Covenant applies this promise and rests upon Christ for justification Therefore of faith that it might bee by grace therefore of faith to the end the promise might bee sure to all the seed Faith is the root of a Christians conversation and a Christians conversation is the fruit of faith Many measure their faith by perswasion but I had rather measure my faith by the power of mortification so much as it sanctifies so much it is faith cannot conduce to the act of redemption but faith conduces to our justification You are to act faith upon God that the promise may bee returned Wherefore do I believe because God hath promised Wherefore do I hope because faith believes Wherefore do I wait because hope expects An easie faith is always a false faith Hee that never found it hard to believe never believed A fruitless faith is alwaies a false faith It is not the work faith nor the works of faith but faith with her proper work by which wee are justified By faith the person is justified and by works the faith is justified Though faith alone doth justifie yet not that faith which is alone Christians should not onely labour to be justified by faith but they should labour to justifie their faith Shew mee thy invisible faith by thy visible life God doth justifie a man by his faith hee doth not justifie him for his faith Faith is the Engine by which wee do all by which wee prevail with God and overcome the world it must not onely live in us but wee must live by it Faith it grows in the exercise Do what you can for faith though your doing will not come up to believing and say not that you cannot believe for if you go not thus far to do what you can your unbelief is not from your cannot but from your will not Go and put forth that faith thou art able to put forth and in the end God will make it a spiritual believing As the water Christ commanded to bee poured out was turned into wine by the pouring of it out so deal with Christ Jesus for believing and in the end God will turn thy faith which is but water into wine Thou wilt believe thy self into believing You ought to believe till you bee perswaded that you do believe for the more you do believe the more you shall bee perswaded to believe By frequency of believing you shall feel at your very heart that you do believe 1 Joh. 5.10 If repentance accompany faith it is no presumption to believe but it is presumption to look for mercy in a way of unbelief Beware of unbelief for it is a shelter to sin all your life As faith is the shield of the new man so unbelief is the shield of the old man As the shield of faith doth quench the fiery darts of the Devill so unbelief doth quench the fiery darts of God This unbelief removes all the blocks that lie in the way of sin as belief removes all the blocks that lie in the way of holiness Unbelief it robs God the Father at once of all his Attributes it robs God the Son of the Glory of his triumph over Sin Death and Hell it robs God the Holy-Ghost of his seals to thy evidence of pardon The Spirit seals to thy soul the pardon of thy sins and unbelief comes and tears thy evidences and breaks the seals Labour as much for faith in the threatnings as for faith in the promises And remember this though other sins merit hell yet it is this sin of unbelief onely that puts you into damnation AS great sins are not easily to bee reformed so great mercies are not soon obtained When the stream of thankfulness is not returned the tide of mercy stops Although God looks for nothing in us to bestow his love upon us nor for nothing from us as the ground of the continuance of his love to us yet wee are to bee highly thankful for any little the Lord gives and to be humble and judge our selves worthy of nothing when the Lord denies Mercy is not the purchase of the creature but the gift of God Follow God close with your praises that goes before you in his mercies As praises are the seasonable fruit under mercies so humiliation and prayers are the seasonable fruit under troubles Sinners may speak good words of God it is only comly for the upright to praise God Thanksgiving it is the proper work of Christians and the natural work of Angels A little makes a thankful man admire much Oh how big are a thankful mans mercies and how little hee Bee careful for nothing but by prayer and supplication make your requests known to God with thanksgiving Daies of thanksgiving and prayer are helps to the duties God requires from us they are not our onely business When wee pray and give thanks it is not the onely business of the day but these are helps to us that wee may persevere and improve our obedience Though our goodness reaches not to God yet it should to the Saints If God be rich in mercy unto us it is that we should be rich in good works unto others It is good to receive a mercy from God it is better to improve a mercy Great and renewed receivings from God should beget fresh quick and strong resolutions of obedience unto God The more holy fire there is in the service the more pleasing the service When ever you serve God it must bee with fear when ever you praise God it must bee with trembling Though I cannot praise God sufficiently yet Christ can ALl have a call of inexcusableness few have a call of effectualness Grace is not denied to the wicked but it is onely given to the weary By grace is meant the love and favour of God within himself and is the spring and fountain of all that good which hee doth give out unto his children As grace is communicative so it is called goodness As it is with delight so it is called love as it is given out to man in state of misery so it is called mercy as it is dispensed freely so it is called grace When the Spirit works a man for salvation then doth the Spirit pour forth those graces and exercises those operations without which you cannot live grace Notwithstanding Christ hath paid the price of salvation yet you shall not bee saved without the Spirits application The Spirit is the executor of that will of which Christ is the Testator Christ gives the Legacies but the Spirit paies them Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and the Spirit is the Administrator of that Covenant You can no more expect to be renewed without the Spirit than to bee saved without the Son As you cannot bee saved unredeemed so you cannot bee saved unrenewed A graceless man shall never inherit heaven A graceless man is a cruel man to his own soul As sinners are given up to sin so those that have really profited by
worship All things that I command you in matters of practise and in matters of worship that do and no more You must worship God with your will oh but take heed of Will worship When the heart goes not along with the duty that is hypocrisie when the heart is not stirred up in the duty to lively and vigorous acts that is formality As God will have the heart in prayer so in hearing hee is a Spirit and hee will bee worshipped in Truth The Lord whose Name is Jealous is a jealous God Take heed of the false worship of the heart if thou are not guilty of Idolatry thou mayest bee guilty of Hypocrisie Take heed of the Idolatry of the heart Bee spiritual in what you do A jealous eye is a watchful eye When ever you come to worship look to your thoughts Look to your conceptions of God when you worship how you represent God in worship There is as much danger of imaginations within as there is of Images without That which makes us successeless in duty is undue thoughts of God Make spiritual growth the end of coming to the word That Spirit that sayes Hear my Law sayes My Son forget not my Law A holy life is the infusion of holy truth Truth shall never dye who ever dye or live Charge thy self with that which is the end of the word that is Live well ASk thy heart every night what hath been thy darling to day who hath been most in thy thoughts to day The actions of mens lives are the wayes of their thoughts Secret thoughts will ingender gross transgressions secret sins will bring to open shame if you do not shame your self before God for them Sins of act are like arrows that flye by day Sins of thought are the pestilence that lurks in darkness It is not what thoughts are injected into thee but what thoughts are maintained by thee Thoughts are sins of the highest part of a man for they are the sins of his heart Thoughts are the first-born of original corruption if it bee the first born it must needs bee the strongest as Jacob said to Ruben A man many times doth not what hee would but hee alwaies thinks as hee will If thy heart bee heavenly thy thoughts will bee holy God thinks on you when you forget him If God should withdraw his thoughts from us as we do ours from him what would become of us Think on that Thoughts are called the counsels of a mans heart if thy thoughts bee not counselled thoughts such as thou dost determine to think on they are not good thoughts The souls part of fin is the greatest part of sin therefore thoughts are the greatest part of sin yet sins in deed are in regard of progress the worse because thoughts are included in them This is that which undoes many a man let it not bee thy undoing to have good thoughts of God and good thoughts of themselves too THere is no soul hath more high thoughts of God than that soul that hath low thoughts of it self The foul that lives lowest hath the highest objects before it The lower the soul lyes the higher the things are it aims at The lower the ebbe the higher the tyde The lower the foundation of vertue is laid the higher shall the roof of glory bee overlaid They that are risen with Christ that seek the power of Christ risen seek things above An humble spirit may bee busied in low things but not taken up with them If Saints bee sad it is because they are too busie here below The more low wee are the more comfort wee have of God When wee are nothing in our own eyes then are wee something in Gods If thou wouldest bee all in God learn to empty thy self not by taking notice so much of thy graces as thy wants The more wee can empty our selves the more wee shall bee filled with God A Christians emptiness is his fulness and his fulness is his emptiness God is in that man that is not in himself If I will bee any thing in my self as of my self I must look to bee no creature of Gods making Whatsoever a Christian is for grace or glory it is out of himself hee hath nothing in himself as of himself all that hee hath hee hath in Christ Wee altogether shine in the beams of our husband Follow Christs example his whole life and death was an absolute denial of himself It unburdens a man of himself this self-denial If a man le ts go his fleshh ec shall advance his spirit A self-seeker is a clod of earth that sucks the sap of his soul onely to himself Deny thy self wholly if there bee not thorow self-denial ere long there will bee God-denial Whosoever is not poor in himself hee will never go our of himself for hee hath some other supply Those that have full conceits of themselves can never thirst after Christ When man makes an Idol of self hee wants now and then some to come and worship him Those that have least knowledge of themselves are apt to dote on themselves Hee that knows himself best loves himself least Those that have most light have lowest thoughts they trust not to the grace in their own hearts but to the grace in the Covenant Pride is a conceit of self-sufficiency THou canst never act freely and cheerfully in Gods wayes until the divine nature bee communicated Where divine power works not creatingly it works not relievingly hence it is that one that is not a Christian in deed holds not out alwayes to bee a Christian in shew As vital principles and spiritual habits are infused by God so they owe their permanency and stability to God It is his work to perfect holiness in his fear The judgement of sense ought to bee regulated by reason and the judgement of reason ought to bee corrected by faith Though I must not nor cannot give a reason of every thing I beleeve yet I must give a reason of my faith There is the life of faith the living of faith and the liveliness of faith the first is the habit the second is the act the third is the grace Faith doth not justifie as a grace in us or as a work not as an active condition contributing any thing to its own worth but as a passive condition or qualification whereby wee receive Jesus Christ the Lord and it is for his merits and not for our faith though by our faith wee are justified It is the application of Christs righteousness not our apprehending it By faith alone wee are justified but the faith by which wee are justified is not alone As wee cannot get it of our selves so wee cannot act it of our selves Faith is not our righteousness yet it makes the righteousness of Christ to bee ours Abraham beleeved and it was imputed to him for righteousness Christ in our nature hath fulfilled all righteousness this God hath promised shall bee ours for justification now faith closes with this
purposes but by his promises The impulsive cause of Gods making promises was his love the meriting cause Christ They are purging healing raising up only as Christ is folded up in them The promises are the plaisters upon which the blood of Christ is spread the blood of Christ gives virtue to the promise They are all made in Christ and performed in Christ purchased by his blood and executed by his power The Saints are therefore heirs of promise because members of Jesus Christ Promises have a being because of Christ After the breach of the first Covenant God had never declared his good will to man in a second Covenant but for the sake of Jesus Christ and it is by our being in him that wee lay claim to those promises All promises are made for him and in him unto us so far as we are incorporated into him and are members of Jesus Christ All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Thy interest in one promise is worth all thy interests Gods promises which could not bee too dearly bought yet they are freely given Gods promises are free in respect of the making of them yet they are conditional in respect of the performance of them The promises are tendered without exception but not without condition Though they are made out of free mercy yet they are performed in relation to our subservient duty God never promised life absolutely but upon condition In the first Covenant Do and live In the second Covenant Believe and live Now faith is so poor a condition as puts no worth in us to receive and therefore justified freely of his grace You are saved of grace but through faith and it is therefore of faith that it might bee of grace If God made a promise to thee when thou wast wallowing in thy blood then certainly God will make it good By promising God hath made himself a debtor to himself God hath made promises of pardon consider not thy own weaknes so much as the strength of Gods promise look not to thy unworthiness but upon the truth worth and excellency of the promise GOds outward proceedings of providence do sometimes seem to contradict the truth of his promises Gods promises speak healing when Gods providences seem to speak trouble yet the position holds true that it is Gods purpose under all the pressures and troubles of his Church to deliver them There are two things that may bee written upon the Church of Christ Holiness and Victory Whatsoever the difference is betwixt the enemies of the Church and the Church Christs party shall overcome This should make us live by faith and not by sense If you look upon things necessary or contingent in both these providence rules There is a special providence over every hair of a childe of God all his hairs are numbred If a hair cannot fall from the head without providence the head shall not fall from the body without providence Troubles are the issues of neglected providences Labour to relieve thy self in thy greatest straights in Covenant-promises Hard throws have been made advantages to the birth of sweet mercies Though trouble may bee thy condition yet rest shall bee thy portion Though affliction may bee thy exercise yet deliverance shall bee thy inheritance providence orders all actions and agents to her own end Actions may move very strangely in our view and yet very orderly to the greatest good as their supernatural end Give not way then to sinkings and despondencies of spirit in any trouble in the lowest conditions and greatest sufferings there is yet ground of hope When vain is the hope of man then comes the salvation of God When the morning is darkest then comes the day When troubles are at the highest then deliverance is at the nearest Things wonderful to us are yet easie with God marvellous in our eyes and yet familiar with him Awaken thy heart to pray Nothing shall bee too hard for him to do whose heart God carries forth and holds up to beleeve and pray unto him Nothing hath been done without it nothing can bee done against it Providence GOds Providence is an act of infinite power and wisdome whereby hee preserves and governs all things in order to his glorious Mercy and Justice Gods will being immutable in its determination his Providence must needs bee infallible in its administrations Gods Providence is not limited by means therefore trust Providence when you see no means Let nothing puzzle you that doth not puzzle God When God makes use of means it is not from the deficiency of his Power but from the riches of his Goodness To establish the means and deny the providence of God determining the end is a part of Atheism to establish the providence of God determining the end and despise the means is great prophaneness Use means yet withall trust and attend Gods providence for the obtaining of the end True faith sets God highest in means sees God out of means and waits upon him in the opposition of means Endeavours are appointed by God not to alter his will but perform it and in what wee obtain not our desires wee testifie our obedience Use means as if there wereno God trust in God as if there were no means Bee not over-perswaded of particular means The water-man thinks his boat will save him but perhaps it is a twig To neglect helps is to tempt God to trust in them when we have them is to commit Idolatry with them WHen you come to pray look to what God hath promised and in prayer look into the promise When you pray labour to avoid two things calling upon God in your own strength and expecting an answer from God in your own worth You may direct your prayer to Father Son and holy Spirit but not as one separated from the other When you go to pray you give God a visit frequency of worship doth maintain a respect between God and you It is then very seasonable to attend upon and apply our selves to the work or duty of prayer when the working or grace of the Holy Ghost doth beget a disposition in us to pray When grace doth offer a seasonableness to pray you shall find it affords a sufficiency of strength for prayer Seasons of grace last not alwaies it is not at our command to have the Spirit of God moving in us when you know the motions of the Spirit act accordingly to them Keep heavenly things as thou wouldest keep heaven it self Strive for spiritual life A dead man and a dying Christian are two sad sights A dead prayer leaves a dead Spirit behinde it A dull Spirit is the fruit of a dead prayer A dead heart argues a dying soul God is coming into that soul with comfort who is mighty in duty Consolation and supplication go together When wee do our present duty God will not remember our former sin Pray unto God for a better praying heart there will nothing prevail with God if prayer will not The