven-born once as it is in its own nature an immortal spark from above and again as it bears the impress of Heaven in its Graces And answerably thou hast a double impetus after Happiness one in the instinct of nature thirsting after it and another in the more Divine impulses of Grace pressing towards it as its Center Think not that such a Soul shall ever find rest till it come back to the first point from whence it issued and resign up it self to its Original in the bosom of God Inflame thy Heart with Love to Jesus Christ who is altogether lovely and wholly desirable In his Righteousness thou maist stand and look up to the sweet reconciled face of God In his bleeding wounds thou hast a passage into the infinite bowels of Mercy through the veil of his flesh the way is open to the Holy of Holies The oyl upon his head can fill thee with joy unspeakable and glorious Lift up thine eyes O Believer to that wonder of wonders God manifested in the flesh from whence come all the admirable indwellings of God in the spirits of Men. Set thy Heart upon that Infinite Mass and Treasure of Merit which paid off all the scores to Divine Justice and over and above bought all the Glory of Heaven for poor worms Ravish thy Soul in the rich redundancies and over-measures of the Spirit upon him which overflow and fill so many thousand precious Souls with Grace Look stedfastly upon that pure mirrour of Love Holiness Meekness Goodness Obedience Patience which is in his flesh look till thou shine with the same image or spiritual Idea of Grace look till thou art captivated in raptures and flames of Love towards
PRECIOUS FAITH CONSIDERED In its Nature Working and Growth By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Atlas in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange 1675. To the CHRISTIAN Reader HE that with serious eyes looks on that dreadful spectacle lapsed Angels lying in Chains of Darkness for ever and that for one Sin may very well stand and wonder at the Salvation of Men in which worms are as it were Angelized and little lumps of corrupted dust are first refined by Grace and then transfigured into Glory The pure Origine of this great Work is no other than the Divine Grace and Love which have so fairly pourtraied and limmed out themselves upon every piece of it that all the Saints above and below may read the Characters thereof and have reason to cry out Grace Grace Indeed Heaven and Earth too should ring with the Praises of it and Eternity it self will be short enough to behold and admire it in To compass this Glorious design the Son of God left his Fathers Bosom and appeared in our Flesh to make a Robe for us of his own Righteousness and a Laver for us in his own Blood Our Nature in him is now in Heaven and his Spirit is descended to impress his Image on us thereby to make us meet for that Blessed Region to secure all to us Heaven hath let down a great Charter in the precious Gospel in which we have a Map of Glory and Eternal Life set before us to elevate our Souls which are sparks of Immortality out of the dust and rubbish of the Fall and to set them aspiring after the true Pleasures and Beatitudes which are above That we may not mistake our way or faint in it the holy Spirit hath in the Gospel drawn many lines of Holiness and Comfort There are pure Precepts to chalk out the Way to Heaven and sweet Promises to cordial us therein and to give us some Tastes of Heaven before we come there The great condition of this Salvation which streams down out of the fountain of Grace through the Blood of Christ into the Evangelical Promises is no other than Faith This is the Aurora of Glory Heaven and Eternal Life dawn in it This is the Hypostasis of Things hoped for It presentiates the Celestial Paradise and in some sort sets the Believer by the rivers of Pleasures which are there This receives all from Grace and ascribes all to it prompting the Believer to confess touching his Spiritual Being and Working By the Grace of God I am what I am and by the Grace of God I do what I do This unites to Christ wraps up it self in his Righteousness feasts on his precious Body and Blood unto Life Eternal and surrenders up Heart and Life to the blessed duct of his Spirit and Word Walking on in holy Precepts it drinks Comfort out of Promises following hard after Holiness it meets with Peace such as passes understanding overcoming earth with all its Troops of vanity it ascends and takes Heaven by violence and renting off the dark veil of Time it looks into Eternity and aspires after that Bliss-making Vision which is the true Center of it Where this Grace is there the Gospel is not in word only but in power The Truth stands not meerly without in the letter but is entertained within and springs up in the Heart as a seed of Immortal Happiness The Divine Excellencies of this noble Grace have drawn out my Thoughts in the ensuing Discourse now offered to publick view The Errata's and Infirmities in it beg the Readers kind Indulgence And the holy Truths therein call for a Practical Improvement If but any Mite may get into the Treasury if any thing thereby may redound to the Glory of God or profit of Men it is enough and a sufficient recompence for him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill PRECIOUS FAITH CHAP. I. Some general acceptions of the word Faith in Scripture premised Precious Faith described and considered in the general nature of it as it is a grace of the Holy Spirit THE word Faith hath many acceptions in Scripture among which I shall touch upon some Sometimes it imports the Gospel or object of Faith thus St. Paul preached the faith Gal. 1.23 that is the Gospel which is worthy to be so called because it is the great Engine which lets down Gods faith to men and catches up mens faith to God Sometimes it imports a dogmatical or historical Faith which is an assent to the word of God as true and infallible thus the very devils believe a God and which is more then many sinful worms do they tremble Jam. 2.19 Sometimes it imports a temporary Faith which is but a dogmatical faith budding and blossoming with some tasts and joys in the things of God thus the stony ground received the word with joy Mat. 13.20 Sometimes it imports a miraculous Faith which by a special instinct gives such a touch upon the power of God as to produce wonderful effects in nature a grain of this is enough to remove mountains Mat. 17.20 Sometimes it imports saving Faith called by the Apostle precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 Omitting the rest I shall fix my Discourse upon this and that upon a double account First This precious faith virtually includes the rest In Faith in the first notion there is only the Gospel or object standing alone by it self but in this faith the act and the object are in sweet conjunction the soul is Gospellized and the Gospel which outwardly runs in the letter is inwardly glorified in the believers heart In dogmatical faith there is an assent to the truths of God and so there is in precious faith but in a more eminent manner the first embracing the Gospel only in its naked truth and history is but a dead and a cold notion but the second embracing the same in its goodness and spiritual mystery carries life and warmth in it temporary faith hath some joys in the things of God but precious faith hath the same in a more excellent way the former is but a flash and away a flower without a root the Gospel is not radicated in him but lies as it were upon the surface of his heart Jesus Christ is not entirely received by him but by parcels only hence a little storm of persecution blows off all the blossoms of his joy but the latter is a thing of a higher excellency and permanency In the true believer the Gospel is intimately rooted and Christ impartially received even cross and all Hence such an one can joy in tribultions and under afflictions wait for consolations Miraculous faith can work wonders and so can precious too the first works wonders in the body of nature by a touch upon Almighty power and the second works wonders in the souls of men by a touch upon Almighty grace A grain of this can remove spiritual mountains mountains of guiltiness off from the Conscience mountains of hardness
ocean of reigning corruptions and these keep the heart from taking fire with the love of those excellencies which are known by nature The Gentiles knew God but they did not like to have him in their knowledge Rom. 1.28 millions of unruly lusts like the sons of Belial about Lots house beset this natural light and keep it as it were in prison thus the Apostle they withheld it in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and it is too weak to break out of this prison and shew it self practically I shall give some instances hereof All Nations in all climates and through all ages have conspired together to confess a Deity Conscience within bears witness to him and so do all the creatures without also one would wonder therefore that ever Idolatry should get footing in the world but what saith the Apostle they changed the truth of God into a lye and the glory of the incorruptible one into a corruptible image Rom. 1.23.25 there were store of abominable idols among them no doubt natural light gave its secret vote for God but it was but the vote of a poor prisoner altogether insignificant it was not strong enough to make them own God in his own world Again reason and nature say that God must be worshipped with the heart and that a pure heart purâ mente colendus was the old verse in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore said Seneca God hath not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more proper place upon earth then a pure heart saith Hierocles O divine saying next door to that of our Saviour blessed are the purâ— in heart for they shall see God But after all this can this natural light work a dram of true sanctity or holiness in the heart No the very Schoolmen themselves who ever give nature her due with an overplus will not say so only they say facienti quod in se est Deus revelabit Christum largietur gratiam Well if this hypothesis which I am not now to dispute were true can there be an instance given among all the Pagans from the morning of the world till this day of any one man who by the right use of â—â—turals arrived at true grace If so what will become of that in the Apostle Who hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 If not O what a poor weak light is this of nature and how long and universally a prisoner hath it been indeed true sanctity or holiness is never found without humility but touching that there is no footstep nor shadow of commendation in all the Pagan writers saith the learned Amyraldus it is not so much as a virtue among them on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatness of soul is reckoned among Aristotles virtues Well then might Erasmus his Sancte Socrates have been spared Notable is that of St. Bernard Epist 190. some saith he whilest they go about to make Plato a Christian prove themselves heathens Again because possibly the light of reason may be weakest in the concerns of Religion I shall instance in other things Doth not nature and reason plead for all things of common honesty and humanity and yet in the Laws of Lycurgus which were of high renown and commended even by the Oracle of Apollo and which as Plutarch relates Lycurgus took singular pleasure to see put in ure even as God rejoyced to see the world move and turn about I say in these there are such obscenities and inhumanities as would put any one to the blush to see them in story what else are the dancing of maids naked and throwing weak children into a pit of water spoken of by Plutarch well might the Lacedaemonians have spared the Temple and Sacrifices to their Law-giver unless he had been truer to the Law of Nature Again is not self-preservation an intimate and natural impress in the heart of man it is not scripta sed nata Lex said the Orator and yet this ingraven Law was not strong enough no not in a grave and noble Cato to keep him from murdering himself and tearing out his own bowels and over this unnatural act Seneca sounds a triumph as being a noble and heroical contempt of death it self that that sword of his which was yet pure from the blood of others might let out his own but hear the censure of St. Austin De Civit. Dei l. 19. c. 4. Vtrum obsecro Cato ille patientiâ an impatientiâ se peremit non enim haec fecisset nisi victoriam Caesaris impatienter tulisset and in another place non erat honestas turpia praecavens L 1. c. 23. sed infirmitas adversa non sustinens it was but a proud impatience and miserable trampling upon the Law of Nature Moreover the light of reason doth really produce many moral virtues and yet in these wherein its greatest strength lyeth it is too weak to elevate any one of them to the glory of the great Creator Contra Jul. Pelag. l. 4. c. 3. therefore as St. Austin hath observed the whole body of Pagan virtues for want of a single eye at that great end is full of darkness Thus much of the weakness of reason on the other side the light of faith hath a great deal of strength in it this will not cannot be commonly imprisoned it is an holy unction and at last will be uppermost it is a mighty Engine whereby the hâ—ly Spirit lifts the heart up into belief and resignation a thing of high birth and great activity being born of God and overcoming the world 1 Joh. 5.4 and because the light of reason was not able to bear up the interest of God among men this supernatural light came to do it In the primitive Church whilest this shined clear there were no such things as outward Idols or Images afterwards upon the declension thereof those things crept in by degrees first into banners and then into Churches and there first for instruction only and afterwards for adoration yet nevertheless this holy spark shewed it self in some as in Epiphanius his cutting the vail and Serenus his breaking the Images and divers others abhorrency of Idolatry and what this supernatural light doth in Churches against outward Idols that it doth in hearts against inward it will allow no Idol to stand in the secret place not an Ashteroth of riches not a Venus of pleasure not a Baal a ruling lording lust in the heart every indulged lust stands upon the unilluminated and unresigned will and after Faith hath purified the heart it must give way for God to set up his Throne there that pure heart which the Philosophers talk of at random as a Geographer of a terra incognita faith plainly discovers and practically operates Those dishonesties and inhumanities which reason could not keep out of Laws faith casts away from private Christians as the common mire and dirt of a wicked world those moral virtues
the arms of God how admirably doth it set him forth in all his Attributes his eternity is the rock of ages his immutability an invariable and inconvertible Sun his righteousness like the great mountains his decrees and judgments a mighty deep his mercy a glory a mass of riches never to be told over his holiness as the pure unmixed light his justice as the devouring unquenchable fire In a word there all the glory of his Attributes pass before the believers eye such a book as this must needs be divine Secondly These marks or characters in Scripture cannot be known without supernatural light Meer reason receiveth them not like the child Samuel it hears a voice a sound of words but it knows not that it is the Lord insomuch that some have slighted the Scriptures Politianus said that he never spent time to less purpose then in reading them and Julian that there was as good stuff in Pindars Odes as in Davids Psalms Had they known the word or testimony of God in them they would not have crucified them by their wretched blasphemies But when the light of Faith comes the Scripture appears not in letters and words only but in the divine and heavenly characters and by these it bears witness to it self that it is the word of God There is a double cause of Faith an effective cause and an objective the effective cause is the holy spirit inlightning the understanding and moving the will and the objective is the Scripture it self by its own innate light and Majesty revealing its divinity to the inlightned soul Tertullian having this holy light in him adored the fullness of Scripture St. Austin seemeth to be taken to admiration with the purity of it as not admitting so much as an officious lyc Wheresoever the supernatural light comes the Scripture manifests it self to be divine Fourthly The fourth step of knowledge in order to Faith is Deus revelavit Evangelium God hath revealed a Gospel a way of salvation and eternal happiness Faith as I shall shew hereafter is not a meer belief of the divine testimony but a dependant resignation to God and Christ and to this resignation no man arrives unless he first see an overtopping superlative excellency in the Gospel outbidding the world and all the lusts thereof and verily believe that there and there only is the way of life and happiness And thus to see and believe is beyond the line of reason and all it s acquired notions The natural man in the midst of all his notions carries a false ballance in his heart which makes as if every trifling vanity did out-weigh God and Christ and heavenly things and whilest the ballance is thus he cannot resign and thus it will be till supernatural light come then and not till then doth the ballance turn by a right estimate of the Gospel and the promises thereof The spirit inlightning and not humane reason takes the things of Christ and shews them forth in their glory Joh. 16.14 And in this way God works the heart to resignation CHAP. III. Of the second part of Precious Faith the belief of the Testimony of God in the Scriptures What manner of belief it is and the consequents of it in order to an holy self-resignation THUS far of the first thing in Faith supernatural illumination I now proceed to the second A belief of the testimony of God in the Scriptures and here I need use no words to prove this belief an ingredient in Faith for faith in the Grammatical notion of it is nothing else but a belief of a Testimony and being applied to God it is a belief of his Testimony in Scripture Only I shall open two things first what manner of belief of the divine testimony in Scriptures this is and then what the consequents of it are in order to resignation First What manner of belief this is And this I shall explain in these particulars First This belief is divine and congruous to the divine testimony Such as the testimony is such must be the ratio credendi the Scriptures being a divine testimony must be believed for themselves because of the divine authority stamped upon them Thus the Thessalonians received the word not as the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God 1 Thess 2.13 they lodged the divine truth in a divine faith which was a suitable entertainment Humana omnia dicta testibus egent Dei autem sermo ipse sibi test is est saith Salvian humane words want witness but divine carry their own testimony in themselves To believe the Scriptures because God speaks in them is a divine faith but to believe them upon any other account is below their divine authority and but an humane faith For example to believe the Scriptures for the saying of the woman for the Churches testimony is but an humane faith for it stands on no higher fulciment then an humane testimony and therefore can be but an humane faith Here the subtile Jesuite would help out the Papist at a dead lift that faith saith he which is resolved into the Churches authority is neque purè divina neque purè humana sed quasi media inferioris cujusdam ordinis but what saith the learned Pemble to him Just so men use to speak when they cannot tell what to say It is Quasi and Aliquomodo and Alicujus generis it is somewhat if they could tell what thus he 'T is undoubtedly clear that that faith which calls any man Master on earth and centers on an humane testimony such as that of the Church made up of men must needs be can be no other then humane Indeed the Churches testimony may be inter motiva fidei but if the faith be divine it cannot be inter formales rationes sidei A man in the dark labyrinth of nature may be led out by the Churches lamp but when he is out he sees the Sun by its own light he believes the Scriptures for their own divinity though per ministerium Ecclesiae yet not propter authoritatem Ecclesiae Divine faith hath its Master in heaven and its record on high Secondly Which follows on the other this belief is a firm and stable thing because built on the divine authority of Scripture we believe and are sure saith Peter Joh. 6.69 Nothing on earth can so ascertain things unto us as faith in the divine testimony Julian the Apostate glorying in the Pagan learning jeered at the Christians because all their wisdom was but in that one word Credo I believe but divine faith for all his prophane taunt hath more firmness and real certainty in it then all the Sciences in the world for it sees things in lumine veritatis primae in the light of the first truth and sits even in the infallible chair so that non potest subesse falsum a lye cannot sit under it and glues the heart to the truth in that manner Eonav l. 3 disi 23. quest 4. that
irrationality Secondly Let us compare the fallibility of Reason with the infallibility of Scripture When the Papists lift up the Pope as supream judge in matters of Religion it is a sufficient answer to tell them the first Clement held the Platonical community of all things even of wives Marcellinus sacrificed to Idols Liberius subscribed to Arianism Innocent the first taught that little ones could not be saved without the Eucharist Vigilius was an Eutychian Honorius a Monothelite Hildebrand a brand of hell and impiously diabolical John the 23th was accused in the Council of Constance of this opinion That the souls of men dye with their bodies even as the souls of brutes and should such be judges in matters of Religion When the Socinian by subjecting articles of Faith unto Reason makes not one but as many Popes as men we need say no more to him but humanum est errare reason is a fallible thing The Philosophers were the Patriarchs of heretiques Platonical Philosophy in the Fathers and Aristotelical in the Schoolmen hath much debased the truths of God saith a great Divine All the errors and heresies which have swarmed abroad in all ages have been the progeny of corrupt Reason upon this the devil begets all the black monstrous opinions which crawl within doors in the Church or without in the Pagan world And should such a thing as this come and sit in judgment on the pure words of God which are surer then the voice of Angels and stand faster then the pillars of heaven and earth which in so many successions of Ages never contracted the least speck of falshood or shed a leaf in the fall of the least tittle or iota thereof Surely when reason thus forgets it self and its own fallibility it degrades it self and becomes unreasonable Thus far of the irrationality of the Socinian faith But Secondly The nullity of it is considerable it is a nullity in its foundation and at last it proves a nullity in the consequence It is a nullity in its foundation the Socinian believes the Scriptures not as a divine testimony but as congruous to reason and so trusts not in God but in himself and his own heart Thus Socinus expresses himself Non generalem comprobandi rationem quaerimus quod eam qui dixit ejusmodi esse appareat ut nullâ in re mentiri posset sed singularem quandam quâ id nominatim quod comprobandum est per causas effecia propria ita se babere demonstratur adeò ut non modò quia Deum ipsum dixisse appareat id verum esse constet sed etiam quia verum esse appareat id Deum dixisse nobis certò persuadeamus Qaomodo poterat clariùs prodere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suam saith a Learned man how could he more clearly betray his infidelity he would not have us only believe a thing true because God says so but believe also that God says so because it appears true to our own reason where this is the foundation faith is a meer nullity and that which is a nullity in the foundation at last proves a nullity in the consequence Reason corrupting it self in its own pride casts away the found principles of the Gospel and these being gone putrifies in abominable errors like Herod assuming a Deity to himself it is spiritually smitten of God and eaten up of worms I mean those errors which are but the putrefactions of reason How do the Socinians Paganize in worshipping a creature a Christ whom they deny to be God Mahometize in denying the sacred Trinity Judaize in standing for an interpreting Messiah only and not a satisfying one Manicheize in undervaluing the old Testament Arianize in denying the Deity of Christ Pelagianize in denying original sin Anabaptize in denying baptism to infants how do some of them Divelaze in horrid blasphemies calling the sacred Trinity tricipitem Cerberum and to those who assert Jesus Christ to be Gods son asking An Deus habuit uxorem Whether God had a wise and such like hellish stuff in which much of the devil appears After all this fearful shipwiack of faith what remains too too little to denominate them Christians Ignatius called the Ebionites because they denied Christs Deity men-worshippers the antiont Church styled the Samosatenians upon the same account God-killers and a great Divine passed this censure on the Socinians that they were a company of baptized Turks indeed their corrupted reason dissolves their faith into little or nothing Fifthly This belief must be such as owns the holy Scriptures for the rule of faith To the Law and to the testimony saith the Prophet If they speak not according to this word it is because here is no light in them Isa 8.20 As soon as the morning of faith breaks in the heart the word is owned as the rule Enthusiasts going oft from the Scriptures take the spirit for their rule Swenckfield was altogether for the spirit and the internal word and little or nothing at all for the external Henry Nicholas boasting of the holy anointing looked on the Scripture as a literal fleshly elementish thing John Valdesso saith that Christians may at first serve themselves with Scripture as an Alphabet but afterwards leaving it to beginners they attend to their proper Master the spirit of God Others say the Scripture is but a dead letter a thing of paper and ink and we must not try the living by the dead the holy spirit by the Scripture Such as these bragging of their own revelations call all other Christians Vocalists and Literalists because of their adherence to the Scriptures Mr. Saltmarsh makes three sphears of administration the Law or meer letter the Gospel which hath duty and grace in it and the spirit the pure spirit which is the third heaven higher then Scriptures and ordinances The Weigelians talk of a seculum Spiritus Sancti in which there shall be higher dispensations then before and we shall be wiser then Apostles The Quakers make the light within that is as I take it natural conscience the standard of all their actings All these though clothed in various words agree together to crucifie the Scriptures as if they had somewhat more noble Unto them I shall offer some considerations First The Apostles direction is Try the spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 try them as Goldsmiths try metals by the touchstone or by the fire or as Magistrates question offenders or examine those that stand for an office use all manner of ways to find out whether the spirits be right or not upon this as a sufficient warrant I shall put some interrogatories to the Enthusiast Thou sayest the spirit of God is in thy heart and is it not in the Scriptures too and where-ever it is is it not congruous and harmonious to it self And what doth it say in the Scripture doth it not say that the Scripture is the rule To the Law and to the testimony
saith the Prophet Isa 8.20 the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple saith the Psalmist Psal 19.7 The Scripture is able to make us wise to salvation and perfect throughly furnished unto all good works saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 17. Nay such a rule it is that nothing must be added to it nor diminished from it Dent. 4.2 no not by an Angel If an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel to you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 And can the spirit in the heart contradict the spirit in the Scripture can it be contrary to it self and depart from its own oracles no surely defectible creatures may be off and on yea and nay in their words but the holy spirit cannot be so The war between Constantius and Magnentius was looked upon as very portentous because therein first cross was carried against cross and Christians engaged against fellow-Christians but that the holy spirit should make war upon it self is a portentous contradiction which if allowed would leave no being to Gods veracity nor standing unto mans faith But as portentous as it is the Enthusiast must maintain it unless he will confess that the spirit in him which denies the Scripture to be the rule is not of God Again thou saiest thou hast the revelation of the holy spirit but how or in what manner doth it reveal it self in thee I suppose thou dost not pretend to a Revelation made by visions or dreams or audible voices as it was wont to be of old but to a revelation intellectual and that is double the one extraordinary in Prophets and Apostles the other ordinary in all true believers In the first revelation made to Prophets and Apostles the holy spirit did immediately infuse the species intelligibiles into their minds and thereby did internally speak and in a proper sense reveal things unto them What we translate the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea Hos 1.2 is in the original the beginning of the speech of Jehovah in Hosea pointing out an internal locution to the Prophet In the second revelation made to believers there is no such thing as in the first no immediate infusion of species no internal voice or locution saying this or that is so and therefore no revelation properly so called but the holy spirit doth enlighten their minds to make them capable and then they hear what the holy spirit in the Scriptures speaks unto them thus S. Paul on the behalf of the Ephesians prays for the spirit of wisdom and revelation not that they might have extraordinary inspirations but that the eyes of their understanding might be inlightned Eph. 1.17 18. To know the witness of God in the Gospel the holy spirit doth not speak to their inlightned understandings immediately but in and by the Scripture-medium which is as it were Epistola Dei Gods letter unto man In the first revelation to the Prophets and Apostles the holy spirit did so totally and in such an extraordinary way govern them in their speaking and writing that therein there was nibil suum nothing of their own not only the matter but quaevis vocula every little word was of God hence S. Peter saith that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved or carried upon the wings of the spirit above humane frailty 2 Pet. 1.21 In the second revelation to believers the holy spirit is as an holy anointing to their minds and thereby puts them into a capacity to hear what God speaks in the Scripture but it doth not so totally carry and rule them as to make their words purely divine and free from all mixture of their own The first revelation to the Prophets and Apostles being purely immediate and extraordinary makes authentical Scripture The second revelation to believers being but ordinary doth not make Scripture but only capacitate their minds to take in the manifestations of the spirit therein These things premised I must renew my question Say O Enthusiast what is thy revelation is it a pure immediate internal locution is it extraordinary and carried by the spirit above all humane frailty may it be added to the Canon and become Scripture I suppose thou canst not darest not say so but if thou dost read and tremble at the sealing up of the Canon Rev. 22.18 If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book and if any man shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city These words are as a flaming sword at the end of the Bible to keep thee from presuming to put any thing thereunto Say then modestly is not thy revelation ordinary did not the holy spirit come to thee in the chariot of the Scripture and why then doest thou slight and undervalue it why doest thou call it a dead letter a fleshly elementith thing and the like God hath spoken once yea twice if I may so allude once in the Old Testament and again in the New expect not to hear his voice or spirit any where else but there if thou doest thou puttest a cheat upon thy self and instead of a revelation embracest a meer fancy Again the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is the greatest measure of it say in good earnest is there a greater measure of the spirit in thy heart then in the Scripture then thou canst unriddle all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the difficult knots in Scripture thou canst dive down into that divine abyss and fetch up all the holy mysteries there thy holiness can hold measure with the length and breadth of the pure spiritual Law thy faith runs parallel with all the promises and can tell over all that infinite Mass of free-grace which is couched therein the hellish root of bitterness once in thy nature is quite eradicated and not a string of concupiscence left behind thou canst say I have no sin and which is the wonder thy heart doth not deceive thee in saying so there are no shades or dark spots in thy mind no cracks or flaws at all in thy obedience no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing lacking in thy faith or other graces All in thy heart and life is as right as the rule and as pure as the Christal streams in the Gospel If there be a greater measure of the spirit in thy heart then in the Scripture thus it is with thee but I hope thou art not so utterly void of the spirit and conscience as to fall into so proud a dream of thy estate If thou saiest thou art clean that very word pollutes thee quisquis se inculpatum dixerit aut superbus aut stultus est whosoever saith so is either a fool or a proud man Say then as the truth is there is a greater incomparably greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture
dead letter and we must not try the living by the dead The holy Martyr Stephen long since stiled them lively oracles Act. 7.38 and if they are now but a dead letter who hath murdered them who so much as the Enthusiast who goes about to separate the spirit from them If the Law come to a man in the convincing spirit and slay him with his own guilt and set his conscience on fire with some tasts of hell he may with the Apostle call it a killing letter but he will hardly call it a dead one If the Gospel come to him in the converting spirit and open the glories of free-grace and bring in a new creation into his heart he must confess that it is the very savour of life unto life and the power and arm of God to salvation and as the first life of grace is breathed through it into the dead sinner so all the after-gales of the spirit come from it upon the new creature Wherefore whilest the spirit is in the word it cannot be a dead letter and where the spirit is in the heart it will not be called so The Enthusiast for all his swelling words of vanity by calling the Scripture a dead letter proves only the deadness of his own heart and the true believer who owns the Scripture for his rule doth not try the living by the dead but the lesser measure of the spirit in his heart by the greater measure of it in the word Again they say there is a seculum spiritus sancti an administration of all-spirit which is much above all Scriptures and Ordinances but that there should be such a Church-state on earth is a vain dream There are two manifestations of God unto men the one dark and through the glass of ordinances the other by pure and immediate vision as it were face to face There are two states of believers the one a state of weak and imperfect graces the other a state of perfect holiness and purity There are also two places the one is earth a vale of tears and death the other is heaven a region of all blessedness and life eternal The manifestation by ordinances is congruous to weak graces and such a place as earth The manifestation by pure vision is congruous to perfect holiness and such a place as heaven Thus hath the wisdom of God ordered things Methinks the Enthusiast should blush to say that he is above Scriptures and Ordinances here What above the glass and yet below the bliss-making vision above the channels and methods of grace and yet below a state of perfection above the heavenly mediums and yet on earth Oh strange imagination What saith our Saviour Go teach and baptize loe I am with you always to the end of the world Mat. 28.19 20. Ordinances run parallel with this world and the state which is above them is only in the next What saith St. Paul Apostles Prophets Teachers Pastors are all for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ Eph. 4.11 12. Ordinances must continue as long as weaknesses and imperfections and cannot be spared till the top-stone of holiness and perfection be laid in heaven What saith St. John speaking of the heavenly City And I saw no Temple therein Rev. 21.22 No Temple no Ordinances is only for heaven earth must alwaies want and have them O my soul enter not into their secret which cry up the spirit and despise prophesyings be thou where Gods honour dwelleth in the Temple of Ordinances thou mayest see his power and glory Lastly the Quakers talk altogether of the light within which being as they say common to all men can be no other then natural conscience this is the candle of the Lord and much magnified by Heathen Philosophers this is every mans Daemon saith one nay it is the God in us saith another And it is so in such a sense as Moses was a God to Pharaoh preaching the will of God to him and for non-obedience urging him with dreadful plagues For it magisterially dictates the will of God even in the Monarchs of the world and in case they rebel it hath inward stings and scorpions for them Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem saith Seneca Were a Quaker to English it he would go near to do it thus The light within is God manifest in the flesh for in plain terms he will call it Christ as if the candle could becom a Sun of Righteousness In the mean time the devil hath a fetch under the praises of inward light to explode the Scriptures But we must remember that Conscience which is above man is yet below God and though it be a light and a rule yet it must truckle under the greater light and rule in the Scriptures Take conscience before conversion it is clouded and overshadowed with the Fall dark and blind in spiritual things and shall the blind lead the blind till both fall into the ditch must it not go be new-lighted at the Scripture Take heed unto the word as unto a light shining in a dark place saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 The heart of man is but a dark place till the divine word shine into it it is intoxicated with the love of sin and by it as the devils Opium it sleeps at the top of the mast in the ocean of lowdangers and must it not be rouzed up ought not the silver trumpet of the word to be sounded in its ears to prevent an eternal sleep and awaken it unto righteousness should it not go and wash in the pure streams of free-grace and redeeming blood in the Gospel it may be it is infected with errors and by these Satan hath taken sanctuary in the intellectual tower and utters his own dictates as from God and must it be left in such a case should not Satan and all his lying wares be cast out by the word and spirit but because conscience is now at the worst take it after conversion are there then no reliques of darkness which call for more light are there no fits of spiritual drowsiness which need fresh alarums are there no dregs of corruption which want a new purgation are there no spots of error which ought to be wiped out he that presumes a freedom from these hath great reason to doubt whether there be any such thing as conversion found in him and he that confesses them hath as great reason to run to the Scripture to have them rectified But because the Quaker dreams of perfection I will go higher Suppose a man absolutely perfect every wheel in his soul in right motion and his conscience a pure Chrystal without any flaw in it yet must the man be under God and his conscience under the word for his very perfection stands in that subjection and is forfeited as soon as it departs from it Conscience is a rule but a subordinate one it binds and looses but in the power and
authority of the word take away that and conscience is no more conscience the inward Eccleiastes is silenced and hath nothing to say My conscience beareth witness in the holy Ghost saith the Apostle Rom. 9.1 Observe it beareth witness in the holy Ghost Spiritu Sancto duce ac moderatore saith Beza on the place Conscience is no supream thing the holy Spirit must command and moderate in it if not in an immediate way as in Prophets and Apostles yet in and by the sacred Scriptures as in ordinary Christians To conclude with that of an ancient Scripturis non loquentibus quis loquetur the Scripture being silent none can speak no not conscience it self in a regular way wherefore our supream rule must be sought no wher else but there Thus far I have treated touching what manner of belief of Scripture this must be But to proceed on Secondly What are the consequents of this belief in order to that resignation which is the last thing in faith I answer the holy spirit having lodged such a belief of Scripture in the heart doth reflect and turn the Scriptural light inwards and manage it in order to resignation by so me such steps as these following First It strikes in the holy light in that manner as to work a clear conviction of sin and this conviction is manifold First There is a conviction of sin in its kinds Actual and Original I name Actual first as being most obvious and first in the discovery There is a conviction of Actual sin the believed Law comes home to the heart and gives it a charge as Nathan to David thou art the man these and those things are sins against the great God saith the holy Law and so and so thou hast done saith the awakened conscience God who before had sowed and sealed up his iniquities in a bag as the phrase is Job 14.17 now opens the bag and pours out a vast sum of guilts and exactly tells over all the smothered light and abused love and spirit-quenchings and sorfeited creatures and buried talents and broken promises and horrible presumptions in all amounting to wonderful arrearages and at last enforcing the poor sinner to cry out Guilty Guilty And after this follows a conviction of Original sin The sinner traces up his sins to the impure fountain and follows every lust home to the black nest in the heart there there is the root of bitterness the seed-plot and spawn of all iniquity Indeed in every actual sin we may if we have our spiritual senses about us hear the sound of its Masters feet even of the reigning corruption within in every act of rebellion we may cry out of the Pharaoh within which saith who is the Lord in every act of unbelief we may complain of the Jew in the heart which will not receive Christ we may tast Adams apple in every sensual sin and perceive his imaginary Godhead in every spiritual self-excellency in our lives we have many sins but all in our heart there is a stench in vitious actions but the filthy sink of all is within After some such way as this doth God fill our faces with shame that we may seek him and resign Secondly There is a conviction of sin in its guilt The sinner comes to see that whilest he is in his sin he is but a condemned man and sin unless pardoned will chain him to hell and eternal wrath God seems to speak to him as once to Abimelech behold thou art but a dead man thou catest and drinkest and sleepest but all the while under wrath thou art jolly abroad among the creatures but fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest hangs over thy head God makes the sinner know where he is as the Syrians when their eyes were opened saw themselves in the midst of Samaria so he when his mind is inlightned sees himself at the brink of hell and death without such a sense of wrath man is too proud to resign he is naturally a Manasseh a forgetter of God and will not turn till he be in chains Laish-like he sits quiet and secure till Dan the judgment come hell must drive him to heaven or else he will never come there the fiery Law must melt him or else he will never run into the Gospel-mould Thirdly There is a conviction of the filthiness of sin the soul in every turn from God loses its light and in every turn to the creature gathers soil and pollution the sinner will never resign up himself to be washed in the Evangelical laver unless he first seo sin as it is mire and dirt and superfluity of naughtiness and find his pretious soul lying in a sordid manner in a sink of pleasure or a cave of covetousness or some other lust which is as an unclean place miserably defiling it whilest it abides therein Fourthly There is a conviction of the power of sin sin is a Baal a Lording tyrant and the sinner a vassal to it in sensual sins he drudges in Sodom and Egypt and in spiritual he is carried away to Babylon the sinner is as a captive in his chains and which is the great wonder a willing captive the iron is entred into his soul the chain is in his very will the Principle of freedom a vassal he is and loves to be so The more freely he sins the more is his slavery the more imperiously he sins the more is his weakness thus the Prophet how weak is thy heart seeing thou doest the work of an imperiou whorish woman Ezek. 16.30 unless God make men in some measure feel the power of sin and go as David over Olivet weeping because of the Absoloms the rebellious lusts which come out of their own bowels and make war upon heaven they will not resign and take up the yoke of Christ as they ought Secondly Upon such a conviction of sin ensue great straits and humiliations of soul When the poor sinner sees things as they are an host of sins round about the soul nay and within it an hell flashing out of the guilt thereof a defiling filthiness in it such as makes him ashamed to lift up his soul to God and withall such bonds and fetters therein as he cannot break by his own power then he becomes a Magor-missabib terror round about his heart more or less bleeds in tears travels in pangs of conscience breaks under a damning Law and droops and swoons away in fits of self-confusion and self-desparation and at last is ready to cry out Oh sin Oh wrath what shall I do whither go can I fly from the Omnipresent grapple with the Almighty or stand before the holy One all 's impossible can I endure an hell abide a never-dying worm or dwell with consuming fire 't is intolerable May my time be unravelled my sins undone or my self unborn it cannot be Oh! sinful forlorn creature that I am wo wo unto me for ever Such straits as these make way for resignation all the sons of
God come out of Egypt out of the straits of sin and pass through a wilderness of wants and extremities towards the Land of promise the valley of Achor trouble and perplexity for the accursed thing is a door of hope husks and hunger make the Prodigal come to himself and his father Thirdly Upon this humiliation and strait of soul there ensues a deliberation a standing as the King of Babylon did Ezek. 21.21 at the parting of the way to make a true enquiry Lo saith the afflicted soul in a self-parley here is the way of life and there of death this is the way everlasting and that 's the way of time If you live after the flesh you must dye but if you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live if you sow unto the flesh you must reap corruption if unto the spirit life everlasting O my soul be not deceived God and sin Christ and Belial heaven and hell cannot mix together Say then O my soul what wilt thou have the mess of pottage or the birth-right the pleasures of sin or those at Gods right hand the worlds trinity of lusts or communion with the blessed Trinity in heaven Thus the soul sits down and casts up the cost sin on and burn in hell for ever turn to God and shine in eternal glory spare thy lusts and damn thy soul slay thy lusts and save it Oh! what a fearful cheat is sin it proffers a profit or a pleasure and asks a soul it holds out a moment or two and would have eternity in pawn for it it tickles the sense and stabs the conscience it courts and flatters like the strange woman and leads down to hell and death Such deliberations as these make way for resignation an indeliberate resignation is but a flash and away but a deliberate one is fit to endure Fourthly After all this the holy spirit doth so far press in the holy light as to work a denial of a mans self and his lusts in some measure I say in some measure for without some measure of self-denial a man will never resign up himself to God and Christ Thus our Saviour If any man will come after me let him deny himself Mat. 16.24 first deny himself and then go to Christ and again Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Mat. 11.28 first be weary of sin and then go to Christ no man can serve two Masters he that will follow Christ must do as Peter and Andrew did leave his nets all the entangling lusts of his heart and so follow him Whilest a man sits at the receit of custome driving on a trade of sin he cannot follow him First he must with Mathew rise up from thence and then he may follow him Also I say in some measure for the self-denial before precious faith must be distinguished from the self-denial after it self-denial before faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit making impressions and darting in light into the heart in a transient way self-denial after faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit dwelling in the heart by faith and acting therein as an abiding principle of all grace Before faith it is in a far lesser measure and degree after faith it grows up to a full stature before faith it doth in some sort cast off the soveraignty of sin the soul no longer chuses to live under its dominion but looking upon it as cruel bondage casts off its allegiance after faith it strikes at the very life of sin in the work of mortification What is said of the beasts in Daniel their dominion was taken away and yet their lives were prolonged Dan. 7.12 the same may be said of sin first it loses its crown and then its life The holy spirit in the first measure of self-denial doth as it were dethrone sin in order to resignation and in the after-measure thereof it mortifies and nails it to the cross there to dye and expire Now this measure of self-denial which precedes resignation stands in divers things First There is a denial of a mans reason Reason as the candle of the Lord is not to be denied but reason as it is a false light as it pleads for Baal the lording lust of the soul as it plays the serpent seducing from holy truths as it sows pillows under presumptuous sinning as it laughs at holiness and divine mysteries above its comprehension is surely to be denied We must become fools that we may be wise put out our lamp that it may be lighted by the spirit and crucifie our why's and wherefores that we may believe the Gospel Abraham having Gods promise for a seed considered not Rom. 4.19 and staggered not or as in the original discerned not v. 20. he did not play the critick upon the dead body and dead womb he laid by his discretion that he might give glory to God by believing Secondly There is a denial of a mans will This is the forbidden fruit and womb of concupiscence unless this be renounced there is no hope of resignation our own will is a thing of Belial and unless subdued by grace will not take Christ's yoke it is an inward Antichrist and unless consumed by the divine spirit and brightness will exalt it self above the will of God Saul must have a light from heaven and a fall to the earth a fit of trembling or else he will not resign and say Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9.6 the will must be un-selved and the man become as a little child without any will of his own or else there can be no resignation Thirdly There is a denial of a mans carnal affections These are the camels which cannot go thorough the needles eye the weights and plummets which press down the soul from God unless these be cast off there can be no resignation our Saviour is positive in it how can ye believe which receive honour one of another Joh. 5.44 A soul breathed into vain-glorious air or drowned in sensual pleasures or laden with the thick clay of the world cannot resign he that will offer up himself to God must leave the world behind his back his affections must be gathered in from earth and Angel-like ascend in the flame of faith the vail of time must be put by and an entry made upon eternity Fourthly There is a denial of a mans own power Proud persons puft up in their fleshly mind vainly dream that their Reason can span all mysteries and their Will teem out all graces no temptations are too strong for them nor duties too weighty Alass these are so far from resignation that they are not come to illumination through prodigious blindness they are strong in their impotency rich in their poverty free in their chains and something in their nothingness And what should they go to God for as yet they are not so much as in the way thither but let the man put off his false ornaments and
lay by his proud plumes and sensibly feel a carnal mind and a spiritual Law a weak heart and strong corruptions let him groan and cry out of the blind eyes which cannot unscale the iron sinewed Will which cannot bow the false heart which cannot go true and the fallen nature which cannot reach so high as an holy thought Let him be weak in his impotency till God set up Jachin and Boaz in his heart poor in his poverty till he have a share in Christs riches a captive in his chains till God break them off and bid him go free and nothing in his nothingness that creating grace may pass upon him and God be all in all This is the way to resignation such is Gods method to bring light out of darkness perfect power in weakness and call things that are not as if they were Fifthly There is a denial of a mans own righteousness Every man naturally would be a self-justifier as the Apostle saith Rom. 10.3 he would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 establish or make to stand his own righteousness though it be but a dead carcass he would set it upon its legs though but a breathless image he would have it stand alone and the reason is because he would be justified by somewhat within he would not go out for a righteousness But alass all this while he doth not cannot resign thus the Apostle in that place going about to establish their own righteousness they submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God A man whilest upon his own bottom will not surrender but take him up into Moriah into the vision of God and shew him the purity of Gods nature and the sinfulness of his own carry him to Sinai and let him see the necessity of a perfect righteousness and the impossibility of an inherent one in himself pluck away his fig-leaves of false righteousness and open his eyes upon his own nakedness and poverty this is the true way to resignation Thus far of the second thing in faith what manner of belief of Scripture this is and how in the consequents of it the holy spirit strikes in the holy light upon the heart and by certain steps brings it to the very borders of resignation which is the third and last thing in faith now to be opened CHAP. IV. Of the third and last thing in Faith an holy thorough dependant Self-resignation to the terms of the Gospel What it is to whom and to what it is made and for what purposes with the adjuncts and properties of it THE third and last thing in Precious Faith is a dependant yielding or resignation of the soul unto Jesus Christ the Mediator and through him unto God according to his word This is the vital and essential act of faith as faith is the condition of the Gospel Touching it I shall first explain what this resignation is and then offer my reasons why the vitality and essential nature of Faith doth consist therein First I must explain what this resignation is in general It is no other then a surrender of the soul to God according to theterms of the Covenant God hath chalked out in the word a method of salvation and man resigns up his soul to God in his own way God says to man if ever thou art saved it must be through the Mediator Jesus Christ his blood must wash out thy sins his righteousness must answer the Law for thee Content saith the soul I resign up my self to the Mediator I lean my self upon his blood and righteousness for pardon and acceptance with thee Among Anselms interrogatories to be proposed unto men lying in extremis at the point of death one which the Minister offers to the sick man is doest thou believe that thou canst not be saved but by Christs death unto which when the sick man answers yea I so believe the Minister is appointed to speak to him thus Age dum superest in te anima in hâc solâ morte siduciam tuam constitue in nullâ aliâ re siduciam babe buic morti te totum committe bâc solâ te totum contege totum immisee totum involve Whilest there is any breath in thee place all thy considence in his death and in nothing else commit thy whole self to it cover and intermingle and involve thy whole self in it this conference I have set down because it doth emphatically express this act of resignation God says further my Christ must not cannot be divided if he save thee as a Priest he must teach thee as a Prophet and rule over thee as a King for I have made him all these Content saith the soul his blood is not cannot be spiritless I give up my self to his holy spirit to be taught and ruled I desire to say with Baldassar the German Divine Veniat veniat verbum Domini submittemus illi sexcenta si nobis essent colla Let the word of the Lord Christ come let it come teaching and ruling and I desire to submit to it even six hundred necks if he had so many God says further my Christ is a crucified one and you cannot must not divide him from the cross No saith the soul I will take him cross and all I would fain say as the noble Ignatius veniant crux ignis ossium confractiones modò Christum habeam let the cross and the fire and the broken bones come so I may but have Christ I hope nothing shall separate me from his love God says again through this Christ thou must in all thy wants cast thy self upon me for a supply I cannot saith the soul bear up my own weight in this respect I would fain lay all upon thee my guilt upon thy mercy my unworthiness upon thy free-grace my folly upon thy wisdom and my weakness upon thy almighty power if thou doest not help me the barn-floor and wine-press of the creature cannot do it if thou fail me I am confounded and expect to be miserable Moreover says God in all thy addresses unto me thou must look to thy warrant and see whether Scripture will bear thee out in it or not The Scripture saith the soul is the Great Charter above sealed by infinite veracity and below by faith this this is the sacred rule I desire to go by in all my resignations After some such manner as this doth the believing soul surrender up it self But for the more clear opening of this resignation I shall consider three things First Unto whom or what this resignation is made Secondly For what things or purposes it is made Thirdly What are the Adjuncts and properties thereof First Vnto whom or what this resignation is made I answer it is made unto Jesus Christ the Mediator unto God the whole sacred Trinity and unto the Word unto Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation unto God as the Center and ultimate object of Faith and unto the Word as the warrant rule and way in by and according
holiness and justice with his holiness providing a perfect righteousness and with his justice providing a perfect satisfaction for them in a surety hence the Apostle saith we are justified freely by his grace Rom. 3.24 Freely by his grace he uses two words the more plainly and emphatically to decipher out to us the pure fountain of love and grace out of which pardon and justification issue forth to poor sinners Secondly There must be a perfect righteousness fully answering the holy Law God cannot deny himself he cannot deny his holiness so as to justifie us without a righteousness therefore there must be one he cannot deny his truth so as to account that a righteousness which is none therefore it must be perfect fully answering the Law all-fair without any spot in it all-pure without any mixture in it all-perfect without and defect in it such a thing as is not to be found in any meer man The Jews as it seems by Josephus thought a meer outward righteousness enough but alass what is this without a pure heart The Popish Doctors look upon inherent graces as our very righteousness in justification indeed these because the denomination is à meliore parte denominate men righteous but they are but inchoate and imperfect and therefore are short of that perfect and absolute righteousness requisite to justification They denominate men righteous but they do it but in their own weak degree and not in full proportion to the holy Law a gracious man is not all grace there is flesh as well as spirit dross as well as gold water as well as wine in him his mind is not all Light his will is not all love his affections are not all harmony what of grace he hath is but in part and if this be his righteousness he can be justified but in part or rather not at all Neither can our good works no not those which flow from grace ever be our righteousness in justification Those are good as they flow from the pure fountain of the spirit but as they proceed from us in whom there is much of the old Adara they smell of the cask and soil in the channel and contract a great deal of dross from the indwelling sin Hence they are so far from justifying us that they themselves need a justification Hence holy Nehemiah prays that his good works may be remembred with a spare me O Lord according to the greatness of thy mercy Neh 13.22 Neither will it suffice to justification if our good works are more then our evil The Papists fable that Henry the second Emperour was weighed in the ballance to see whether he were worthy of heaven or hell his good works were put into one scale his evil into the other and these were like to out weigh and sink him to hell but that St. Lawrence put in the Chalice by the Emperour given him and so made the scale of good works preponderate O vain tale nothing weighs with God in the point of justification but a compleat rightcousness and that can no where be found but in Christ alone he and he only fulfilled all righteousness and therefore he is called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the Law for righteousness to the believer Rom. 10.4 the Law hath its total sum and perfect compleature in him Thirdly There must be an expiation of sin or else there can be no justification The very Gentiles themselves stung with the conscience of sin and vengeance had their expiatory and lustratory Sacrifices The antient lews being Gods people had their offerings and sacrifices for sin to make an Atonement according to the Levitical Law The latter Jews though they reject the sacrifice of the Messiah yet that they might not be wholly without an expiation offer a cock for sin because the word Gebher in Hebrew signifies a man and in the Talmud a cock hence they say Gebher that is the man sinneth and Gebher that is the cock suffereth If the Prophet Isaias in the 53. chapter had used the word Gebher the Rabbins saith a Learned man would have turned the man into a cock but there it is not Gebher but Ish a man of sorrows But these expiations not availing God hath provided an expiation in the death of his son Without shedding of blood there is no remission saith the Apostle Heb. 9.22 and because creature-blood could not do it the blood of God was shed to redeem us from sin Jesus Christ who is God-man offered up himself through the eternal spirit to purge our consciences from dead works he paid the utmost farthing to Divine justice and hath left nothing at all to pay for the believing finner The Gentile sacrifices were no expiations at all being indeed sacrifices to devils and not to God nay in their own account they did not expiate in all cases Hence when the Emperor Constantine was haunted with the innocent blood he had shed the Gentile Flamius could tell him of no expiation But the blood of Christ is a true and universal expiation cleansing from sin and all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 The Levitical sacrifices though of Divine Institution were but types and shadows making nothing perfect But a crucified Christ is the sum and substance of them really atoning what those did but typically The Rabbinical cock is a strange vanity in which we may stand and wonder at the Jewish blindness but what their vain Gebher could not do that our Ish the man of sorrows upon whom all our iniquities met hath done indeed he was wounded for our iniquities his soul was an offering for sin his life a â—â—nsom for many his blood was shed for the remission of sins he paid that he never took he made 〈◊〉 through the blood of his cross in him God is 〈◊〉 and reconciled These things being premised I say the soul by Faith doth resign up it self for pardon and justification And that I may observe my first method this resignation is made First To Jesus Christ the Mediator The believer conscious to his own spiritual poverty doth as the poor man in the Psalm commit himself or as the Original is leave himself on the Lord Psal 10.14 In stead of a perfect righteousness he hath raggs of weakness and imperfection but he leaves himself upon the perfect righteousness of Christ as a thing fully answering every jot and tittle of the Law Indeed some great Rabbies cry out upon imputative righteousness as a thing impossible calling it putative a meer imagination Luthers spectrum the pleasing dream of simple Christians but in sober sadness the dream is on their own side If imputative righteousness be impossible how can we stand before the righteous Law dooming and cursing the least defect or non-continuance in all things Imputative righteousness is impossiblé and inherent is imperfect and how can we stand if we stand the righteousness of God must be upon us Rom. 3.22 Christ must be the end of the Law for righteousness unto
willing and cries out Father thy wâ—ll be done even in the death of my darling lusts Christ died a violent death and sin must not dyâ— a natural one If it dye alone or of it self it is no sacrifice it must be cropt in the flower and stabbed at the heart and dye of its wounds the violence done to God and Christ and the Spirit must be upon it till it give up the ghost Christ died a tormenting death in pains and agonies and we must dye so to sin we must suffer in the flesh 1 Pet. 4.1 bleeding under sin and being sorrowful to the death of it Christ died a lingring death and so doth sin it doth not dye all at once but languishes by little and little the believer dies daily to sin The Colossians were dead Câ—l 3.3 and yet saith the Apostle mortisie your members v. 8. Mortification must be upon mortification because sin is long a dying the genius of faith is to have sin crucified as Christ was following his steps as much as may be Secondly He yields up his soul to Christ as the meritorious cause of mortification Christs death merited sins hence faith glories in the cross of Christ as in that whereby the world is crucified to the believer and he to the world Gal. 6.14 there it would hang up every lust as an accursed thing Faith lies at the bleeding wounds of Christ watching for the breathings of that spirit which can mortisie the deeds of the body waiting for that mind of Christ which can make us suffer in the fiesh that we may cease from sin Christ was crucified and the believer would have the old man crucified together he would dye with him as the graft doth with the stock There is a Popish fable that the angry Adriatick Sea was becalmed by one of the nails of Christs cross cast into it the moral is true the troubled sea of lust in our heart cannot be subdued but by the application of Christ death the winds and waves there obey no other voice but that of Christ crucified he yields up his soul to Christ as the royal worker of mortification When he sees his lusts as so many rebels rising up in arrns he flies to his soveraign Christ for a power to subdue them the high things and strong holds appearing in his understanding make him cry out Treason Treason the Jebusite is in the tower of David the fleshly wisdom hath got into the understanding O thou wisdom of God captivate and cast it down The Pagan lusts and Gentile-wills shewing themselves in the heart force him to break forth like the Psalmist O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance thy temple they have desiled cast them out O thou mighty Saviour that my soul may be a sanctuary for thy self When the battel is set before and behind corruptions surrounding and encompassing him his eyes are upon his Lord sitting above at the right hand of power till his enemies be made his footstool And as the believer yields up his foul to Christ for mortification of sin so also for vivisication of the soul And this in the very same respects First He yields up his soul to Christ as the grand pattern of vivisication the parallel is the Apostles own Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 Look what was done in the flesh of Christ in his corporeal resurrection that is done in the spirits of Christians in the spiritual resurrection there the stone was rolled away from the sepulchre here from the heart there the flesh of Christ was raised up by an Almighty power called by the Apostle the glory of the Father here the soul of the believer is raised up by the same power as appears Eph. 1.19 20. there after the corporceal resurrection Christ appeared in humane lineaments here after the spiritual resurrection the Christian appears in divine graces the genius of faith is to assimilate the Christian to Christ risen Secondly He yields up his soul to Christ as the meritorious cause of vivisication Christ merited all graces for us saith doth not dare to go immediately to God no not for holiness it self but it goes and sucks at the breasts of Christs humanity well knowing that all graces are from the spirit and the way of the spirit is by the blood as Tagmon Archbishop of Magdenburg took the last breath of his dying Master Wolfgang by applying mouth to mouth so faith applies its mouth as it were to the wounds of a dying Christ from thence to receive the spirit of all grace that love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness temperance as so many rivers of living water may flow in the heart to make glad the habitation of God therein that the holy spirit may be as it were the soul of the soul breathing in the believers prayers and shining on his Bible and melting in his charity and impowering in his infirmity and honey-dropping in his converses and being a Shechinah a presence and a glory in all his ways Thirdly He yields up his soul to Christ as the Royal Donor of all quickning graces Christ as a Priest merited all graces but as a King he gives them out unto us him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance Act. 5.31 and so to give all other graces A melting heart is but a word of power from him at Gods right hand an heavenly heart but a touch from him sitting in heaven every piece of holiness is a beam of glory from him meekness and mercy and obedience and patience are as so many pearls dropping from his crown all the sheddings of the holy spirit slow from him who is exalted above he ascended up that he might fill all things Eph. 4.10 that is all the spiritual world of believers with grace Faith therefore looks up for the sweet illapses of the spirit and waits for graces as so many golden apples dropping down from that tree of life which stands in the upper Paradise of God Secondly In and through the Mediator this resignation is made unto God it is God that sanctisieth God as the supream fountain of grace and in this resignation faith climbs up to him partly by the Attribute of free-grace cast thy burden upon the Lord saith the Psalmist Psal 55. 22. or as the Original imports omnia donabilia tua all that thou wouldest have given thee whatever thy want be mortifying grace or quickning grace faith hath an art to cast and unload all upon free-grace there being a famine of grace in lapsed nature faith brings out the empty vessel the soul void of self-worthiness and sets it under one ordinance or other waiting upon God till he rain down righteousness upon the soul This is the rain of liberalities as the Original is Psal 68.9 this faith waits for without money or price of its own
it the root of the matter is in the weakest of them though not the same verdure of notions or expressions the substance or holy seed of true resignation may be latent in a bruised reed or smoaking flax in a poor spirit or the pulse of a desire I have read of a Noble person in Spain who being as was supposed absolutely dead Melch Adanum 〈◊〉 Vesalâ—â— was diffected and upon the opening of his breast they found to their great amazement his heart beating some weak believers may seem totally dead in whom yet before God to whom all things are naked and open as in an Anatomy there is found a vital pulse of faith secretly working God saith a Reverend Divine brings not scales to weigh but a touch-stone to try our graces If there be but the least dram of gold but the least smoke or weik in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 God accepts it neither do I mean that this resignation is acted perpetually but with many sad pauses and interruptions which happen partly by the blasts of Satans temptations making the believer walk like Peter upon the water now a good step and then ready to sink when the wind grows boisterous till his faith buoy him up again with a Lord save me partly by the allurements and entanglements of the world which are to him as the stone and the string were to Anselms bird now up in ascensions of soul to God and Christ and then down again to the earth and earthly things and partly from the indwelling sin which make him live as his Saviour did on earth a meer conflicting life Christ endured the contradiction of sinners and he the contradiction of sins the indwelling corruption makes his soul like a palsey hand with contrary motions Lord I believe help my unbelief whilest faith moves forward unbelief draws back after he hath in a princely manner wrestled with God he goes off Jacob-like halting in one infirmity or other CHAP. V. Reasons proving the Essential nature of Faith as the condition of the Gospel to consist in an holy thorough dependant Self-resignation THUS far of the nature of this Resignation as to its Objects Ends and Adjuncts It remains that I lay down my reasons why I place the vitality and essential nature of faith as it is the condition of the Gospel in such a resignation as is before described And for this First That precious faith which is the Evangelical condition is more then a bare naked assent to the Gospel-truth and less then an assurance of love and pardon from God wherefore it must needs be some middle thing between both such as Resignation is I shall endeavour to make good both propositions First Pretious faith is more then a bare naked assent to the Gospel-truth This will be clear by the ensuing considerations First A naked assent is but credere Deo a believing Scriptural axiomes to be true but pretious faith is a far nobler thing and therefore very emphatically painted out in Scripture in the Old Testament 't is credere in Deum a believing in Jehovah Gen. 15.6 importing a fiducial act 't is a trusting in the Lord Psal 2.12 where the Hebrew word imports a flying for refuge a running under the wings of free-grace as chickens do under the hen 't is a leaning upon God Isa 50.10 as not able to stand alone without a recumbency on mercy 't is a rolling our selves upon God Psal 37.5 as weary and without rest till we come to lodg in goodness in the New Testament 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a believing into Christ very frequent in the Gospel of St. John a phrase wholly the holy spirits never found in any Greek Author a bare assenter may believe about Christ but the true believer believes into Christ so as to be in neer union with him 't is a putting on of Christ Rom. 13.14 the believer strips himself of his lusts nay and of his own righteousness to be invested with Christ 't is a receiving of Christ Joh. 1.12 all Christ merit and spirit cross and crown together 't is a faith which hath its being in God as its ultimate center 1 Pet. 1.21 Scripture is but a medium the ultimate object is God himself All which imports of precious faith are much above the sphear of a meer assent Secondly Precious faith is the very condition of the Gospel God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 but a naked assent is not such that is required not only in the Gospel but in the moral Law too and found not only in godly but wicked men nay and in devils themselves who believe and tremble It is true some Scriptures seem to lay much upon assent thus we find If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 And whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 1 Joh. 5.1 And these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have life through his name Joh. 20.31 But these places import not as if a naked assent were the sull condition of Gospel-grace for then a man might be saved in his sins a man in arms against his maker might stand Gods grace might embrace him whom his holiness abhors and Christ might sive him who will not have him reign over him light might be in communion with darkness and Christ might have concord with Belial all which are impossibles in themselves and incompossibles with the design of the Gospel but they intend such an assent as is in conjunction with a true resignation of the heart to the terms of the Gospel Corde credere quad Deus eum excitaverit est non mode assentiri historiae de excitato Jesu sed certâ—â— cordis siducist beneficial mortis resurrectionis Christi amplecti saith Reverend Parent on Rom. 10.9 whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ namely with such a faith as is accompanied with all that which belongeth to a true faith is born of God so the Dutch Annotators on 1 Joh. 5.1 intelligendum est de side non qualicunque sed actuosa saith Grotius on Joh. 20.31 The Learned Bishop Downame saith Covenant of Grace P. 91. that assent is the very condition required in the promise of the Gospel but what an one is it a true willing lively effectual assent such an one as by which we receive Christ not only in our judgments but in our hearts and wills acknowledging him for our Saviour and resting on him for salvation Such an assent as this is no other then precious faith but a naked assent is much below it Thirdly Precious faith doth unite us unto Christ and gives us a being in him A believer from the first
and there 's the sea and yonder 's the Sun Moon and Stars sensibly pointing from one creature to another so it is with the believer when he is irradiated by the holy spirit he can look into his own heart and experimentally say this is the pretious faith and that is the love in incorruption and the other is the meekness of wisdom and so go over all the parts of the new creature formed within him or at least over such or so many of them as may assure him that he is in a state of grace This is the way of assurance first there is a constellation of faith and other graces in the heart then these graces irradiated by the holy spirit send forth a kind of splendor which the soul reflecting on it self taking up it comes to attain assurance well knowing that such and such things accompany salvation and import no less then a Divine favour notable is that of St. Paul in whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 Mark after ye believed first there must be faith and the train of graces attend thereon and then comes the seal of the spirit of promise the same spirit which endited the promises in the word comes and seals them on the heart whereas in the word there are such promises made to faith and love and holiness the irradiating spirit plainly discovers that faith and that love and that holiness to be indeed in the heart and so seals up the promises to the believer in particular as if it had expresly said this or that promise belongs to thee Hence the believer so sealed may say of the promises as Origen did of those Scriptures which did much affect him haec est Scriptura mea this promise is mine and that promise is mine nay all the Land of promise as much as I can set my foot on is mine own There are three seals to the promises first God seals them for true in the blood of his own Son in whom all of them are Yea and Amen then man seals them for true by faith he that believeth sets to his seal that God is true and then again God seals them for true to the believer in particular by his irradiating spirit Faith then goes before all other graces but assurance comes after them as being no other then the clear evidence of their true existence in the soul Unless we allow this distinction we gratifie the Enthusiasts who declaim against all marks of grace as legal things and sandy foundations Sixthly Faith stands upon the word of God purely totally and entirely In point of expectation it will not look without a word of promise in point of obedience it will not stir a foot without a word of command in point of doctrine it will not lend an ear without a word of instruction Hence Reverend Calvin saith Inst l. 3. c. 2. Perpetuam esse fidei revelationem cum verbo nec magis ab eo posse divelli quà m radios à Sole unde oriuntur Faith hath a perpetual relation to the word and can no more be sundred from it then the beams from the Sun from whom they arise should it be sundred from it it would lose its nature and cease to be faith but assurance doth not stand so purely totally and entirely upon the word this is also manifest by the manner of attaining assurance that is not made axiomatically in an Enthusiastical way as if there were an inward voice saying thou art justified but discoursively and after some such manner as in this practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth his sins are forgiven but I believe Ergo my sins are forgiven Here the conclusion which imports assurance in it stands upon two propositions the Major is meerly grounded upon the word but the Minor stands upon spiritual sense and experience caused by the holy spirit irradiating the soul in its reflections upon its own estate therefore assurance which is comprized in the conclusion doth not stand so meerly upon the word as faith doth Thus the Learned Pemble speaking of that Syllogism saith the major is of faith the minor of sense and experience And the conclusion of both but chiefly of faith as it follows on the premises by infallible argumentation and partly of sense as it is founded on the inward experience of Gods grace working upon our souls What the doctrine of Faith is is to be sought in Bibles but whether there be a particular act of faith or not such as is comprized in the minor Com. R m. 8. cap. must be looked for in the heart Fides non creditur sed habetur sentitur in corde saith Learned Pareus Faith is not believed but had and felt in the heart Actus reflexivus in ipsam fidem quo credo me credere non est ipsa fides sed potiùs sensus fidei Loc. Com. 689. saith Maccovius The reflexive act whereby I know that I believe is not properly faith but the sense of it But you will say if the minor stands upon sense and experience how can the conclusion which imports assurance be de fide And Bellarmine argues thus D. justificat l. 3. c. 8. Nothing can be certain with a certainty of faith unless it be conteined in the word of God upon which if it lean not it is not faith but that such or such a man is justified in particular is not conteined in the word neither can it be deduced from thence for then I must argue thus the word saith All that truly turn to God shall find mercy but I do truly turn to him therefore I am sure of mercy in which the minor is not in the word By the way we may observe what an excellent foundation the Jesuite layes for his disputation Fides non est nisi verbi divini auctoritate nitatur that is not faith which is not bottomed on the authority of the divine word Oh rare if this were believed what would become of Popery What of all the hay and stubble of their vain Traditions Why do they play the wily Gibeonites with their old bottles and clowted shoes obtruding their unwritten verities and mouldy customs upon the Church of God I can be assured of no Religion which is not founded on Scripture But for answer The certainty of the Doctrine of Faith which respects the whole Church is to be found in the Scripture but the certainty of an act of Faith which is in a particular man is to be found in the heart by spiritual sense and experience and so in Bellarmines minor the certainty of my turning to God stands not upon the word but upon spiritual sense and experience yet nevertheless the conclusion which imports assurance is de fide for every conclusion is so which stands upon one proposition contained in Scripture and upon another gathered from sense or experience as the case is in all such practical Syllogisms yet withall as I said at first the
conclusion doth not stand so entirely on Scripture as a direct act of faith doth Seventhly Faith is more purely faith then assurance is In faith we look off from our selves thus the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking off from our selves unto Jesus Christ Hebr. 12.2 but in assurance we look into our selves by reflecting on our own estate Whilest faith goes out of self and hangs upon free-grace in one promise or other assurance is at home telling over its riches and faring delitiously every day in the love of God in faith there is nothing but meer dependance but in assurance there is a mixture of sense If a poor man in his rags and extremities leave himself upon God for daily bread as having nothing and yet possessing all things in the promise his faith is more purely faith then the rich mans is who hath creature-comforts flowing about him and running in at every sense If one poor in spirit in the midst of his wants and spiritual necessitles cast himself upon free-grace it is more meer faith then for one to sit under assurance with pots of Manna and spiritual flagons round about him When Jacob heard the report of a living Joseph and put himself upon the chariots sent for him it was nothing but meer belief but when he saw Josephs face his eyes were witnesses of the thing when a man that walketh in darkness and seeth no light will yet hang on the report of a Jesus and put himself upon the chariot of the promises it is nothing else but pure faith but when he comes to see the light of Gods face and in it a piece of the heavenly vision it is not all faith but faith and sight together Thus far of the second proposition that faith is less then assurance In which phrase I intend not a comparison between them in point of dignity but only that pretious faith such as is the condition of the Gospel may really be where the garland of assurance is not superadded as a King is really a King before his Coronation so faith is really faith before it be crowned with the sense of Gods love These two propositions made good I come at last to gather up my first reason Faith is more then a naked assent to the Gospel and less then an assurance of love and pardon from God therefore it must needs be some middle thing between both such as resignation is Let us put another practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth shall be saved But I believe Ergo I shall be saved the major proposition is the object of assent the conclusion is an act of assurance but the minor or middle proposition is an act of faith or resignation Resignation includes assent and which is more it yields up the soul to the terms of the Gospel but it doth not immediately arrive at assurance as it was with Jacob when he heard his mothers counsel touching the blessing between his assent to the counsel and his audible hearing the blessing pronounced on him there was a putting on the garments of his elder brother so it is with the believer when his heavenly Father offers him the Evangelical blessing between his assent and his assurance of the blessing there is a putting on the robe of Christs rightcousness a meer assentor hath as it were but the sight of his eyes in looking on the rich treasures of the Gospel a young believer hath a real title thereunto and a man of assmance over and above his title is able to bring his evidences and read them to his comfort Secondly That faith consists in resignation will appear from the way which God uses in the working of faith God works it in a way of perswasion God shall perswade Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 that is in the Church of God where the true Shem the name of Godis When God comes with his Almighty Oratory and speaks to the heart perswading dwell not O man any lorger at home in thy will or righteousness come into Shem into my Name into my mercy by a true recumbence into my holiness by a cordial obedientialness and by the sweet strains of free-grace the man is charmed into a surrender of himself unto the Divine call then there is saith indeed Hence believers in Scripture are called perswaded ones And some of them believed Act. 17.4 in the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And some of them were perswaded and on the contrary unbelievers are called the unperswadeable ones ver 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as will not suffer themselves to be perswaded Faith is called perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yielding to the true Suada the spirit and wisdom of God none ever spake or taught like him and unbelief is called an unperswadethleness or contumacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it contradicts and blasphemes at the sweet compellations of free-grace if not outwardly as those wretches Act. 18. 6. yet inwardly for it gives God the lye 1 Joh. 5.10 Again God works it in the evidence and demonstration of the spirit thus the Apostle saith His preaching was in the demonstration of the spirit and power 1 Cor. 2.4 and then as a sweet fruit thereof follows faith standing in the power of God in the very next verse when the spirit comes in its divine Logick and demonstratively points out this is the true Jesus that is the very Gospel and here is the only way of salvation and the pure light and evidence presses in so far upon the man that like one under a clear demonstration he is out-reasoned and cannot say nay to it but yields and delivers up himself to the Gospel to be moulded and cast into the holy figure thereof then there is true faith wrought in him Hence faith is sometimes set out by silence in Scripture truly my soul waiteth on God Psal 62.1 or as it is in the Hebrew my soul is silent to God when the truth comes in the clear evidence and demonstration of the spirit the soul is silent let God say what he will the soul contradicts not but keeps an holy silence scaling and subscribing to the truth and goodness of God in every thing Moreover God works it in the power of spiritual arms casting down strong holds and captivating thoughts to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. when God comes to the heart which naturally is as a strong City full of forts and towers of pride and by unbelief barred and fast locked up against all holy truths and layes a close spiritual siege to it and shuts it up under sin and wrath and makes inward batteries upon the forts and towers thereof and the trumpet of the word sounds louder and louder in conscience till the cursed walls fall down and the everlasting gates be opened to the Lord of glory and the heart surrender up it self with all its thoughts as a willing prisoner to those Gospel-truths which before it
on a cross for them why the word is nigh him manifesting these heavenly mysteries unto his heart still he hangs upon a word that if we make a true search lies at the very bottom of all his faith as the foundation thereof Fourthly It exalts the justice of God Many great Rabbies have been caught by the head in the Controversal thickets whilest they have disputed about Gods justice in the condemning impotent men Not to enter into the briers there seems to be much in this that God condemns none for bare impotency but for height and pride and contumacy in that estate Christs question to the impotent man is very remarkable wilt thou be made whole Joh. 5.6 O thou impoten man if thou art sensibly weak in thy impotency poor in thy poverty and low in thy low estate surely creating grace is passing upon thee but if thou art strong in thy impotency rich in thy poverty and high in thy low estate thy condemnation is just because in the pride of thy heart thou wilt not yield to be saved on the terms of the Gospel Spondand Annal. Eccles Anno 491. Zeno the Eastern Emperor being in a fit of the Falling-sickness taken for dead was buried alive and when he cried out lamentably to be taken up but into a Monastery his wife Ariadne would not suffer it If the poor sinner lying in his spiritual grave mourn and groan under his impotency CHAP. VI. Precious Faith confiuered in the fruits and glorious progresses of it and here first of the Divine Sagacities of Faith THUS far I have treated of Pretious Faith in its first and lowest measure as it is the condition of the Gospel consisting of supernatural illumination a belief of the Divine Testimony and a dependant resignation to the terms of the Gospel Now I come to consider the fruits and glorious progresses of faith Faith is like Rebecca the Mother of thousands That blessing of Abraham in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee falls down upon all the seed of believers their faith is blessed with a fair progeny of graces and comforts only these are not born all at once for though adoption and justification immediately ensue upon faith comforts and statures of graces do not do so but come forth into being gradually in some sooner in some later as grace is actuated and as God is pleased to dispense them wherefore what I shall lay down touching the fruits of faith I intend not as universally applicable to all believers at the very first and before a progress made in grace justification and adoption are found in every believer nay and some measures of sanctification but higher degrees of grace and manifestations of Divine Love are not so neither do I mean critically to time when each holy fruit buds forth but only to explain the things themselves And here I shall first begin with the sagacities of Faith There hath been a great stir in the world about wisdom Philosophers have hunted after it the Jews have vainly cried up themselves nos sapientes we are the wise men say they but in truth the only Sage under the Sun is the believer Upon Gods own survey it was found that there is none that understandeth Rom. 3.11 none but the believer only his knowledge is divine all Arts and Sciences are but toyes to it which occasioned the worthy Pitiscus to say that he played in Mathematicks with his rule and compass but he sweat in Divinity his design is the wisest he seeks a crown a kingdom of glory the Primitive Christians were wont to talk so much of the kingdom the kingdom that the Pagan Emperors grew jealous of them but alass their aims were much higher in comparison whereof earthly Monarchs do but play at push-pin about Crowns of dust and spend their time like Domitian in catching flies the believer leaving the world behind his back pitches upon heaven and God the heaven of heaven in him to enjoy mirrors of truths Sabbaths of love rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy and bliss for ever and what wiser design can enter into mans heart surely none as the last day will demonstrate when it shall put an eternal blush on all other designs And as his end is the wisest so his way to it is the surest he goes to it by Jesus Christ whose merit as a golden key unlocks the doors of bliss to the believer and whose spirit attires him with all graces to make him fit to enter in and all this is not a fancy a fools Paradise but a truth a real thing founded on that infallible word which stands faster then the pillars of heaven and earth But to unfold the sagacities of faith more fully I shall consider them with relation to several objects As to God the believer sees the invisible one and that after another rate then meer Naturalists and Notionalists do he hath more then a bare notion he hath the mystery of God in his heart as the phrase is Col. 2.2 he that hath but the meer notion sees him afar off and knows not how to sanctifie such a Majesty in his heart no more then Cardinal Perron did who first in an excellent Oration before the French King proved there there was a God and then being much applauded by the Auditory offered the next day to prove the contrary but he that hath the mystery sees him neer at hand and so prepares a room for him in his heart a fear for his Majesty a love for his goodness a faith for his truth and mercy a joy for his salvation putting each affection into a posture suteable to some one or other of his Divine Attributes he that hath but a notion of Gods Omnipresence can sport with his sins as if there were no God in the place but he that hath the mystery of it Abraham-like walks before God on to his faces as the Original is Gen 17.1 every where there is a face of God appearing to deter him from sin and excite him to holiness he that hath but a notion of Gods grace hath no favour no relish of the sweetness thereof which I suppose makes the converse of some great Scholars as dry and sapless as Cardinal Pools Sermon about the Pall but he that hath the mystery of it tasts how gratious the Lord is and is ravished as if heaven opened and some drops from the rivers of pleasure there were let down upon his heart he that hath but a notion of Gods justice can sit in his lusts before the sparks of his own kindling and be no more afraid at the threatnings in Scripture then Jehojakim was at the burning of the roll Jer. 36.24 one lust or other consumes all the roll of Divine threatnings but he that hath the mystery of it cannot do so to him hell flames out in every threatning he trembles at the word and saith O my soul be not deceived if thou live after the flesh thou wilt dye
if thou sow unto the flesh thou must reap corruption He that hath but a notion of Gods power can despise Gods hand in small crosses just as the proud Greeks who when Callipolis was lost said the Turks had taken but a bottle of wine but he that hath the mystery of it dares not do so well knowing that the lightest afflictions come from Shaddai the Almighty and if need be he can strike harder he that hath but a notion of Gods All-sufficiency hath his affections scattered up and down the earth as the poor Israelites were over Egypt for straw to gather if it were possible a happiness from the flowers of the creature but he that hath the mystery of it knows how by a compendious wisdom to have all in God roll over all worlds the world of thoughts wishes and desires in the heart the world of riches honours and pleasures in nature the world of pardons graces and comforts in Saints the world of joy glory and beatitudes in heaven and after all this the believer can tell you all these are to be found in God habet omnia quihabet habentem omnid after this manner the secret of the Lord is with the believer As to Jesus Christ the believer hath the mystery of him in his heart A man may have a notion of God manifest in the flesh but unless he have an heart of flesh an yielding resigning heart for God to manifest his spirit and graces in that the heart may in some measure be made answerable to the spirit and graces in Christ he wants the mystery of it St. John speaking of love saith which thing is true in him and in you 1 John 2.8 Why so because saith he the darkness is past and the true light now shineth a man may tell the story of the meekness humility holiness obedience charity patience it Christ but if the true light do not shine in him by faith if these graces be not true in Christ and in him he hath not the mystery thereof the spyes coming back from Canaan brought not only a bare report of the good Land but clusters of grapes also he that hath the mystery of Christ hath not only a meer notion of the full treasures of grace in him but clusters of graces from thence as so many real proofs thereof the Apostle Paul doth notably decipher this sagacity that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil 3.10 If a man hath only a notion of Christ crucified and Christ risen we may character him as Erasmus did the Monastery he was in there is nihil Christi nothing of Christ crucisied where lusts are living and reigning nothing of Christ risen where the soul is dead in trespasses and sins he only knows the fellowship of Christs sufferings who hangs up his earthly members on the cross to dye and expire the only knows the power of Christs resurrection who hath felt the same Almighty power which raised up Christ quickning his soul to a heavenly life this is the mystery the so learning of Christ as the expression is Eph. 4.20 learning him so as to put off the old man with his corrupt lusts and to put on the new man in true holiness and so as to be found in him and count all dross and dung for him It deeply concerns all Christians nay the greatest Clerks to understand this so which without faith no man doth as being void of Christ and his spirit As to inherent grace the believer knows it to be an excellent thing an accident more worth then the substance of the soul it self and yet withall he knows it to be a creature and in it self defectible he knows it to be an excellent thing excellent in its supernatural parentage a thing not born of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God an holy thing formed by the overshadowing of the blessed spirit a beam of grace from the eternal grace in the heart of God excellent again as it is the souls lostre knowledge its glass humility its vail obedience its golden ear-ring love the chain of its neck righteousness its fine linnen every grace its inward glory and beauty elevating natural faculties above their own pitch into a state congruous for communion with God above all excellent as it represents God himself in every creature there is a print or footstep of God but in grace there is his very image and resemblance a believer can see more of God in an holy beam then in the great Sun in a little of heaven then in all the earth intal poor meek spirit then in all the Nimrods and mighty Potentates of the world and yet after all this the believer sees grace to be but a creature and in it self defectible without a spiritual concourse from heaven should God bid him stand alone he would be in an agony and pray as Annas Burgus did at his Martyrdome Deus mi ne me derelinquas ne ego te derelinquam my God forsake me not lest I forsake thee Should God offer him all the Angels in heaven to guard his little spark of grace in being he would tremble and say not so Lord let me be kept by thine Almighty power unto salvation that is the only keeper I desire he dares not say my mountain is strong now I am full now I am rich now I reign as a King by my self were he full of grace it would be but as a room is of light no sooner could he shut the windows and possess it in a self-subsistence but he would be in the dark and experiment every beam to hang upon the Sun of righteousness were he rich in grace it would be but as a Merchant is in his trade if the rich returns from heaven should fail he would soon spend all his stock and like a son of Adam turn bankrupt were he a spiritual King ruling over his lusts he would and must confess himself under the kingdom of Christ and to hold all his power from thence or else Mene Mene his kingdom is numbred and divided among lusts and devils St. Paul saith I live but immediately he calls it back again yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 well knowing that all his grace had its being from the true Immanuel Jesus Christ and its continuance from the continual influxes of his spirit which are in a sober sense a kind of Immanuel God with us strengthening graces where they are weak quickning where they are dead upholding where they are falling and by an incessant spiration influencing Being into them that they may not vanish into nothing As to the opposite sin the believer sees more of the sinfulness of sin and yet more of the holy God about it then others do He sees more of the sinfulness of sin then others Next to Christ who weighed sin upon the cross he of all men knows best how to
the presentiality of all these Job looks through the worms and dust upon a resurrection my Redeemer liveth saith he Job 19.25 though I dye my Redeemer liveth and will fetch me up again if there were an Engine made which could pull away all the intermediate bodies between us and the heaven of heavens we might look into Paradise faith doth the same thing spiritually it puts by the world and time and lies at the door of heaven and eternity Thus the Apostle we look not at the things temporal but at the eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 he puts by all temporal things which as the lower heavens hold back the face of Gods throne and so he looks into eternity There is a story of an Oxford Monk who by his skill in Magick conveyed himself into the Northern Regions and there took a view of the Pole the believer by the art of faith doth much more in conveying himself out of this world and taking a view of eternity in the promises he sees heaven opening and letting down some sparkles of glory in the threatnings he sees hell flaming and some of the fire unquenchable breaking out heaven and hell are no longer notions but sensations in the raptures and joyes of faith he hath been caught up into Paradise and there drunk of the wine of Angels in convictions and deep humiliations he hath been as it were at Gods barr and hanging over the bottomless pit As to seeming contradictions the believer hath a rare dexterity to enucleate them Touching which I shall give some instances God commanded Abraham offer up thy son thine only son Isaac to offer up a son was a seeming contradiction to nature to offer up an Isaac a son of promise was a seeming contradiction to Gods truth who before had said in Isaac shall thy seed be called but faith unlocks all these difficulties God is able to raise him up from the dead saith Abraham and from thence he received him in a figure Heb. 11.19 a parallel to this we may find in all true believers the children of Abraham God calls upon them mortifie the deeds of the body and ye shall live mortifie and live is a seeming contradiction to offer up our only ones our wills our loves our joys to be slain looks like a piece of unnaturalness but what saith faith it is no such matter offer up your only ones your wills your loves your joys unto God and you shall receive them again from the dead raised up in the incorruption of the new-creature that which was sown a natural will natural love and natural joy shall be raised up a spiritual will spiritual love and spiritual joy your souls before dead in sins shall have the life of God in them this is the first resurrection such things as these nature laughs at as strange paradoxes but faith embraces as rare mysteries Again Christ saith take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easie and my burden is light Math. 11.29 30. what is Christs yoke but the Commandements and are these portable by any meer man so say the Romanists from this very place but the mistake is so gross that the communis sensus of Christians runs against it faith can unriddle it another way the impossibles of the Law the sinless perfection unattainable by us were fulfilled by Christ the heavy end of the Law the dreadful curse unavoidable by us was born by Christ the Covenant of grace is satisfied with uprightness in the wayes of God which is easie to a renewed man its true while there is only the pressure of a Law without and nothing but a natural heart of enmity within the wayes of God are irksom and tedious which occasioned a Divine to say that a man might take a carnal man tye him to a table and kill him with praying and preaching but it is far otherwise with the believer who serves God not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit who hath a Law within answering to the Law without and a spirit within prompting the same in the heart which the spirit in the command doth outwardly dictate Prayer is but the breathing of the new-creature holy desires its pulse holiness its element obedience its common walk alms but the opening of its hands contemplation but the lifting up of its eyes all natural and easie because from inward principles of life and grace My yoke is easie is durus sermo an hard saying to every man but to the believer who does all sweetly and in the easiness of the new-creature Moreover to give another instance work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure saith the Apostle Phil. 2.12 13. what strange language is here work and yet God worketh all and all of his meer pleasure how can these things be if God work all there seems to be no place left for virtue or vice rewards or punishments because man can do nothing of himself O what sweats have Learned brains been thrown into whilest they have laboured to tune free-grace and free-will into harmony what craggy thorny Volumes of meer speculation have they put forth de concordiâ liberi arbitrii gratiae and after all is done the believer understands it best of any man his life of faith is a plain practical solution thereof for he acts and moves but under the first Agent and Mover he works but under the Master-workman he is free but under the free-making spirit he spreads his sails and withall looks up for the holy gales he labours and sows precious seed and at the same time waits for the spiritual dews and sun-beams he hath graces in him but layes all under that spirit that created them that that spirit may touch upon his charity and draw out his soul in alms and touch upon his devotion and pour out his soul in prayer and touch upon every grace and make the spices thereof flow out still he waits for the touches of the spirit Moral virtues like the fabled cymbal of St. Telian may seem to ring alone by their own self-power and self-confidence but spiritual graces like Davids harp must be awakened by divine influences as it was in Christ on earth the Humanity alwayes ministred to the Divinity so it is with the believer so far as his faith acts all his faculties and graccs are but as it were so many gardens aery rooms and working-houses for the holy spirit to walk breath and work its pleasure in Hence the believer is said in Scripture to walk in the spirit pray in the spirit live in the spirit doing all under the conduct thereof after some such sort as this doth the believer work out his salvation with fear and trembling in a way of humility and holy dependance upon God who worketh to will and to do of his own good pleasure We have an eminent instance of this in holy David see how he hangs
it is great Psal 25.11 a strange argument for pardon for it is great such as no malefactor would use to an earthly Prince but the holy man knows that it will pass with God who loves to make grace superabound there where sin hath abounded Again he extracts hope out of despair When he is ready to faint and swoon away in cold fits of spiritual deadness faith revives and points him to the fountain of life which runs over in quickning graces upon the whole Church and if he scruple his access to that fountain faith tells him that the Well is open to all comers whosoever will may take of the water of life freely whosoever hath the bucket of faith may draw out of it and if he yet reply true whosoever will may do so but oh I want a will I want an heart for God and Christ and heavenly things faith is able if awakened both to tell him that these are living groans and withall to drop some Scripture cordial into his heart such as that is Prov. 9. where Christ the wisdom of God builds his house the Church kills his beasts mingles his wine furnishes his table that is provides all heavenly blessings sends out his virgins his holy ministers and after all invites the simple and him that wanteth understanding to eat of his bread and drink of his wine in the Original it is him that wanteth heart Oh! if thou sensibly wantest an heart for spiritual things here thou art particularly called to the Gospel seast where Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood wine indeed able to make thee live for ever Again he extracts joy out of sorrow The Apostle Paul rejoyced over the godly sorrow of the Corinthians because they received no damage in it 2 Cor. 7.9 when faith looks over all the tears and groans of the believer it saith there is no damage in these these tears are bottled in heaven the holy spirit breaths in those groans he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.6 Oh! saith faith observe the word doubtless tears and sorrows in a godly sort are a sure sign that the harvest of joy and comfort is nigh at hand one may see the crop in the seed sown When the Emperor Julian banished Athanasius he said Nubecula est citò transibit it is but a little cloud and will soon be over when the night of darkness and discomfort is upon the soul faith is able to say 't is but a short night of sorrow joyes come in the morning Psal 30.5 and for that morning I will trust the sun of righteousness O how soon can he make it day in the soul Moreover he extracts wisdome out of folly There is not there cannot be any thing in all the world so foolish as sin and yet out of this he picks up wisdom hereby he comes to know more of his own heart There is a Mahometan fable that the heart of Mahomet being a child was cut open and a black grain called the devils portion taken out of the midst thereof A believers sins make rents and holes in his heart and through these the inward core and blackness thereof becomes visible Good Hezekiah by his fall comes to know what was in his heart Peter denying his Master comes to understand the desperate deceitfulness of his own heart which cheated him against his own resolutions into so horrible an iniquity every actual sin is to the believer a sad Commentary on his inward corruption Again hereby he comes to understand free-grace better then before that God should melt as man hardens heal as man falls and bruises himself afiesh drop pardons as man doth sins return the holy spirit as man grieves it away lengthen out patience as man abuses it use lavers as fast as man runs into pollutions evidently argues riches of immense superabounding grace towards sinners Moreover hereby he comes to know the necessity of a continual dependance on God considering the heats and colds of his heart the ups and downs of his life and the interchangeable actings of Hetis and spirit he plainly perceives that he falls of himself and stands from God dies of his own spirit and lives from Gods sins of his own and repents believes obeyes of meer grace and so understands the necessity of depending on God praying continually with the devout Psalmist Hold up my gomgs in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Psal 17.5 Lastly to name no more he extracts all out of nothing Thus the Apostle as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 all things in God who is all in all Zuichemus gave Erasmus a ring which when it was unfolded represented a mundane sphear with Astrological notes engraven upon it telling him withall that now he might wear the whole world on his finger the conjugal ring whereby the soul is married to God in Christ by faith hath this posie I will be thy God which if it be unfolded is a sphear of all things the believer need not ask with Peter what shall we have Math. 19.27 for he hath all in God It is storied of the Laudanum of Paracelsus that it was almost good in all cases but however that might fail faith well understands that all things may be made out of an interest in God the universal good hence it can rationally part with all for him because it knows that there be fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children and houses and lands and infinitely more in God CHAP. VII Of the second holy fruit of Faith in Justification its growth upon Faith as a fruit thereof with the manner continuance perfection and various excellencies of the same THUS much for the first fruit of faith being the spiritual sagacities thereof whereby it appears that the believer is the only wise man who hath eyes in his head whilest all the rest of the world be they what they will in notional knowledge walk on in darkness The second holy fruit of faith is Justification which is a very great blessing so great that in Luthers phrase it is articulus stantis cadentis Ecclesiae and in Chemnitius arx propugnaculum religionis Christianae a blessing that is pregnant with many more which occasioned a good Divine to say sin committed is every judgment radically and pardon of sin is every mercy radically you may cut out any blessing or comfort out of it particular mercies are but pardon of sin specificated and individuated brought into this or that mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin and that is pardon of sin Touching this precious fruit of faith I shall endeavour to shew these things First That it grows upon faith as a fruit Secondly The manner how it grows there Thirdly The continuance of it Fourthly The perfection of it Fifthly The various excellencies of it First This holy fruit grows upon faith in the
let down into his heart and another all is drawn up into heaven again His Evidences may be blurred Satan may hold up his pardoned Sins as it were in their old guilt the Arrows of God may stick fast in him and bring qualms and sick-fits upon his Conscience But at that day his Comforts shall be unvariable a nightless Day and a cloudless Horizon an eternal feast upon God and all things in him his Evidences all clear and after but this once shewing forth an everlasting possession of the expected Happiness The Accuser Satan shall be struck dumb at the blessed sentence of pardon and acceptance pronounced by God before Men and Angels God shall never frown or wound him any more but wrap him up in the arms of endless love and joy This will be a day of refreshing indeed Thus much of the perfection of this holy fruit Fifthly The last thing is the excellency of it God himself writes upon the Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Blessed one Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Pal. 32.1 or as the original Blessednesses is he there is not one single Happiness but a cluster of Beatitudes in this estate Some of these I shall gather off from this Vine First The Justified person hath God for his God these two I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and I will be their God stand in conjunction in the Covenant of Grace Hebr. 8.10 and 12 verses God say the Jewish Rabbins hath the key of the Womb the key of the Grave the key of the Rain and the key of the Heart all that is in the Creation is at his dispose The Justified man hath as I may say a key into God himself He may unlock infinite Treasures and say These everlasting Arms which bear up the World are mine for protection These All-seeing Eyes which guide every wheel in Nature are mine for direction Those immense Bowels which cover all the Creation embrace and sold me up in special Love Those two all-comprizing words My God are in truth utterable by none but such as he is God is called the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. Cujus omnes gentes sunt quasi trium hominum Deus esset saith St. Austine as if the Great Lord of all things were appropriated to those three Men. Such honour have all Justified ones God is their own and to make this sure they have bonds and bills under Gods own hand they can in one Promise shew a title to his Power and in another to his Mercy and in a third to his Wisdom and in that I will be their God They can lay a just claim to all that is in him which what it amounts unto is more than the tongue of Men and Angels can express Secondly The Justified person hath Christ for his own When the covetous King of Egypt built an house for his great Treasures the cunning Architect left a loose Stone in the building that so he might have free access thereinto What entrance he had by craft into the Egyptian Treasures that Justified persons have by a fair grant into all the unsearchable riches of Christ Merit Spirit Life Death Righteousness Redemption Fulness Glory all that is in Christ is their own If his Righteousness can stand before God so will they If his Blood can wash away sin they shall be without spot or wrinckle at the Great day If his glorious over-measure of the Spirit cannot fail no more will their supplies of Grace If he ascended up into Heaven it was to prepare a place for them If he make Intercession above they must have access to the Throne of Grace If he sit at the Right-hand of Power and Majesty all their enemies must be made their foot-stool Oh! infinite enjoyment Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither can it enter into mans heart what the total sum of this is Thirdly The Justified man hath a rare priviledge in his Holy duties He hath assistance from access unto and acceptance with the great God in these He hath assistance from him Whilest he stands offering up holy Services fire comes down from heaven upon the Sacrifice The Holy Spirit inflames his heart towards God opening it in Hearing melting it in Alms and pouring it out in Prayer So that in some sence he offers up his Duties as Christ did himself through the eternal Spirit enlivening and impowering him thereunto His voyage to Heaven lies through a tract of various Duties but it never fares with him in these as it did with Sir Hugh Willoughby in his Voyage to Moscovy in which he was by extream Frosts frozen to death The warm influences of Grace keep him from freezing in this divine enterprize His heart which seeks the Lord in his waies shall live and to make it sure our Saviour saies expresly because I live ye shall live also Joh. 14.19 His life is hid with Christ As long as Christ the Head is alive above the Members below shall never fail of quickening grace in their addresses to God Again he hath access unto God in them A man under guilt cannot approach unto God no more than fallen Origen casting his eye upon that of the Psalmist What but thou to do to declare my Word could tell how to Preach but the Justified man may draw near unto him because his heart is sprinckled from an evil Conscience The guilt which would have made him shie of God is done away in Christs blood Whilst others are but in the outward Court in the opus operatum the work done he may enter into the Holy of Holies into communion with God the Holy Spirit conducts him thither through the vail of Christs flesh Moreover which is the crown of all he hath acceptance with God God had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. 4.4 such a respect as to bear witness to his righteousness by some visible sign as fire from heaven consuming the Sacrifice The justified man is in his measure as Daniel a man of Desires and as the Blessed Virgin graced or highly favoured His Prayers make melody in heaven his Alms are the savour of a sweet-smell he doth not lose so much as a cup of cold water nor shut a door of sense against an approaching Temptation in vain There is a well-pleasingness in all his Services as being ushered forth from the heart into the hand of the Mediatour and there richly perfuned for the Father though as they lie in our hearts there be much smoak and mixture of weakness in them yet as they are in the hand of Christ they are glorified duties acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Fourthly The Justified man hath more of the sweetness of life and its outward Comforts than others He hath more of the sweetness of life than others The Jewish Doctours treating about the estimation of Persons mentioned Levit. 27. say That if a man be adjudged to death for his transgression he is not to be valued
because he is but a dead man and there is no valuation of the dead An unpardoned man is dead while he liveth and as our Saviour saith condemned already Joh. 3.18 His life save only as it is a space for repentance and so for pardon must be rated at little or nothing Bajazet the Great Emperour valued not his life at all when he was carried up and down in an Iron-cage and what is a mans life when he walks up and down in chains of sin and wrath but as soon as the pardon comes he lives indeed His life as little a vapour as it is in it self glitters as a Jewel in the Sun being irradiated with that precious favour of God which is better than it self Moreover he hath more of the sweetness of outward Comforts than others The unpardoned man may have Corn and Wine and all other Blessings flowing round about him but if his eyes be open he can take no more pleasure in them than Damocles did at the Tyrants table spread with all Royal dainties whilest the Sword with the point downward hung over his head by an hair only If he tasts sweetness in them it is an act of meer blindness and irrationality because he seeth not the arrow of Gods wrath which is upon the string and ready in a moment to shoot him down to the lowest hell Do but open his eyes upon the hand-writing of Guilt which is on the wall of Conscience and all his crackling Joyes are in a moment turned into fits of trembling and astonishment but as soon as the Pardon comes every thing relishes with him Moses pronouncing a blessing on Joseph thus Blessed of the Lord be his Land for the precious things of beaven for the dew and for the deep that cometh beneath and for the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun and for the precious things put forth by the Moon and for the chief things of the ancient Mountains and for the precious things of the lasting Hills and for the precious things of the Earth and the fulness thereof adds this as the crown of all and for the good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush Deut. 33.13 14 15 and 16 verses The favour of God pours a sweetness into all outward things Then may he eat and drink and enjoy all his labours for the light of Gods Providence and the light of his Countenance are met in conjunction Fifthly The Justified man hath less evil in Asslictions than others The unjustified man carries a double load one of assliction and another of unpardoned guilt which lies as a talent of lead on the Conscience and makes the Cross lie heavy as a burthen on a sore-back But the Justified man hath only the single Cross which the spirit of a man may bear The Stoicks could shoulder-up their reason against it Nos dicimus omnia ista quae gemitus mugitusque exprimunt levia esse We say Epist 13. all these things which extort cries and groans are but light said Seneca And what then may the Believer say who hath a serene Conscience made so by the pure beams of Divine favour Feri Domine feri clementer ego paratus sum quia à peecatis absolutus Strike Lord strike I am ready because I am absolved from my sins said Luther when he was in fear of an Apoplexy The pardon of sin wonderfully alleviated the Cross Again the unjustified man is a poor helpless Creature Trouble comes and there is no deliverer he falls alone and there is not a reconciled God to help him up God walks contrary to him or as the original may be read He walks at all adventures with him Levit. 26.24 Peradventure he will deliver him peradventure not But the Justified man being in Christ the true Immanuel is sure to have God with him God with him in the fire and God with him in the water whatever the Cross be the Almighty Father puts under the everlasting arms the Eternal Son walks with him in the midst of the Furnace the Holy Spirit drops in heavenly cordials upon his heart as it was with Christ when he hung upon the Cross and drunk up the bitterest cup of wrath The Divinity never left the Humanity no not when he cried out of forsaking So is it with the Believer the man in Christ when Troubles come like Jobs Messengers one upon the neck of another God never leaves nor forsakes him which is a cordial high enough to make any adversity more eligible than all prosperity Hence some good men have been loath to leave their Prisons for fear of parting with those inward joyes which had turned them into a paradice Sixthly The Justified man knows how to die and go to judgment He knows how to die which is a lesson too hard for any other but such as himself The Stoick may seem to vapour over death as a thing of nothing but whilest he doth so it is but a piece of blind rashness never considering the vast gulph of Eternity which is then to be shot in the Christian World where that Gulph is better known Many great Rabbies and Sophies are nonplust at the approach of death The great Cardinal Richelieu a little before his end would have a play called Europe triumphante to be acted though he was not able to be a spectator it seems his Soul hanging about the mud walls as loth to go off that stage where he had acted so many wise parts knew not how to apply it self to that grand affair of death approaching Only the justified man knows how to resign and bespeak his parting Soul as Monica did Volemus in coelum Let us flie to heaven or with Hilarion Egredere anima mea egredere quid times quid dubitas Go out my Soul go out what doest thou sear or doubt And all this upon sure grounds His sin is pardoned his death unstung heaven-gates stand open for him a convoy of Angels are ready to conduct his Soul into Abrahams bosom So little tremendous is death to such an one that Zuinglius being mortally wounded cried out Ecquid hoc infortunii Is this any misfortune the Body only was slain the Soul was untouched and but a little the sooner let out into glory Again The justified man knows how to go to Judgment When the Earl Montgomery was brought before the great Court at Paris he ingeniously confessed That as many great Armies as he had seen without fear yet he could not but tremble at the presence of those grave Judges At the Great day when the last Trump shall sound and the dead rise out of the dust and Jesus Christ shall come with all his glorious Angels to judge the World there will be generally nothing but pale faces and trembling hearts and lamentable out-cries to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them and cover them from the presence of the Judge Only the Justified man may lift up his head with joy because his redemption draws nigh Jesus Christ the Judge is his
Head and Advocate and will not cannot condemn the Believer being a piece of himself standing in his image and righteousness Sin and Satan have nothing at all to say against him The Law cannot object the breach of the least jot or tittle he comes to the Judgment only to be absolved before Men and Angels and after an Enge of praise to enter into the joy of his Lord which is an happiness beyond all expression CHAP. VIII Of Adoption the third fruit of Faith the peculiar Priviledg of sound Believers The Excellency thereof demonstrated under several Considerations THus far of the second fruit of Faith being Justification The next fruit thereof is Adoption Justification and Adoption are twin-Graces brought forth by Faith at once only in order of nature Justification goes first and then follows Adoption as presupposing the other hence the new name is said to be written in the white stone Rev. 2.17 Alexander the Great Conqueror of the World was by the flattering Oracle saluted as a Son of Jupiter but the Believer who overcomes the World in a more noble Spiritual way is by the true Oracle stiled a Son of God As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 The Believer in the instant of believing is no longer a meer Son of Adam but a Son of God he is in unity with the natural Son of God and so becomes an Adopted one The Human nature is in the natural Son by Hypostatical union and so is taken into the natural Sonship and the Believer is in him by a Mystical union and so becomes a Son by Adoption Neither is this a meer empty title He is born not of blood in a way of carnal Generation not of the will of the flesh in a way of Concupiscence not of the will of man in the way of Moral Virtues and Excellencies but he is born of God he is one of the seed-Royal of Heaven the blood of God runs in his Conscience a Divine Spirit breaths in him Christ is formed in his heart and that in the very same manner as he was in the Womb that is by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost Nay further as Aquinas observes Tertia pars Quest 23. Art 2. Filiatio Adoptiva est quaedam similitudo filiationis aeternae Adoptive Sonship is a shadow of the eternal one The natural Son is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brightness of his Father and in the Adopted there is a splendor of Grace resembling God in a measure The natural Son was begotten from Eternity and is still a begetting and in the Adopted the holy thing is begotten And yet in respect of the successive supplies of Grace afforded for its preservation it is as it were still a begetting hence the Adopted Son as well as the Natural abides for ever Joh. 8.35 The Natural Son is the image of Gods Nature and the Adopted the image of his Will Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 The Excellencies of this Priviledg are unutterable I shall express them only in some Considerations First Adoption is a very glorious thing it redounds to the glory of Free-grace and puts a lustre upon the Believer it redounds to the glory of Free-grace Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 That the indefectible God who hath a Son of his own lying in his bosom as an eternal joy should Adopt that the great Creator who as such hath all possible right to his Creature should Adopt that the Immortal One to whom by reason of his Immortality there can be no succession should yet Adopt that such a Majesty as he is should Adopt such as we are worms and sinful dust and Adopt us to such an Inheritance as Heaven is and by putting a new nature into us make us meet for the same is stupendious and wonderful beyond expression Such Considerations as these made the great School-man Durandus as Medina relates affirm That God did not Adopt properly but Secundum Translationem in a Metaphorical way But to pass that these things signally demonstrate that Divine Adoption is full of rich Grace and in a transcendent manner above Humane Moreover Adoption puts a lustre upon the Believer such as is not to be found upon the Princes and Potentates of the Earth Par. Medulla hist The proud Sultan Achmet used in his Letters to arrogate these high Titles to himself I Achmet head of Prophets Emperour of Emperours Lord of Europe Asia and Africa Lord of the White Black and Red Seas subjoining a long Enumeration of all the Provinces under him But to be a Son of God is incomparably more than all these All that train of Titles whereby Potentates spread out their Glory is fumus seculi the smoke of this lower World and glitters only in the eyes of flesh and blood but Adoption is radius Caeli a ray of Heavenly Glory and makes the Believer shine to the eyes of Angels who as they rejoice over a repenting Sinner cannot but wonder to see such an one transfigured into a Son of God Nay Adoption puts such a glory upon the Believer as was not upon Adam in Paradise Adam was a Son of God only by Creation but the Believer is one by Mystical Union and Communion with Christ the Natural Son hence Christ calls him Brother Heb. 2.11 a Compellation not used to Angels and he is one of the first-born Heb. 12.23 a title in an eminent way given to Christ Secondly Adoption carries with it an excellent spirit of Prayer Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father Gal. 4.6 This praying Spirit is the breath of the New-creature and as much excels all meer modes and gifts of Prayer as a pair of natural Lungs doth artificial ones others may pray artificially and as it were mechanically but the Adopted man prays naturally without this Spirit all words and expressions in Prayer are but poor low things like the Vrim and Thummim made under the second Temple by which the Jews could not tell how to ask counsel of God because the holy Spirit was not present with it In the Adopted that Spirit makes the Prayer issue forth with life and power when the Blood and Merits of Christ plead above and the holy Spirit makes intercession in the heart for the same blessings there is such a Harmony that the Almighty sloops and bows down his car to it Thus the sweet Singer In waiting I waited for the Lord and he enclined unto me and beard my cry Psal 40.1 God himself enclines and stoops down at the Prayer of Faith Vacula Pater that little word Father spoken in the heart is more than all the Eloquence of Cicero and Demosthenes Com. in Gal. cap. 4. saith Luther No sooner doth the Child of Grace cry but God says
Wishes Resolves Choices Desires and Delights there should be smitten and turned into bloody Iniquity is an amazing consideration That a Rational Creature with an Immortal spark in his bosom whose natural instinct is after Happiness should yet without a new Creation not be able so much as by a holy thought to aspire after the great unspeakable blessedness in the Gospel or to give a serious look towards the pure undefiled Religion leading thither and after he is new made by Grace that yet there should be a black sountain within ready to flow out at every sense taint every work and derive a damp a deadness a wretched indisposedness upon all his holy things is an astonishing thought That the holiest Man on Earth who mourns and sighs over the horrible Wickednesses abroad should be forced to lament at home and say there is aliquid intus somewhat in my own heart answering to all these were I but dimissus libero arbitrio left to my own self I might fall into Jonabs pet against the Great God or roll in Davids Adultery and Blood or Peter-like deny my Lord and do it cursing and damning of my self as the Original imports or turn a Julian a total final Apostate and art up my bloody blasphemies against Heaâ—en at my dying hour is wonderfully prodigious ous Such Sentiments as these hath the Believer of Original Sin which make him go groaning under the gravedo thereof as an intolerable burden this Gemitus sanctorum as St. Austin calls it is the first step of this fundamental Mortification Secondly Faith ushers into the Soul a stock of gracious Principles which conflict against the innate corruption and labour to drive it out as the Israelites did the Canaanites by little and little there is even in unregenerate Men a conflict between Reason and the Sensitive Affections Arist Eth lib. 1. c. 13. Reason saith the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the best things but the Affections repugn and refist the Soul is as it were Paralytick whilest Reason would move one way to the right hand Affection moves contrary to the left Aliudque cupido mens aliud suadet Hence the Syllogism of an incontinent man hath as the Schoolmen observe out of Aristotle four Propositions Aquin. pr. secund Medina viz. two universal ones one whereof is from Reason That Fornication is not to be committed another from Passion that Pleasure is to be pursued and Passion binds Reason That it do not subsume and conclude under the first And whilest it remains so the Man subsumes and concludes under the second Epist 56. Seneca tells us Silentium regionis is nothing Si affectus fremunt Reason must compose things or else aâ—â— will be in tumult in the Soul In this natura conflict Reason if improved to maintain it own grandeur and royalty may by its Edict hush the tumults and mutinies in the Affections and prevent many shames and turpitudes of Sensuality but alas there is nothing of true Mortification in all this no not in the Affections themselves which are not inwardly changed but only as the Horse and Mule held in with the rational bit or bridle much less in the Reason in which there is a great deal of vanity dark ignorance proud curiosity fleshly wisdom vain philosophy humane folly and perverse contradiction in all which Reason will rather indulge than crucifie it self but Faith ushers in another manner of Conflict In the Natural Conflict Reason is General and manages the War and as the Reason is so is the strength in Battel but Humane only In the Spiritual Conflict there is a greater than Reason even Supernatural Grace which being of Divine extraction hath in it self a power more than Humane to oppose corruption and which yet makes it stronger it hath continual Auxiliaries from the Holy Spirit which is always standing at the right hand of Grace as Satan is of Corruption to back and strengthen it In the Natural Conflict the fight is in a Logical and Argumentative way only and Reason being corrupt like a cunning Sophister turns about and stands ever and anon on the same side with Sin but in the Spiritual Conflict there can be no such compliances the War is laid in nature Grace in its very nature carries an enmity against corruption and irreconcilably interminably opposes it as long as Grace is Grace and Sin Sin In the Natural Conflict Reason fights but ex parte only against the gross carnal sensual lusts which stain Humanity in the mean time the pride perversness and desperate contradiction which dwell in the upper faculties are altogether untouched The Moralist stands upon bis own bottom full of self-power and self-righteousness and because he hath by his Reason conceived and brought forth some Moral Virtues Free-grace and its progeny born after the Spirit are despised in his eyes than which temper there is nothing more diametrically opposite to the Gospel which would have Men come in to Jesus Christ weary heavy laden hungry thirsty poor in spirit lost in themselves and sensibly wanting all things But in the Spiritual Conflict the War is universal Grace sights against all Sin not only against the gross carnal lusts which have more of the beast in them but against the fine Spiritual ones which have more of the Devil nor only against those open Sins which face the World but against those secret ones which lie hid in the Heart So opposite it is that as in the War against the Canaanites it would destroy every thing that breaths Sin in the first motions and titillations thereof in the Natural Conflict the fight is between distinct faculties Reason and Passion and so is at a distance and as it were by missile arms but in the Spiritual Conflict the fight is close and immediate there is something of Grace in every faculty to encounter the corruption there In the Understanding there is an Heavenly Wisdom which counterplots the Earthly as Hushai did Ahithophel whilest the one designs for Absalom the rebellious lust in the Heart the other stands up for the Kingdom of Christ the true David In the Will there is an holy Principle which ballinces the corrupt and is as a counter-byass to the Heart drawing it off from the false beatitudes to the true In the Affections there is a Divine spark which makes them aspire and elevate towards Heavenly things whilest the earthly part clogs and presses them downwards In a word Grace is spread all over the Soul as the Israelites were over Canaan to drive out the old inhabitant the corruption in every faculty In the Natural Conflict Man walks in his own Circle the only desigu is for the Kingdom of Reason and which is the common blast upon Morality nothing is done in ordine ad Deum In the Spiritual Conflict the aim is all for God and Christ that their Throne may be in the Heart and all their enemies there may be made their footstool Thus Grace ushered into the
totally perfectly evil but suffering for the Gospel is not meer suffering In temporal losses there may be eternal gain in reproaches a spirit of glory in outward racks inward joys In the Burning-bush God may dwell and death may open a door to life everlasting Hence come the famous Triumphs of Martyrs the Apostle rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ Act. 5.41 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they were honoured to be dishonoured for Christ Others have stiled their Prisons a Paradise and their Iron-Chains a goodly Neck-kercher and at last have kissed the Stake and thanked the Executioner accounting Suffering the only eligible thing in the World Thus Faith destroys all Sins eligibilities and in so doing as the Apostle speaks overcomes the World which is the purest of Victories The great ones who captivated the World outwardly and martially were themselves captivated by it in one lust or other Not unlike Amaziah who subdued the Edomites and was himself taken with their gods But Faith which overcomes inwardly and Spiritually subdues the lusts themselves Further yet Faith doth not only strike at the love of Sin by destroying its eligibilities but by surrendring the Heart to a better Object whilest the love and joy and delight is in Sin it lives as a body with a spirit in it but when these are surrendred up to God and Christ and Heavenly things it becomes inanimate as a dead Carcase This was notably deciphered in Christ crucified the grand pattern of our Mortification he was not only stript and nailed but commending his Spirit to God be gave up the Ghost Answerably in Mortification Sin is not only stript of its eligibilities and nailed by restraints but it dies away in the surrenders of Faith by which the Soul Enoch-like is translated into Heaven and its affections are not here below to animate Sin Were this surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be as is evident in Christs Humane Nature upon which no spot could fall because it ever was in perfect surrender to his Father And proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin is a-dying because the love and joy whilest in the raptures and triumphs of Faith afford no quickning thereunto hence the Apostle exhorts Walk in the spirit in the elevations of Faith and other Graces and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow heartless and be able to do little or nothing Here we see how the dear intimate lusts come to die they cease to be dear as Faith turns the stream of the Heart and give up the Ghost as the love and the joy go out to God It was Luthers method in Reformation that first the Images were to be removed out of the minds of Men and then all would suceed and it is Faiths method in Mortification by holy surrenders to sever the Heart from its lusts and so do the work Moreover Faith casts out the love of Sin by conversing in the holy Word after which the Soul becomes pure and shining like Moses face after he had been with God conversing with the Law it sees a rectitude and pure splendor and then to love Sin is to embrace crookedness and hellish darkness and withal it sees wrath and vengeance threatned against transgressors and then to love Sin is to take death and hell into our bosom Conversing with the Gospel it hath such a fair prospect of Grace and Christ as renders Sin the most ungrateful and unnatural thing in the World Shall God give up his Son his eternal joy to die upon a cross and a man a worm spare a lust a brat of his corrupt Heart Shall Christ pour out his Blood and very Soul to expiate Sin and a Believer a redeemed one fall in love with the Crucifier Shall the holy Spirit come down and dwell in Man as his Temple and he who is so honoured embrace that which is the only offence and grievance to such a guest Or shall the Kingdom of Heaven come down and offer it self and that which is the only bar and obstacle be received Surely a Believer with his eyes open will not do so the more of converse he hath with the Word the less of the love of Sin As Sense when it lies brooding on the Creature inflames the love of Sin So Faith when it dwells on the Word abates it that Concupiscence which at first crept in upon Eve in a slumber of Faith while Sense was doting on the fruit must be driven out again by Faith fixing on the Word and soating above sensible things Thus far how Faith strikes at the love of Sin Thirdly Faith mortifies Sin by watching against all the occasions and inducements thereof The Jews were not to name the Idol-gods the Nazarite was to abstain from the very husk of the grape Valentinian could not bear a little drop of Julians holy-water accidentally sprinkled on his garment without detestation The Children of Samosatane would not play with their Ball after the Ass of the Heretical Bishop Lucius had trod on it but burnt it in the Market-place as unclean Faith is nice and curious it will not go in with such a dissembler nor come nigh the door of such an Harlot as Sin is knowing that the Soul may soon be cheated and adulterated thereby Apprehensions of danger make men watch and to Faith there is no danger like that of Sin If the good man of the house had known when the thief would come he would have watched saith our Saviour Mat. 24.43 Faith knows Sin to be a thief and a murderer to the Soul and therefore sets guards within and without that it may not creep in by the ports of Sense nor rise up out of the deep of the Heart Within there is a watch over the Thoughts and without over the sensible Objects And if a snare appear Faith cries out as the suffering Martyr did when a Box with a Pardon in it was set before him Away with it as you love my Soul During this watch Sin pines and famishes away as in a Spiritual siege the common commerce between the Thoughts and the Objects fails and with it those provisions which use to be made for the flesh Hence our Saviour would have his Disciples To watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation Temptations will offer themselves but the watching Believer will not enter into them by a consent Fourthly Faith mortifies Sin by those actings of Grace which it puts forth in the Believer As Sin the more it is acted makes the fuller blot on the Soul so Grace the more it is acted leaves the purer tincture there You have purified your Souls in obeying the truth saith St. Peter 1 Epist 1.22 Every act of Grace or Obedience doth in its measure purifie from Sin The righteous holds on his way and so grows stronger and stronger Job 17.9 The exercise of Grace renders the inner man more strong and
with us in his Incarnation will be Immanuel God with us in such sufficient Grace as shall give us the victory over Sin the success is as sure as the Spirit and Power of God can make it When Christ was on Earth never any one came to him for bodily Cure with a Faith that he was able to do it but it was done for him Now that he is in Heaven at the right hand of Power such as go in Faith for Spiritual Cures cannot miscarry What though the bloody issue of Sin have been long a-running a touch upon Christ will heal What if thou hast lay'n rotting in thy Corruptions many years believe and thou shalt see the glory of God raising thee up a dependence on the Power and Spirit of Christ cannot fail of a victory over Sin So vast is the difference between the state of Adam in Innocency and the state of Believers in Christ in him one Sin drove out a great stock of pure immaculate Grace in a moment in them a little spark of Grace drives out a world of Sin because their Grace which Adams did not depends on the Power and Spirit of Christ for the victory This is a most noble and purely Evangelical act of Faith in which Man is abased in a continual dependence and God exalted in a continual supply of Grace However some Divines falsly so called have laughed at the dependence of Faith as an idle lolling upon Christ it is yet the only way in which the Spirit and Power of God communicates to our necessities and does far more in the Christians life than any thing else Only we must remember that this dependence is in the use of means the Believer hears reads meditates prays works and in all depends upon the Spirit to render them effectual CHAP. X. Of Spiritual Vivification the second Part. Of Sanctification the influence of Faith therein THus far of Mortification as a fruit of Faith I now proceed to Vivification being the other part of Sanctification In which the holy Spirit comes down with its Divine Graces into the Soul and quickens it to a Spiritual Life These Graces may be considered eitheir in their production into being or in their actual exercise and both ways they are fruits of Faith As to their production into being Divines differ about the order some Divines as Mr. Pemble conceive That all Graces are infused at once coming into us as light doth into the air or as the Soul did into the body of Lazarus not piece-meal or by degrees but all at once and together Other set down this order Vocation which worketh Faith and Repentance is in order of nature before Justification and Justification before Sanctification Bishop Downham distinguishes between our Spiritual conception of the incorruptible seed and our new-birth in which Christ is formed in us in all his Graces the former is done in our Vocation and the latter in our Sanctification I conceive that Faith at least in order of Nature is first and then all other Graces follow upon it The Ancient Fathers as Bishop Downham hath observed speak to the same purpose In Clemens Alexandrinus Faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first inclination to Salvation In the so-called Ignatius Epistles it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of life as it were the Punctum Saliens in the New Creature in which the first motion and course of Spiritual life begins Vita sancta à fide sumit initium saith Fulgentius And Fides prima datur ex quá extera impotrantur saith St. Augustine All other Graces are the fruits of Faith not as if Faith did produce them radically or fontally out of it self or its own virtue but that it unites to Christ and so derives the Spirit with its Graces unto the Believer That Faith is at least in nature before other Graces will appear very probable upon divers Congruities First It is congruous to the Majesty of God He acts like himself dispences Grace to the Creature in its lowest posture of resignation Heaven is my throne Earth my footstool saith he but as over-looking all this World To this man will I look that is poor and of a contrite spirit Isa 66.1 2 To this man there he sets a nobler creation than this outward one When Faith makes a man poor and contrite sensibly lying in his own Nothingness and Unworthiness then creating Grace comes upon him We may see this as in a glass in the Homane Nature of Christ That which had no natural Subsistence of its own but subsisted in the Eternal Word that had the Spirit poured out upon it above measure When a man hath no Moral subsistence of his own his very Hypostasis being a resignation when his subsistence is in the Word of God according to that of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have thy being in these things 1 Tim. 4.15 Then the holy Spirit comes down and dwells in him Secondly It is congruous to Christ the Head Union goes before Communion first Faith unites us to Christ and then all Graces flow from him hence Faith is called the Churches neck Cant. 4.4 knitting to Christ the Head and from thence deriving all Spiritual life into the body of Believers This also is set before us in Christs Humane Nature which had first at least in nature the Grace of Union and then that of Unction He that is in Christ is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 made so by his being in Christ He that hath the Son hath life 1 Joh. 5.12 Hath it by having the Son Indeed Faith and Repentance go before our Union with Christ as being of necessity thereunto but all other Graces follow after it as most naturally flowing from Christ the Head of whose fulness all Believers receive Grace for Grace Thirdly It is congruous to the way of the Spirit set forth in the Gospel The Spirit moves on the Soul to bring forth Faith and Repentance but it dwells no-where but in the Believer Christ dwells in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 There he hath perpetuum domicilium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Bez. Zanch. as the Greek word imports He that believeth on me saith our Saviour out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Joh. 7.38 And what these rivers are the next verse tells us This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive Faith brings in the very fountain of Grace with all its streams into the Heart The Holy Ghost is given to them that obey him Act. 5.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that hear him in the Gospel-command that is to them that believe so Beza and Calvin expound it and so the Syriack hath it The Holy Ghost works before to produce Faith and Repentance but it is not given to dwell in men until they believe Fourthly It is congruous to the order which is between Faith Justification and Sanctification Faith is in order before Justification the Scripture
is express in it The righteousness of God is upon them that believe Rom. 3.22 All that believe are justified Act. 13.39 And we have believed that we might be justified Gal. 2.16 And Justification is in order before Sanctification I suppose the Holy Spirit with its Graces will not dwell in an unreconciled Soul Under the Law in cleansing the Leper first the Priest put the blood on him and then the holy oyl upon the place where the blood was Levit. 14.14 17. The Believer first in order hath the atoning Blood put on him and then the holy Unction of the Spirit According to this order Faith is first of all But if Faith and all other Graces are infused at once and together then either they are infused before Justification and so Sanctification is before Justification or else after it and so Justification is before Faith Fifthly This way there will be a congruity between the old Creatiowand the new In the old Light was the first-born of the Creation and then the other parts of the World were made in the new the first thing is the light of Faith and then follow those Graces which make up the New Creature Beholding as in a glass the glory of God we are changed into his image 2 Cor. 3.16 First the eye of Faith is opened and then the Image of God drawn on the Soul this congruity is the rather to be minded because the Apostle speaking of the Creation of Faith doth it with an allusion to the Creation of Light God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 As if he had said Light in the old Creation and Faith in the new answer one to another Sixthly This way there will be a congruity between Christ formed in the womb and Christ formed in the bea rt The blessed Virgin first believed and then Christ was formed in her Womb Concetio Christi facta fuit simul ac Maria in verba Angeli consentiens dixit Ecce ancilla Domini De Incarnat lib. 2. Quest 7. siat mihi secundum verbum tuum Luk. 1.38 saith Zanchy No sooner did she say an Amen of Faith to the Promise but Christ was conceived in her therefore after her Faith the Angel immediately departed from her as having his errand already dispatched answerably the Christian first believes and then Christ is formed in him in all those sanctifying Graces which make up the holy Image of Christ The Apostles expressing those Graces under the notion of forming Christ in us Gal. 4.19 seems to hint out this Congruity Seventhly This way there will be a Congruity between the being of these Graces and the acting of them whilest both proceed from Faith depending upon Christ the head of Grace The Believers life is in Scripture called a life of Faith not as if there were not Love Meekness Obedience Patience with all the other Graces in him but because Faith is the grand principle which moves every one of them Faith worketh by love saith the Apostle Gal. 5.6 and so it worketh by Meekness Obedience Patience and all other Graces being as it were blood and spirits running in every part of the New Creature All Graces are set a working by Faith and if they also receive their being through it there is a Congruity between their being and working Upon these Congruities I take it that Faith is first in order and then other Graces As to the actual exercise of Graces It is Faith which sets them all a working To this purpose it is observable That all the worthy acts of Grace mentioned in the 11th Chapter to the Hebrews are there ascribed to Faith so is Abels excellent Sacrifice Enochs walking with God Noahs holy fear of the deluge Abrahams obedience in leaving his Country Moses 's self-denial as to the Egyptian Court The valour of some Worthies in subduing Kingdoms and the patience of others in suffering torments for the truth The reason of which is because Faith is the first mover which sets all other Graces a-moving the General under whose conduct all Graces come forth in their courses therfore the honour of all is devolved upon it Now how Faith sets other Graces a-working I shall first shew in a general way common to all of them and then more particularly with respect to some special Graces In general Faith sets other Graces in motion by such ways as these First It looks on the Command which in Scripture calls for these Graces as the very Will of God And so presses for Obedience many ways as first from the Divine Authority of it In the word of a King there is power much more in the word of a God when known to be such In the Council of Triburia a fancy touching an Episile come from Heaven made impression in some of them Had it been really known to be so indeed the impression would have been deeper At the sound of the Command Faith knows that it is the Lord that the voice is from the excellent glory and in that Authority presses to Obedience But this is not all besides Gods Authority it urges from his Love It is saith Faith the voice of thy beloved thy dear Father in Heaven who hath cast his cords and bands of Love round about thee to draw thee to himself and then the Heart must needs feel constraints and holy inflammations to Obedience and be like St. Peter who when he knew it was the Lord girt himself and made towards him Gods Love hath dropt sweetness into the Command and made all easie Moreover to make the stronger impulse on the Believer Faith demonstrates That the Command is just and right and good that holy Love and Patience and other Graces of the first Table are pure rectitudes wherein Man stands in his true posture towards God his Goodness or Providence or some other thing in him And also that Justice and Temperance and Charity are rectitudes wherein he stands in a true posture towards others or himself for Gods sake And a Command so known moves so strongly towards Obedience that a man who would pay his debts to God or his Neighbour or himself cannot must not repugn Secondly Faith looks not only upon the letter of the Command but upon the life of Christ Where all Graces are set forth in lively and orient colours really and practically exemplified to our view Precepts possibly may have more of notion in them but Examples have more of vivacity to attract the heart to imitation above all the Example of Christ must be cogent to Believers he went up and down doing of good every step one odour of Grace or other brake from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God in purging the Temple or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under malicious accusations and blasphemies or melting bowels upon all occasions dropping
dependence the Spirit comes down in auxiliary Grace and there is an effectual working in every part of the New Creature Love in the Spirit as it is called Col. 1.8 and Joy in Spirit and every other Grace in the Spirit badding and blossoming and filling the face of the life with holy fruits Only it must be remembred that this Dependence is in Gods way where Christ is experimentally Immanuel God with us to stir up all holy Graces into act Thus Faith actuates Graces in a general way common to them all I now proceed to shew how Faith actuates this or that Grace in particular And that I may not be too prolix in running over all Graces I shall single some choice ones out instead of all First I shall begin with the Grace of Love This is the great Command the sum of the Law a Divine Union with God a bond of perfection among Men a holy fire kindled by the Holy Ghost in the Heart and the sweetness and easiness of every good Duty This Grace whether it respect God or Christ or our Neighbour is actuated by Faith As touching our Love to God it is so actuated The very light of Nature reveals a God an excellent perfect Being or the Being of Beings whose Love as the Philosopher said is the principle and knot of the World and so cannot but raise up a kind of Love toward him the Will being necessarily in some sort affected with such an Excellency though seen but by a glimmering light Not that this Love is a Grace or a Love in sincerity or a Love sicut oportet as an ancient Council speaks or indeed in Scripture sense any love at all because it loves not God above all it must needs be inordinate there being the same ataxy in loving God below the Creature as in loving the Creature above God But that there is a kind of Love such as that dark light can raise up in faln man But when the light of Faith comes it raises up the Grace of Love towards God and ever after moves it into act by the pure discoveries of him which it lets into the Heart from Scripture He is saith Faith an immense infinite Goodness Creatures are but drops of Being lying in the shell of Time but he is the Ocean of all Perfections They may be good for this or that in particular according to their finite kinds and spheres but he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the All-things as the Aposile calls him 1 Cor. 15.28 And withal he is Love it self as another Apostle hath it 1 Joh. 4.16 Not shutting up his Allness in unapproachable Glory but letting it out to Believers His Love though he ever had perfect Blessedness in himself would yet pour out it self in making a world of good Creatures and after Mans fall in giving his only Son to take hold of our nature and in it to bring us back again to himself that he might be our God and make over his Allness to us and all this in pure Grace without any Money or Merit on our part and in rich Mercy towards worms and forlorn Sinners and to assure it to us a Gospel is let down from Heaven full of great and precious Promises such as are the very counterpanes of that Grace and Mercy which flow in his Heart towards Sinners Vnder such musings of Faith Oh how the holy fire of Love kindles What high rates and estimates are set upon him How is the Heart inflamed towards Union to be one spirit with him What Complacencies and Sabbaths of rest doth it find in him What little things are Worlds and Creatures What an All is He and an Heaven his Love What tastes are there of his Goodness and surrenders to his Will and Glory Our Love goes after him as his is by Faith let in upon the Heart Moreover Faith excites the Love of him by every act which it sets about in its recumbencies it enamours the Heart that he should give us leave to lean on his Grace and in so doing bear up our weakness with Promises and sweetly answer us in Pardons and suitable Graces in its Obedience it is very ravishing that he should chalk out such pure ways for us and take us by the hand and teach us to go and at last crown our faultring Obedience with Eternal Life Ordinances which to Unbelief are but dry things are to Faith the lovely Chariots of the Spirit Creatures which are Idols to carnal sense are to Faith fair mirrors of the infinite Goodness and Beauty in the Creator Which way soever Faith turns it self it meets with something or other inflammative of our Love towards him who is every-where and all in all As touching our Love to Christ it is actuated in the same manner A meer notion of Christ raises up some Love towards him as we see in those Temporaries who receive the word with joy Mat. 13.20 which though it be but fructus horarius hints out a kind of Love Such a story as that of Codrus the Athenian King 's dying for his Country could not but affect his Subjects much more must the History of Christ dying for a World do so Only this Love to Christ raised up by meer Evangelical notion as the Love to God raised up by natural is not right nor elevated to a Divine pitch till Faith come and shew him forth by a light more congruous than all literal knowledg and then there is as the Church after an elegant description concludes Totus desideria all loves or desires Cant. 5.16 Every thing in him is attractive What a person is the Eternal Word the brightness of the Fathers glory What an Union Immanuel God and Man in one Heaven and Earth admirably blended together as a pledg that God would be at one with us What a robe is his Righteousness made as broad as the Law and woven all of Love from the top to the bottom What a Laver his Blood able to expiate a world of Sins and save a world of Sinners What a treasure is his Fulness where the Spirit is in over-measure and all its Graces in redundance running over into the vessels of Faith and filling all its capacities Who that hath eyes of Faith would not love him To ask why we should love him is as the Philosopher told him who demanded Why Beauty was so taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blind mans question nothing but blind unbelief can hold us from his Embraces Whatever posture Faith be in whether contemplating him in the Mount or leaning on the bosom of his Grace or hiding in his Wounds or sitting at his feet for Wisdom or lying under his Scepter for power against Sin still it stirs up an holy Love to him It finds his Blood in every Pardon his Spirit in every Grace his Wine-cellar in every Ordinance his Seal in every Promise and his Purchase in every Creature No wonder if St. Paul count all things dung and dross for him And St. Austin
a Zeal doth Faith stir up for the Worship of God and no less for the Truth of God this is a precious jewel a secret out of the Fathers bosom a beam come down from Heaven to light us thither if this be subverted Zeal will stand up and vindicate it Secundus when he was commanded to deliver up his Bibles to be burnt answered Christianus sum non traditor In the first General Councils how earnest were the Fathers for the Faith they would not exchange a letter or syllable of it The Arrian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not pass instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor the Nestorian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to Christ as man instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to the blessed Virgin With what an heroical and gallant spirit did Luther cleave to the Evangelical Truth Pia est sancta hac in re nostra pertinacia in this ours is a pious and holy obstinacy saith he Such a Zeal for truth doth Faith ralse up In sum Faith hath a single eye at Gods Glory and so endears all things tending thereunto that upon the least violation thereof Zeal will be ready to break forth in that behalf Moreover Faith gives a further advance thereunto by looking on the unparallelled Love of God O what a Zeal hath he for our Salvation Hath he not writ our poor names in the book of Life and shall we neglect his glorious one Hath not he sent his own Son in the flesh to be the great Ordinance of our Salvation and to fill all the under-Ordinances with his Spirit and Grace and shall we not be zealous in and for his Worship Are not his holy Truths the day-star in our bearts seeds of the New Creature and Cordials of rich Comfort and shall we not earnestly contend for them Will he not glorifie us to all eternity above and shall we not glorifie him in our little span of time here below Whilest Faith is thus musing the fire of Zeal must needs kindle in our Hearts Another Grace actuated by Faith is Meekness which is as cool in our own cause as Zeal is hot in Gods This is the great Moderatrix of Anger that it breaks not out Preter squum bonum not unjustly for a light occasion as that Pope's did who raged upon the missing a cold Peacock and blasphemously added If God was so angry for an Apple he might justly be so for a Peacock Nor upon a just cause excessively as it did in that great Conqueror Stephen King of Poland who was so angry with the Rigenses about the Gregorian Calendar that he sell into Epileptical sus and died Natural Meekness is a beautiful thing and so is Moral but neither is a Grace Natural being but the result of a sweet temper of Body and Moral but the improvement of Reason neither levels so high as Gods Glory In Natural we do but comply with our Temperament and in Moral but sacrifice to our Reason But the Grace of Meekness is a portion of that Dove-like Spirit which rested upon Christ and aims at his Glory whose Goodness is resembled thereby Hence it is observable that where the Meekness is only Natural or Moral Men will be angerless and sintully meek even when Gods Glory lies at the Stake their Meekness being as opposite to holy Zeal as to rash Anger but where the Grace of Meekness is Men in their own concerns glorifie God by a cool converse and in Gods call for Zeal to vindicate his Glory To promote this Grace Faith doth many things as first it looks at the infinite Long-sufferance of God O what doth he bear from Men His Laws are violated Blessings abused Name blasphemed Glory stained and all by his own Creatures and in his own World and day after day year after year nay one age after another and yet the axle-tree of his Patience breaks not under it 〈…〉 a look at this will much meeken us Excellent Melincton under great Calumnies was still of a cool spirit and when his Enemies said That they would not leave him a footstep in Germany all hi◠reply was That he should have one in Heaven And what made him so meek we may gather from his own words Nullum hominem tantum sustinere malorum quantum contumeliarum Deus No man bears so many evils as God doth contumelies And if we will be followers of God we must be meek and as a further motive hereunto Faith looks unto Christ in whom Meekness is exemplified in our own Nature that we may not say flesh and blood cannot be so under reproaches injuries contradictions bloody sufferings He was as a lamb not opening his mouth when he was reviled be reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2.23 And the Believer must follow him and the rather because he hath a spirit of Meekness from him to do so Such a spirit shewed it self in Beza who when in a Dispute about the Eucharist the Jesuits called him and his Colleagues Foxes and Serpents only replied Nos non magis credimns quà m Transubstantiationem We believe it as much as we do Transubstantiation Again this Grace is much advanced by Reslections without Faith a man is a stranger at home and knows every thing better than his own Heart as St. Bernard faith of Petrus Abailardus He knew every thing better than himself but where Faith is there is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a Man looks in wardly into his own Heart and there finds such a black nest of Corruptions that upon reproaches and injuries ostered he is ready to commune with himself and say Are not such Sins with me even with me at least seminally if not actually Have not I done worse to God and may I not do so to Men Aut sumus aut fuimus aut possumus esse quod hic est such Reflections wonderfully meeken us Hence St. Bernard saith That he never saw another man sin but he was jealous of his own Heart Ille heri tu hodie ego cras he did it yesterday and thou to day and I to morrow St. Paul exhorts the Gà latians in the Plural number to restore the lapsed in the spirit of Meekness and adds the reason in the singular considering thy self Gal. 6.1 He changes the number as the Judicious Interpreter observes That every one in particular may deseend into himself and there find an Argument for Meekness towards others Moreover Faith promotes this Grace by viewing the Promises made thereunto which are as large as heart can wish Would we have the things of the World The meek shall inherit the earth and to sweeten it They shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace Psal 37.11 Would we have the things of God The meek shall be beautified with salvation Psal 149.4 And all the good tydings in the Gospel are to be preached to them Isa 61.1 For the true Way They have God to teach them and guide them
the first place looks up to God as sitting at the stern and ruling all every Affliction is a piece of his Government to murmur against it is rebellion in such a case nothing becomes us so much as with Aaron to hold our peace or if we open our lips to do it with Job Blessing the name of the great Giver and Taker Is he not the Lord and may he not do as he will in his own World and among his own Creatures Should not all flesh be silent before him None but himself may or can be Rector of the World and yet in every act of Impatience we aspire and virtutually would be such our selves and is he not Insinitely wise and just in all that he doth Every Wheel hath an eye in it and every Cross its just proportion and to think that it might have been better is to blaspheme Providence This made that holy Man Mr. Dod in his Sickness after extream sits of pain say to his Servant O think well of God for it for it is most justly and wisely done whatsoever he doth And is he not gracious and mercisul and doth not Mercy rejoyce against Judgment The measire of Grace as the Jewish Rabbins say is ever larger than the measure of Judgment for one Cross we have many Blessings And shall we receive good much good at his hand and not a little evil If we have his Heavenly Graces how much may we bate of Earth and its Comforts If Sin the greatest burden of all be taken off in a Pardon may we not easily bear the lesser ones Thus Mr. Greenham told his Son in Law complaining of his Crosses When Affliction lyeth heavy Sin lyeth light If guilt press not any thing may be born nay is not he gracious and merciful in the very Affliction Doth he not support with one hand whilest he smites with another St. Paul glories in his Infirmites That the power of Christ may rest upon him 2 Cor. 12.9 And the Noble Potamenia being threatned to be cast into a Vessel of burning Pitch begged Spond Annal. Ann. 310. That she might not be cast in all at once but piece-meal that they might see how much Patience the unknown Christ had given unto her and doth he not make all work together for good What are the issues of Affliction to Believers but the purgation of Sins trials of Grace peaceable fruits of Righteousness and inward joys and experiences of Gods Goodness Let Faith but cast up the reckoning and it will appear That he afflict us in Love and Faithfulness and therefore it must needs be well taken the wounds of such a Friend being better than the kisses of the enemy-World Again to advance this Grace Faith makes a right judgment of Afflictions to Sense these are grievous but to Faith fit and congruous The World in which the Believer lives is a stage of Sin and therefore fit to be a place of sorrow how calm soever it was before Sin entred it is now a troubled Sea an Ocean of Evils as Antoninus calls an Empire Storms and tossing waves are proper in it and to be expected by every Passenger as much a Paradise as it was before it is now a Wilderness thorns and thistles of trouble grow naturally in it and give many a scratch and sting to the poor Pilgrim in his way to Heaven The Believer himself as a Man is born to trouble and altogether vanity all-Adam is all-Abel or vanity as it is Psal 39.5 He comes into the World weeping and very fitly because by his Sin he hath set the whole Creation a groaning until now and as a Believer he lives as a lilly among thorns so is his person in the World among wicked ones which are as pricking briars on every side and so is the Grace in his heart among the reliques of Corruption which are as thorns in the flesh And whilest Sin is within it is congrnous that trouble should be without nay more than congrnous it is necessary upon many accounts Affliction is purgative of Sin it may be the Believers Heart may wax proud and the tumor must be lanced or light and the vanity must be fanned away it may be hard and the furnace must melt it or drowsie and the rod must awaken it One ill humour or other is ready to grow upon us and O felices tribulos tribulationum Oh happy thorns of Affliction which let them out It Medicine be necessary so is Affliction which is Spiritual Physick for our peceant Humours Affliction is the way which Christ hath sanctified by going in it himself to the Throne of Glory and Believers must follow him whithersoever he goes Innocency it self suffering lumps of dust and sin cannot but do so He drinking up the full cup of Wrath well may we take a few drops of it especially seeing our sufferings are sweetned by his and his Heaven will be ours at last where the light momentany sufferings shall be remunerated with an eternal weight of hyperbolical Glory Luther saith of himself That looking on the Susserings of Christ he counted his own as nothing And St. Bernard makes Christ Et speculum Patiendi pretium Patientis both a glass of Patience and a reward of the Patient Now we are tossing and toyling at Sea but the port of Bliss is within ken and anon we shall be there In the interim we may tasie Heaven in the Joys of the holy Spirit which sheds abroad the Love of God in our Hearts and so gives us Praemium ante praemium a lesser Heaven before a greater Saint Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I superabound or overflow in joy in all our tribulations 2 Cor. 7.4 Philip Lantgrave of Hesse being asked How he could endure his long tedious Imprisonment under the Emperor Charles the fifth professed Se Divinas Martyrum Consolationes sensisse That be felt the Divine Consolations of Martyrs The gracious Presence of God is able to sweeten Prisons Eghten Chains and make fire and water paffable to Believers Such things as these well digelled by Faith will make us keep a holy silence under all the Will of God Not to name any more Particulars I shall conclude this Point touching the actuating of Graces with one Observation more Faith connects all Graces together as links in a Chain and so by actuating one advances all in some measure The School-men do many of them allow a Connexion of all Moral Virtues in Prudence and yet commonly affirm That Faith may be without Charity As if Spiritual Graces were not so well united as Moral Virtues But the truth is true Faith is never without Charity true Faith makes us sons of God Joh. 1.12 but without Charity we are spurious and Children of the Devil By true Faith Christ dwells in the heart Ephes 3.17 and where he dwells Charity cannot be absent true Faith purisies the heart Act. 15.9 and without Charity there can be no Purity True Faith rests on the meer Grace of
Canon it forbids Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to return to their Military Employment and in the Ninteenth it commands Rebaptization of such as were Baptized by Hereticks The Emperour Zeno being expulsed the Tyrant Basiliscus by the perswasion of Timotheus Aelurus wrote Letter in condemnation of the General Council of Chalcedon unto which as impious as they were no less than five hundred Bishops subscribed at the Tyrants Command And touching the Canon if the Council of Laodicea be right in it that of Carthage is not so and consequently that of Constantinople which takes in both must needs be in an Error These things premised Can the unvariable and infallible Scripture hang upon a variable and errable Authority such as Mans is May all the precious Promises of Life and Salvation be precarious and pendent on an Humane Arbitrium Tertullian in his Apology speaking of that old Decree among the Romans that no God should be consecrated without the approbation of the Senate saith Apud nos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit If the Authority of Scripture depend on the Church then we may say Nisi homini Scriptura placuerit Scriptura non erit and by consequence all the Faith of the Saints must be pendulous and hanging on uncertainties If the Churches desinition be so momentous to Scripture let us see what the Church hath done in it Hath it collected the Canonical Books into a body 'T is probable Ezra collected the Books of the Old Testament into a body and so think many of the ancient Fathers And I suppose St. John collected the Books of the New Testament together for he lived after all the other Apostles even unto the time of Trajan that by his vigilancy the Canon of the New Testament might be kept pure and unadulterate When after St. Pauls death there was a Book called Periodus Pauls Teclae spread abroad under the Name and Title of Paul St. John discovered it to be spurious insomuch that the Author of it confessed that he did it amore Pauli And I believe what was done in this collection of the Canon was not done by an ordinary Spirit but by a Prophetical Spirit in Ezra and an Apostolical one in St. John In the mean time it appears not to have been done by an act of the Church but leaving this particular When and how did the Church define the Canon Such a momentous thing should have been done by the Primo-primitive Church in the first Century whilest the Church of Christ was a pure Virgin as Egesippus said Lib. 3. Dist 21. Quest 1. Thus the School-man Durandus lays it down Hoc quod dictum est de approbatione Scripturae per Ecclesiam intelligitur solum de Ecclesiâ que fuit tempore Apostolorum qui suerunt repleti Spiritu sancto No Church so fit to do it as that which had so much of the holy Spirit but nothing was done in it in that Age. The so called Canons of the Apostles which in the 85th Canon take in three Books of Macchabees into the old Canon and the Constitutions and Epistles of Clement into the new are clearly adulterate these condemn second Marriages deprive not a Clergy-man of communion for Fornication or Perjury or Thest and speak of Altars Oblations Vessels of Gold and Silver sanctified Cantors and Lectors and many other such-like altogether unknown in those Apostolical times About these Canons Mirè inter se digladiantur Pontisicii saith one Gelasius in a Roman Synod of seventy Bishops declares them Apocryphal in toto Bellarmine rejects all but the first fifty and I think all the Romanists cast away the 85th Canon touching the Scripture as Supposititious The first Virgin-Century doing nothing in this grand matter one might have lookt for it in the second or third but there is no foot-step of it In the fourth Century about the year 320 came the famous Council of Nice and then it might have been expected as the aptest foundation for their Orthodox Conclusions against Arrius and withal for a stated Rule against all future Heresies but there is a failure also nothing was done in it And into what Heart can it enter that in all those 320 years there was no Canon no Authority of Scripture no foundation for the Primitive Christians to fix their Faith upon In those days Paganism was strong and Persecutions hot and Divine Cordials necessary and yet the Scripture for want of the Churches Definition was not of Authority as to the Christians then living I say according to the Popish Thesis it was not But to go on Afterwards about the year of our Lord 368 came the Council of Laodicea which in the 59th Canon orders That no Books should be read in the Church but the Canonical ones of the Old and New Testament and enumerates as Canonical such as are received in the Reformed Church only omitting the Apocalypse And now had not that Omission been and had this Council been a General one the work had been done But afterwards in this very Century about the year 398 the third Council of Carthage in its 47th Canon reckons up as Canonical Tobit Judith two Books of Macchabees and five Books of Solomon accounting Wisdom and Ecclesiastious to be two of them In this Council St. Austin was present who yet in his Book de Civitate Dei Lib. 17. cap. 20 saith That Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus in the judgment of the more learned were not Solomens and were chiefly received in the Western Church it seems the Eastern received them not In the end of the next Century about the year 494. Gelasius Bishop of Rome with seventy Bishops enumerates the same Books as Canonical which are reckoned so in the Council of Carthage save only that he omits the Book of Nehemiah and names but one of the Macchabees These particular Provincial Councils being of incompetent Authority to desine the Canon for the Universal Church and withal variant nay repugnant among themselves Whither must we go but to a General Council but Oh how late very late doth that come How long will the Authority of Scripture and Faith of Christians be suspended and to how little satisfaction will this desinition be About the year 682 was the sixth General Council of Constantinople in Trullo and as to this Point what did it It consirmed the Canons of the Apostles the Council of Laodicea and the Council of Carthage which three in this Point being totally inconsistent each with other every one by the leave of these Fathers who confirmed them all may chuse what Canonical Books he will have whether those in the Canons of the Apostles or those in the Council of Laodicea or those in that of Carthage and what pitiful incertainties are here And now it is to little purpose to fly over many Centuries more till we come to the Councils of Florence and Trent these are late ones and as our Learned Whitaker
saith Non legitima Christianorum Concilia sed Tyrannica Antichristi Conventicula ad oppugnandam Evangehi veritatem instituta and thus it appears even Historically that the Authority of Scripture depends not on the Church But waving this Popish Thesis in which I have by the way made this long Digression I proceed to the matter in hand True Faith being a beam or irradiation from the holy Spirit discovers That the Scriptures in general are the Word of God and which is to the Point in hand in its holy progress it arrives at an experimental knowledg thereof Peter Martyr wishes men to read the Bible seriously and adds Male sit mihi ita enim in tantâ causâ jurare ausim nisi tandem capiantur sentient denique quantum divina haec ab humanis distent Erasmus saith Expertus sum in meipso That there is little good in cursory reading it do it duly and you shall find the Divine efficacy That a Progressive Faith may attain an Experimental knowledg that the Scriptures are of God will appear by the ensuing Considerations One noble piece of Scripture is the Moral Law upon every apex of it hangs a mountain of Sence say the Rabbins every jot or tittle of it stands faster than Heaven and Earth saith our Saviour Mat. 5.18 This is the Summary of all Duties all the Moral Precepts in Scripture are but as so many Commentaries on it That this is of God Faith experiments several ways First Faith experiments it by the impresses and holy inclinations in the Believers heart answering truly though not persectly to the Law A Progressive Believer finds by reflection That the Law is written in his heart That his Heart is the very Epistle of Christ written by the holy Spirit And withal he knows that it was not always so Time was when there were no such characters or holy inclinations there his Heart was worse than a meer empty Table And hence he surely gathers that those characters or imprinted propensities are the writing of God himself and so comes experimentally to know the Epistle of God in Scripture by that in his Heart and the outward literal Edition of the Law by the inward Spiritual one which is a counterpane thereof and answers thereunto as the stamp to the Seal or one Tally to another The mutual agreement between them once discerned is a practical proof that both are of God and written by one and the same holy hand But you will say there needs no Faith to make this experiment the very Gentiles have the Law written in their Heart their natural implanted Principles comprize both Tables the first in that they tell us that there is a God to be worshipped and reverenced The second in that they tell us That we must do as we would be done to which Alexander Severus much delighted in Unto which I answer That there is a vast disserence between the natural Writing the Law in the Heart and the gracious The first is a relique or broken fragment of the Divine Image its only or at least chief seat is in the Understanding and there it stands in the dark in an abyss of black Ignorance and in the mean while there is an hellish enmity in the carnal will against the Law of God But the other is a pure perfect thing which stands in both faculties being as an holy lamp in the Understanding and as a Divine inclination in the will to do the Commends of God Hence it appears That there is not that soundation for this experiment in the Natural Inscription of the Law as in the Gracious the Natural being to the Gracious but as a little glimmering is to splendor or as the broken pieces of a Picture are to the intire Image It is with a Believer in this case as it was with Bezalceel the Word of God came forth for making the Tabernacle but Bezaleel had a fractical proof of it in the spirit of Wisdom given him for the work Or as it was with Saul the Word came forth touching the Kingdom but Saul had a Practical proof of it in the spirit of Government vouchsafed unto him And so it is with the Believer The Divine Law is experimented in the spirit of obedience and each particular Command is proved by some inward aptness answering thereunto A notable instance of this Inscription we have in Maius the German Divine who in his extream sickness having Consolatory Scriptures recited to him bravely answered Tace tace omnia cordi meo insixa tenco hold your peace I have all in my heart Promises I suppose he meant and without dispute the Precepts were there also Secondly Faith experiments it by the Divine Presence helping and comforting the Believer in acts of Obedience The Rabbins say That if two sit together conserring of the Law the Shechimah is among them And without doubt if but one single Believer be not a talking meerly of the Law but a doing of it the Divine Presence is with him Thus the Prophet to Asa The Lord is with you whilest you be with him 2 Chron. 15.2 Thus our Saviour If a man love him and keep his words the Father and the Son will come and make their abode with such a one Joh. 14.23 Such an one hath a Temple and Shechinah in his Heart God will be there helping and comforting of him in his well-doing The Church prays for help from the Sanctuary Psal 20.2 because that was a Symbol of Gods Presence And the obeying Believer cannot want help because he hath a Sanctuary within him The way of the Lord is strength to him and waiting in it he renews strength and mounts up by Auxiliary Grace as upon Eagles-wings Whilest he is a doing the will of God strength comes in as it did to the Levites that bare the Ark 1 Chron. 15.26 and with strength holy comfort also in keeping the Commands he hath great reward inward peace and joy unspeakable some of the oyl of Joy which is upon Christ the great Doer of Gods Will drops down on the Believer in his sincere Obedience As all upright ones do he dwels in Gods Presence as if he were in the borders of Heaven already the light of Gods Countenance irradiates his Duties When therefore the Believer reflects on himself and considers what a dry Land rebellion dwells in and what rivers of Peace and Joy water Obedience how weak and foolish his heart was in doing his own will and how help and strength came upon him in doing Gods he comes experimentally to know the Command to be of God whose Presence gave him such comforts and assistances therein The good hand of God upon him is a proof that the way is right the Peace growing on his work shews the righteousness of it When in Elijahs time the question was whether God or Baal should be God the fire coming down from Heaven on the Sacrifice made the People fall down and confess The Lord he is the God the Lord he is the
for his good and hence God doth not fulfil Promises of Temporals as he doth those of Spirituals Promises of Spirituals he fulfils in specie because they cannot otherwise be made good a drop of Grace being more worth than a World but those of Temporals he fulfils disjunctively either in the Blessing it self or in that which is equivalent by inward contentation and supportation compensating the absence of the thing it self These things being so the Believer in what he hath may experience the Promise in the true proportion and meaning of it and not withstanding his wants may know That in Christ he is so far heir of all things that if he could want a world he should have it As touching Spiritual Promises these are either Promises of Grace or Promises to Grace As touching Promises of Grace Faith may know these experimentally The Believer reads in his Bible That God hath promised to give an heart of flesh to make a new heart and a new spirit to write his Law in the heart to give an heart to know him to circumcise the heart that it may love him and many more such-like and afterwards reading over his own Heart he may find these precious Graces all there and be able experimentally to say of these Promises as Joshua did of those made to Israel Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord hath spoken all are come to pass Josh 23.14 In every holy melting he finds the heart of flesh in every holy frame the new heart and spirit in every holy inclination the inward engraven Law in every holy beam the Divine Teaching in every holy affection the Spiritual Circumcision all the Promises are scaled and really exemplified in his Heart and what an admirable experiment is this To see a Work within answering to the Promise in the Word is a greater sight than if a Man could have stood by and seen the light start forth into Being upon the Almighty fiat spoken by God in the Creation unto which the Apostle alludeth in setting forth the Divine light shining into the Heart in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The Magnalia of Grace are more wonderful than those of nature Hence St. Chrysostom upon those words of the Apostle We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.10 saith of Regeneration That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really a Creation and more noble than the old one as adding a benè vivere to that life which came from the old one The experienced Believer hath cause to say what hath God wrought how fearfully is the New Creature made all its Graces were written in the Promise and now are fashioned in the Heart where before there were none of them How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the sum of them This Experiment was notably typed out in Isaac he was by Promise and as soon as he was born the Promise was experimented notwithstanding the dead body and dead womb The Believer the child of Promise is as Isaac was saith the Apostle Gal. 4.28 All the regenerating Graces are by Promise and when these are brought forth the Promise is made good maugre all the deadness of nature By the Promises we are made partakers of the Divine Nature saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.4 that is we have those Divine Graces which as the Creature-module will admit resemble the Holy One and so we have the Promises sealed up to us in Graces As touching Promises made to Grace such as are fulfilled in this life Faith also experiments them to be Divine In the Scripture the Believer meets with Promises of Pardon to such as repent and believe of comfort to the mourner of filling to the hungry and thirsty of the Divine secret to them that fear God of encrease of Grace to the improver and many more of the same nature To experiment these the Believer by perusing the Scripture and his own Heart doth two things first He clears it up to himself that the Graces in his Heart to which such Promises are made are true through the irradiating Spirit vouchsafed to him He may discover them to be such by Scriptural Marks he may find that his Faith purifies and works by Love That his Repentance and Mourning are chiefly for Sin That his Hunger and Thirst are humble and industrious in the use of means That his Fear is of God and his Goodness in a filial way That his improving of Talents is in a way of dependence and holy diligence and so certainly knows that these Graces in his Heart are real things This foundation being first laid then he proceeds to a second review of his Heart and there he may find how Pardons have sensibly broke in upon him in a way of Repenting and Believing or how the Sheaves of Joy and Comfort have followed his Tears or how Satisfactions Manna-like have dropped down on his hungry Soul or how Divine illuminations have come in and Crowned his Holy Fear or how Talents have multiplied in the faithful using and actuating of them And the Experiment thereupon will be compleat every Grace sooner or later being in some good measure answered by the Promises which let out their sweetness to it as God hath ordained them to do Thus the Believer sensibly enters the Land of Promise and eats of the Fruit thereof lifting up his Soul in The high Praises of him who gave the Promises in the Scripture and fulfils them in the Heart As touching Promises of eternal good things in Heaven where there are Plenitudes of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure in the Presence of Him who is All in All the completion of these is in another World nevertheless the Believer hath an experimental taste thereof here Whilest his Hope hangs upon them he finds strength and comfort come into his Heart whilst the weary World is tossing with troubles O what a refreshing is it to look into Eternity Hope Eatring within the vail is an Anchor to the Soul and so stablishes it that it doth not rowl about with the wheelings of this changeable World nor center its happiness in any or all the Creatures Let the World come in all its Fancies and glittering appearances of Good it cannot call off the Believers Heart from Heaven but it will be ready to point that way or let it come with storms of terror and troubles it cannot loosen the Anchor-hold the Believer will rather part with all the World and his Life too then let go his hold of Heaven Ye took with joy the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance saith the Apostle Hebr. 10.34 Or as the Words are in the Original Knowing that ye have in your selves a better and abiding substance in Heaven He speaks as if they had carried Heaven in and about them and in part they did so for as Beza hath it on this place Fide possidemus quod est in
Coelis By Faith we possess that which is in Heaven All our Graces are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.9 Things having or containing Salvation No parts or pieces of this World but such as Heaven dawns and begins here below The holy Spirit is as the First Fruits to assure us of the whole Crop in Heaven and as the earnest of the total Sum of Glory which shall be paid above The Believer here hath so much of Heaven as to make him strive wrestle run work watch and wait with his Loyns girt and Lamps burning and as the twelve Tribes to serve God instantly Acts 26.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 running with full speed and stretching out himself in the Race that he may come to the Crown of Life and surely his Hope if fastned about a nullity would not put forth such strong and vigorous operations Heaven must be a real thing indeed which so carries away the Heart from all the World and engages it unto it self Another considerable part of Scripture stands in threatnings against Sinners Touching experimenting these I need say very little our Good God doth not give out Threatnings in the same manner as he doth give out Promises he gives out Promises that they may be fulfilled and experimented but he gives out Threatnings that they may not be fulfilled and experimented but rather that by them Men may be warned in a way of Faith and Repentance To fly from the wrath to come The applying of a Promise in a right manner makes it to belong to us but the applying of a Threatning makes it not to belong to us judging our selves we prevent the Judgment of God The Believer even before Conversion more or less felt the Threatnings taking hold of him and shutting of him up under Wrath till Jesus Christ opened the Prison-dores and made him Free indeed And if afte Conversion he forget the old Chains and run into wilful Rebellion again he will feel them a second time The bones will be broken and Comforts lost the Conscience will be wounded and the Wounds will Stink and be corrupt because of his foolishness God may depart away and leave the Graces withering and the poor Soul all in the dark with Terrors round about it This is a very sad Experiment and yet undeniably proves that the Threatnings are from God his Justice appearing on the top of them like devouring Fire Passing over those three great Pillars of Scripture Precepts Promises and Threatnings I now proceed to the Sacred Truths which lie therein as Rich Veins of Gold and Silver do in a Mine And to avoid Prolixity I shall pick out of them some supernatural Ones such as cannot be known by the mere Light of Nature but drop down from Heaven in a way of pure Revelation concluding with my self That if Faith can make an Experiment in these it may much more do so in others I shall first instance in that Sacred Truth of The blessed Trinity of Persons in Vnity of the God-head This is as one hath it Fundamentum Fundamentorum The Foundation of Foundations unless this stand fast all Evangelical Truths fall to the Ground we are no longer Christians then we acknowledg it So sublime is this Mystery that as Saint Bernard saith Scrutari haec temeritas est credere pietas est nosse vero vita aeterna est And when Gregory Nazianzen was pressed to assign a disserence between those words Begotten and Proceeding he made this answer Dic mihi quid sit generatio ego dicam quid sit processio ut ambo insaniamus distinguere inter processionem generationem nescio non valeo non sufficio This Truth is totally supernatural it could never without a Revelation enter into our Heart humane reason no not that of Adam could not reach it Indeed there are strange passages touching it in Trismegistus and Plato Trismegistus saith God who is Mind begat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Speech or Word which is another Mind and with that Speech another which is the Fiery God and Spirit of the God-head Plato speaks of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A most Divine Word and of the begotten Son of the Good and the learned Grotius saith Apud Platonicos reperias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three Persons in one But sure these men knew nothing of this Mystery if they spake somewhat like they spake not the same or if the same they borrowed it from Moses Plato is called the Atticizing Moses and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and many is an old Tradition derived from the Jews and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken from Jehovah or I am Or which is most probable the notions of the Trinity in Plato and Trismegistus were foisted into their Works How many Books have been put out under the names of the Apostles and ancient Fathers which have not been truly such Such imposture in the Primitive times was very ordinary And if Men would be thus bold with Apostles and Fathers what might they not do in Heathens Besides some think there are clearer notions of a Trinity in some of the Heathens than in Moses's Books and so by consequence the Heathens should know more of it than Israel which is contrary to the Scriptures which tell us In Judah is God known Ps 76.1 and He hath not dealt so with any Nation Ps 147.20 It is therfore likely that such passages in Heathens were inserted into their Books by Christians in a way of Pious Fraud such as was anciently used This Sacred Mystery was intimated in the Old-Testament Elohim in the plural Created Gen. 1.1 Let us make Man saith God Gen. 1.26 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his Mouth Ps 33.6 Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts I say 6.3 The ancient Jewish Rabbins as Petrus Galatinus hath shewed embraced this Doctrine Rabbi Simeon on that in the Prophet saith Sanctus hic est Pater Sanctus hic est Filius Sanctus hic est Spiritus Sanctus the three Middoth or Properties in Rabbinical Writers are the three Persons in the Godhead And the Cabbalists have these words Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus Sanctus Deus Tres in Vno Vnus in Tribus In the New-Testament we have this Truth clearly laid down in the Baptisin of Christ we have all the three Persons appearing The Father in a Voice the Son in the Flesh the Holy Ghost in the Dove Mat. 3.16 17. The Primitive Christians used to say to any that doubted of the Trinity Abi ad Jordanem videbis Go to Jordan and you will see it Christ Commands That Baptism should be In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Math. 28.19 Or as the Greek Article imports In the Name of that Father that Son and that Holy Ghost which discovered themselvs at Christs Baptism There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the
the Old though not as named Apostolical Constitutions the manner was first one Presbyter preached then another and last of all the Bishop At this time there was good store of Preaching Damasus the First Bishop of Rome in his Epistle de Chorepiscopis shews how unlike Christ they are who preach not Ipse enim docuit ipse ovem perditam quaesivit ipse propriis humeris reportavit Christ did all himself St. Austin and St. Chrysostom preached every day ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Homilies Many of the Writings of Ambrose Nazianzen Basil and Cyril were only their Sermons to the People and therefore in Concilio Vasensi held about the Year of our Lord 440 it was ordered That if the Presbyter were sick and unable to Preach Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae à Diaconis recitentur The Deacons should read the Homilies of the holy Fathers Gregory the Great in his Pastoral saith Qui verbum praedicationis subtrabunt animabus morientibus vitae remedia abscondunt The unpreaching Minister hides the Bread of Life from dying souls The fourth Toletan Council which was a little after Gregory saith Omne opus Sacerdotum in praedicatione consistit Preaching is a Ministers All. In the Council of Mentz under Charles the Great It was Ordered Can. 25. Nunquam desit diebus Dominicis qui Verbum Dei Praedicet On Sabbath days a Preacher must not be wanting No though the Bisliop be sick it must not as that Can. saith In the Oxford Constitutions made by Archbishop Stephen Preaching is enjoined ne canes muti merito judicentur Nay the very Council of Trent saith that Preaching is praecipuum munus Episcopi the chief work of a Bishop Such an Ordinance is this and so highly esteemed in all Ages no wonder if Bishop Morton said The custom of not-Preaching is but a Babe in Christianity and the defence thereof a new point of Learning in Christs School But to return to the Point in hand after this long digression the Believer may experience this Ordinance to be of God That it is so is in part expermented before Conversion Whilest St. Paul but a Prisoner preached of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix though a Judg trembled feeling moral bonds cast on his Conscience by the Power of that Word which is never bound It is yet more fully experimented in Conversion in which there is a wonderful change wrought the dead being raised new Creatures formed Lyons turned into Lambs and hearts of Stone into Flesh all proclaiming that the Finger of God is in it of a Truth Johannes Speicerus as Scultetus relates Preached so powerfully That the very Strumpets leaving their lewdness returned home unto God After Conversion the Experiment is yet more compleat the Word works effectually in them that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The glory of the Divine Attributes break forth in this Ordinance out of the seeming weakness a Majesty appears in some sort much as Christs Deity sparkled out of his Humane Flesh It is not the meer Voice of Man but of God coming with an Authority more than Humane and setting the heart made like Josiah's tender by Faith into an holy trembling at it as a signal proof that the Lord is the Speaker One who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his own hand and upon Obedience or Rebellion is able to save or destroy The Believer by the command and reverential awe put upon his Conscience finds That there is a Divine Presence and Grandeur in it which to oppose is to strive and make War with God himself Again out of the seeming foolishness wisdom discovers it self Whilest but a man is teaching outwardly to the ear there is an inward Teacher in the heart The Spirit of Revelation uncovers the holy things and brings forth this or that sacred Mystery to the View Intus datur intus coruscat intus revelatur as St. Austin expresses it The Father of Lights shews himself there in sacred Revelations Christ seals up the Ordinance by the dropping of the holy Unction A Believer meets with such illuminations as are far more precious than all the Lights in Nature Hence St. Chrysostom's Auditors when he was like to be silenced cried out Satius est ut Sol non luceat quam ut Chrysostomus non doceat It were better to lose the Sun than such a burning shining light as he was The entrance or opening of thy words giveth Light saith the Psalmist Psal 119.130 When the Word preached is admitted into the heart by Faith and there opened by the Holy Spirit a celestial Light rises up and bears Witness to the Ordinance Again in the midst of plainness Divine Omniscience shews forth it self the Minister stands without but the Word enters in and anatomizes the heart Elisha proved himself a Prophet in telling what the King of Syria spake in his Bed-chamber Our Saviour manifested his Deity in answering to the thoughts of Men. When the Word preached penetrates into the retiring-rooms and inmost chambers of the heart and there rifles the very thoughts and unriddles the purposes and inclinations It is an infallible Sign that the Great Searcher of hearts hath sent a Beam of Omniscience along with it The Believer who above all other men studies himself most desires much to know two things viz. What of secret sin there is in him and what of truth of Grace And under this searching Ordinance he comes to see many a mote or black spot in his heart such as he never dream't of and withal some marks and characters which to his comfort shew him his uprightness and in such Discoveries he sees the Great Revealer of Secrets co-operating with the Word Moreover whilest the Minister is unfolding the Gospel such are the ravishing savours of Christ and Grace as if a box of Heavenly Spikenard were broken in the Believers Heart Pardon and Peace smell out of the odours of Christs Merits and Heaven it self out of his pure Righteousness Through this lattice how contemptible soever it be to carnal Men Christ shews his all-desirable self and full treasures Free-Grace communicates pardons and love-tokens the Divine Spirit breaths life and power into Believers quickning and awakening to answer the pure Commands with Obedience and this and that Promise le ts out its sweetness and flows as a Conduit of Coelestial Wine with admirable Suavities and Consolations In such things as these Faith hath sweet Communion with God and a sure seal set to this Ordinance In the Preaching of the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven comes nigh even to rejecters Luk. 10.11 Much more doth it do so unto Believers who take the holy Mysteries and Promises into the bosom and complex of Faith and thereby inflame their Hearts with the Love of Christ and Grace as a sure witness that this Ordinance which carries so much of Heaven in it is from thence Next to the Preaching of the Word I shall set the Ordinance of Prayer This is the ascent of
the Soul unto God as the fountain of all Good As in every lust there is a depression of the Heart to one Creature or other so in every right Prayer there is an holy elevation of it to God This gives great Glory to God as it is humble it reveres his Majesty as upright it owns his Omniscience as believing it glorifies his condescending Grace and as importunate it overcomes the Almighty and takes the Kingdom of Heaven by violence opening a door to that infinite mass or treasure of Grace which is laid up for those that strive and wrestle with him for supplies out of it This is a Catholick Duty good in all places The Jews prayed in or towards the Temple but now the whole World is consecrated for it every where holy hands are to be lifted up fit for all times praying always saith the Apostle Ephes 6.18 Not that we are to do nothing else as the Euchitae or Messaliani of old dreamed but that there is no time wherein the Mercy-seat is shut or Christ not interceding above or the holy Spirit not ready in some measure to assist Believers Neither is there any time in which we should not carry about with us a virtual confession in our sense of Sin or a virtual Prayer in our sense of Wants or a virtual Praise in our sense of Mercies Continuum desiderium est continua oratio as St. Austin hath it Vita hominis saith Luther nibil aliud est nisi oratio gemitus desiderium suspirium ad misericordiam Dei Mans life should be a perpetual breathing after God And withal it is incumbent on all Men the first Adam in Innocency probably addressed himself to God in Prayer and Jesus Christ the second Adam was much in it the Ethnicks by the light of Nature used it It was an old Gentile-Law Ad divos adeunto go to the gods Socrates prayed that he might be Intus pulcher inwardly fair with virtue Plato saith Every one who is compos mentis will in the beginning of any work invoke the gods How much more must Christians pray who have before their eyes a Gospel a Mercy-Seat and an open way into the Holy of Holies through the Veil of Christs flesh Unregencrate persons are bound to this Duty as we see in the Command to Simon Magus being in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Act. 8.22 Much more Believers Prayer is the breath of the new-creature and badg of Christians who are thus deciphered by the Apostle All that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 1.2 Such and so great is this Ordinance that the Jews who prayed standing and therefore called Prayer Gnammuda or Standing used to say Sine stationibus non staret mundus The world would not stand without Standing or Prayer That this is an Ordinance of God the Believer experiments many ways First He experiments it in the Assistances of the Holy Spirit which is as Gales to the Sails of Prayer in its Voyage to Heaven and as holy Fire to the Incense of it causing it to ascend to the Throne of Grace The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It lifts over against us or helps us to lift up a Prayer which else would be too heavy for us Whilst the Believer is a-praying O what heavenly meltings are there The Believer is like Ephraim bemoaning himself or as the Children of Israel at Mizpeh lamenting after the Lord and pouring out water as if their eyes were turned into Fountains of penitential tears or as the man in the Gospel crying out with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Catching at Mercy with an hand trembling at his own Infirmity Such meltings and spiritual mournings over Sin plainly shew That the Spirit of Grace and Supplication is poured out upon the Prayer making it like the bruised Incense sull of fragrancy breathing out from a broken heart dissolved into tears by the beams of Gods Love And in this Evangelical thaw What Divine enlargements are there The heart is no longer in the Straits of Sin and Earth but opened and expanded towards Heaven E're the praying Believer is a ware his Soul sets him on the wheels and his lips drop as the honey-comb if not in the very entrance of the Duty yet in the progress of it The Psalmist in the beginning of the 38th Psalm seems cold and frozen in Unbelief Gods arrows stick fast in him his hand presseth him sore the iniquities are too heavy the wounds stink and are corrupt There are nothing but bowings breaches and miserable roarings But before he hath done praying his heart recovers again In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear O Lord my God ver 15. Sometimes at first there is a Cloud and dark Eclipse upon the Prayer and yet a little after Grace breaks forth with its Sunny beams and draws out the heart towards God They looked unto him and were lightned as David speaks Psal 34.5 or as the words may be read they looked unto him and flowed their hearts were as a River running out with spiritual fluency and enlargments such as are a real proof that the free Spirit is in the Prayer and withal What an heavenly ardor is there While I was musing the fire burned saith David Psal 39.3 While the Believer is a-praying the Holy Spirit is as fire upon the heart inflaming it into religious ascents towards God The Believer stirs up himself and takes hold on God by some Promise or other and Jacob-like wrestles with him for Mercy and will not let him go till there be a dawn or day-break of Grace He prays in his Prayer and urges the Attributes of God upon him and presses hard upon him with an holy immodesty or impudence as the expression is Luk. 11.8 and will not be said Nay Much like Gorgonia the pious Sister of Nazianzen who lay at the Altar with Tears and Prayers and said That she would not depart till she had her request and accordingly obtained it of God This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 the inwrought Prayer or Prayer wrought by Gods Spirit in ours and from thence poured out in an agony or vehemence of holy Assections panting and breaking with longings after God and his Grace Luther having prayed with great fervency said Vtinam eodem ardore orare possem Would to God I could always pray with the like ardor then should I always have this answer Fiat quod velis Be it unto thee as thou wilt After this manuer doth the Holy Spirit come down on the Believers Prayer and bear witness to this Ordinance Secondly He experiments it in his Access to God The Devils who are in Chains of Darkness can make no approaches to God there is an unpassable gulf between them and him It is storied of a German Nobleman that there was acted before him a Play of the five Wise and five Foolish Virgins the Wise were St. Mary St. Catbarine St.
Barbara St. Dorothy St. Margaret to these came the Foolish for Oyl that is as the Actor interpreted it That they would intercede with God for their admission into Heaven They knocked and wept and instantly prayed but the Wise denied and bid them be gone At this sight the Nobleman was astonished crying out What is the Christian Religion if none of the Saints will hear and intercede for us And soon after he died of an Apoplexy 'T is sad being shut out from the presence of God The Believer is as they say of the Rhodians in sole positus He is nigh unto God and hath his Religion proved to him in that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 access or manuduction unto God The way into the Holy of Holies is open through the veil of Christs flesh and the Holy Spirit doth conduct him in thither He may come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with boldness unto the throne of Grace and there utter all his mind as a Child doth to his Father David in the 13th Psalm begins as if God were totally absent How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me But a little after we have him in the joy and triumph of Faith I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation saith he ver 5. The door of Mercy which for a little time was shut up soon opened again and gave him a free access unto God Thirdly He experiments it in the returns of Prayer the Promises by which God binds his own bowels above are let down here below in the Gospel And as the Believer takes hold of them by Prayer so God is touched with a compassionate feeling thereof Whilst Ephraim was bemoaning himself in his Supplication Gods bowels are troubled and fall a-sounding at it Jer. 31.18 20. Coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus saith Tertullian We knock at Heaven and fetch down mercy from God Prayer hath done Wonders in the world At Abrahams Prayer God stoops to such low terms that he would have saved Sodom for ten righteous persons Jacob by Prayer wrestles and becomes a Prince with God which is more than to have all the Monarchies of the World Moses by it binds as it were the Almighty and will not let him alone to consume Israel Joshua stopt the Chariot of the Sun and so made a long day for the improvement of his Victory Elias locked up Heaven and till he turned the Key of Prayer the contrary way there was no rain upon the Earth In the time of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher the Christian Legion by their Prayers procured Water for the Roman Army and a scattering Tempest against their Enemies and were therefore called Legio fulminatrix The thundring Legion Prayer hath a kind of Omnipotence in it and can do every thing Sometimes the Prayer is returned in Specie in the very thing desired as Hannah's was in a Son whom therefore she called Samuel that is Asked of God In this case the Believer hath a double Blessing in one over and above the common Providence he hath a pregnant proof of his Prayer in it A Blessing which is a meer Providence comes up as the Corn doth with the husk or chaff of one vanity or other as a Memento of that blast which Sin brought upon the World But that which is a Fruit of Prayer is as Manna from Heaven pure and unmixt a Blessing and no sorrow added to it as being the Birth of the Promise and Covenant The Blessings of the former sort are gathered up by Men as Acorns are by Swine without looking up to that Grace which as a Tree of Life bears all the good Fruit But the latter raises up the Heart in the admirations and high-praises of the great Donor as we see in Hannah who returned back her Son assoon as received unto God in Praise and Dedicacation Criticks have observed an elegant Paranomasia in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore I have lent him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1.28 Samuel was first Shaiil meel Asked of God and then Shaiil leel lent or returned to God Those Blessings which are drawn down by Prayer lie not dead here below but are sent back again in Praise Sometimes the Prayer returns another way though it be not heard ad voluntatem it is ad utilitatem The answer is in some thing that profits us though not to the express desire of our Hearts it may be it is in the sweet composure of the Heart Upon Prayer God comes in and rebukes the Winds and Seas of Passion and there is a calm and Divine serenity in the Soul Hannab before Prayer was a Woman of a sorrowful spirit but her Soul being poured out unto God returned with a Divine sweetness Her countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1.18 It may be there is an inward support which is tantamount to the Blessing desired Our Saviours Prayer against the Cup of Wrath was heard in that he was enabled to drink and overcome it And St. Paul's against the Thorn in the Flesh in that he had sufficient Grace to withstand it Preclarè nobiscum agitur dum adest Dei Gratia quae nobis subveniat saith Reverend Calvin In the Supports of Grace there is a signal answer of Prayer it may be over and above the Support the Beams of Gods Love break in upon the heart This is a little Heaven here below and richly transcends all this world Bellarmin tells us a Story of an old Man who used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini Oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jam videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer Object than Gods Face which I have now beheld The Love of God irradiating a Prayer is a ravishing sight far better than life and all its comforts It may be there is a transmutation of the Blessing into another such as God who improves the stock of Prayer to the best advantage knows to be better for us David prayed earnestly for his sick Child and the return of it was in a Solomon a Jedidiah beloved of God One way or other the Believers Prayer returns into his bosom being answered at least secundum cardinem according to the main hinge and scope of it which is Gods glory and Mans comfort or happiness Thus Moses's Prayer to go into Canaan was answered according to the ground of it Instead of the type God takes him up to Heaven the true Canaan which was most for Mases's comfort And instead of Moses a type of the Law Joshua a type of Christ leads the people into Canaan which was most for Gods Glory Which way soever the Prayer returns to the Believer it seals up the Ordinance for Divine In the last Place I come to the Ordinance of the Lord Supper The outward Elements of this Sacrament our Lord Christ took as Learned Men conceive from a custom observed among the
Jews at the Passeover at the end of the Celebration whereof the Father of the Family was wont to take a Cake of Bread and after the blessing thereof to break and distribute it to the Communicants and also after that a Cup of Wine in like sort unto which some refer that Cup of Salvation Psal 116.13 The Bread and Wine among the Jews were but a Customary Rite but Christ consecrated them into a Sacrament saying of the Bread This is my Body and of the Wine This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which could not before be said of them In the Paschal Rite it was only said of the Bread This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of affliction and of the Cup This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cup of the Hymn But now This is my Body and this is my Blood In this great Ordinance the Body and Blood of Christ are evidently figured out and set forth before our eyes as if he were Crucified among us The seventh General Council at Constantinople who knocked down all other Images saith of this Sacrament That it is Vera Christi Imago the only true Crucifix or Image of Christ And which is much more than an Image the very Body and Blood of Christ are here truly and really though Spiritually present to our Faith being exhibited ut epulum faederale as a Covenant-feast or Love-banquet chearing the heart of God and Man The same Body and Blood which in the Sacrifice on the Cross were a sweet savour unto God and satisfied his Justice are set forth in the Sacrament as meat and drink for our Faith feeding us to Life Eternal Here is Epitome Evangelti a compend of the Gospel the whole Covenant and Contrivance of Salvation is sealed in a bit of Bread and drop of Wine Here the Believer meets with many rich Experiments he feeds and lives upon a Crucified Christ eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood and what a Feast is this 't is much that our Bodies may live upon the Body and Blood of Creatures but Oh incomparable Grace Our Souls may live on the Body and Blood of God One drop whereof saith Luther is more worth than Heaven and Earth Cruci haeremus sanguinem sugimus intra ipsa Redemptoris nostri vulnera figimus linguam saith St. Cyprian Haustu interiori in a Spiritual Mystical way we do in this Ordinance cleave to Christs Cross suck his precious Blood and as it were fasten our Tongues within his healing Wounds Whilest the Bread and Wine are Physically and Carnally united to us we are Mystically and Hyperphysically united to Christ becoming Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Spiritually dwelling in him and he in us The same holy Spirit which is upon him in Heaven falling down upon us on Earth and the Faith which is in us here below ascending up to clasp and embrace him In sinu Christi recumbimus in cor Christi introspicimus saith Luther We lie in his bosom and look into his heart In our Pardon sealed we taste the sweetness of his atoning Blood and in the effusion of the holy Spirit we drink at the sountainhead of Grace sprung up in his Humane Nature We have here the whole Covenant or Charter of Grace sealed to us and may believe not only ex promisso but ex pignore Over and above the Promise we have a pawn or pledg of the Truth thereof We saw not the inspired Prophets and Apostles penning down the Promises but Ecce Signum lo here is a visible sign and seal set thereunto and sense leads in Faith to claim and possess them for its own Hence our Saviour calls the Cup the New Testament in his Blood Luk. 22.20 The Cup saith Luther contains the Wine the Wine exhibits the Blood of Christ the Blood of Christ natifies the New Govenant and the New Covenant promises remission of Sins and with it a vast treasure of Blessings Again we have here the rich anointings of the holy Spirit Among the Oriental Nations and in particular among the Jews there was Vnctio convivalis a Feastival Vnction which they used as a token of welcome to pour on the head of their Guests Thus there came unto Christ a Woman having an Atabaster box of very precious Ointment and poured it on his head as he sate at meat Mat. 26.7 Whilest we are at the Lords-Table we are anointed with fresh Oyl the holy Spirit is poured out in richer measures of Grace and Comfort than it was at first As a Spirit of Grace and Supplication it melts the Heart into godly sorrows at the sight of a Crucisied Christ Sin being indeed the Jew and Judas the betrayer and murderer of the Son of God the Nails in his Cross and Spear in his Side the Gall and Wormwood in the Cup of Wrath which made him sweat drops of Blood and under an horrid Eclipse of Gods favour to cry out of forsaking To look upon a groaning World travelling under an universal vanity would stir up sorrow in any that had a sense of it much more to look upon a Christ a Creator bleeding and dying upon a Cross to the least drop of whose Passion the dashing down of a World is a poor inconsiderable nothing To look upon the broken Tables of a Law dearer to God than Heaven and Earth is very grievous but to stand and see God for our Sin bruising and breaking his own Son and Effential Image in our assumed Nature is matter of amazing sorrow Never was Sin set forth in such bloody Colours as in his Passion never do repentant tears flow more purely than at such a spectacle Here the Heart breaks in its closing with a broken Christ and bleeds afresh over his Wounds and turns the Sacrament of the Supper into a Baptism of Tears and out of an holy hatred and revenge would have the violence done to Christ be put upon Sin the great Crucifier of him in the true Mortification thereof As a Spirit of Faith it causes us to live upon Christ Having no Righteousness of our own to answer the Law with we feast and satisfie our selves in the Righteousness of Christ as in that which satisfied the heart of God and is here made over to satisfie ours We may surely say The Righteousness of God is upon us and as it hath no spot or wrinkle in it self so it leaves no ground of scruple or jealousie in our Hearts in the midst of our Sins which have Death and Hell virtually in them We yet live upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ His Blood which was offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit and by him accepted as a plenary Satisfaction for Sin is now put into Promises and Sacraments as into so many Basins and from thence sprinkled on our Conscience to purge away all our guilt our Sins are pardoned and our Pardon passed under the Seal of Heaven In the midst of our Wants Faith can triumph in the
immense Treasures of Grace in Christ set open in this Ordinance to all comers Here 's Eye-salve for our Blindness Strength for our Weakness Melting for the hard Heart Cordials for Fainting-fits quenching Grace against the fiery darts of Satan and Healing for the bloody issues of Sin From this Table we go saith Chrysostome as Lions breathing fire terrible to the Devils themselves Ante faciem Vnctionis Christi nullus omnino stare potest morbus animae quamvis inveteratus saith Bernard Before the Vnction of Christ the most inveterate disease of the Soul will vanish away When once the Venetians were boasting of their great Treasures a Spanish Ambassador told them That his Masters Treasure had a root in the Mines of America However worldly Men may boast of outward things the Believers joy is That his Graces have a sure root in the Mines and rich Treasures of Christ in whom dwells all fulness of abundance and redundance running over in shares and measures upon all that are in him As a spirit of Love it inflames the Heart towards Christ Oh! what manner of Love is here set before us the Father 's own Son and Image passing by Angels assumed our frail Flesh and in it stood in our room Having though the Holy One the Sin of the World cast on him by a wonderful Imputation and though the beloved Son the Wrath of God bruising and pressing him into a bloody Agony and Passion on our behalf The Fathers Eternal Joy and Splendor lay for a time in a dark Eclipse of Sorrow and Desertion as one forsaken of God that we might not be cast out into utter darkness and bled and died on a Cross as one accursed of God to keep us from bleeding in eternal flames and to purchase a place in Glory for us And all this in outward Elements is not only limmed out and figured to our senses but sealed to our hearts as that which we have a real share and interest in And what attractives and inflammatives are here Now if ever our Heart will breath out it self in holy Raptures after Christ and faint and swoon away in Love-sick desires till it can catch hold and embrace him and so taste the rare Delights and Complacencies of an Union with Him And the greater those Complacencies are the higher are the Desires and reciprocally the higher the Desires the greater the Complacencies till at last the Believing Soul in rapes of Love breaks forth into Hosanna's and Hallelujahs touching its great Redeemer Such Experiments as these prove this Ordinance to be Divine Thus much touching the Ordinances in Scripture and the Experimenting their Divinity In the last Place I shall mention The great Works of Power Recorded in Scripture many of these are Types of the Magnalia or Spiritual Wonders wrought in or for the Souls of Men. Thus the Ark which saved from the Deluge was a Type of Salvation from Wrath in and through Christ Isaac born of a dead Body and Womb a Type of the New-creature brought forth by supernatural Grace and The bringing Israel out of Egypt a Type of the great Redemption wrought by Christ These a Believer may Experiment in their Spiritual Imports and Mysteries which are more great and glorious than the Things themselves Not to be prolix in this I shall only instance in two Things viz. The Creation of the World Historically set forth Gen. 1. and The Miracles wrought by Christ related in the Gospel As touching Creation as clear a Glass as it is of the Eternal Power and Godhead the Philosophers were much mistaken about it Aristotle asserting That the World was Eternal as if it were possible That there should be an infinite orderly Succession of Things or a third fourth fifth c. without a first or as if a World a Creature could be made as the Son of God was Begotten or joyn Eternities with its Creator The Stoicks dreaming at least of an Eternal Matter or Chaos as if that Axiome ex nihilo nihil fit which runs true in Nature did reach God himself or as if He like our Mechanicks on Earth could not work without Tools or Materials Or as if the Gulf between Nothing and Being were so great that Infinite Power could not fill it up and setch over a Creature from Nullity into Being The Epicureans fancying the World to be made by a fortuitous concourse of Atomes luckily meeting together in the framing of it as if the blind Particles of Matter could range themselves into a World full of delicate Order and Harmony or as if the various parts regular motions and orderly dispositions in the great Universe could be but a chance or as if the admirable consent and confederation of all the parts therein in which contraries conspire and agree together for the good of the whole were but a fortunate casualty Such were the dreams of the Sophi but the Believer by Faith understands That the Worlds were framed by the Word of God Hebr. 11.3 And over and above may experience a Creation a pretious New-creation in his own Heart We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus saith the Apostle Eph. 2.10 In this Creation Almighty Power is as much laid out as in the Old and the Products of it are much more excellent than the other Spiritual Light excels Natural and the Firmament of Faith the outward One. The Living Water within exceeds the great Ocean and Christ in the Heart the Sun in the Heavens Graces are transcendent Creatures and surpass even the Immortal Soul which yet outweighs a World The Believer may look upon his Holy Faith Fear Love Joy Hope and Patience which make up the New-Creature and say All these were created out of Nothing and called into Being when they were not Here is dextra excelsi The right hand of the most High the very same which made the World and Vestigia Spiritûs Sancti The footsteps of that Holy Spirit which of old moved on the Face of the Waters Now I know That God is a Creator indeed and have a practical proof of it in my own Heart every part of the New-creature bearing witness thereunto As to the Miracles of Christ related in the Gospel these were so famous That Josephus mentions them Celsus and Julian in their Writings against Christians durst not deny them Grot. de Ver. Relig. 44. Camero de Verbo 441. Petr. Gal. de Arranis 447. The Jews in their Talmudical Books nay and the Mahometans in their Alchoran confess them And the Heathens moved with envy at them caused the life of Apollonius Thyanaeus and his lying Miracles to be described in meer opposition to Christ and his true ones When John sent his Disciples on that errand Art thou he that should come that is the Messias Christ returns this answer Go and tell John the blind receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear and the dead are raised up As much as to say In such Wonders as these is
desperation Adding moreover That it is Antichrists proper work to weaken the Faith and Hope of Christians Indeed this Doctrine doth dispirit and emasculate Religion turn Faith and Hope into meer Meteors and set the Consciences of Men a-fluctuating in perpetual doubts and labyrinths But let us see what they say for it first distinguishing between the certainty of Faith and the certainty of Hope they allow the latter to Believers And what manner of Hope is this Is it a fallible conjectural Hope only such a Spiders web may be found in an Hypocrite who hath no lot or part in this matter Or is it a true Divine Hope sutable to a real Believer This even the School-man Durandus will confess to be such That non potest non evenire it cannot but come to pass this will not make ashamed Rom. 5.5 by disappointing the Soul where it lodgeth It is the Believers anchor pure and stedfast Heb. 6.19 Such as will never leave him to the courtesie of a wave or rock for it enters in within the Veil and is fastned in Heaven Faith and Hope which they here vainly distinguish are coupled so together in a Believer that Hope cannot fluctuate unless Faith do so neither is Faith certain without an Hope congruous thereunto Faith is the Hypostasis or Subsistence of things hoped for saith the Apostle Heb 11.1 And Hope as an Ancient hath it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very Blood of Faith They say indeed That the Promises are sure and infallible but withal they put such an uncertainty upon our Dispositions as to evacuate the very drift and scope of the Promises which is That Believers might have strong consolation Heb. 6.18 Streaming out from those two immutable Things The Word and Oath of God who cannot lie But if the Believer must still be in doubt whether he have true Faith and Repentance O how weak must his Comforts be and how cold the Promises He doth as it were but Tantalize at the pure fountain of Joy and Consolation It 's true the Promises are Conditional But are not those Conditions found in true Believers May they not know that they turn unto God with all their heart that is seriously and sincerely Remission and Salvation hang not on the degree of Faith and Repentance but on the truth thereof They cannot say their Heart is clean with a sinless Sanctity but they may that it is so with a true Integrity such as hath all the Promises entailed on it A true Believer saith St. Austin may say Sanctus sum I am holy and to say so is not Pride but Gratitude They cannot understand all the errors lying in the deep of the Heart but they may the Graces brought in there by a new Creation That Jâ—m 3. Who can tell if God will turn Non tam dubitantis quam bene sperantis est It speaks not so much doubting as hoping that God would avert the imminent Judgment That Acts 8. Perhaps thy thoughts may be forgiven puts not a scruple on Gods Mercy towards Penitents but upon Simons Repentance whether he would truly repent or not Happy is the man that feareth always saith the Wiseman Not he that feareth with a servile Fear for the Spirit of Bondage makes not happy but with a filial And that well consists with Assurance for we may rejoice with trembling as the Psalmist hath it Psal 2.11 Nay it is advanced thereby For it fears the Lord and his Goodness The heart of man is deceitful even the Believer's so far as it is leavened with the reliques of Sin but as it is renewed with Principles of Grace it is a true heart as the Apostle calls it Heb. 10.22 and so may pass a true judgment on its own estate Though it cannot know all that is in its own abyss yet it may know the general frame and byas of it self and thereby discover its Sincerity Hence the Apostle saith If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God 1 John 3.21 If natural Conscience be a thousand witnesses inlightned is ten thousand Faith say the Romanists leans on the Word and there is no Word That such or such an one hath true Faith and Repentance or that his sins are pardoned and remitted Unto which I answer As to that That no Word saith that such an one hath true Faith and Repentance it is to be considered That when one Proposition stands upon the Word and another upon natural light or experience The Conclusion is de Fide When in the 6. General Council the Fathers proceeded against the Monothelites by this Argument Whosoever is true God and true Man bath two Wills But Christ is true God and true Man Ergo he hath two Wills The Major stood on the Light of Nature and the Minor only on the Word yet the Conclusion was de Fide And when the Believer thus communes with his own heart in a practical Syllogism Whosoever believs and repents bath his Sins pardoned But I believe and repent Ergo I have my Sins pardoned The Major stands on the Word and the Minor on Experience but the Conclusion is de Fide If a Conclusion drawn from two Propositions one standing on the Word and another on other Evidence be not de Fide What will the Romanists do for their darling the Popes Supremacy To prove that such or such a Pope suppose Gregory or Innocent were Supream in the Church They must argue thus Whoever is Peters Successor is Supream in the Church But Gregory or Innocent were Peters Successors Ergo They were Supream in the Church In which Argument though they would fain set up the Major upon Scripture yet the Minor stands only on Election No Scripture saith That Peters Successor must be a Gregory or an Innocent nevertheless they would have the Conclusion de fide But if a Conclusion drawn from such Propositions be de fide then may the Believer according to the practical Syllogism abovementioned conclude in Faith That his sins are pardoned though no Word tell him That he hath true Faith and Repentance It suffices that Experience tells him so But as a further answer Neither is the Word altogether wanting herein for it sets out Faith and Repentance by infallible marks and characters as common touchstones to try them by to the end of the World And where those marks and characters are it pronounces those Graces to be of the right stamp and virtually tells Believers as much and they being irradiated with the Holy Spirit which shines upon both Scriptures and Evidences may receive the saying and considently say as St. John doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We know that we know him This is the Faith and this the Repentance marked out in Scripture Again as to that That no Word saith That such or such an one in particular hath his sins pardoned The answer is easie Universals include Particulars That 1 Joh. 4.3 Every spirit that confesseth not that Christ is come in the flesh is
not of God condemns the Marâ—ionites as much as if they had been named That 1 Tim. 4.3 forbidding to marry condemns the Eustathians as much as if they had been named That Threatning Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things being general speaks Wrath to every Transgressor as soon as he is such And so that Promise Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have eternal life being general speaks Pardon and Salvation to every Believer as soon as he is such All that believe are justified Act. 13.39 No sooner doth this or that man believe but the Promise speaks to him Thy sins are forgiven thee God saith to him I am thy salvation It may be he doth not understand it at first However here is a sure ground-work for him to believe that it is so and so accordingly he doth as soon as Assurance comes in to him Moreover the Romanists urge That the Doctrine of Assurance puffs up Pride and opens a gap to Licentiousness Unto which my answer is a flat Denial If our Saviour had thought that Assurance would make men like Devils in Pride or Beasts in Licentiousness he would never have said as he did to the Paralytick Thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Had they told us That such a Worm as Pride would breed out of the Doctrines of Merit and Supererogatory Works it might easily have been believed but that it should drop from such an Honeycomb of Free-Grace as the Doctrine of Assurance is is not reasonably to be imagined Here 's nothing of Merit nothing of our own all is pure meer Grace the Believers Faith and Repentance is of Grace and the Assurance of Pardon and Salvation is Grace upon Grace Sealing-Grace upon Sanctifying And whatever perverse abuse may be made of these the natural tendency thereof is not to Pride for a man after such Graces to forget the great Fountain and set up an Idol of Self-excellency is extreamly unreasonable Just as if he should say Now I am in the bosom of Grace but I would be cast out and be held afar off Now I have the warm Beams of Gods Favour but I would fain be in the Dark again Who would argue thus Will it not be much more proper in an humble admiration to say as David did Who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 2 Sam. 7.18 Thy Love O God first made me a Vessel of Faith and then filled me with the Oyl of Holy Joy What am I to be such a Receiver All that I am is too small a return nothing of self may remain for an Idol Had they said That Licentiousness might have been fathered on the Sale of Pardons and Indulgences it had been veryright These made Germany and other parts groan with all manner of wickedness But to lay it at the door of Assurance is abominable Machiavel was out in his Politicks when he would have Princes Rule by Fear but he advised so because he knew well enough That following his Rules they could not be Loved and therefore he would perswade them that it was better to be feared The true Obedience for I look not on that which a man is haled unto as such springs out of Love for that fulfils the Law and our Love springs out of Gods for We love him because he first loved us 1 Job 4.19 And the more his Love is revealed the more ours is inflamed towards Obedience In Heaven the blessed Angels who see Gods Face in Glory are most intent upon the doing of his Will on Earth holy men who taste of his favour walk the more accurately for it The joyful sound of Pardon being in the Conscience makes the holy Walk easie and a fair prospect of Heaven sweetens every step Obedience stands no-where so sure as in the Circle of Love which from Gods Love as the first Point is drawn through ours round about into it self Gods Love coming down in Assurance and ours returning in Obedience his being inflammative to ours and ours resignative to him in such circulations of Love their is no room for Licentiousness It 's true Saints after such Pleonasmes of Love may fall foully but do they fall because assured Do they turn Enemies to God because they know themselves Friends Can the Light of Gods Countenance dispose them to Works of Darkness May the choice Influences of Heaven make them earthly and sensual Will the Prodigal once returned run away the sooner from his Fathers House because of the Kiss and Robe and Ring and Fatted Calf freely bestowed upon him Such things as these do involve many Paradoxes and Repugnancies in them and withal cast dirt upon Heaven and blaspheme the Witnessing Spirit and therefore are justly abominable to the Saints who experience the contrary in their own Hearts Having thus far gone through the Enemies Camp I come now to lay down my Thesis to be proved viz. That a Believer may be certainly and infallibly assured of his Pardon and Salvation I say a Believer may be assured an Unbeliever while such is not a subject capable of Assurance he hath Plague-Sores and Tokens of Wrath upon him but as yet never a Beam of Grace or Love the Justice and Holiness of God cannot suffer him to be shined on none of the Promises can speak kindly or comfortably to him his stony Heart cannot receive the Seal and Impress of the Holy Spirit Hence the Apostle saith After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 after and not before First there must be a new Creature and then a new Name First Gods Image is printed on the Heart and then his Love I say a Believer may be assured but not that all Believers are so A man may be a Babe in Christ and not know it a Child of Light and yet walking in darkness A Believer may live in crepusculo in the twilight or mixt condition of Hope and Fear and so though sure of Heaven not in his own sense assured of it I mean not that he may be assured by an Angel or Voice from Heaven or extraordinary Revelation This the Adversaries will admit but in an ordinary way in the diligent use of such Helps and Means as are common to all Believers Thus the Apostle speaks in common to them all These things have I written to you that believe that ye may know that ye have eternal Life 1 John 5.13 He doth not say some may know it in an extraordinary way but speaks of it as knowable by Believers in common I mean not that he hath this Assurance always or in every point of time perpetual Serenity is not here below Earth is not as Heaven the Sun may be eclipsed the Seal of the Spirit may be clouded Evidences may be blurred and hardly legible It may be God in Sovereignty withdraws or Satan in envy buffets or the Believer lets down his Spiritual Watch or a due estimate is not set on Heavenly Comforts or there
is some great Trausgression which as an accursed thing causes the Lord to depart In such cases though there be no intercision of Justification yet there is an interruption of Consolation These Things premised I proceed to prove the Point viz. That a Believer may attain Assurance of Pardon and Salvation In the first Place the Names and Titles given unto Faith in Scripture are remarkable 'T is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The subsistence of things hoped for Glory and Salvation are hoped for by us but Faith maks them as certain as if they were present to us The Hebrews have a Van conversivum which turns the Future into the Preter-tense such a thing is Faith which presentiates future Things to the Believer That ye may know that ye have eternal life saith John It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall have it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have it in praesenti it already subsists in your Faith 'T is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of things not seen Eternal Life cannot be seen by corruptible Eyes but Faith doth so point out and demonstrate it as if it were visible or sensible We know that we have passed from Death to Life 1 John 3.14 As if the Apostle had said We are indeed in the very Borders of Heaven and we know it as it were sensibly as we do our passage from one Place to another 'T is set out by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strong perswasion or considence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a liberty or holy boldness with God The Apostle mentions both In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the Faith of him Ephes 3.12 Access to God imports that we are reconciled to him but access with boldness and confidence imports that we know it also Otherwise it would not be Faith as the Apostle stiles it but meer rashness and presumption if we should do so upon Peradventures Esther-like not knowing whether the golden Scepter would be held out to us or not Nay 't is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full Assurance carrying out the Soul with full Sails to the good things in the Promise It is well observed by the acute Dr. Arrowsmith That in Scripture mention is made of a triple Plerophory a Plerophory of Knowledg Col. 2.2 a Plerophory of Faith Heb. 10.22 and a Plerophory of Hope Heb. 6.11 The Genius of each shews forth it self in the Believers Practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth shall be saved But I believe Ergo I shall be saved In the Major we have a Plerophory of Knowledg In the Minor a Plerophory of Faith And in the Conclusion flowing from the Premises a Plerophory of Hope In the next place some Commands in the Gospel clearly import that Assurance is attainable there God would have us To work out our Salvation Phil. 2.12 To make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 To add to our Faith virtue one Grace upon another and one degree of Grace upon another That we may have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.5 11. To walk by the Rule of the New Creature that peace may be upon us Galat. 6.16 To prove our own state whether we be in the Faith whether Christ be in us or not 2 Corinth 13.5 To prove our own work that we may have rejoycing in our selves and not in another Gal. 6.4 If these things may be done Assurance is attainable if they cannot to what purpose are these Precepts how vain and impossible are they In that question Whether we may perfectly fulfil the Moral Law the Pontificians urge thus for the Affirmative If we cannot fulfil it the Law is impossible and void De Justif lib. 4. cap. 13. Si praecepta essent impossibilia neminem obligarent ac per hoc praecepta non essent praecepta saith Bellarmine If the Commands were impossible they would oblige none and so would become no Commands But in the Point of Assurance we may with much better reason say if we cannot fulfill the Commands concerning it they are then impossible and vain the Law is an exact Rule of Righteousness a Copy of the pure Law engraven on Mans Heart at first in the state of Innecency unto which it was attemperated It was not at all impossible and that it is so now is only from Mans Apostacy And withal the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the impossibility of the Law is admirably useful to drive us in a deep sence of our Impotence to Christ the Complement of it that through his holy Spirit we may in a way of sincere though imperfect Obedience at last arrive at perfect Sanctity in Heaven But if such Commands as are purely Evangelical be impossible what can be said to it what tolerable answer made Were these at all accommodated to a state of Innocency Was not their Original scope to raise up fallen Man to Salvation If the Commands of believing and repenting were impossible what room would there be for Salvation And if the Commands of proving and ensuring our state of Grace be impossible what room is left for the Joys of Faith or the Sealings of the holy Spirit or the Suavities of a good Conscience And there being no second Christ or Gospel to fly to whither doth this Impossibility drive but into the black gulf of Despair Wherefore as we would avoid such doleful consequences we must conclude those Precepts practicable and so Assurance possible And as a sure seal thereof we have the sweet experience of Saints in all Ages Holy Job though God multiplied his Wounds and his Friends raked in them by a very sharp charge of Hypocrisie knew his own Integrity and would not let it go Job 27.5 And which reacheth beyond his present state of Grace as sure of future Glory he breaks out I know that my Redeemer liveth and maugre all the destructive worms In my flesh and with these very eyes I shall see God Job 19.25 26. O how certain was his Faith I know How appropriative My Redeemer liveth and how sharp-sighted he could look through the dust to Immortality David knew the truth of his Grace and proved it to himself by infallible Marks I have kept the ways of the Lord I have not wickedly departed from my God I did not put away his statutes from me I kept my self from mine iniquity Psal 18.21 22 23. ver And for future Happiness he saith without scruple That at his waking in the Resurrection he should be satisfied with Gods likeness Psal 17.15 St. Paul speaks as one full sure of his present state and future hope I have fought a good sight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. The Martyr Agatha having her Breasts cruelly cut off for Religion told the Persecutor That yet she had two Breasts remaining such as he could not touch the one of Faith and the
Eph. 1.3.4 and I have those Blessings in me Effectual Vocation hangs on Predestination as the highest Link in the Chain of Grace Rom. 8.30 and I am so called This made St. Bernard Epst 10.7 speaking of effectual Vocation say Ad ortum solis justitiae Sacramentum absconditum à seculis de praedestinatis beatificandis emergere quodammodo incipit ex abysso aeternitatis When the Sun of Righteousness rises upon the Heart in an effectual Call the secret mystery of Praedestination hid from Ages breaks forth out of the abysse of Eternity Here the Great Counsel of Eternal Love which lay in Gods Bosom shews forth it self to the Believer through the Lattice of his Graces Hence he may conclude on good grounds That his Graces shall never fail so long as the Foundation of God standeth sure in Election Continual supplies of Grace from the Fountain will keep his Lamp from going out It s observable that when God expresses his fresh Mercies to his People he doth it thus I will yet chuse Israel Isa 14.1 Election is from all Eternity but it buds and blossoms in time in fresh supplies of Grace as if he chose them again When the Saints are drooâ—â—â— and as it were dying away Election will give another visit and make them live a second time So unspeakable are the comforts of this Point that as I have read one under the sweet sense of Electing Love was for some days taken off from all the joys of Nature and in an holy extasie cried out Laudetur Dominus Laudetur Dominus as if he had been in Heaven already bearing a part in the Church Triumphant Again The Believer looks not to his Graces only but to the indwelling Spirit Faith and Love and Obedience cannot fail in his Heart whilst the Spirit of Grace is there and there it will always be because it is an abiding Vnction perpetually chearing every grace and a well of water springing up into everlasting life Continua irrigatio coelestem in illis aeternitatem fovet saith a judicious Divine on the place a continual irrigation cherishes an heavenly eternity in them Upon this account the Spirit is called the earnest of our Inheritance not for a time but until the redemption of the Church be compleated Eph. 1.14 that is till the whole Sum be paid in Glory The Earnest going along with the Believer to Heaven his Graces cannot possibly fail by the way Our Saviour told his Disciples and in them all Believers That the Spirit should abide with them for ever Joh. 14.16 And two things will make it good to them I mean their Union with him and his Intercession for them Their Union with him will do it they being mystical parts and pieces of him the Holy Fourt will enliven them and their Graces Because I live ye shall live also saith our Saviour Joh. 14.19 The Members cannot dye as long as there is life in the Head But may not the Union cease No by no means God himself hath established it thus the Apostle Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Believers are established in Christ and to assure them of it the holy Spirit is an Unction a Seal and an Earnest in their Hearts This establishment of Believers seems to me exemplified in Christs Humane Nature that once assumed into the Word by an Hypostatical Vnion was never separated from it those once taken into Christ by a Mystical Vnion are never parted from him the Apostle hints both to us The God of Peace who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus make you perfect Heb. 13.20 21. That God who would lose nothing of Christs Humane Nature no not in the grave will perfect Believers as Mystical parts of him never suffering their Graces to see corruption in an utter decay nor leaving their Souls in the hell of final Apostacy Besides Christs Intercession ratifies it he in his solemn Prayer on Earth which as Arminius himself grants was the Canon and Pattern of his Intercession in Heaven prays to his Father for all Believers That they may be kept from evil Joh. 17.15 If they are not kept Christs Intercession ceases or becomes powerless Neither of which can be Cease it cannot because be ever lives to make Intercession Become powerless it cannot because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life what he interceeds for shall be done I will pray the Father saith our Saviour and what follows The Comforter shall come and abide with you for ever Joh. 14.16 As long as Christ pleads at the right hand of Power it must be so This made St. Paul break out into that gallant Triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature No not our own Wills unless more than Creatures shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 39. from Gods Love to us or ours to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we over-overcome all things in our way to Heaven our Graces cannot fail below as long as Christ is pleading above on our behalf Moreover the Believer looks not only to his Graces but to the Promises in which God is pleased to bind himself that they shall be kept alive to the end St. Paul praying for the Thessalonians That their whole spirit and soul and body might be perserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds a sweet Promise Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24. Believers and their Graces are taken into Gods own hand And where can they be safer But may they not be plucked from thence No None shall pluck them out of mine or my Fathers hand saith our Saviour Joh. 10.28 29. But may they not of themselves fall out of it No though they fall out yet they shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth them with his hand Psal 37.24 But will he always do so Yes He will confirm them unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 And how will he do it He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 He will put his Spirit into them and cause them to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36.27 And what though their Fear and other Graces be defective and want filling up yet He which did begin the good work in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will perform it until the day of Christ Phil. 1.6 And what if temptations and fiery darts fly about on all sides they are in garrison in the power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 and there shall be a way to escape 1 Cor. 10.13 In such Promises as these every way securing the Believers state of Grace the Covenant of Grace lifts up
it self in a transcendent excellency above that of Works which had no Promise of Perseverance annexed to it Shall we now say That all these Promises are Conditional if we will persevere and not otherwise Is not this to turn the Covenant of Grace into that of Works and a sure state in Christ into a lubricous Adamical one Is it not to evacuate all those glorious and magnificent Promises touching Perseverance as if God in them spoke only in such cold Language as this I will preserve you from all evils and dangers only for that greatest of all which is in your own hearts and wills I will not undertake or in such contradictory terms as these if you persevere I will make you persevere as if Perseverance could be the condition of it self After these Promises so interpreted Believers are but where they were before before these Promises it would have been true that if Believers persevere and continue in Grace they do so and after them so interpreted What have they more What do they contribute to Believers when the main stress of Perseverance is laid on Mans Will and not on Gods Grace But this obiter The experienced Believer knows better how to use Promises and from them communes with his own Heart Hath God promised Perseverance and will he not do it is not his Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Everlasting Covenant and are not his Mercies sure Mercies Can his Faithfulness fail or his words of Grace fall to the ground Shall I trust him for Pardon and Salvation and not for Perseverance Will he give me Heaven and shall I faint by the way It cannot be He will guide me with his counsel and then receive me to glory Till I come there I shall be supported by his hand and supplied with his Spirit Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life In such sort may the Believer be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation Again the Believer may gather his Pardon and Salvation from that peace and joy which he finds in his own heart There is a kind of Peace and Joy springing out of Moral Virtues which because of their Congruity to Reason leave a serenity on the Soul where they are lodged Mens sibi conscia recti is a great matter a good Conscience is murus aheneus a wall of brass to the owner Seneca saith Res severa est verum gaudium True joy is in the severe prosecution of Virtue Hierocles tells us That the pleasure of the Virtuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imitates the joy of the gods And it was a Point of ancient Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue is sufficient to Happiness But the Peace and Joy in believing is of an higher nature Those in the Moralist come but from the face of Reason smiling on the Congruity which is in Moral Virtues to it self there is nothing of Grace or Christ in them But these in the Believer come from the reconciled face of God shining upon the Heart in a Mediator Those in the Moralist exceed not their own sphere of Reason but these in the Believer pass all understanding Phil. 4.7 and are full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Heaven comes down in them and puts a pure serenity on the Heart The Believer now dwells in Paradise the light of Gods Countenance shining as a clear Sun Christ as a Tree of Life dropping down Pardons and Graces the holy Spirit being as a perpetual spring of Virtues and Comforts the fragrant Promises breathing out the odors of Love and Mercy the sweet voice of Peace and Joy uttered from Heaven ecchoing and making melody in Conscience Nothing here but green pastures and still waters and placid Heavens not a cloud from the Law to darken the light not an ach in Conscience to break the rest not a spot of unremitted sin to stain the serenity Oh what manner of Peace and Joy is here A Stranger a Pagan Philosopher intermeddles not with them These are to be found in the Raptures of a Cyprian or in the Consolations of an Austin or Bernard In such a state as this what should the Believer do May he not break out in the proper Idiom of Faith My Lord and my God May he not sinely conclude My sins are forgiven me Nay Ought he not to do so and with David call upon all that is within him to bless the Lord for it After such hansels of Heaven and Glory should he yet doubt and say I cannot enter when he is there already in the beginnings and first-fruits thereof Nothing is more unreasonable He knows in himself by the Graces and Comforts in his own heart That he hath a part in Heaven and Salvation In the last place The Nature of the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant evinces this Truth In the Gospel we have Gods Hand but in the Sacraments his Seal also In the Gospel Pardon and Salvation are set forth in general Promises but in the Sacraments they are Sealed up to this and that man in particular Circumcision is called The Seal of Righteousness Rom. 4.11 and by the Hebrew Doctors The Seal of the holy God And Baptism which succeeds and as Evangelical transcends it must be as much and more So Sealing Pardon and Salvation to Believers that there follows the answer of a good Conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 or such a Conscience as can with an holy considence interrogate God himself in some such terms as these Did not Christ purchase Pardon and Salvation for me Have I not a share and interest in them Yes assuredly there is no doubt of it The Passover figured out Christ the true Lamb who was reasted in the Fire of his Fathers Wrath to take away Sin and the sprinkling of the Blood on the Door-posts pointed out the Application of Christs Blood to the Consciences of Believers in particular The Lords Supper which rose out of the Ashes of the Paschal Supper and took its very Materials from thence doth eminently Seal Christ with all his Benefits unto the Believer Our Saviour delivering it to his Disciples said This is my body which is given for you this is my blood which is shed for you Luk. 22.19 20. Why for you but to signifie the particular Application of his Passion to them By the Elements of Bread and Wine as by turf and twig God gives the Believer livery and seisin of Christ as if he said to him expresly Christ is thing Pardon and Salvation are thine thou hast my Seal for it and mayst be as sure of it as of the Bread and Wine in thine Hand and Mouth Bellarmine himself confesses De effect Sacram. l. 1. c. 8. That Sacraments were instituted Vt nos certos reddant remissionis gratie To make us certain of Pardon and Grace Only he adds 'T is only a moral certainty not an infallible one But how frivolous is this What can make an Infallible certainty if Gods Seal
cannot do it Among all Nations Seals are great Confirmatives When Darius but a man Signed the Decree though of Iniquity it was unalterable by the Law of the Medes and Persians Dan. 6.12 And what the Great God Seals in the Sacrament in a way of Grace and Mercy must much more be so by the Law of his own Truth and Faithfulness The Jews looking on the Rainbow bless God who remembers his Covenant and is faithful in his Promises as being sure that the World shall not be drowned again Much more may the Believer looking on the Bread and Wine do so as sure of Pardon and Salvation in and through Christ But you will say Gods Seal indeed is sure but our Disposition is uncertain and how can we know that we are worthy Receivers I answer Very well The worthiness required is not that of condignity but that of congruity The least Grace if true though but a bruised reed and smoaking flax amounts to a capacity May we not know That we truly hunger and thirst after Christ when we inwardly feel a pinching and pressing necessity of him equal to or rather more than any want in Nature May we not find That our Faith in God is right when it assimilates us to his Holiness as well as rests in his Grace and puts forth Obedience to his Commands as well as Affiance towards his Promises May we not say That we love him indeed when the main stream of our hearts runs towards him when at least in endeavour we obey him in every Command seek him in every Ordinance glorifie him in every Condition and prize him in every Saint Hath he not bid us welcom to the Sacrament Hath he not anointed us with fresh Oyl of Grace and Joy whilst we have sat at his Table Have we not been clothed with Power against our Corruptions Have not our Hearts been enlarged and refreshed from the Presence of God there How many melting and ravishing Prospects of a Crucified Christ have we there enjoyed And what beams of Heaven and Eternity have broke in upon us in the very Duty These things to Believers who have the exercise of their spiritual Senses are so obvious that they may easily and surely conclude That God hath indeed welcomed them to his Table and there Sealed Pardon and Salvation to them In this rich estate a Believer may bid all Scruples be gone and in an holy manner say to his Soul Soul take thy ease thou hast much goods laid up for eternity Thou art now secure of Pardon and Salvation The Holy Spirit hath Sealed them to thy Heart and the Sacraments to thy very Sense and Conscience witnesses to both as True and Infallible and what can be more Nothing remains but to keep thy self in the Love of God till he take thee up to the pure bliss above CHAP. XIV Of the Ways in which the Assurance of Faith is attained With the Conclusion of the whole THus much touching the first thing That Assurance is attainable I now proceed to the other viz. The ways in which it is attained All which are as so many further Arguments to prove it attainable Were it not so the All-wise God would not set down ways for the attaining thereof Impossibles are not to be sought after Assurance however difficult is not impossible The Scripture hath chalked out a Method how to arrive at it which I shall endeavour to open in the ensuing Discourse In the first place He who would attain Assurance must give Grace and Christ their due All spiritual Blessings grow upon Grace as an eternal Root and hang upon Christ as the Tree of Life In particular Assurance is a Blessing proper to the Covenant of Grace In the Covenant of Works there was no Assurance or Perseverance because the whole managery was left to Mans Will But in the Covenant of Grace these are to be found in Believers because God undertakes the work This is the rather to be marked because man under the Covenant of Works was in a state of Innocency and perfect Holiness and under the Covenant of Grace is in a state of Weakness and Imperfection and yet there through Faith he arrives at Assurance and Perseverance which were never reached under the First Covenant Saint Paul in the 10th Chapter to the Romans notably distinguishes between the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith The Righteousness of the Law is That the man which doth those things shall live in them No Life or Peace but upon perfect Obedience which is impossible and beyond the line of man lapsed nay of man regenerate in this life Hence the Conscience of those who would enter into Peace at this Door must needs be dubious and full of trembling anxieties But the Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend into Heaven Doubt not whether thou shalt have a part there this is to bring Christ down from above He is gone to Heaven and hath carried his Merits thither to prepare a place for thee there Such a doubt denies his Ascension and so as it were brings him down again Neither say in thine heart Who shall descend into the deep Doubt not as if thou shouldst be turned into Hell this is to bring up Christ again from the dead He is already risen and hath triumphed over Death and Hell Such a doubt denies his Death and Resurrection and doth as it were bring him again from the dead But what saith the Righteousness of Faith The Word the Promise of Pardon and Salvation is nigh thee O Believer in thy mouth and in thy heart confessing and believing on the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved Thou in particular thy Soul shall dwell at ease thy Conscience shall enter into rest in the Covenant of Grace To doubt of it is to deny the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ He therefore who would have Assurance must give Grace and Christ their due One would think that the Papists who hold That they may by perfect Obedience reach the apex of the Law and go beyond it in works of Supererogaton and climb Heaven it self by their own Merits might arrive at Assurance much rather than Protestants who instead of exceeding the Law confess themselves much short of it and instead of meriting Heaven acknowledg all their Righteousnesses to be but a filthy rag But it is far otherwise the Papists generally do not so much as doctrinally hold it save here and there a man among them such as Antonius Marinarius who in the Council of Trent asserted it concluding his Speech thus Si Coelum ruat si Terra evanescat si orbis illabatur praeceps ego in Deum erectus ero Much-like the Prophet Habakkuk who in an universal languishment of nature would yet rejoice in the Lord the God of his Salvation much less do they practically arrive at it Bellarmine himself after his fair life died not like a Bolton or a Rivet not knowing whether
the use of thy Talents exercise thy self unto Godliness that the Divine Life now latent in Principles may shew it self in acts blow up the holy fire in thy bosom that what was buried under ashes may revive into a flame Be still a putting forth one Grace or other melting in repenting tears or clasping thy Faith about Promises or kneeling down in obedience to Commands or inflaming thy Love at Gods or perfecting Patience under his hand or drawing out thy Soul in Charity As the season is let one Grace or other be still a-budding and bearing holy fruit Thy Graces thus exercised will become radiant and visible those which before lay hid like Saul among the stuff as if they had been upon the common level of nature will now come forth in their Supernatural statures and appear as the virtues of God Thou maist now dsscern in thy self that which is more than Humane a Divine Nature which sparkles out of thy flesh in holy Operarations Another an higher Spirit than thy own which follows God fully in holy walking Thou maist now sit down under Christs shadow and reckon thy self in the very borders of Assurance waiting the good hour when the irradiating Spirit shall take thee by the hand and lead thee into the full possession thereof Moreover unto the exercise of Grace add growth as a fruit thereof Grow in Grace and in the knowledg of Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 Abound more and more 1 Thes 4.1 Let thy Motto be Plus ultra and thy Christian Arms like Josephs a fruitful bough by a well Thou hast Faith but be strong in it that thou maist wrestle with God and not let him go till he bless thee with Assurance be great in it that he may condescend to thee and say Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Thou hast a being in Christ but be rooted in him by a more close adherence and intimate Union within him grow up into him in statures of Grace till thou come to the oylof gladness upon his head There is some holy Love in thee but be rooted and grounded in it that thou maist comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg and be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.17 18 19. Through radicated and well-grown Graces as the Apostles assures us in that place admirable and wonderful things may be attained In a sober sense we may take Infinity know Transcendencies and be filled with a Deity Labour to grow every way downward in Húmility and self-denial upward in holy desires and raptures inward in the vitals of Faith and Love and outward in all holy fruits and good works fill up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is lacking in Faith and other Graces let Patience and all other Graces have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perfect work that thy path may be as the shining light shining more and more to the perfect day As an Heavenly Pilgrim go from faith to faith and from strength to strength travelling to meet the day coming towards thee in the light of Gods Countenance In such a growth as this as in a clear glass thou maist discover that thy Graces are vital and true feeds of Immortality Statues and Pictures such as Hypocrites are grow not Essentials and Vitals are Vltra penicillum Sincerity and Divine Vitality cannot be painted Confider therefore with thy self how it hath been with thee there was but a little dawn in thy Heart and now a pure morning Thy Grace was but a little grain of Mustard-seed and now it is become a Tree Thou wast but a little Embrio a babe in Christ and now a man of strength and spiritual stature And what doth this argue but Life in thee Confider again thou hast an ocean of Corruption in thy Heart and yet thy little spark of Grace hath grown thou hast stood in the midst of Satans winds and withering blasts and yet thou growest thou hast had many a sharp frost from the World to nip thy fruit in the bud and yet thou growest And what doth this speak but a seed and life of God in thee such as will spring up into Life Eternal Take this as an Earnest from God that maugre Satan and all the power of Darkness thou shalt grow and grow on till thou art transplanted into the Heavenly Paradise Again If thou wouldst have Assurance be much in mortifying of Sin This is the great troubler If thou indulg it a cloud will come over thy Conscience darken thy Evidences thy Graces will all droop and like a Candle in the socket be ready to die the Law will arm it self against thee and from one threatning or other will flash Hell in thy face Satan will rake in thy old wounds of Guilt and put thee into fresh torments the holy Spirit will be gone and carry away all his Cordials with him the Promises will be as dry Breasts and let out never a drop of sweetness to thee thy Duties will hang the wing and become dead and spiritless and without comfort In the end thou wilt experimentally find That in crooked Paths Peace cannot be found Awake therefore O Believer to the work of Mortification Look upon sin as it is an evil an only evil an hellish abomination infinitely more loathsom than the Dogs Vomit or the Sow's Mire or the menstruous Cloth by which it is shadowed out in Scripture Arraign it as the greatest Malefactor that ever was Call in Death and Hell and a blasted World and groaning Creatures and the Ruins of Angels and Souls of Men and the bloody Passion of Christ and the horrible Injuries done to God himself To bear witness against it Each of these can tell sad stories about it and all of them cry out Crucifie it Crucifie it It is worthy to dye Pass therefore thy doom upon it that it may do to Strip it of all its veils and false covers and bewitching appearances pluck off its Golden Profit and Silken Pleasures and Purple of false Honour that it may look as it is in its own ugly nakedness sinful out of measure sinful Nail it to the Cross by holy Restraints if it start in a Thought or creep in at a Sense or hide it self under thy Lawful things have one holy Truth or other as a Nail ready to fasten it that it move no further in thee Pierce it let out its vital blood I mean the love and joy and delight of it Surrender up thy Affections to God and Christ and heavenly things that it may give up the ghost bury it out of thy sight never give it a look or glance more converse no more with it than thou wouldst do with the dead raise it not up again into any fresh embraces no not so much as the picture of it in a sinful thought or fancy After this manner mortifie sin and above all thy darling only one which thy Heart hath been tender of and could wish
here I recommend three things to thee To walk as in Gods presence To have an universal respect to his Commands and To carry a pure intention towards his Glory All these have a great tendency to Assurance Walk as in Gods Presence Remember that he is every-where Thou needest not a Vision or Jacobs Ladder where-ever thou art thy Faith can tell thee that God is in the place and it is too dreadful to sin in His Presence besets thee behind and before and thou canst not break away from it thy ways are all before him nay thy very heart He knows the make of it and stands by the inward Frame and secret Springs thereof seeing what is a forming there upon the Wheel and what thoughts are taking their flight from thence All is naked and open as in an Anatomy before his Face He is intimior intimo tuo nearer to thee than thou art to thy self Walk as in his Presence Live as under his all-seeing Eye Seneca would have us set a Cato or a Laelius before our eyes and to compose our Lives as in their Presence Magna pars peccatorum tollitur si peccaturis testis assistat saith he A present witness would prevent a great deal of sin Think thus with thy self Cave Spectat Deus Take heed God seeth Keep fresh apprehensions of him in thy thoughts Think purpose speak act do every thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of and in an holy congruity to his Presence Walk with him that thou mayst be translated though not as Enoch corporally into Heaven yet as a sincere Believer mentally into the Suburbs of it in the Manifestations of Gods Favour Look stedfastly constantly unto him that thou mayst have sweet Aspects and Love-glances from him Thou mayst have his Favourable Presence whilst thou livest under his Awful one The upright shall dwell in thy presence Psal 140 that is in thy gracious Presence They set him before them and he causes his Grace and Love to pass before them In the next place Have an universal respect to his Commands It is a vulgar Rule among the Jewish Doctors That men should single out some one Command out of the Law and exercise themselves therein that God may be their Frsend and bear with them other things But this is to Indent and Article with God upon our own Terms The Hypocrite as one elegantly expresses it like a globous body touches the Law in some one point in some particular Command but the Upright at least in desire and endeavour lies close and level to all the Will of God The Pharisees seemed to be very much for the First Table but after all their Fasting and Prayer they could swallow down Widows Houses and so give the lye to all their Devotions The Moralist seems to be as much for the Second Table but as fair as his Life is towards Man he is very unjust to God stealing away that heart which is infinitely more due to him than the justest of Debts can be to our Neighbour If thou wouldst be assured thou must have an universal respect to his Command do not pick and chuse among them but as David be for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Wills of God as Zachary and Elizabeth walk in all his Commandments Wherever the Divine stamp is there let thy Obedience be that thou mayst have a great Reward Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal 97.11 Upon sincere Obedience a crop of Comfort comes up and because by Promise much surer than that of the Husbandman which is under Providence only The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their faces behold the upright the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Three Persons in the Sacred Trinity do all look with a loving Aspect upon such an one Our Saviour hath told us as much If a man sincerely keep the holy Words The Father and the Son will come to him and make their abode with him John 14.23 And a little after follows a Promise of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter verse 26. Walk uprightly and thou art in a posture to receive sweet manifestations of Love from the whole Sacred Trinity In the last place carry a pure Intention towards Gods Glory This is the single eye in the Body of Duties all our good Works lie in the dark without it the want of this was as a black line drawn over Amaziah's vertue He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 Jehu was anointed and appointed by God to destroy Ahabs House and yet for want of a pure Intention was reckoned as a Murderer for doing so Hos 1.4 That which is true Prayer when it comes from Zeal may be but howling when it comes from Lust Hos 7.14 Those Moral Vertues which are very glossie in the Matter may in the End be no better than splendid sins The End is the purest off-spring of a rational Spirit and a cardinal circumstance in every Action The Soul conceives all its Thoughts before the End as Labans Ewes did their young before the Rods. As the End is earthly or heavenly so is the Man and his Acting Remember O Believer that thou wast not made a Man or a Saint Thy Lamp of Reason was not set up at first or new-lighted afterwards by Grace that thou shouldst center on any thing less than God himself or take thy aim lower than his Glory Set thy heart on that great End look right on it with a single eye whether thou eatest or drinkest or prayest or hearest or whatever good work thou art about carry on the great Design That God in all may be glorified How taking this is with Christ He himself hath told us Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck faith he to his Church Cant. 4.9 A pure Intention is that single eye and Obedience that chain of the neck which in Believers doth excordiate and ravish the heart of Christ himself And what sweet returns will he make upon such taking Graces Their Graces ravish his Heart and his Comforts will ravish theirs Their thoughts are upon Gods Glory and Gods are upon their Peace With the upright he will shew himself upright with the pure he will shew himself pure They are upright in Duties and he will be upright in Promises They give him pure Intention and he will give them pure Mercy such as is the sealing of his Love upon their Hearts The pure in heart shall see him not in the bliss-making Vision only but before in those Love-glances which are the First-fruits of Heaven here below Again If thou wouldst be assured be much in charity and doing good As the Elect of God put on bowels of Mercy Open thy heart to the poor in Pity and thy hand
him count the whole World dross and dung for him espouse him in the dearest and sweetest affections Again set thy heart upon Heaven call back thy Affections from this vain World where they have been scattered a-gathering up stubble unto Heaven thy native Country that thou maist have a pregnant proof in thy self that thou art born from thence and a-going thither Follow those attractions which Heaven the great Center of Grace and Holiness put upon thy Faith and Love to draw thee up to it self Long to be up in that pure region of Bliss where God is All in All There are sinless Perfections and tearless Comforts rivers of Pleasures and plenitudes of Joy for ever Thou maist there read all Truths in the Original and satiate thy self at the fountain of Goodness Have thy Conversation above drive on a constant trade there by Prayers and good Works that thou maist have rich returns of Grace and Love from thence This is the true way to Assurance A notable instance we have in the Psalmist O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is Psal 63.1 and what is the issue of it his Soul which had so emptied out it self in holy Pantings and Anhelations after God was soon satisfied with the marrow and fatness of his love ver 5. No sooner was the Spouse sick of love to Christ Cant. 2.5 but his left hand is under her head in Supports and his right hand embraces her in the sweet manifestations of his Love to her ver 6. The more Heavenly the Believer is the sitter he is for Assurance which serves as a lesser Heaven for him till he come to the great one which is above Thus much touching the second thing the ways in which Assurance is attained To conclude all the Believer having arrived at Assurance which is the highest step on this side Heaven may sit down with joy upon his head and begin that Song of Free-grace and the Lamb which is sung above though in an higher tune in the Heavenly quire of Angels and glorified Saints for ever and ever Well may he say Oh! what hath God wrought what was he a lump of dust and sin to be brought hither How did he lie in blood and death till Grace came by and put in the breath of Spiritual life into him Was not his Reason the lightest part in him veiled and covered over with gross darkness when the rosie morn and day-spring of Grace first broke out upon him in Spiritual illuminations Was not his Will though a free Principle fast shut up in Hardness and Unbelief when Grace opened the Iron-gate and made him free to his own Happiness What a poor broken Man and under what innumerable debts was he when Grace came and paid off all by the Blood of the Covenant How much of Earth and Hell was upon him before Grace made him a Son and limmed out the Divine Image upon his Heart What swarms and legions of Lusts kept possession in his Heart when Grace set up its standard and drove them out to make room for the holy seed there And after he became a Saint what an hand had Grace with him to cure his many weaknesses and nurse up his infant-Graces What a vast charge was it at in fresh anointings and supplies of the Spirit to keep the holy lamp and fire from going out And at last how rich and glorious is Grace towards him when it carries him up into the mount of Assurance and there shews him the great things which it hath done and will do for him the true Graces and blossoms of Glory in his Heart and a fair Heaven that lies beyond them where Crowns and Robes of Happiness wait for his coming Oh! Grace infinite Grace thou art the Origine of all Graces and Center of all Praises All the Saints owe their birth and safe conduct to Heaven to thee and to every step of thine from the first beams and drops of Mercy to the Bliss-making Vision and rivers of Pleasures above Hosannabs and Halielujahs must be sung for ever and ever FINIS The TABLE A ADam Preacht of Christ Pag. 376 Adoption a fruit of Faith 241. It s Priviledg 242 to 249 hereby a greater Glory than in Adam Pag. 244 Adriatick Sea a Popish Fable about the calming of it Pag. 104 105. Albertus Magnus his Statue speaking articulately Pag. 164 Ambrose's saying of Cain and Abel Pag. 367 Armas Burgus his Prayer at his Martyrdom 176 His Patience Pag. 318 Andelots brave answer when questioned to Henry 2d of France Pag. 315 Anselm's Interrogatory and Counsel to a Man at the point of death Pag. 80 Antinomians Error about Sin the Law Pag. 121 Assurance and Faith how differ 137 to 149 That it is attainable 397. Of our good estate is attainable 387. Names given to Faith shew it 399 410. Another ground 404. Examples of it 403 Popish errour about it 388. Like the Sceptick Philosophers herein 389. It puffs not up 395 396 Assurance of Pardon 397. Of Perseverance 412. Ways by which it is attained 424. It begins the Song of Free-Grace here Pag. 460 Athanasius his saying when Banished by the Emperour Pag. 198 Augustin's mistake about Faith retracted 6 Strugling against Sin in his own strength he heard a voice 279. His Spiritual application of Christs raising up three from the dead Pag. 385 386 B Baptism several Names given it by the Ancients 371. How a Jewish Custom then a Divine Ordinance 372. Though received in Infancy yet hath a bond on Conscience ibid. 373. One confirmed in Martyrdom by it by his Mother ibid. Burgundians Baptism Pag. 374 Bellarmine died in doubt Pag. 426 427 Belief of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures of what kind 37 to 41. What the consequences of it in order to Resignation 69 to 75. A Believer keeps to the Written Word in all things 122 to 126. The only wise man 170. His knowledg of the Invisible God 171 172. The Presentiality of Things future 186. Vnderstands seeming Contradictions 187. It s spiritual extraction the best Chymist 192 to 201. What he desires to know of himself Pag. 381 Belial a son of Belial what it imports Pag. 160 Bernards reflection on himself when he saw another Sin Pag. 313 Bishop no non-preaching Bishops of old Pag. 377 378 Blessing of Jacob and Esan differ 344. Promise of Temporal Blessings not absolute Pag. 345 Blood a little drop given out to be the Blood of Jesus Christ Pag. 364 365 C Cardinal Cajetan's Commentaries on the Master of the Sentences extold by Papists above Luther yet 200 Errors in it Pag. 156 Christ earthly things often in competition 159 His Conception in the Womb and the Heart compared 288 361 362. He is the Samplar of our Graces 291. How he died in his person and in the Believer Pag. 373 Conditions of the Promises really in Believers Pag.
391 Conflict the Natural Spiritual differenced Pag. 261 262 263. Conscience its testimony of great repute among Pagans 405. Witnesseth integrity 406. Believers converse with Scripture Conscience Pag. 407 Conviction of Sin manifold 70 71 72. Several things ensue thereupon to Pag. 75 Creation the Philosophers misguess about it 17 18. New Creation in the Heart Pag. 383 384. Credere Deo in Deum Pag. 131 132 Cruciger his Death-bed Prayer and Faith Pag. 138 Covenant of Grace and Works difference of Men under them Pag. 278 D Dr. Dees impostures by Spirits Pag. 326 Delilah the import of the word in Hebr. Pag. 150 Dragon poysonous shut up by Sylvester the Bishops Prayers Pag. 266 E Election though from eternity yet buds in time Pag. 413 Evagrius his gift to the poor to be paid in another world Pag. 113 Evidences confirm Assurance Pag. 394 Experiments all learned men are for them 326 Experiments of Faith of Scripture-truth 325 to 370. Where of Scripture Ordinances and great Works to Pag. 386 Examination of our selves espied by the Philosophers Pag. 433 434 Faith the several acceptions of the word in Scripture 1 2. Considered in its measures and in its lowest measure described ibid. Wherein it exceeds Moral Virtues 8 9. The difference between that and Reason alone 12 19. And Reason with Scripture 19 30. Faith explicite required in Fundamentals 41 46. It disciples the Soul to Christ 86 87. Yields to be ruled by Christ in all actings 109. Aspires after Heaven and looks for pay there 113. Where the seat of Faith is disputed between Protestants and Papists 126. Though seems dead yet may be alive 129 130. More than a waked assent 131 to 136. Less than Assurance to 149. Why former Divines desine it by a full perswasion 136. Difference between Assurance and Faith justifying us 140. Hangs on God in all its actings 191. Fruits of Faith and several Conceptions of these 270 271. It is before all other Graces 283 to 288. Sets them all on work 289. It s foundation and infusion 328. It wars against all enticement to Sin 276. Steps by which Faith goes in mortifying it Pag. 280 Fall of man total Pag. 7 Father its efficacy in Prayer Pag. 245 Fear of God to be in all actions 303. Servile and Filial shewed Pag. 304 Mr. Fox never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Pag. 301 Free-Grace its presumption in unholy persons to expect it 119 120. Free-Will hath no Harmony with it 190. Abused by Pelagians Pag. 366 G God most glorious in his Word 12. Confest by all Nations 13. Cardinal Perron one day proved a God the next would have proved the contrary 171. Discovery of God in Grace and in the Creatures how differs Pag. 175 Good 288. Sets about the chief good Pag. 4 Graces spiritual are Creations 8. All act in union with Christ 295. All rooted in Christs Mines Pag. 380 H Happiness all desire it few hit it 3 4. What Aristotle makes it to be Pag. 253 Heart it includes Vnderstanding and Will Pag. 126 127 Hungarians Tradition Pag. 92 I Jews though they reject the Sacrifice of the Messiah yet offer a real one and why 97. Their answer to the Question where believe to be saved by Christs Righteousness with their pious saying over Bread Wine Herbs 344. Their saying of the seventy Souls that went down into Egypt 449. A vulgar rule among them 450. A custom of others about Alms. Pag. 454 455 Illumination Supernatural described 11. Wherein it excels Natural Reason 12 19. It 's requisite to Faith Pag. 30 31 32. Images how at first crept in 16. When cast out the people triumphed 309. Their return again Pag. 331 332 Ingrossers of Corn sore Judgments on them Pag. 184 Instruction the true false way of finding it Pag. 118 Intercession of Christ powerful Pag. 415 Johannes Seneca his Death-bed moan Pag. 210 Israelites the Men go not into Canaan but the little ones its misery Pag. 128 129 Justification three acts required to it 94 98. Bellarmines Conclusion about it 102. How the ungodly may and may not be justified 165. It s great importance 201. It 's not from eternity 202 206. It is double 207. How by Faith 213 to 219. Not compleat till the day of Judgment Pag. 227 to 231 K Kingdom the Primitive Christians talk so much of it that the Pagan Emperours were jealous of them though without cause Pag. 176 Kohathites the derivation of the word Pag. 5 L Law of God demands of us two things 209. Enough in Christ to answer both 210. It s writing in the heart by Nature and Grace differ 338. Impossible to be fulfilled but by the fiu't of man Pag. 401 Legio fulminatrix Pag. 373 Our life how tremendous every way Pag. 305 Light natural improved to the utmost engaged not God to give Grace Pag. 14 Love to God and our Neighbour hath but one root Pag. 301 Luthers Method in Reformation 274. An example of Faith in Mortification his saying of Free-Will 368 369. His answer to the menacing Law Pag. 428 M Mahalath a title of some Psalms interpreted Pag. 194 Mahomets Heart una child cut open Pag. 193 Meris Bishop of Chalcedons Discourse with Julian Pag. 308 Martyrs refusing Pardon Pag. 276 Meekness Natural Moral Spiritual 311. Examples ib. Pag. 312 Mortification a Believer yields to Christ for it in a threefold respect 103. Resemblance between it and Christs death 104. False ways of seeking it and the true pointed at 117 118. The fruit of Faith 250. Degrees of Mortification of Original Sin 260 267. And of actual ibid. Motions holy precious to a Believer Pag. 88 Musculus's Distich in straits Pag. 248 N Nazianzens saying about the difference between begotten and proceeding Pag. 352 O Obedience actuated by Faith 314 315 316. Obedience of the Law fulfilled in Christ and of the Gospel by the Spirit in a Believer Pag. 212 Ordination used by the Jews Pag. 377 Origens saying of some Scriptures that did affect him Pag. 144 P Papists and Hypocrites how they agree 122. All points in Popery additions to the Word 123. It s sandy foundation drawn from Bellarmine himself 147. Natural Popery in every mans heart Pag. 158 Paracelsus his proud boast of himself Pag. 192 Patience its excellency acted by Faith Pag. 318 Pelagians put Free-Will for Grace 6. Place Infants in the same state as Adam Pag. 257 Perfection sinless not attainable in this life Pag. 125 126 Perseverance no condition of it self Pag. 417 Philip Lantgrave's comfort in Imprisonment Pag. 321 322 Plague-sores lookt upon by Munster as Love-tokens Pag. 193 Plerophory of three things in Scripture Pag. 400 Pollio's dying-saying Pag. 115 Polemenia her wish to be cast into a Vessel of burning-Pitch Pag. 319 Providence Reasons mistake about it Pag. 18 19 Popes blasphemous speech about the loss of a Peacock Pag. 310 Promises of Grace and to Grace Pag. 346 Prayer its continuance 383. Its returns 372. How heard and not heard Pag. 374