for these I yeeld but upon view of my great sinâ— fulnesse and many defects now onely question and this iâ— enough whether my interesâ— be in that truth and goodnesse What is said here of a case respecting Spiritualls the samâ— may be said of that other respecting the promises for Temporalls See Luke 12. 28. because that doubting â—â—e extend to both 3. Again there are two sorts personall doubtings 1. Some are privative which move all presence of faith â—â— which see 1 Tim. 2. 8. and Jam. â—6 2. Some are contrary which â—e minuere but not negare they 〈◊〉 impaire and keep faith low â—â—t not wholly deny or extinâ—ish it as in our present Text. Cap. III. â—f their possible consistence with Faith ANd here lies the kernell Whether personall doubâ—â—ngs Quest i. e. doubtings of a mans â—articular interest in God and â—hrist and the promises may â—onsist with personall Faith To which I answer They may Sol. â—or and mark it well though 1. Doubtings be sinfull for they are the smoakings of corruption 2. They be no part of Faith 3. They cannot consist at the same instant with the acts of faith for it is impossible that faith should formally doubt As it is impossible that I should lay Simile hand on the rock and not lay hand at the same time or that mine eye should see and not see the colour at the same time or my hand receive and not receive the gift at the same time So is it impossible that the soule when it doth beleeve should doubt forasmuch as Faith in In sensu composito act and doubt in act are opposite and the soule cannot possibly set out from one faculty at the same time opposite acts I confesse successively it may yet simultaneously it cannot But now to beleeve and to doubt are opposite for in the one I embrace in the other I doe not embrace in the one I rest in the other not c. Yet fourthly Actuall doubtings Actuall doubtings may consist with habituall faith may be in a person who hath habituall faith for this you must know that faith and doubtings are not opposed as life and death where the presence of the one determinately concludes the totall absence of the other but as cold and heat in remisse degrees in the subject where though the nature of cold be not the nature of heat but naturally one is expulsive of the other yet both lodge in the same roome So Faith is not Doubting and Doubting is not Faith one of these is expulsive of the other yet both may and doe meet in the same person Who is notwithstanding called How one is styled a Beleever yet hath doubtings Simile a Beleever from the most eminent part For as we truly call many persons beautifull persons though in some one or other limbe there may be some faulty incongruity in nature because that which is better still denominates or gives the name so we say that Christianâ— are true beleevers because they have faith really in their souls notwithstanding many culpable doubtings which they feele and expresse It were a folly indeed that men should think their fields had no corne because there are many filthy weeds or that the heap hath no wheat because much chaffe or the pile no gold because much drosse or the soule no faith because many doubtings I had almost said let it goe I think it is a truth there is none had faith but hath found his doubtings Did you ever see aâ— fire without smoke Smoke is no part of the fire yet it steams from that fuell to which fire is put So it is with faith and doubtings c. Nay see this truth put out of Beleevers have doubted all doubt by severall instances in Scripture Let this of Mat. 14. 31. be the first O thou of little faith said Christ to Peter Peter Wherefore didst thou doubt Where though Christ did reprehend him for doubting yet as he doth intimate his doubting so his faith too Hee had faith though little and doubtings though he had that faith there was the one and there was the other they were both in Peter For he had not stept out but for faith and he had â—not sunke but for his doubtings Observe Abraham himselfe Abraham the father of the faithfull yet we find him winding and turning shuffling and doubting more then once if we reade Gen. 12. and Gen. 15. 2 3. and Gen. 20. So David had his tremblings David his faintings his suspicions all in him was not faith He in his haste falls out with some for lyers who yet spake nothing but Ps 116. 11 the truth of God And so again Psa 31. 22 God hath forgotten me c. in his haste he is cut off from before the eyes of God who yet heard the voice of his supplications Job also a man of great sorrows and of great faith yet had heeâ— Iob. not his qualmes his shakings his questionings Indeed in some places he seems Heroicke in his faith graciously victorious over all calamities and riding above all waves yet in other places we find the Man aâ— well as the Beleever he staggers he feares he is giving up The faithfull in Scripture are compared oftentimes to Trees which though they be well rooted yet may be shaken and tâ— Noahs Arke which though iâ— was a safe harbour yet it was tossed and to an house built oâ— a rock which though it be firâ— and cannot be removed yet 〈◊〉 may be moved and to Starres which though they be heavenâ—y yet are twinckling and amongst them much to the Moone which with her light hath yet some dark spots What should I alledge examples Experiences Let your owne experiences and daily complaints sufficiently answer to this let them give verdict Some of you have not yet risen above your fears Let God hold up his favour doe you not presently doubt Let him hold in his hand doe you not also doubt O how we tosse â—nd rowle and stagger in every â—ensible difficulty In matters of this life scarce a contrary ocâ—urrence which doth not diâ—tract us Thus is it with most â—f us in our infancie and in our â—ettings out But for you who â—re of further perfection who â—re ripened unto an assurance â—erhaps unto a full assurance â—an you never remember any bowings shakings shiverings doubtings Or think you never to meet with any more I have known the Sun one day bright and the next covered and Davids mountaine strong But Thou didst hide thy face and anoâ— I was troubled Psal 30. Besides all this consider thâ— nature and condition of truâ— faith in this life It must theâ— be granted that there may bâ— doubtings with it forasâ—uch as no grace is perfect in this life it hath its contrary in the samâ— subject in some remisse degrees And it is one work of faith stiâ— to be casting out of doubâ— which doe rise in the minde which working
from the Spirit which shines in the renewed heart by an unspeakable light 1 Cor. 2. 12 and manifests unto it the things given unto it of God and so seals and witnesseth the truth and goodnesse of our particular interests in God and Christ according to the word of God 2. Another is from faith which doth testifie the interests of the soule in that happinesse which it finds revealed in the Word For that which faith beleeves by a direct act in the Word it may testifie of the same to the person by a refexive * By assurance act 3. A third is from Conscience which beholding the simplicity and godly sincerity of the heart testifies unto it against all opposition that this blessed frame is in the soule and this testimony being concordant with that of the word the soul is thereby greatly sustained forasmuch as this is knowne before viz. A sincere temper is happy and now Conscience clearing that temper the soule hereupon is much cheered 2. Our condition falls under a three-fold consideration A threefold estate 1. Sometimes under the accusations of Conscience Conscience doth speak and testifie but it is either that our hearts are totally base and sinfull and corrupt or that in such and such a particular it is not right it was not perfect but sinfull and degenerating 2. Sometimes under the excusations of Conscience where Conscience testifies and acquits and speaks peace either As in Paul loc cit As in David about Saul about the frame of the heart or rectitude of some particular action and course 3. Sometimes under a neutrall act or work of the Conscience i. The Conscience like Absolom to Ammon 2 Sam. 13. 22. speaks unto a person neither good nor bad It doth not accuse him nor doth it excuse him it doth not speak terror nor doth it speak peace it doth not charge any speciall guilt nor doth it give us a particular discharge of any Now this is the time of fears and doubts I will shew you why because 1. A negative state satisfies not a tender Christian It doth not satisfie a tender soule that God looks not like an enemy unlesse also he looks as a friend or that Conscience doth not check but that it should excuse It doth trouble us many times that in our exemptions from trouble wee yet find no Peace-speaker 2. It gives suspicion of a neutrall estate because Conscience seems to behave it selfe as a neutrall neither against us nor for us I call that a neutrall estate which is not eminently evill it hath some good in it and doth some good but is not so good as to be gracious therefore the civill estate is a neutrall it doth not rise to be so bad as the worst nor to be so good as the best people are Now this estate absolutely considered is bad it is an evill estate it is an estate in which if a man lives and dies and goes not beyond it he cannot be saved 3. It may breed an expectation of the worse testimony of Conscience for withdrawments are sometimes the forerunners of some bitter intentions It fell out ill with Saul when God withdrew himselfe from him So when Conscience withdraws perhaps my Conscience hath found matter against me and as it doth not now speak peace so perhaps shortly it may speak bitter things unto me 4 Nay Conscience is Gods Vice-gerent it is his Deputy and therefore in the silences and withdrawments of it wee look through and feare the disposition of God himself towards us because the servants do ordinarily expresse the conceits and inclinations and affections of their masters And this is certaine that we doe in an angry conscience behold Conscience is the looking-glasse alwayes an angry God and so in a cheerfull conscience a gracious God and so shall we in a silent conscience suspect a doubtfull God We doe ordinarily judge how God is towards us by what we find and feele Conscience to be towards us This is the glasse in which we see his favours or frowns These are the springs of Doubtings which I have enlarged in their opening unto you it is likely there may be more then these I could also deliver you more about the temporall estate but that is out of our scope and compasse now It now remains that I descend to the closing up of these springs to the cures and remedies of these Doubtings which is the last thing proposed CAP. V. The Cures and Remedies of Doubtings HEre lies our next and greatest work And therefore as Physitians in this part are more cautelous to administer things which are in their qualities most proper and in their measures most convenient so must we in the healings and closings of the spirituall distempers of the soule And therefore that this work may be happily performed I shall desiring Gods grace to assist and blesse prescribe unto you 1. The particular cures which Two sorts of cures Particular Generall shall answer all those particular springs of doubtings before mentioned Then 2. The generall Cures and Remedies which may extend to the help of all or most of our doubtings if time and leasure hold out The particular Cures 1. Naturall corruption was The first cure answering the first cause of doubtings the first spring of Doubtings and Mortification is the first help and remedy That is the Disease and this is the Cure I may say that of our faith which the Apostle speaks of our persons Rom. 8. 13. If yee Rom. 8. 13 through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live The more our sinnes doe die in us the more our faith will live in us We are diseased men take us in our best condition Similies and you know the more any disease doth lose of its strength the more doth our health rise up and thrive and so we are as a garden which hath many plants and severall weeds the abating of these the rooting up and killing of these contributes the greater reliefe and strengthning to our plants The Apostle Heb. 10. 22. Heb. 10. 22 would have them to draw neare with a true heart in full assurance of Faith he would have them to cast out their doubtings in their approaches unto God he would have them to come with assurance with a full assurance to come so as verily to be perswaded of Gods acceptation of them not indifferently to come with May be I shall be accepted may be I shall not this is a doubtfull approaching But what doth he adjoyne to this exhortation Observe the next words Having your hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience d. As long as your hearts are evill as long as Conscience can charge you for entertained evill you will be wavering and doubtfull But if your hearts were sprinkled if the evill of sin were washed from them then you might come with a full assurance of faith i. Then faith might fully perswade you to come confidently unto God for
doubtings was the study of the life of sense The remedy of which is the keeping of it downe If you will keep off doubtings you must keepe down sense and feeling Blessed saith Christ to Thomas Joh. 20. 29. are they that have Joh 20. 29 not seene and yet have beleeved If a man thinks this That Christ is not mine unlesse I handle him and God is not mine unlesse I see him and grace is not mine unlesse I feele it he will be for ever full of doubts and feares For the helping of which consider these things 1. Sense is not a fit Judge of our condition it cannot report our estate but by what it feeles but the spirituall estate is not alwayes under feeling wee should be good and bad found and lost cheerfull and sorrowfull many times in one day nay in one houre if that sense gave sentence on our condition Beloved think well on this How can sense reach unto the times of desertion unto the There is not a latitude in sense As a rich mans haÌ„d cannot hold all his lands so a Christians sense cannot comprehend all his condition times of want unto the times of indisposition unto the times where faith doth expresse no acts but such as are pure and cleare and onely grounded upon the Promises In these abstracted times Sense finds nothing to speak to us to evidence for us for God holds off and wants hold up and dulnesses hold in and we have nothing but a word of promise all other things seeme to faile and forsake to sustaine and retaine us 2. The spirituall course many times goes against our sense and therefore sense must be kept downe You know that Abraham against hope beleeved in hope Rom. 4. 18. Rom. 4. 18 Faith and sense are many times at a contradiction faith will beleeve what sense perceiveth not and what our sense doth perceive that same our faith will not beleeve but the contrary Though â—e kill me yet will I trust in him saith Job And Abraham beleeved his sons safety in the sacrificing of him and we our immortality notwithstanding our death and corruption This is very certaine that when we For your wayes are not my waies c. As the heavens c. Esay 55. My times are in thy hands Psal 31. 15 Heb. 11. 1. The evidence of things not scene 2 Chron. 20. 12. We know not what to doe but our eyes are upon thâ—e feele corruptions living faith will beleeve them to be dying and when we feele our selves in trouble faith will then beleeve our comforts and deliverances Faith usually I doe not say alwayes beleeves the contraries unto sense For sense goes our way and faith goes Gods way Sense allowes and sets it selfe a time and Faith is content to receive and take Gods times Sense moves upon what appears and Faith upon what is not yet Sense looks downward and Faith looks upward Sense doth sustaine it selfe by something within us and Faith sustaines it selfe by something without us Psal 27. 3. So Hab. 3. 17 18. So Esay 8. 17. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him Esay 50. 10. Who is he that walketh in darknesse and hath no light Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God 3. Sense or feeling is not medium credendi but fructus fidei i. It is not the ground of beleeving but a fruit of faith v. g. Take feeling in the most excellent parts of it as in assurance and joy and peace these are not Antecedents to faith but Consequents of it What is that That is a man hath not these first and then faith for or from these but he hath faith first and these afterward Why dost thou not beleeve Quest If I had assurance that God were my God and Christ were my Christ and the Promises were mine I would But say Is the Word or thy Assurance the ground of faith And wouldst thou have the fruit before the tree or thy safety before thou layest hand on the rock If thou wouldst have assurance thou must then beleeve for the sweetnesse of Eph. 1. 13. After ye beleeved ye were sealed assurance flowes from that faith which by beleeving feeds on Christ So if thou wouldst have joy beleeve for true 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom though now ye see him not yet beleeving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable c. joy doth not prevent but attend beleeving We are oft times troubled by our owne pride and folly God sets us a way to beleeve and we will follow our owne way He gives unto us his Word of Promise to ground our beleeving and wee will have our sense to be the ground Of which course I dare say what Abraham spake to the curiosity of Dives who would have some to be sent from the dead that his brethren might beleeve to whom Abraham thus replyes If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Luk. 16. 31. Luk. 16. 31. So say I If men will not beleeve because God hath promised neither will they beleeve if sense should stand up and speak for we have more reason to suspect our owne testimony then to distrust Gods invitation and promise You will reply This testimony Ob. of sense in Assurance is Gods owne answer and therefore if we had it it would the more settle our faith I answer 1. Gods testimonies are indeed Sol. of a setling and quieting vertue whether they be the evidencing of our present interests in him or speciall answerings of our present desires 2. But then know thou must first put to thy seale and hand of faith before he delivers over to thee the assuring Evidences And as yet I never knew any Christian who could be answered without faith or took comfort in that which yet he did not beleeve For though it be the favour of God which doth properly comfort neverthelesse it doth not actually comfort unlesse faith hath taken in that favour But are not former experiences Ob. which are nothing else but sensible feelings grounds to future beliefe Did not David remember the dayes of old I answer True Experienceâ—â— Sol. are good encouragements 〈◊〉 the future acts of faith but the Word of God is stil the ground of faith They are not intrinsecall grounds but extrinsecall motives You may consider the experiences either in things granted and performed or in Note the manner of their performance Thou hast had Gods favour thou hast had an answer but how did thou obtaine them was it not by beleeving was it not by waiting upon some good word of Promise Thy injoying of them did not prevent thy beleeving of the word of Promise but the beleeving of that word of Promise did let in and bring unto thy soul that sweet and gracious experience And therefore thy experience was not the ground heretofore nor is it now onely
Lord saith the penitent I acknowledge my sins and am â—orry for my transgressions but I intend to run on the score no longer Thou art a debtor saith God I am Lord saith the Beleever and thou hast said If any man 1 Joh. 2. 1. sin he hath an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for sins and I beleeve on him Lord I take him to be my sin-offering and in his bloud onely I seek for pardon and redemption from all my sinnes This were the way to support our selves against our many and strong doubtings about pardon of sins Yet the Lord knowes I have repented of them and I doe beleeve in Jesus Christ for the pardon of them I heare and know that he is the Mediator of the New Testament and that his bloud satisfies for all sorts of debtors and debts too Though one sin may differ from another yet his meâ— it and satisfaction differs not from it selfe but is all-sufficient and therefore I acknowledge the debt and rest on his bloud for a full discharge 3. Discharges in Justification are not repealed they are not called in againe Peccata non redeunt i. Subsequent sins and falls doe not nullifie and evacuate former grants and pardons for as much as 1. Pardon of sin springs from speciall love and mercy which alter not their consigned acts 2. It is founded in an unalterable and absolute and constant satisfaction for sinne is not pardoned for any dignity in the person In the person pardoned there is no reason or cause of pardon but that is in the bloud of Christ which bloud alters and lessens and abates not though our carriages doe Hence it is that pardon of sin in Justification is styled the blotting out of the hand-writing Col. 2. 14. If a writing be blurred a little and somewhat blotted yet it may be read but if it be blotted out it is no more legible and who can be called to account upon record when the writings are obliterated The same phrase is used Esay 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sinnes Where me thinks something else falls in to our comfort viz. That God himselfe doth blot out Though an under-officer should blot out an indictment that perhaps may help nothing but when the King doth it who is chiefe Judge then the indictment cannot returne Now it is the Lord himselfe who doth blot out transgressions he doth it who onely hath power of life and death of condemning or absolving In like manner there is another phrase Mica 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the depths of the sea If a thing were cast into a river which might be fathomed then it might be brought up againe or if it were cast upon the sea onely yet it might be discerned and taken up againe but when it is in the depths cast into the depths the bottome of the sea now it cannot be fathomed up againe By which Metaphor the Lord intends to expresse unto us the powerfull energy of pardoning mercy that our sins shall rise no more against us He will cleare them so that they being once forgiven shall come on the account no more He will drowne their guilt that it shall not come up against us before him the second time Therefore Paul discoursing of Justification Rom. 4. hee useth another phrase to expresse this point ver 7. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Covered Covering is such an action which is opposed to disclosure and judiciall evidences and to be covered is to be hid so and closed as not to appeare with a judiciall guilt upon it Now the Lord here is said to cover sinne in Justification What is that That is the Lord will look on those sinnes no more with a judiciall eye he will not call them to account any more that is the meaning of the phrase As when a Prince reads over many Treasons and meets with such and such which he hath pardoned he reads on he passeth by he now takes no notice of them he is not stirred he sends not our against those whom he hath pardoned So c. This is for God to cover sin viz. not to looke on the sin pardoned with a judiciall eye It is not as some most empty and dull heads fancie it God doth not see sin at all and he cannot Of all the opinions in the world this is the most ridiculous and childish to men who beleeve an All-seeing God But to cover sin is not simply not to see it but to look it over as it were and not to sit or stand upon it with a judiciall eye i to account for pardoned sinnes no more Hence in the New Covenant God promising to justifie or to pardon sin he saith not onely I will forgive their iniquity but addes I will remember their sin no more Jer. 31. 34. What is that That is if I once As the Gospel needs to be giveÌ„ but once so a mans sin needs but once to be forgiven once is enough because if once then for ever forgive their sin I wil not forgive it againe it shall not need againe to be forgiven once shall serve the turne I will remember it no more The meaning is it shall quite be forgotten I will no more plead with them for what I have once pardoned I confesse that the sense and fruit and assurance of a sin pardoned this may redire Note returne this may be lost and got and the acts of faith concerning the particular pardon The apprehensioÌ„ of pardon is variable and yet the pardon it self is immutable of a particular sin may doe so but Gods justifying act his pardoning act is a free and constant act Otherwise if he pardoned 〈◊〉 respectively upon an absolute Incessation about sinne there were no flesh living that could be justified 4. Discharges in Justification reach not onely to the guilt but also to the consequents of guilt For it is a true And remissa culpa remittitur poena rule Justificatio tollit poenalia Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus You know that if the body falls then the shadow which attends the body that falls too and if the debt be discharged the prison is discharged We have by the bloud of Christ the forgivenesse of our sins and therefore the remission of all satisfying punishments Why else doth the Apostle say Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us As Christ is said to be made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. so is he here said to be made a curse for us He is made sinne for us by taking upon him the guilt of our sinnes and he is made a curse for us by bearing that wrath and punishment which was due to us because of our sinnes Nay let me