consider of this weighty truth it is not the knowledge of the Truth that will serve your turns without a true and solid knowledge of that truth nor is it the hearing or understanding of the best grounds and reasons or proofs in the world that will serve the turn unless you have a deep and solid apprehension of those proofs and reasons A man that hath the best arguments may forsake the truth because he hath not a good understanding of those arguments As a man that hath the best weapons in the world may be kill'd for want of strength skill to use them I tell you if you knew every truth in the Bible you may grow much in knowledge of the very same truths which you know 3. Moreover a young ungrounded Christian when he seeth all the fundamental Truths and seeth good evidence and reasons of them perhaps may be yet ignorant of the right order and place of every truth It 's a rare thing to have young Professors to understand the necessary truths methodically And this is a very great defect For a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consisteth in the respect they have to one another This therefore will be a considerable part of your confirmation growth in your understandings to see the body of Christian doctrine as it were at one view as the several parts of it are united in one perfect frame and to know what aspect one point hath upon another and which is their due places There is a great difference between the sight of the several parts of a clock or watch as they are disjoynted and scattered about and the seeing of them conjoyned and in use and motion To see here a pin and there a wheel and not know how to set them all together nor ever see them in their due places will give but little satisfaction It is the frame and design of holy Doctrine that must be known and every part should be discerned as it hath its particular use to that design and as it is connected with the other parts By this means only can the true nature of Theology together with the harmony and perfection of truth be clearly understood And every single truth also will be much better perceived by him that seeth its place and order than by any other For one truth exceedingly illustrates and leads in another into our understanding Nay more than so your own hearts and lives will not be well ordered if the method or order of the truths received should be mistaken For the truths of God are the very instruments of your sanctification which is nothing but their effects upon your understandings and wills as they are set home by the holy Ghost Truths are the seal and your souls are the wax and holiness is the impression made If you receive but some truths you will have but some part of the due impression Nay indeed they are so coherent and make up the sence by their necessary conjunction that you cannot receive any one of them sincerely without receiving every one that is of the essence of the Christian belief And if you receive them disorderly the image of them on your souls will be as disorderly as if your bodily members were monstrously misplaced Study therefore to grow in the more methodical knowledge of the same truths which you have received And though you are not yet ripe enough to discern the whole body of Theology in due method yet see so much as you have attained to know in the right order and placing of every part As in Anatomy its hard for the wisest Physician to discern the course of every branch of veins and arteries but yet they may easily discern the place and order of the principal parts and greater vessels So it is in Divinity where no man hath a perfect view of the whole till he come to the state of perfection with God but every true Christian hath the knowledge of all the essentials and may know the order and places of them all 4. Another part of your confirmation growth in understanding is In discerning the same truths more practically than you did before and perceiving the usefulness of every truth for the doing of its work on your hearts and lives It was never the will of God that bare speculation should be the end of his Revelations or of our belief Divinity is an Affective practical Science therefore must truths be known and believed that the good may be received and a holy change may be made by them on the heart and life Even the Doctrine of the Trinity it self is practical and the fountain of that which is more easily discerned to be practical There is not one Article of our faith but hath a special work to do upon our hearts and lives and therefore a special fitness for that work Now the understandings of young Christians do discern many truths when they see but little of the work to be done by them and the special usefulness of those truths to those works This therefore must be your daily enquiry and in this you must grow As if you come into a workmans shop and see a hundred tools about you it is a small matter to discern the shape and fashion of them and what mettle they are made of But you will further ask What is this tool to do and what is that to do If ever you will learn the trade you must know the use of every tool So must you if you will be skilful Christians be acquainted with the use of the truths which you have received and know that this truth is to do this work and that truth to do that work upon the soul and life A Husbandman may know as many herbs and flowers and fruits as a Physician and be able to tell them all by name and say this is such an herb and that is such a one and to perceive the shape and beauty of them But he knows little or nothing that they are good for unless to feed his cattle Whereas the Physician can tell you that this herb is good against this disease and that herb against another disease and can make use of those same herbs to save mens lives which other men tread under foot as useless A Countrey man may see the names that are written on the Apothecaries boxes but it is the Physician that knows the medicinal use of the drugs So many men that are unsanctified may know the outside of holy doctrine that little know what use is to be made of it And the weak Christian knows less of this than the grown confirmed Christian doth Learn therefore every day more and more to know what every truth is good for that this is for the exercise and strengthening of such a grace and this is good against such or such a disease of the soul. Every leaf in the Bible hath a healing vertue in it They are the leaves of the Tree of Life
men to an heretical proud or perverse frame of spirit and then it must needs mislead their practises and cause them like deluded men to be zealous in doing mischief while they think they are doing good In common matters you can see that you must learn and do things in their due order or else you will but make fools of your selves Will you go to the top of the stairs or ladder without beginning at the lower steps Will you sow your ground before you manure or plow it or can you reap before you sow it Will you ride your colt before you break him Will your rear an house before you frame it Or will you teach your children Hebrew and Greek and Latine before they learn English or to read the hardest books before they learn the easiest or can they read before they learn to spell or know their letters No more can you learn the difficult controversies in divinity as about the exposition of obscure Prophesies or doctrinal doubts till you have taken up before you those many great and necessary truths that lye between It would make a wise man pity them and be ashamed to hear them when young raw self-conceited Professors will fall into confident expositions of Daniel the Revelations or the Canticles or such like or into disputes about free-will or predestination or about the many controversies of the times when alas they are ignorant of a hundred truths about the Covenants Justification and the like which must be known before they can reach the rest By this much that I have said already you may understand that though we should reach as far as we can in knowing all necessary revealed truths yet the principal part of your growth in knowledge when once you are converted consisteth not in knowing more than you knew before as to the number of truths but in knowing better the very same fundamental truths which you knew at first This is the principal thing that I would here teach you Abundance are deluded by not understanding this you see here you have seven several things in which you must daily grow in knowledge about the same truths which you first received 1. You must see better and sounder reasons and evidences for the fundamental truths than you saw at first or more such evidences than you did then perceive 2. You must grow to a clearer sight or apprehension of those same evidences 3. You must see truths more methodically all as it were at one view and all in their due proportion and place as the members of a well composed body and how they grow together and what strength one truth affords to another 4. You must see every truth more practically than before and know what use it is of for your hearts and lives and what you must do with it 5. You must learn more skill in the using of these truths when you know what they are good for and must be better able to manage them on your selves and others 6. You must know more experimentally than you did at first 7. You must grow into a higher esteem of truths All this you have to do besides your growing in the number of truths And I must tell you that as it was these Essentials of Christianity that were the instrumental causes of your first Conversion and were more needful and useful to you then than ten thousand others So it is the very same points that you must alwayes live upon and the Confirmation and growth of your Souls in these will be more useful to you than the adding of ten thousand more truths which yet you know not And therefore take this advice as you love your peace and growth Neglect not to know more but bestow many and many hours in labouring to know Better the great truths which you have received for one hour that you bestow in seeking to know more Truths which you know not Believe it this is the safe and thriving way You know already that God is All-sufficient and infinitely wise and good and powerful And you know not perhaps the nature of free Will or of Gods Decrees of Election and Reprobation or a hundred the like points True knowledg of any of the revealed things of God is very desirable But yet I must tell you that you are fourty times more defective here in your knowledg of that of God which you do know than of the other which you know not that is the want of more Degrees of this necessary knowledg is more dangerous to your Souls than the total want of the less necessary knowledg And the addition of more Degrees to the more needful parts of knowledg will strengthen and enrich you more than the knowing of less necessary things which you knew not before at all You know Christ Crucified already but perhaps you know not certain Controversies about Church-Government or the definitions and distinctions of many matters in Divinity It will be a greater growth now to your knowledg to know a little more of Christ Crucified whom you know already than to know these lesser matters which you know not yet at all If you had already a hundred pound in Gold and not a penny of Silver it will more enrich you to have another purse full of Gold than a purse full of Silver Trading in the richest Commodities is liker to raise men to great estates than trading for matters of a smaller rate They that go to the Indies for Gold and Pearl may be rich if they get but little in quantity When he may be poor that brings home Ships laded with the greatest store of poor Commodity That man that hath a double measure of the knowledg of God in Christ and the clearest and deepest and most effectual apprehensions of the Riches of Grace and the Glory to come and yet never heard of most of the Questions in Scotus or Ockam or Aquinas's sums is far richer in knowledg and a much wiser man than he that hath those Controversies at his fingers ends and yet hath but half his clearness and solidity of the knowledg of God and Christ of Grace and Glory There is enough in some One of the Articles of your Faith in One of Gods Attributes in One of Christs benefits in One of the Spirits Graces to hold you study all your lives and afford you still an increase of knowledg To know God the Father Son and Spirit and their relations to you and operations for you and your Duties to them and the way of Communion with them is that knowledg in which you must still be growing till it be perfected by the celestial beatifical Vision Those be not the wisest men that can answer most questions but those that have the fullest intellectual reception of the infinite Wisdom You will confess that he is a wiser man that hath Wisdom to get and Rule a Kingdom than he that hath wit enough to talk of a hundred trivial matters which the other is ignorant of That 's
Physical passive Reception as Wood receiveth the Fire and as our Souls receive the Graces of the Spirit but it is a Moral Reception or Reputative which is Active and Metaphorical This will be better understood when the object is considered which is Christ Jesus the Lord To receive Christ as Christ or the Anointed Messias and as the Saviour and our Lord is to believe that he is such and to consent that he be such to us and to trust in him and resign our selves to him as such The Relation we do indeed Receive by a proper passive Reception I mean our Relation of being the Redeemed Members Subjects Disciples of this Christ. But the person of Christ we only Receive by such an active moral reputative Reception as a Servant by consent Receives a Master a Patient by Consent receives a Physitian a Wife by consent receives a Husband and a Schollar or Pupil by Consent receives a Teacher or Tutor or the Subjects by Consent receive a Sovereign So that it is the same thing that is called Receiving Jesus the Lord and believing in him as it is expounded Joh. 1.12 There are three great observable acts of Faith essential to it the first is Assent to the truth of the Gospel the second is Consent or Acceptance of Christ and Life as the offered good the third is Affiance in Christ for the accomplishing of the ends of his Office Now the word Faith doth most properly express the first act and the last and the word Receiving doth most properly express the middlemost but which ever term is used when it is Justifying Faith that is spoken of all three are intended or included By what hath been said you may discern whether you have Received Christ or not For your Faith may be known by these acts which are its parts 1. If you sincerely believe the Gospel to be true which must be with a belief so strong at least as that you are resolved to venture your happiness upon this belief and let go all for the hope that is set before you 2. If an offered Christ in his Relation as a full and perfect Saviour be heartily welcom to you If you consent to the Gospel offer and are but truly willing to be his and that he be yours in that Relation Faith is not only called a Receiving of Christ but is oft exprest by this term of Willing him And therefore the Promise is to Whosoever will Rev. 22.17 and the wicked are denyed a part in Christ because they will not have him reign over them Luke 19.27 or Will not come to him that they may have life Joh. 6.40 even because they would none of him Psal. 81.11 12. which is because they are not true Believers or Disciples of Christ. 3. If you thus by consent take Christ for your Saviour Teacher and Lord it must needs follow that you fiducially rely upon him or trust him to accomplish the ends of his Relations that you trust to him for deliverance from the guilt and power and punishment of sin and for quickning strengthening and preserving Grace and for everlasting life that you resign your selves up to him as his Disciples to learn of him with a confidence or trust that he will infallibly teach you the way to happiness And that you also give up your selves to him as his Subjects with a Trust that he will govern you in truth and Righteousness in order to your Salvation and will defend you from destroying enemies This much is of the very Being of Faith or the Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord And these parts are inseparable he that hath one in truth hath all Whenever we find in Scripture the Promise of Justification or Salvation made to us if we believe it is this believing and none but this that is intended It is not only believing in Christ as a Sacrifice or Priest that is the Faith which Justifyeth and believing in him as a Teacher or Lord that sanctifyeth the effects are not thus parcelled out to several essential parts of this same Faith but it is this one entire Faith in all these essential parts that is the undivided condition of all these benefits and in that way of a Condition of the free Promise it doth procure them So much for the meaning of the first words Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord I will be briefer about the next The second is walking in him which is no more but the living as Christians when once we are become Christians and using that Christ to the ends which we received him for when once we have received him Two things are necessary to such as we that have lost our way the first is to get into the right way and that is to get into Christ who is the way the other is to travel on when we are in it For it is not enough to bring us to our Journeyes end that we have found out the right way The next word to be explained is rooted Which doth not intimate that any are really planted into Christ without any rooting in him at all but by rooted is meant deeply rooted For the Roots increase under ground as well as the Tree above ground Rooting hath two ends and both are here implyed The first is for the Firmness of the Tree that blustring winds may not overturn it The second is for nutriment that it may receive that nourishment from the earth which may cause its preservation growth and fruitfulness This is the Rootedness of Christians in Christ that they may be confirmed in him against all assaults and may draw from him that nutriment that is necessary to their growth and fruit The next term is built up in him No house consisteth of a bare Foundation Five things are expresly contained in our being built up in him The first is that we are united or conjoyned to him as the building is on the Foundation The second is that we rest wholly on him as our support as the building doth on the Foundation The third is that we are also conjoyned one unto another and are become one spiritual building in the Lord. The fourth is that the Fabrick doth increase in bigness as the house doth by being built up so that it importeth our increase in Grace and the increase of the Church by us The fifth is the fitness of the building to its intended ends and use Till it be built up it is not fit for habitation And till Christians are built up God hath not that use of them to which he doth intend them The next term is stablished or confirmed in the Faith which signifyeth but that strengthening and fixing of us that may prevent our fall or shaking And it compriseth these two things First that we be soundly bottomed on Christ who is our Foundation And secondly that we be cemented and firmly joyned to each other And this comprehendeth their stability in the doctrine of Faith And therefore he addeth as ye have been taught to fortify
believe that God the Father is the First in the holy Trinity of persons that the whole Godhead is perfect and infinite in Being and Power and Wisdom and Goodness in which all his Attributes are comprehended but yet a distinct understanding of them all is not of absolute necessity to Salvation That this God is the Creator Preserver and Disposer of all things and the Owner and Ruler of Mankind most just and merciful that as he is the Beginning of all so he is the Ultimate end and the Chief Good of man which before all things else must be loved and sought This is to be believed concerning the Godhead and the Father in person Concerning the Son we must moreover believe that he is the same God with the Father the second person in Trinity in carnate and so become man by a personal union of the Godhead and Manhood That he was without Original or actual sin having a sinless nature and a sinless life that he fulfilled all Righteousness and was put to death as a Sacrifice for our sins and gave himself a Ransome for us and being buried he rose again from the dead and afterward ascended into Heaven where he is Lord of all and intercedeth for Believers that he will come again and raise the dead and judg the World the Righteous to everlasting Life and the Wicked to everlasting punishment that this is the only Redeemer the Way the Truth and the Life neither is their access to the Father but by him nor Salvation in any other Concerning the Holy Ghost we must believe that he is the same One God the third person in Trinity sent by the Father and the Son to inspire the Prophets and Apostles and that the Doctrine inspired and miraculously attested by him is true that he is the sanctifier of those that shall be saved renewing them after the Image of God in Holiness and Righteousness giving them true Repentance Faith Hope Love and sincere Obedience causing them to overcome the Flesh the World and the Devil thus gathering a Holy Church on earth to Christ who have by his Bloud the pardon of all their sins and shall have everlasting blessedness with God This is the Essence of the Christian Faith as to the Matter of it As to the Manner of Receiving it by the understanding 1. It must be received as Certain truth of Gods Revelation upon the credit of his Word by a lively effectual belief pierceing so deep as is necessary for its prevalency with the Will 2. And it must be Entirely received and not only a part of it Though all men have not so exactly formed distinct apprehensions of every member of this belief as some have yet all true Christians have a true apprehension of them We feel by daily experience that with the wisest some matters are truly understood by us which yet are not so distinctly and clearly understood as to be ready for an expression I have oft in matters that I am but studying a light that gives me a general imperfect but true conception which I cannot yet express but when another hath helped me to form my conception I can quickly and truly say that was it that I had an unformed apprehension of before and it that I meant but could not utter not so much for want of words as for want of a full and distinct conception 2. The Matter of our Christianity to be Received by the Will is as followeth As we must consent to all the forementioned truths by the Belief of the understanding so the pure Godhead must be Received as the Fountain and our End the Father as our Owner Ruler and Benefactor on the title of Creation and Redemption and as our everlasting happiness The Son as our only Saviour by Redemption bringing us pardon reconciliation holiness and glory and delivering us from sin and Satan and the wrath and Curse of God and from Hell The Holy Ghost as our Guide and Sanctifier All which containeth our Renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil and carnal Self that is the point of their Unity and heart of the old Man This is the Good that must be embraced or accepted by the will And secondly as to the Manner of Receiving it it must be done Vnfeignedly Resolvedly unreservedly or absolutely and habitually by an inward Covenanting of the heart as I have formerly explained it And this is the Essence of Christianity This is true Believing in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost This is the Foundation and this is the right laying of it And now the thing that I am perswading you to is to see that this Foundation be surely laid in Head and Heart And 1. That it may be surely laid in the Head you must labour 1. To understand these Articles And 2. to see the Evidence of their verity that you may firmly believe them And 3. To Consider of the worth and necessity of the matter revealed in them that your Judgments may most highly esteem it This is the sure laying the Foundation in the Head To these ends you should first learn some Catechism and be well acquainted with the Principles of Religion and also be much in reading or hearing the holy Scripture and enquiring of your Teachers and others that can help you and see that you take your work before you and step not higher till this be done And then all other following truths and Duties and promised benefits must all be so learnt as to be built upon this foundation and joyned to it as receiving their life and strength from hence and never lookt upon as separated from this nor as more excellent and necessary For want of learning well and believing soundly these Principles Essentials or Fundamentals of Christianity some of our people can go no further but stand all their dayes in their ignorance at a non-plus Some of them go on in a blind Profession deceiving themselves by building upon the Sand and hold true Doctrine by a false unsound belief of it And when the Flouds and storms do beat upon their building it falls and great is the fall thereof With some of them it falls upon the first assault of any Seducer that hath interest in them or advantage on them and abundance swallow up Errors because they never well understood or Firmly believ'd Fundamental Truths With others of them the building falls not until death because they lived not under any shaking temptations But it being but a perseverance in an unfound Profession will nevertheless be ineffectual to their Salvation 2. When you have thus laid the Foundation in your understanding be sure above all that it be firmly laid in your Heart or Will Take heed lest you should prove false and unstedfast in the holy Covenant and lest you should take in the Word but into the furnace of the Soul and not give it depth of earth and rooting and lest you should come to Christ but as a servant upon tryall and make an absolute
and return to dust and that the most potent are impotent when they contend with God and are unequal matches to strive against their maker and that it will prove hard for them to kick against the pricks and that whoever seemeth now to have the day it is God that will be Conquerour at last Job 25.6 17.14 24.20 Psal. 79.31 103.16 144.4 Act. 9.4 5 6. Psal. 144.3 4 5. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Isa. 45.9 Wo to him that striveth with his maker He knoweth that it is more irrational to fear man against God than to fear a flea or a fly against the greatest man The infinite disproportion between the creature that is against him and the Creator that is for him doth resolve him to obey the command of Christ Luk. 12.4 Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Isa. 57.7 8. Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whose heart is my law Fear ye not the reproof of man neither be afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my righteousness shall be for ever and my Salvation from generation to generation Isa. 50.6 7 8 9. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting For the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is neer that justifieth me who will contend with me Let us stand together who is mine adversary let him come neer to me Behold the Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me Loe they all shall wax old as a garment the moth shall eat them up Isa. 35.4 41.10 13 14. 7.4 Jer. 46.27 28. Mat. 10.26 31. Isa. 2.22 Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Jer. 17.5 8 9. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man c. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord c. Alas how terrible is the wrath of God in comparison of the wrath of man and how easie an enemy is the cruellest afflicter in comparison of a holy sin revenging God Therefore the confirmed Christian saith as the three witnesses Dan. 3.16 17 18. We are not carefull to answer thee in this matter the God whom we serve is able to deliver us But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Dan. 6.10 When Daniel knew that the Decree was past he prayed openly in his house as heretofore Heb. 11.27 Moses feared not the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible Prov. 28.1 The righteous is bold as a Lion Act. 4 13. when they saw the boldness of Peter and John they marvelled 2 Cor. 11.21 Pauls bonds made others bold Eph. 6.19 20. Act. 4.29 31. 1 Joh. 4.18 Perfect love casteth out fear 1 Pet. 3.14 If ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terrour neither be troubled Heb. 13.6 So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me 2. But the weak Christian though he also trust in God is much more fearful and easily daunted and discouraged and ready with Peter to be afraid if he perceive himself in danger Matth. 26.69 He is not valiant for the truth Jer. 9.3 Though he can forsake all even life it self for Christ Luk. 14.26 33. yet is it with a deal of fear and trouble And Man is a more significant thing to him than to the stronger Christian. 3. But the seeming Christian doth fear man more than God and will venture upon the displeasure of God to avoid the displeasure of men that can do him hurt because he doth not soundly believe the threatnings of the word of God L. 1. A Christian indeed is made up of Judgement and Zeal conjunct His Judgement is not a patron of Lukewarmness nor his Zeal an enemy to knowledge His judgement doth not destroy but increase his Zeal and his Zeal is not blind nor self-conceited nor doth run before or without judgement If he be of the most excellent sort of Christians he hath so large a knowledge of the mysteries of godliness that he seeth the body of sacred truth with its parts and compages or joynts as it were at once It is all written deeply and methodically in his understanding He hath by long use his senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.14 He presently discerneth where mistaken men go out of the way and lose the truth by false suppositions or by false definitions or by confounding things that differ And therefore he pittyeth the contentious sects and disputers who raise a dust to blind themselves and others and make a stir to the trouble of the Church about things which they never understood And in the sight of that truth which others obscure or contradict he enjoyeth much content or pleasure in his own mind though uncapable persons zealously reject it Therefore he is stedfast as knowing on what ground he seteth his foot And though he be the greatest lover of truth and would with greatest joy receive any addition to his knowledge yet ordinarily by erroneous zealots he is censured as too stiff and self-conceited and tenacious of his own opinions because he will not entertain their errours and obey them in their self-conceitedness For he that knoweth that it is truth which he holdeth is neither able nor willing to hold the contrary unless he imprison the truth in unrighteousness But if he be one that hath not attained to such a clear comprehensive judgement yet with that measure of judgement which he hath he doth guide and regulate his zeal and maketh it follow after while understanding goeth before He treadeth on sure ground and knoweth it to be duty indeed which he is zealous for and sin indeed which he is zealous against and is not put to excuse all his fervour and forwardness after with a non putarem or I had thought it had been otherwise 1 Cor. 1.5 2 Cor. 8.7 Col. 3.16 4.12 2. But the weak Christian either hearkeneth too much to carnal wisdom which suppresseth his zeal and maketh him too heavy and dull and indifferent in many
when you first believed How ill doth it become men to make any stand in the way to Heaven especially when they have been in the way so long that we might have expected before this they should have been as it were almost within sight of it 20. Consider also that Little Grace Little Glory and the greater measure of Holiness the greater measure will you have of Happiness I know that the glory of the lowest Saint in Heaven will be exceeding great but doubtless the greatest measure is unspeakably most desirable And as it will not stand with the truth of Grace for a man to be satisfied with a low degree of Grace though he plead the happiness of the lowest Christian and his own unworthiness of the least degree So at least it ill beseems an Heir of glory to desire but the lowest degree of glory though he plead the happiness of the lowest Saint in Heaven and his own unworthiness of the lowest place For he that will be so content with the smallest Glory as not to have hearty desires of more is accordingly content to have in himself the smallest measure of the knowledg and Love of God and to be Loved in the smallest measure by him and to have the least enjoyment of him and to bear the smallest part in his praises and in pleasing and glorifying him for ever For all these things are our happiness it self And how well this agreeth with a gracious frame of mind I need not any further tell you But because some make question of it whether the degree of glory will be answerable to the degree of Holiness I shall prove it in a few words 1. It is the very drift of the Parable of the Talents in Matth. 25. He that had gotten most by improvement was made Ruler proportionably over most Cities Not he that had been at the greatest bodily labour in Religion nor every one that had past the greatest sufferings but he that had got most holiness to himself and honour to God by the improvement of his Talents and so had doubled them 2. The degrees of Holiness hereafter will be divers as are the degrees of Holiness here for as men sow they will reap and there is no promise in Scripture that men that dye with the smallest Holiness shall be made equal to them that dyed with the greatest Holiness And that the greatest Holiness hereafter must have the greatest Happiness is past denyal For 1. Holiness in Heaven is an essential part of the felicity it self It is the perfection of the Soul 2. The use of it is for perfect fruition and perfect exercise of love and praise which are the other parts of glory And God will not give men powers capacities and dispositions in Heaven which shall be in vain as he giveth hungring and thirsting and Love so will he give proportionable satisfaction and not tantalize his Servants in their blessedness and leave a part of Hell in Heaven 3. And Holiness is pleasing to God in its own nature and therefore the greatest holiness will greatlyest please him and he that most pleaseth God hath the greatest Glory These things are plain 3. Moreover we have great reason to conceive of the stare of the glorified in some congruency with the rest of the workmanship of God But in all the rest there is a difference or imparity therefore we have reason to think it is so here On Earth there are Princes and Subjects in the Commonwealth and Pastors and People in the Churches and several degrees among the people as to gifts and comforts Among the Devils there are degrees and among Angels themselves there are Principalities and Powers and Thrones and Dominions And why then should we imagine that the Heavenly Hierusalem shall not be so too 4. And Christ plainly intimateth that there is a place on his right hand and his left to give in that Kingdom though as the Son of Man he had not the principal disposal of it And then the Kingdom must be delivered to the Father and God be all and in all and therefore the Mediator as such have somewhat less to do than now And when Christ telleth us of Lazarus in Abrahams bosome and of many from the East and West sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob he intimateth to us that every place in Heaven is not so high as Abrahams bosome nor a sitting with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. So that I take it as a plain revealed truth that divers degrees of holiness will have divers degrees of Glory hereafter The chief Argument to the contrary is fetcht from the Parable of the Labourers that coming in at several hours received every one a penny But this is much misunderstood For here is not a word in it contrary to our Assertion The Parable only saith that Glory shall not be proportioned to the Time but they that come later shall have never the less for that Which is nothing to our question about the Degrees of Holiness For many that are first in Time may be least and last in Holiness and many that are last in Time may in that little time come to be best and greatest in Holiness and consequently in Glory The Parable in Matth. 25. shews that God will give different degrees of glory according to the difference in improvement of our Talents And the other Parable shews that he will not give out his Glory according to mens Time and standing in the Church seeing a weaker Christian may be of longer standing and a stronger of a later coming in And what shew of discord is there between these 2. And yet it 's doubt ul in the Judgment of good Expositors whether the Parable of the penny do speak of Heaven at all or not or whether it speak not only of the Vocation of the Gentiles and taking them into the Gospel Church in equality with the Believing Jews though the Jews being Gods ancient people had been longer in the Vineyard and the Gentiles were called but as at the eleventh hour yet God will make the Gentiles equal in the Grace of Vocation because in this he hath not engaged himself but may do with his own as he list Which ever of these two is the thing intended in the Text or possibly both it is certain that this general is the sum of the Parable That the first may be last and the last first that is That God will not give men the greatest reward that were first called but he never said that he would not reward them most that had done him the truest service and were highest in Holiness Object But the reason is May I not do as I will with my own True but you must remember what it is a reason of even of the Cause in question and may not by you be extended to other causes without a warrant You never read that he equally pardoneth the Believer and the unbeliever or saveth the Regenerate and unregenerate and then gives this reason of it
your wills and affections and your conversations I. As holiness is in the understanding it is commonly in Scripture called light and knowledg as comprehending the several parts And the confirmation and growth of this must consist in these seven following parts 1. It is ordinary with new Converted Christians to see the great essential truths of the Christian profession with a great imperfection as to the evidences that discover them Either they see but some of the solid evidence overlooking much more than they see or more usually they receive the truth it self upon some low insufficient evidence at first and then proceed to a kind of mixture taking it upon some evidences that are valid and sufficient and joyning some that are invalid with them But you must grow beyond this infancy of understanding when you see greater and sounder evidences for the truth than you did before and when you see more of these solid evidences and leave not out so many as you did and when you lay smaller stress upon the smaller evidences and none upon those that are invalid and indeed no evidences then are your understandings more confirmed in the truth and this is a principal part of their growth So we find the Samaritans of Sychar Joh. 4.39 40 41 42. Many of them believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified He told me all that ever I did This was the first faith upon a weaker evidence And many more believed because of his own words and said unto the woman Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Here is a notable confirmation and growth by believing and knowing the same thing which they believed before it was before believed on weaker evidence and now upon stronger Thus Nathaniel by Philips perswasion was drawn to Christ but when he perceived his omniscience that he knew the heart and things that were distant and out of the reach of common knowledge he is confirmed and saith Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel And yet Christ telleth him that there were far greater evidences yet to be revealed which might beget a more confirmed stronger faith Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the figtree believest thou Thou shalt see greater things than these verily verily I say unto you hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Joh. 1.45 49 50 51. There is not one Christian of many thousand that at first hath a full sight of the solid evidences of the Christian doctrine but must grow more and more in discerning those Reasons for the truth which he believeth which in the beginning he did not well discern It is not the most confident belief that is alwayes the strongest confirmed belief but there must be sound grounds and evidence to support that confidence or else the confidence may soon be shaken and is not sound even while it seems unshaken And here young beginners must be forewarned of a most dangerous snare of the deceiver because at first the truth it self is commonly received upon feeble and defective grounds or evidence It is the custom of the Devil and his deceiving instruments to shew the young Christian the weakness of those grounds and thence to conclude that his cause is naught For it 's too easie to perswade such that the cause hath no better grounds than they have seen For having not seen any better they can have no particular knowledge of them And they are too apt to think over highly of their knowledge as if there were no more reasons for the truth than they themselves have reacht to and other men did see no more than they And thus poor souls forsake the truth which they should be built up and confirmed in and take that for a reason against the truth which is but a proof of their own infirmity I meet with very few that turn to any Heresie or Sect but this is the cause They were at first of the right mind but not upon sound and well-laid grounds but held the truth upon insufficient reasons And then comes some deceiver and beats them out of their former grounds and so having no better they let go the truth and conclude that they were all this while mistaken Just as if in my infancy I should know my own father only by his cloaths and when I grow a little bigger one should tel me that I was deceived this is not my father and to convince me should put his cloaths upon another or tell me that another may have such cloaths and hereupon I should be so foolish as to yield that I was mistaken and that this man is not my father As if the thing were false because my reasons were insufficient Or as if you should ask the right way in your travel and one should tell you that by such and such marks you may know your way and you think you have found those marks a mile or two short of the place where they are but when you understand that those are not the marks that you were told of you turn back again before you come at them and conclude that you have mist the way So is it with these poor deluded souls that think all discoveries of their own imperfections and every confutation of their own silly arguments to be a confutation of the truths of God which they did hold when alas a strong well-grounded Christian would make nothing of defending the cause which they give up against more strong and subtile enemies or at least would hold it fast themselves Well! this is the first part of your growth in knowledge when you can see more or better evidences for the great truths of Christianity than you saw before 2. Moreover you must grow to a clearer apprehension of the very same reasons and evidences of the truth which you saw before For when a weak Christian hath the best arguments and grounds in the world yet he hath so dim a sight of them that makes them find the slighter entertainment in his affections The best reason in the world can work but little on him that hath but a little understanding of it There are various degrees of knowledge not only of one and the same truth because of the diversity of evidence but of one and the same evidence and reason of that truth I can well remember my self that I have many a year had a common argument for some weighty truth and I have made use of it and thought it good but yet had but little apprehension of the force of it and many years after a sudden light hath given me in my studies so clear an apprehension of the force of that same argument which I knew so long as that it hath exceedingly confirmed and satisfied me more than ever I was before I beseech you Christians
Christians though their Worship hath errors and faults repugnant to the right order and manner of Worship so be it you joyn not in that Worship which is substantially evil and such as God doth utterly disown Or that you commit no actual sin your selves or that you approve not of the errors and faults of the Worshippers and justifie not their smallest evil Or that you prefer not defective faulty Worship before that which is more pure and agreeable to the Will of God For while all the Worshippers are faulty and imperfect all their Worship will be so too And if your actual sin when you Pray or Preach defectively your selves doth not signify that you approve your faultiness much less will your presence prove that you allow of the faultiness of others The business that you come upon is to joyn with a Christian Congregation in the use of those Ordinances which God hath appointed supposing that the Ministers and Worshippers will all be sinfully defective in method order words or circumstances And to bear with that which God doth bear with and not to refuse that which is Gods for the adherent faults of men no more than you will refuse every dish of meat which is unhansomly Cooked as long as there is no poyson in it and you prefer it not before better 1 Cor. 1.10 and 3.1 2 3. with 11.17 18 21. Rom. 15.1 2. DIRECT XIV Keep up a constant Government over your Thoughts and Tongues especially against those particular sins which you are stronglyest tempted to and which you see other Christians most overtaken with KEep your Thoughts imployed upon somthing that is good and profitable either about some useful Truths or about some duty to God or man of your general or particular Calling yea about all these in their several seasons Learn how to watch your thoughts and stop them at their first excursions and how to quicken them and make them serviceable to every grace and every duty You can never improve your solitary hours if you have not the Government of your Thoughts And as the Thoughts must be governed because they are the first and intimate actings of good or evil so the Tongue must be Governed as the first expresser of the mind and the first instrument of good or hurt to others Especially take heed of these sins which the faultiness of most Professors of Religion doth warn you to avoid 1. An ordinary course of vain jesting and unprofitable talk 2. Provoking passionate inconsiderate words that tend to kindle wrath in others 3. Backbiting censuring and speaking evil of others without any just call when it is either upon uncertain reports or uncharitable suspition or tendeth more to hurt than good 4. A forward venting of our own conceits and a confident pleading for our uncertain unproved Opinions in Religion and a contentious wrangling for them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them And a forwardness in all company to be the Speakers rather than the Hearers and to talk in a Magisterial Teaching way as if we took our selves to be the wisest and others to have need to learn of us But especially take heed of speaking evil of those that have wronged you or of those that differ from you in some tollerable Opinions in Religion And hate that devilish uncharitable vice which maketh many ready to believe any thing or say any thing be it never so false of those that are against their Sect yea of whole parties of men that differ from them when there is not one of a thousand of all the party that ever they were acquainted with or ever could prove the thing by of which they are accused By the means of these bold uncharitable reports the Devil hath unspeakably gained against Christ and the Kingdom of malice hath won upon the Kingdom of Love and most Christians are easier known to be factious by hating or slandering one another than they can be known to be Christs Disciples by loving one another And while every Sect without remorse doth speak reproachfully and hatefully of the rest they learn hereby to hate one another and harden the Infidel and ungodly world in hating and speaking evil of them all So that a Turk or Heathen need no other witness of the odiousness of all Christians than the venemous words which they speak against each other And as foul words in quarrels prepare for blows so these malicious invectives upon differences in Religion prepare for the cruellest persecutions From my own observation which with a grieved soul I have made in this Generation I hereby give warning to this and all succeeding Ages that if they have any regard to Truth or Charity they take heed how they believe any factious partial Historian or Divine in any evil that he saith of the party which he is against For though there be good and credible persons of most parties yet you shall find that passion and partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity in most that are sick of this Disease And that the envious zeal which is described Jam. 3. doth make them think they do God service first in believing false reports and then in verting them against those that their zeal or laction doth call the enemies of truth so that there is little credit to be given to their reproaches farther than some better evidence is brought to prove the thing Nay it would astonish a man to read the impudent lies which I have often read obtruded upon the World with such confidence that the Reader will be tempted to think Surely all this cannot be false Yea about publick words or actions where you would think that the multitude of Witnesses would deter them from speaking it if it were not true and yet all as false as tongue can speak Therefore believe not Pride or Faction or Malice in any evil that it saith unless you have better evidence of the truth Most Christian is that advice of Dr. H. More that all Parties of Christians would mark all the Good which is in other Parties and be more forward to speak of that than of the Evil And this would promote the work of Charity in the Church and the interest of Christianity in the World whereas the overlooking of all that 's good and aggravating all the evil and falsly seigning more than is true is the work of greatest service to the Devil and of greatest enmity to Christianity and Love that I know commonly practised in the World Keep your tongues from all such hellish work as this DIRECT XV. Let every state of life and Relation that you are in be sanctifyed unto God and conscionably used And to that end understand the advantages and duties of every condition and Relation and the sins and hinderances and dangers which you are most lyable to THe duties of our Relations are a great part of the work of a Christians life As Magistrates and Subjects Pastors and Flocks Parents and Children Husband and Wife Masters and
I meddle not now with the Lapsed Christian as such nor with those Giants in holiness of extraordinary strength nor with the perfect blessed Souls in Heaven But it is the Christian who hath attained that confirmation in grace and composed quiet fruitfull state which we might ordinarily expect if we were industrious whose Image or Character I shall now present you with I call him oft-times A Christian indeed in allusion to Christs description of Nathaniel Joh. 1.47 and as we commonly use that word for one that answereth his own profession without any notable dishonour or defect As we say such a man is a Scholar indeed and not as signifying his meer sincerity I mean one whose heart and life is so conform to the Principles the Rule and the Hopes of Christianity that to the Honour of Christ the true Nature of our Religion is discernible in his conversation Mat. 5.16 In whom an impartial Infidel might perceive the true nature of the Christian Faith and Godliness If the World were fuller of such living Images of Christ who like true Regenerate Children represent their Heavenly Father Christianity would not have met with so much prejudice nor had so many enemies in the World nor would so many millions have been kept in the darkness of Heathenism and Infidelity by flying from Christians as a sort of people that are common and unclean Among Christians there are Babes that must be fed with milk and not with strong meat that are unskilfull in the word of righteousness 1 Joh. 2.2.12 13 14. Heb. 5.12 13 14. and Novices who are unsetled and in danger of an overthrow 1 Tim. 3.6 Joh. 15.3 5 c. In these the nature and excellency of Christianity is little more apparent than Reason in a little childe And there are strong confirmed Christians who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.13 14. and who shew forth the glory of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light of whom God himself may say to Satan and their malicious enemies as once of Job Hast thou not seen my servant Job c. This Christian indeed I shall now describe to you both to confute the Infidels slanders of Christianity and to unteach men those false descriptions which have caused the presumption of the profane and the irregularities of erroneous Sectaries and to tell you what manner of persons they be that God is honoured by and what you must be if you will well understand your own Religion Be Christians indeed and you will have the Comforts indeed of Christianity and will finde that its Fruits and Joyes are not dreams and shadows and imaginations if you content not your selves with an imagination dream and shaddow of Christianity or with some clouded spark or buryed seed The Characters I. A CHRISTIAN INDEED by which I still mean a sound confirmed Christian is one that contenteth not himself to have a seed or Habit of Faith but he Liveth by Faith as the Sensualist liveth by sight or sense Not putting out the eye of sense nor living as if he had no Body nor lived not in a world of sensible Objects But as he is a Reasonable creature which exalteth him above the sensitive Nature so Faith is the true information of his Reason about those high and excellent things which must take him up above things sensible He hath so firm a Belief of the Life to come as procured by Christ and promised in the Gospel as that it serveth him for the Government of his Soul as his bodily sight doth for the conduct of his Body I say not that he is assaulted with no temptations nor that his Faith is perfect in degree nor that believing moveth him as passionately as sight or sense would do But it doth effectually move him through the course and tenour of his life to do those things for the life to come which he would do if he saw the Glory of Heaven and to shun those things for the avoiding of damnation which he would shun if he saw the flames of Hell Whether he do these things so fervently or not his Belief is powerfull effectual and victorious Let sight and sense invite him to their Objects and entice him to sin and forsake his God the objects of Faith shall prevail against them in the bent of an even a constant and resolved life It is things unseen which he taketh for his treasure and which have his heart and hope and chiefest labours All things else which he hath to do are but subservient to his Faith and Heavenly interest as his sensitive faculties are ruled by his Reason His Faith is not only his Opinion which teacheth him to choose what Church or Party he will be of but it is his Intellectual Light by which he liveth and in the confidence and comfort of which he dyeth 2 Cor. 5.7 8 9. For we walk by faith not by sight We groan to be cloathed upon with our heavenly house Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Heb. 10.3 Now the just shall live by faith Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Most of the examples in Heb. 11. do shew you this truth that true Christians live and govern their actions by the firm Belief of the promise of God and of another Life when this is ended v. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith V. 10. Abraham looked for a City which had foundations whose builder and maker is God Moses feared not the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him who is invisible v. 27. So the three witnesses Dan. 3. and Daniel himself ch 6. And all Believers have lived this life as Abraham the Father of the faithfull did who as it is said of him Rom. 4.20 Staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God The Faith of a Christian is truly Divine and he knoweth that Gods truth is as certain as sight it self can be however sight be apter to move the passions Therefore if you can judge but what a Rational man would be if he saw Heaven and Hell and all that God had appointed us to Believe then you may conjecture what a confirmed Christian is though sense do cause more sensible apprehensions 2. The weak Christian also hath a faith that is Divine as caused by God and resting on his word and truth And he so far liveth by this Faith as that it commandeth and guideth the scope and drift of his heart and life But he believeth with a great deal of staggering and unbelief And therefore his Hopes are interrupted by his troublesom doubts and fears and the dimness
and languor of his Faith is seen in the faintness of his desires and the many blemishes of his Heart and Life And sight and sensual objects are so much the more powerfull with him by how much the light and life of faith is dark and weak 3. The Hypocrite or best of the unregenerate believeth but either with a Humane faith which resteth but on the Word of Man or else with a dead opinionative faith which is overpowered by infidelity or is like the dreaming thoughts of a man asleep which stirre him not to action He liveth by sight and not by faith For he hath not a Faith that will overpower Sense and sensual objects Jam. 2.14 Mat. 13.22 II. 1. A Christian indeed not only knoweth why he is a Christian but seeth those Reasons for his Religion which disgrace all that the cunningest Atheist or Infidel can say against it and so far satisfie confirm and establish him that emergent difficulties temptations and objections do not at all stagger him or raise any deliberate doubts in him of the truth of the Word of God He seeth first the naturall evidence of those foundation-truths which Nature it self maketh known as that there is a God of infinite Being Power Wisdom and Goodness the Creator the Owner the Ruler and the Father Felicity and End of man that we owe him all our love and service that none of our fidelity shall be in vain or unrewarded and none shall be finally a loser by his duty that man who is naturally governed by the hopes and fears of another life is made and liveth for that other Life where his Soul shall be sentenced by God his Judge to happiness or misery c. And then he discerneth the attestation of God to those supernatural superadded Revelations of the Gospel containing the Doctrine of mans Redemption And he seeth how wonderfully these are built upon the former and how excellently the Creators and Redeemers Doctrine and Lawes agree and how much countenance supernatural truths receive from the presupposed naturals so that he doth not adhere to Christ and Religion by the meer engagement of education friends or worldly advantages nor by a blind resolution which wanteth nothing but a strong temptation from a Deceiver or a worldly Interest to shake or overthrow it But he is built upon the Rock which will stand in the assault of Satans storms and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16.18 13.23 7.25 Joh. 6.68 69. 2. But a weak Christian hath but a dim and general kind of knowledge of the reasons of his Religion or at least but a weak apprehension of them though he have the best and most unanswerable reasons And either he is confident in the dark upon grounds which he cannot make good and which want but a strong assault to shake them or else he is troubled and ready to stagger at every difficulty which occurreth Every hard saying in the Scripture doth offend him And every seeming contradiction shaketh him And the depth of mysteries which pass his understanding do make him say as Nicodemus of Regeneration How can these things be And if he meet with the objections of a cunning Infidel he is unable so to defend the truth and clear his way through them as to come off unwounded and unshaken and to be the more confirmed in the truth of his belief by discerning the vanity of all that is said against it Heb. 5.12 13. Matth. 15.16 1 Cor. 14.20 Joh. 12.16 3. The seeming Christian either hath no solid Reasons at all for his Religion or else if he have the best he hath no sound apprehension of them But though he be never so learned and orthodox and can preach and defend the Faith it is not so rooted in him as to endure the tryall but if a strong temptation from subtilty or carnal interest assault him you shall see that he was built upon the sand and that there was in him a secret root of bitterness and an evil heart of unbelief which causeth him to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 Matth. 13.20 21 22. Matth. 7.26 27. Heb. 12.15 Joh. 6.60 64 66. 1 Tim. 6.10 11. III. 1. A Christian indeed is not only confirmed in the essentials of Christianity but he hath a cleer delightful sight of those usefull truths which are the Integrals of Christianity and are built upon the fundamentals and are the branches of the master-points of Faith Though he see not all the lesser Truths which are branched out at last into innumerable particles yet he seeth the main body of sacred Verities delivered by Christ for mans sanctification and seeth them methodically in their proper places and seeth how one supports another and in how beautifull an order and contexture they are placed And as he sticketh not in the bare Principles so he receiveth all these additions of knowledge not notionally only but practically as the food on which his Soul must live Heb. 5.13 14. 6.1 2 c. Matth. 13.11 Eph. 1.18 3.18 19. Joh. 13.17 2. A weak Christian in knowledge besides the Principles or Essentials of Religion doth know but a few disordered scattered Truths which are also but half known because while he hath some knowledge of those points he is ignorant of many other which are needfull to the supporting and clearing and improving of them And because he knoweth them not in their places and order and relation and aspect upon other Truths And therefore if Temptations be strong and come with advantage the weak Christian in such points is easily drawn into many errors and thence into great confidence and conceitedness in those Errors and thence into sinfull dangerous courses in the prosecution and practice of those Errors Such are like children tost up and down and carryed to and fro by every winde of doctrine through the cunning sleight and subtilty of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 2 Cor. 11.3 Col. 2.4 2 Tim. 3.7 3. The seeming Christian having no saving practical knowledge of the Essentials of Christianity themselves doth therefore either neglect to know the rest or knoweth them but notionally as common Sciences and subjecteth them all to his Worldly interest And therefore is still of that side or party in Religion which upon the account of safety honour or preferment his flesh commandeth him to follow Either he is still on the greater rising side and of the Rulers Religion be it what it will or if he dissent it is in pursuit of another game which Pride or fleshly ends have started 2 Pet. 2.14 Gal. 3.3 Joh. 9.22 12.42 43. Matth. 13.21.22 IV. 1. The Christian indeed hath not only Reason for his Religion but also hath an inward connatural principle even the spirit of Christ which is as a New-nature inclining and enlivening him to a holy life whereby he mindeth and savoureth the things of the Spirit Not that his Nature doth work blindly as Nature doth in the
to forget that these are but his messengers and instruments to convey unto us several parcells of that Truth which is his and not theirs and which naturally or supernaturally they received from him and all these Candles were lighted by him who is the Sun And how little doth this weak Christian refer his common knowledge to God or use it for him or to the furtherance of his own and others happiness 1 Tim. 2.4 3. And the seeming Christian though materially he may be eminent for knowledge yet is so far from resigning himself to the teachings of Christ that he maketh even his knowledge of Christian Verities to be to him but a common carnal thing while he knoweth it but in a common manner and useth it to the service of the flesh and never yet learned so much as to be a new creature nor to love God as God above the world 1 Cor. 13.2 X. 1. A Christian indeed is one whose Repentance hath been deep and serious and universal and unchangeable It hath gone to the very roots of sin and to the bottom of the sore and hath not left behind it any reigning unmortified sin nor any prevalent love to fleshly pleasures His Repentance did not only disgrace his sin and cast some reproachful words against it and use confessions to excuse him from mortification and to save its life and hide it from the mortal blow Nor doth he only repent of his open sins and those that are most censured by the beholders of his life But he specially perceives the dangerous poyson of Pride and unbelief and worldliness and the want of the Love of God and all his outward and smaller sins do serve to shew him the greater malignity of these and these are the matter of his greatest lamentations He taketh not up a profession of Religion with strong corruptions secretly covered in his heart But his Religion consisteth in the death of his corruptions and the purifying of his heart He doth not secretly cherish any sin as too sweet or too profitable to be utterly forsaken nor overlook it as a small inconsiderable matter But he feeleth sin to be his enemy and his disease and as he desireth not one enemy one sickness one wound one broken bone one serpent in his bed so he desireth not any one sin to be spared in his soul But faith with David Psal. 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting He liveth in no gross or scandalous sin And his infirmities are comparatively few and small so that if he were not a sharper accuser of himself than the most observant spectators are that are just there would little be known by him that is culpâ—ble and matter of reproof He walketh in all the commandments and ordinances of God blameless as to any notable miscarriage Luk. 1.6 He is blameless and harmless as the son of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom he shineth as a light in the world Phil 2 15. The fear and love and obedience of God is the work and tenour of his life 2. But the weak Christian though he hath no sin but what he is a hater of and fain would be delivered from yet alas how imperfect is his deliverance and how weak is the hatred of his sin and mixed with so much proneness to it thaâ— his life is much blemished with the spots of his offences Though his unbelief and pride and worldleness are not predominant in him yet are they or some of them still so strong and fight so much against his faith humility and heavenliness that he can scarcely tell which hath the upper hand nor can others that see the failings of his life discern whether the good or the evil be most prevalent Though it be Heaven which he most seeketh yet Earth is so much regarded by him that his Heavenly mindedness is greatly damped and suppressed by it And though it be the way of Godliness and obedience which he walketh in yet is it with so many stumblings and falls if not deviations also that maketh him oft a burthen to himself a shame to his profession and a snare or trouble to those about him His heart is like an ill swept house that hath many a sluttish corner in it And his life is like a moth-eaten garment which hath many a hole which you may see if you bring it into the light 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3. 6.6 7 8. 11.18 21 22 c. 3. And for the seeming Christian his Repentance doth but cropp the branches it goeth not to the root and heart of his sin It leaveth his fleshly mind and interest in the dominion It pollisheth his life but maketh him not a new creature It casteth away those sins which the flesh can spare and which bring more shame or loss or trouble with them than worldly honour gain or pleasure But still he is a very worldling at the heart and the sins which his fleshly pleasures and felicity consisteth in he will hide by confessions and seeming oppositions but never mortifie and forsake As Judas that while he followed Christ was yet a thief and a coveteous hypocrite Joh. 12.6 1 Tim. 6.10 11. XI 1. Hence it followeth that a Christian indeed doth heartily love the searching light that it may fully acquaint him with his sins He is truly desirous to know the worst of himself And therefore useth the word of God as a candle to shew him what is in his heart and bringeth himself willingly into the light He loveth the most searching Books and Preachers not only because they disclose the faults of other men but his own he is not one that so loveth his pleasant and profitable sins as to fly the light lest he should be forced to know them and so to forsake them But because he hateth them and is resolved to forsake them therefore he would know them Joh. 3.19 20 21. Therefore he is not only patient under Reproofs but loveth them and is thankful to a charitable reprover and maketh a good use even of malicious and passionate reproofs Psal. 141.5 2 Sam. 16.11 He saith as in Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do no more His hatred of the sin and desire to be reformed suffer not his heart by pride to rise up against the remedy and reject reproof Though he will not falsely confess his duty to be his sin nor take the judgement of every selfish passionate or ignorant reprover to be infallible nor to be his rule yet if a judicious impartial person do but suspect him of a fault he is ready to suspect himself of it unless he be certain that he is clear He loveth him better that would save him from his sin than him that would entice him to it and taketh him for his best
fear the Lord and that he keepeth all the tears of his servants till the reckoning day And if judgement begin at the house of God and the righteous be saved through so much suffering and labour what then shall be their end that obey not the Gospel and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.17 18. Eccl. 8.12 Prov. 11.31 13.6 Psal. 56.8 Deut. 32.35 Jam. 5.9 2. And the weak Christian is one that will forsake all for the sake of Christ and suffer with him that he may be glorified with him and will take his treasure in heaven for all Luk. 14.26 33. Luk. 18.22 But he doth it not with that easiness and alacrity and joy as the confirmed Christian doth He hearkens more to the flesh which saith favour thy self suffering is much more grievous to him And sometimes he is wavering before he can bring himself fully to resolve and let go all Mat. 16.22 3. But the seeming Christian looketh not for much suffering He reads of it in the Gospel but he saw no probability of it and never believed that he should be called to it in any notable degree He thought it probable that he might well escape it And therefore though he agreed verbally to take Christ for better and worse and to follow him through sufferings he thought he would never put him to it And indeed his heart is secretly resolved that he will never be undone in the world for Christ Some reparable loss he may undergo but he will not let go life and all He will still be religious and hope for heaven But he will make himself believe and others if he can that the Truth lieth on the safer side and not on the suffering side and that it is but for their own conceits and scrupulosity that other men suffer who go beyond him and that many good men are of his opinion and therefore he may be good also in the same opinion though he would never have been of that opinion if it had not been necessary to his escaping of sufferings what flourish soever he maketh for a time when persecution ariseth he is offended and withereth Mat. 13.21 6. Unless he be so deeply engaged among the suffering party that he cannot come off without perpetual reproach and then perhaps Pride will make him suffer more than the belief of heaven oâ— the love of Christ could do And all this is because his very belief is unrooted and unsound and he hath secretly at the heart a fear that if he should suffer death for Christ he should be a loser by him and he would not reward him according to his promise with everlasting life Heb. 3.12 XXIX 1. A Christian indeed is one that followeth not Christ for company nor holdeth his belief in trust upon the credit of any in the world and therefore he would stick to Christ if all that he knoweth or converseth with should forsake him If the Rulers of the Earth should change their religion and turn against Christ he would not forsake him If the multitude of the people turn against him nay if the professors of Godliness should fall off yet would he stand his ground and be still the same If the learnedest men and the Pastors of the Church should turn from Christ he would not forsake him Yea if his nearest relations and friends or even that Minister that was the means of his conversion should change their minds and forsake the truth and turn from Christ or a holy life he would yet be constant and be still the same And what Peter resolved on he would truly practise Mat. 26 33 35. Though all men should be offended because of thee yet would not I be offended Though I should die with thee yet will I not deny thee And if he thought himself as Elias did left alone yet would he not how the knee to Baal Rom. 11.3 If he hear that this eminent Minister falleth off one day and the other another day till all be gone yet still the foundation of God standeth sure he falleth not because he is built upon the rock Mat. 7.22 23. His heart saith Alas whither shall I go if I go from Christ Is there any other that hath the word and spirit of eternal life Can I be a gainer if I lose my soul Joh. 6.67 68. Mat. 16.26 He useth his Teachers to bring him that light and evidence of truth which dwelleth in him when they are gone And therefore though they fall away he falleth not with them 2. And the weakest Christian believeth with a Divine faith of his own and dependeth more on God than man But yet if he should be put to so great a tryal as to see all the Pastors and Christians that he knoweth change their minds I know not what he would do For though God will uphold all his own whom he will save yet he doth it by means and outward helps together with his internal grace and keepeth them from temptations when he will deliver them from the evil And therefore it is a doubt whether there be not degrees of grace so weak as would fail in case the strongest temptations were permitted to assault them A strong man can stand and go of himself but an infant must be carried and the same and sick must have others to support them The weak Christian falleth if his Teacher or most esteemed company fall If they run into an error sect or schisme he keeps them company He groweth cold if he have not warming company He forgeteth himself and letteth loose his sense and passion if he have not some to watch over him and warn him No man should refuse the help of others that can have it and the best have need of all Gods means But the weak Christian needeth them much more than the strong and is much less able to stand without them Luk. 22.32 Gal. 2.11 12 13 14. 3. But the seeming Christian is built upon the sand and therefore cannot stand a storm He is a Christian more for company or he credit of man or the interest that others have in him or the encouragement of the times than from a firm Belief and love of Christ and therefore falleth when his props are gone Mat. 7.24 XXX 1. A strong Christian can digest the hardest Truths and the hardest works of Providence He seeth more of the reason and evidence of truths than others And he hath usually a more comprehensive knowledge and can reconcile those truths which short sighted persons suspect to be inconsistent and contradictory And when he cannot reconcile them he knoweth they are reconcileable For he hath laid his foundation well and then he reduceth other truths to that and buildeth them on it And so he doth by the hardest Providences Whoever is high or low whoever prospereth or is afflicted however humane affairs are carried and all things seem to go against the Church and cause of Christ he knoweth yet that God is good to Israel Psal.
of his duties and the concernments of his soul permitting the world to take up too much of the vigour of his spirit Or else he is confident in his mistakes and verily thinks that he understandeth better than many wiser men these things which he never understood at all He chooseth his party by the Zeal that he findeth in them without any judicious tryal of the truth of what they hold and teach He is very earnest for many a supposed truth and duty which proveth at last to be no truth or duty at all And he censureth many a wiser Christian than himself for many a supposed sin which is no sin but perhaps a duty For he is alwayes injudicious and his heat is greater than his light or else his light is too flashy without heat Peremptorily he doth set down some among the number of the most wise and excellent men for keeping him company in his mistakes And he boldly numbreth the best and wisest of his Teachers with the transgressors for being of a sounder understanding than himself and doing those duties which he calleth sins And hence it is that he is a person apt to be mislead by appearances of Zeal and the Passions of his Teachers prevail more with him than the Evidence of Truth He that Prayeth and Preacheth most fervently is the man that carryeth him away though none of his Arguments be truly cogent If he hear any hard name against any opinion or manner of worship he receiveth that prejudice which turneth him more against it than reason could have done so the bug-bear name of Heresie Lutheranism and Calvinism frightneth many a well-meaning Papist both from the Truth and almost from his wits And the names of Popery Arminianism Prelacy Presbyterianism Independency c. do turn away the hearts of many from things which they never tryed or understood If a zealous Preacher do but call any opinion or practice Antichristian or Idolatrous it is a more effectual terrour than the clearest proof Big and terrible words do move the passions while the understanding is abased or a stranger to the cause And Passion is much of their Religion And hence alas is much of the calamity of the Church Rom. 14.1 2 3 4 c. 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3 4. Act. 21.20 Gal. 4.17 18. 3. But the seeming Christian is only zealous finally for Himself or zealous about the smaller matters of Religion as the Pharisees were for their Ceremonies and traditions or for his own inventions or some opinions or wayes in which his honour seemeth to be interessed and pride is the bellows of his zeal But as for a holy zeal about the substance and practice of Religion and that for God as the final cause he is a stranger to it He may have a zeal of God and of and for the Law and Worship of God as the material cause but not a true zeal for God as the chief final cause Rom. 10.2 2 Sam. 21.2 2 King 10.16 Act. 22.3 LI. A Christian indeed can bear the infirmities of the weak Though he love not their weakness yet he pittyeth it because he truly loveth their persons Christ hath taught him not to break the bruised reed and to gather the Lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosome and gently lead them that are with young Isa. 40.11 42.3 If they have diseases and distempers he seeketh in tenderness to cure them and not in wrath to hurt and vex them He turneth not the Infants or sick persons from the family because they cry or are unquiet unclean infirm and troublesome but he exerciseth his love and pitty upon their weaknesses If they mistake their way or are ignorant and peevish and froward in their mistakes he seeketh not to undoe them but gently to reduce them If they censure himself and call him erroneous heretical antichristian idolatrous because he concurreth not with them in their mistakes he beareth it with Love and patience as he would do the peevish chidings of a child or the frowardness of the sick He doth not lose his charity and set his wit against a Child and aggravate the crimes and being reviled revile again and say you are Schismaticks hypocrites obstinate and fit to be severely dealt with but he overcometh them with love and patience which is the conquest of a Saint and the happiest victory both for himself and them It is a small matter to him to be judged of man 1 Cor. 4.3 4. He is more troubled for the weakness and disease of the consorious than for his own being wronged by their censures Phil. 1.16 17 18. Rom. 15.1 2 3. 14.2 3. 2. But the weak Christian is readier to censure others than patiently to bear a censure himself Either he stormeth against the Censurers as if they did him some unsufferable wrong through the over-great esteem of himself and his reputation or else to escape the fangs of censure and keep up his repute with them he complyeth with the censorious and overruns his judgement and conscience to be well spoken of and counted a sincere and stedfast man Gal. 2.12 13 14. 3. But the seeming Christian is so proud and selfish and wanteth Charity and tenderness to the weak that he is impatient of their provocations and would cure the diseases of the servants of Christ by cutting their throats or ridding the Countrey of them If a Child do but wrangle with him he cryeth Away with him he is a troubler of the World He taketh more notice of one of their infirmities than of all their graces yea he can see nothing but obstinacy and hypocrisie in them if they do but cross him in his opinions or reputation or worldly ends Selfishness can turn his Hypocrisie into Malignity and cruelty if once he take them to be against his interest Indeed his interest can make him patient He can bear with them that he looketh to gain by but not with them that seem to be against him The radical enmity against sincerity that was not mortified but covered in his heart will easily be again uncovered Mark 6.18 20 21 22. Phil. 1.15 16. 3 Joh. 9. LII 1. A Christian indeed is a great esteemer of the Vnity of the Church and greatly averse to all Divisions among Believers As there is in the natural body an abhorring of dismembring or separating any part from the whole so there is in the mystical body of Christ The members that have life cannot but feel the smart of any distempering attempt For abscision is destruction The members die that are separated from the body And if there be but any obstruction or hinderance of communion they will be painfull or unusefull He feeleth in himself the reason of all those strict commands and earnest exhortations 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same
for it till it surprize him and therefore when it cometh it findeth him prepared and he gladly entertaineth it as the messenger of his Father to call him to his everlasting home It is not a strange unexpected thing to him to hear he must die He died daily in his daily sufferings and mortified contempt of worldly things and in his daily expectation of his change He wondereth to see men at a dying time surprized with astonishment and terrour who jovially or carelesly neglected it before as if they had never known till then that they must die Or as if a few years time were reason enough for so great a difference For that which he certainly knoweth will be he looketh at as if it were even at hand and his preparation for it is more serious in his health than other mens is on their death-bed He useth more carefully to bethink himself what graces he shall need at a dying time and in what case he shall then wish his soul to be and accordingly he laboureth in his provisions now even as if it were to be tomorrow He verily believeth that it is incomparably better for him to be with Christ than to abide on earth and therefore though Death of it self be an enemy and terrible to nature yet being the only passage into happiness he gladly entertaineth it Though he have not himself any clear and satisfactory apprehensions of the place and state of the happiness of departed souls yet it quieteth him to know that they shall be with Christ and that Christ knoweth all and prepareth and secureth for him that promised Rest Joh. 12.26 2 Cor. 5.1 7 8. Phil. 1.21 23. Luke 23.43 Though he is not free from all the natural fears of death yet his belief and hope of endless happiness doth abate those fears by the joyfull expectation of the gain which followeth See my Book called The last enemy and the last work of a Believer and that of self-denial against the fears of death But especially he loveth and longeth for the coming of Christ to judgement as knowing that then the Marriage-day of the Lamb is come and then the desires and hopes of all Believers shall be satisfied Then shall the Righteous shine as Stars in the Kingdom of their Father and the hand of violence shall not reach them Every enemy then is overcome and all the Redeemers work is consummated and the Kingdom delivered up unto the Father Then shall the ungodly and the unmercifull be confounded and the righteous filled with overlasting joy when their Lord shall throughly plead their cause and justifie them against the accusations of Satan and all the lies of his malicious instruments O blessed glorious joyfull day when Christ shall come with thousands of his Angels to execute vengeance on the ungodly world and to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that now believe 2 Thes. 1.8 9 10 When the patient followers of the Lamb shall behold him in glory whom they have believed in and shall see that they did not pray or hope or wait in vain When Christ himself and his sacred truth shall be justified and glorified in the presence of the world and his enemies mouths for ever stopped When he shall convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 14 15. Where then is the mouth that pleadeth the cause of infidelity and impiety and reproached the serious holiness of Believers and made a jest of the Judgements of the Lord Then what terrours and confusion and shame what fruitless repentings will seize upon that man that set himself against the holy ones of the Lord and knew not the day of his visitation and imbraced the image and form of godliness while he abhorred the power The Joys which will then possess the hearts of the Justified will be such as now no heart can comprehend When Love shall come to be glorified in the highest expression to those that lately were so low when all their doubts and fears and sorrows shall be turned into full contenting sight and all tears shall be wiped away and all reproaches turned into glory and every enemy overcome and sin destroyed and holiness perfected and our vile bodies changed and made like the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3.20 21. Col. 3.3 4. Then will the Love and work of our Redemption be fully understood And then a Saint will be a Saint indeed when with Christ they shall judge the Angels and the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and shall hear from Christ Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Mat. 25.34 Enter ye into the joy of your Lord Mat. 25.21 Then every knee shall bow to Christ and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.9 10 11. Then sin will fully appear in its malignity and holiness in its luster unto all The proud will then be abased and the mouths of all the wicked stopped when they shall see to their confusion the Glory of that Christ whom they despised and of those holy ones whom they made their scorn In vain will they then knock when the door is shut and cry Lord Lord open unto us Mat. 25.10 11 12. And in vain will they then wish O that we had known the day of our visitation that we might have died the death of the righteous and our latter end might have been as his Numb 23.10 Rom. 3.19 Job 5.16 Psal. 107.42 31.23 13.6 8. The day of Death is to true Believers a day of Happiness and Joy But it is much easier for them to think with joy on the coming of Christ and the day of Judgement because it is a day of fuller joy and soul and body shall be conjoyned in the blessedness and there is nothing in it to be so great a stop to our desires as Death is which naturally is an enemy God hath put a love of life and fear of death into the nature of every sensible creature as necessary for the preservation of themselves and others and the orderly Government of the world But what is there in the blessed day of Judgement which a Justified child of God should be averse to O if he were but sure that this would be the day or week or year of the coming of his Lord how glad would the confirmed Christian be and with what longings would he be looking up to see that most desired sight 2. And the weak Christian is so far of the same mind that he had rather come to God by Death and Judgement than not at all except when temptations make him fear that he shall be condemned He hath fixedly made choice of that Felicity which till then he cannot attain He would not take all the pleasures of this world for his hopes of the happiness of