some of those Kingdoms of Infidels would have harkened to the spirits teaching and being taught would have taught others especially if there be a sufficiency in that grace for the obtaining of its end Therefore how to apprehend a verity in their doctrine of universal sufficient grace to believe I know not Yet will I not affirm that the faith that is absolutely necessary among poor Indians is of the same extent in all its acts and dimensions with that required among us no more then that required of the world before Christs coming was Upon what tearmes then God will deal with those dark parts of the world I cannot yet reach to know The scripture speaks of no other way to life but Christ and of no way to Christ but faith But we are not their Judges they stand or fall to their own master But sure that great difference betwixt them and us must arise from Gods own pleasure For they have not abused Christ and Gospel which they never heard of nor can it be that they should be judged by that Gospel which neither before nor since the fall was taught them Christ himself saith plainly that if he had not come to them and spoke the words that no man else could speak and done the works that no man else could do they had not had sin He saith not as some would pervert the sense your sin had not been so great But none at all not speaking of their other sins but their unbelief which he had now in hand teaching us clearly That where there is not competent meanes to convince men of the truth of the Gospel there not believing is no sin For it was to them never forbidden nor the contrary duty ever required And the Apostle tells us those that have sinned without Law shall be judged without Law That place therefore Rom. 2.16 seemeth abused while they would make the sense to be that God will judg the secrets of all men according to the Gospel as the sentencing Law when the Apostle seems to intend but thus much According to my Gospel that is as I have in my preaching the Gospel taught you respecting the verity of what he speak Yet I think that they will be Judged according to Gospel-indulgence as they have been partakers of some mercies from Christ in this life 2. That these people of God are but a Part of those that are thus externally called is too evident in Scripture and experience Many are called but few chosen But the internally effectually called are all chosen For whom he called them he justified and whom he justified them he glorified The bare invitation of the Gospel and mens hearing the Word is so far from giving title to or being an evidence of Christianity and its priviledges that where it prevailes not to a through-Conversion it sinks deeper and casts under a double damnation 3. The first differencing work I affirm to be Regeneration by the Spirit of Christ taking it for granted that this Regeneration is the same with effectual Vocation with Conversion with Sanctification understanding Conversion and Sanctification of the first infusion of the principle of Spiritual life into the soul and not for the addition of degrees or the sanctifying of the conversation in which last sence its most frequently taken in Scripture It s a wonder to me that such a multitude of Learned Divines should so long proceed in that palpable mistake as to divide and mangle so groundlesly the Spirits work upon the soul to affirm that 1. precedes the work of vocation 2. this vocation infuseth faith only say some but faith and repentance say others 3. then must this faith by us be acted 4. by which act we apprehend Christs person and by that apprehension we are united to him 5. from which union proceeds the benefits 1. Of Justification 2. Of Sanctification 6. this Sanctification infuseth all other gracious Habits and hath two degrees 1. Regeneration 2. Renascentiam or the new birth What a multifarious division is here of that one single intire work which is called in Scripture the giving of the Spirit of holiness of the seed of God in us Which seed or life doth no more enter by piecemeal into the soul then the soul into the body And though to salve the Absurdity they tell us the difference is in nature and not in time yet that is impossible For there is mans act of believing intervenes who must have time for all his actions besides the division in order of nature is groundlesly asserted It much perplexeth them to resolve that doubt whether in sanctification faith and Repentance be infused over again which were before infused in vocation or whether all other graces are infused without them Dr. Ames seemes to resolve it in the Affirmative that they are infused again but with this difference 1. That faith in our vocation is not properly considered as a quality but in relation to Christ. 2. Nor is Repentance there looked at as a change of the disposition but as a change of the purpose and intent of the minde but in sanctification a reall change of qualities and dispositions is looked at Answer Strange doctrine for an Anti-Arminian However you consider it sure the habit or disposition is infused before those Acts are excited Act. 26.18 Or else what need we assert any habits at all If the spirit excites those holy acts of faith and repentance in an unholy Soul without any change of its disposition at the first why not ever after as well as then and so the soul be disposed one way and act another and so the Libertines doctrine be true That it is not we that believe and repent but the Spirit Or if these two solitary habits be infused in vocation why not the rest And why again in sanctification Doubtless that internal effectual Call of the spirit metaphorically so called is properly a real operation and that work hath the understanding and will for its object both being the Subject of faith in which the Habit is planted and faith now generally acknowledged to be an act of both And surely an unholy understanding and will cannot believe nor is faith an act of a dead but of a living soul Especially considering that a true spiritual knowledge is requisite either as a precedent act or essential part of true faith All which doth also warrant my putting of this Renewing work of the spirit in the first place and placing Sanctification in the sense before explained before justification The Apostle placeth clearly vocation before justification Rom. 8.30 Which vocation I have shewed is the same thing in a metaphorical term with this first Sanctification or Regeneration Though I know the stream of Interpreters do in explaining that Text make Sanctification to be included in Glorification when yet they can shew no real difference between it and effectual vocation before-named Certainly if Sanctification precede faith and faith precede Justification then
sinner hear and hath learned by it this great lesson This is the reason why affliction doth so ordinarily concur in the work of Conversion These real Arguments which speak to the quick will force a hearing when the most convincing and powerful words are slighted When a sinner made his credit his God and God shall cast him into lowest disgrace or bring him that idolized his riches into a condition wherein they cannot help him or cause them to take wing and flie away or the rust to corrupt and the thief to steal his adored god in a night or an hour what a help is here to this work of Conviction When a man that made his pleasure his god whether ease or sports or mirth or company or gluttony or drunkenness or cloathing or buildings or whatsoever a raging eye a curious ear a raging appetite or a lustful heart could desire and God shall take these from him or give him their sting and curse with them and turn them all into Gall and Wormwood what a help is here to this Conviction When God shall cast a man into languishing sickness and inflict wounds and anguish on his heart and stir up against him his own Conscience and then as it were take the sinner by the hand and lead him to credit to riches to pleasure to company to sports or whatsoever was dearest to him and say Now try if these can help you can these heal thy wounded conscience can they now support thy tottering cotage can they keep thy departing soul in thy body or save thee from mine everlasting wrath will they prove to thee eternal pleasures or redeem thy Soul from the eternal flames cry aloud to them and see now whether these will be instead of God and his Christ unto thee O how this works now with the sinner When sense it self acknowledgeth the truth and even the flesh is convinced of the Creatures vanity and our very deceiver is undeceived Now he despiseth his former Idols and calleth them all but silly Comforters Wooden Earthen Dirty gods of a few days old and quickly perishing He speaketh as contemptuously of them as Baruck of the Pagan Idols or our Martyrs of the Papists god of Bread which was yesterday in the Oven and is to morrow on the Dunghil He chideth himself for his former folly and pitieth those that have no higher happiness O poor Craesus Caesar Alexander thinks he how small how short was your happiness Ah poor riches base honors woful pleasures sad mirth ignorant learning defiled dunghil counterfeit righteousness poor stuff to make a god of simple things to save souls Wo to them that have no better a portion no surer saviours nor greater comforts then these can yield in their last and great distress and need In their own place they are sweet and lovely but in the place of God how contemptible and abominable They that are accounted excellent and admirable within the bounds of their own calling should they step into the throne and usurp Soveraignty would soon in the eyes of all be vile and insufferable 4. The fourth thing that the Soul is convinced and sensible of is The Absolute Necessity the Full Sufficiency and Perfect Excellency of Jesus Christ. It is a great Question Whether all the forementioned works are not common and onely preparations unto this They are preparatives and yet not common Every lesser work is a preparative to the greater and all the first works of Grace to those that follow so Faith is a preparative to our continual living in Christ to our Justification and Glory There are indeed common Convictions and so there is also a common Believing But this as in the former terms explained is both a sanctifying and saving work I mean a saving act of a sanctified Soul excited by the Spirits special Grace That it precedes Justification contradicts not this for so doth Faith it â—elf too Nor that it precedes Faith is any thing against it for I have shewed before that it is a part of Faith in the large sense and in the strict sense taken Faith is not the first gracious act much less that act of fiducial recumbency which is commonly taken for the justifying act Though indeed it is no one single act but many that are the condition of Justification This Conviction is not by meer Argumentation as a man is convinced of the verity of some inconcerning consequence by dispute but also by the sense of our desperate misery as a man in famine of the necessity of food or a man that hath read or heard his sentence of condemnation is convinced of the absolute necessity of pardon or as a man that lies in prison for debt is convinced of the necessity of a surety to discharge it Now the sinner findes himself in another case then ever he was before aware of he feels an insupportable burden upon him and sees there is none but Christ can take it off he perceives that he is under the wrath of God and that the Law proclaims him a Rebel and Out-law and none but Christ can make his peace he is as a man pursued by a Lyon that must perish if he finde not present sanctuary he feels the curse doth lie upon him and upon all he hath for his sake and Christ alone can make him blessed he is now brought to this Dilemma either he must have Christ to justifie him or be eternally condemned he must have Christ to save him or burn in Hell for ever he must have Christ to bring him again to God or be shut out of his presence everlastingly And now no wonder if he cry as the Martyr Lambert None but Christ none but Christ. It is not Gold but Bread that will satisfie the hungry nor any thing but pardon that will comfort the condemned All things are now but dross and dung and what we accounted gain is now but loss in comparison of Christ. For as the sinner seeth his utter misery and the disability of himself and all things to relieve him so he doth perceive that there is no saving mercy out of Christ The truth of the threatning and tenor of both Covenants do put him out of all such hopes There is none found in Heaven or Earth that can open the sealed Book save the Lamb without his blood there is no Remission and without Remission there is no Salvation Could the sinner now make any shift without Christ or could any thing else supply his wants and save his soul then might Christ be disregarded But now he is convinced that there is no other name and the necessity is absolute 2. And as the Soul is thus convinced of the necessity of Christ so also of his full sufficiency He sees though the Creature cannot and himself cannot yet Christ can Though the fig-leaves of our own unrighteous righteousness are too short to cover our nakedness yet the Righteousness of Christ is large enough Ours is
received as a Saviour Mediator Redeemer Reconciler Intercessor c. And all the precepts of Scripture being backed with so many promises and threatenings every one intended of God as a motive to us do imply as much If any think they should be distinguished as two several ends and Gods glory preferred so they separate them not asunder I contend not SECT X. 5. IN the Definition I call a Christians Happiness the end of his Course thereby meaning as Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 the whole scope of his life For as Salvation may and must be our end so not onely the end of our faith though that principally but of all our actions for as whatsoever we do must be done to the glory of God whether eating drinking c. so must they all be done to our Salvation That we may beleeve for Salvation some will grant who yet deny that we may do or obey for it I would it were well understood for the clearing of many controversies what the Scripture usually means by Faith Doubtless the Gospel takes it not so strictly as Philosophers do but in a larger sence for our obedience to all Gospel precepts To beleeve in his name and to receive him are all one but we must receive him as King as well as Saviour therefore beleeving doth not produce subjection as a fruit but contain it as an essential part except we say that Faith receives Christ as a Saviour first and so justifies before it take him for King as some think which is a maimed unsound and no Scripture faith I doubt not but the Soul more sensibly looks at Salvation from Christ then Government by him in the first work yet whatever precedaneous act there may be it never conceives of Christ to Justification nor knows him with the knowledg which is eternal life till it conceive of him and know him for Lord and King Therefore there is not such a difference between Faith and Gospel-obedience or Works as some judg Obedience to the Gospel is put for Faith and Disobedience put for Unbelief usually in the New Testament 6. Lastly I make Happiness to consist in this end obtained for it is not the meer promise of it that immediately makes perfectly happy nor Christs meer purchase nor our meer seeking but the Apprehending and obtaining which sets the Crown on the Saints head when we can say of our work as Christ of the price payd It is finished and as Paul I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth is layd up for me a crown of Salvation 2 Tim. 4.7 8. CHAP. III. What this Rest presupposeth SECT I. FOr the clearer understanding yet of the nature of this Rest you must know 1. There are some things necessarily presupposed to it 2. Some things really conteined in it 1. All these things are presupposed to this Rest. 1. A person in motion seeking Rest. SECT II. 2. AN End toward which he moveth for Rest Which End must be sufficient for his Rest else when 't is obtained it deceiveth him This can be onely God the chief good SECT III. 3. A Distance is presupposed from this End else there can be no motion towards it This sad distance is the woful case of all mankinde since the fall It was our God that we principally lost and were shut out of his gracious presence Though some talk of losing onely a temporal earthly felicity sure I am it was God we fell from and him we lost and since said to be without him in the world and there would have been no death but for sin and to enjoy God without death is neither an earthly nor temporal enjoyment Nay in all men at Age here is supposed not onely a distance from God but also a contrary motion For sin hath not overthrown our Being nor taken away our Motion but our well-being and the Rectitude of our motion When Christ comes with Regenerating Saving Grace he findes no man sitting still but all posting to eternal Ruine and making hast towards hell till by conviction he first bring them to a stand and by conversion turn first their hearts and then their lives sincerely to himself SECT IV. 4. HEre is presupposed a knowledg of the true ultimate End and its excellency for so the motion of the Rational Creature proceedeth An unknown end is no end it is a contradiction We cannot make that our end which we know not nor that our chief End which we know not or judg not to be the chief Good An unknown Good moves not to desire or endeavor Therefore where it is not truly known That God is this End and containeth all good in him there is no obtaining Rest. SECT V. 5. HEre is presupposed not onely a distance from this Rest but also the true knowledg of this distance If a man have lost his way and know it not he seeks not to return If he lose his gold and know it not he seeks it not Therefore they that never knew they were without God never yet enjoyed him and they that never knew they were naturally and actually in the way to Hell did never yet know the way to Heaven Nay there will not onely be a knowledg of this distance and lost estate but also affections answerable Can a man be brought to finde himself hard by the brink of hell and not tremble or to finde he hath lost his God and his Soul and not cry out I am undone Or can such a stupid Soul be so recovered This is the sad case of many thousands and the reason why so few obtain this Rest They will not be convinced or made sensible that they are in point of title distant from it and in point of practice contrary to it They have lost their God their Souls their Rest and do not know it nor will beleeve him that tells them so Who ever travelled towards a place which he thought he was at already or sought for that which he knew not he had lost The whole need not the Physician but they that are sick Mat. 9.12 SECT VI. 6. HEre is also supposed A superiour moving Cause and an influence there-from else should we all stand still and not move a step forward toward our Rest no more then the inferiour wheels in the Watch would stir if you take away the spring or the first mover This primum movens is God What hand God hath in evil Actions or whether he afford the like influence to their production I will not here trouble this Discourse and the Reader to dispute The case is clear in Good Actions If God move us not we cannot move Therefore is it a most necessary part of our Christian Wisdom to keep our subordination to God and dependance on him To be still in the path where he walks and in that way where his Spirit doth most usually move Take heed of being estranged or separated from God or of slacking your
Sanctification must needs precede Justification But if we may call that work of the spirit which infuseth the principle of life or holiness into the soul Sanctification then sanctification must needs go before faith For faith in the habit is part of that principle and faith in the act is a fruit of it Gods order is clearly set down in Acts 26.18 He first opens mens eyes and turnes them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and if they be yet unholy I know not what holiness is that they may receive remission of sins there 's their Justification and inheritance among the sanctified that which before was called opening their eyes and turning them is here called Sanctifying by faith that is in me the words by Faith is related to the Receiving of Remission of Sins and the Inheritance but not to the word Sanctified so also 2 Thes. 2.13 God hath before chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience obeying the Gospel is faith and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ there 's Justification so that you see to make faith precede sanctification and to bring in the habits of all other graces and for Justification to go between faith and them is quite against the Scripture order Indeed if Grevinchovius say true that there 's no Habits infused and the spirit work only as the Arminians affirm by an internal and external Swasion and no real physical alteration or infusing of new powers and habits then all this must be otherwise ordered In ascribing this Regeneration to the Spirit I do not intend to exclude the word yet I cannot allow it to be properly the Instrumental cause as the common opinion is Were it an instrument the Energy or Influx of the principal efficient must be first received into it and by it conveyed to the soul but that is an impossibility in Nature The voyce of the Preacher or Letters of the Book are not subjects capable of receiving Spiritual Life to convey to us the like also may be said of Sacraments None of the conditions of an Instrumental efficient cause are found in them The Principal and Instrumental produce one and the same effect But the word works not in the same way of causality with the Spirit yet doth it not follow that it is therefore useless or doth nothing to the work for both kindes of causality are necessary The Spirit works as the principal and onely efficient and hath no intervening instrument that can reach the soul but doth all his work immediately seeing it self alone can touch its object and so work by proper efficiency But the Word and Sacraments work morally onely by propounding the object in its qualifications as a man draws a Horse by shewing him his Provender And though there be some difficulty in resolving whether the propounding the object to the understanding by instruction and to the will and affections by perswasion do work under the efficient or under the final cause yet according to the common Judgment we here take the last for granted The Word then doth sanctifie by exciting of former principles to action which is a preparation to the receiving of the principle of Life and also by present exciting of the newly infused gracious principle and so producing our Actual converting and believing But how it can otherways concur to the infusing of that principle I yet understand not Indeed if no such principle be infused then the Word doth all and the Spirit onely enable the speaker or if any more its hard to discover what it is For whether there be any internal swasion of the Spirit immediately distinct from the external swasion of the Word and also from the Spirits efficacious changing Physical operation is a very great question and worth the considering But I have run on too far in this already This Spiritual Regeneration then is the first and great qualification of these People of God which though Habits are more for their Acts then themselves and are onely perceived in their Acts yet by its causes and effects we should chiefly enquire after To be the people of God without Regeneration is as impossible as to be the natural children of men without Generation seeing we are born Gods enemies we must be new-born his sons or else remain enemies still O that the unregenerate world did know or believe this In whose ears the new birth sounds as a Paradox and the great change which God works upon the soul is a strange thing Who because they never felt any such supernatural work upon themselves do therefore believe that there is no such thing but that it is the conceit and fantasie of idle brains Who make the terms of Regeneration Sanctification Holiness and Conversion a matter of common reproach and scorn though they are the words of the Spirit of God himself and Christ hath spoke it with his own mouth That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Alas how preposterous and vain is it to perswade these poor people to change some actions while their hearts are unchanged and to amend their ways while their natures are the same The greatest Reformation of Life that can be attained to without this new Life wrought in the Soul may procure their further Delusion but never their Salvation That general conceit that they were regenerated in their Baptism is it which furthers the deceit of many When there is an utter impossibility that Baptism should either principally or instrumentally work any Grace on the Soul of an Infant without a miracle for if it do it is either by a Physical and proper efficiency or else morally Not Physically which is more perhaps then the Papists say Because then first the water must be capable of receiving the Grace secondly And of approaching the soul in the application and conveyance both which are impossibilities in Nature Nor can it work morally where there is not the use of Reason to understand and consider of its signification The common shift is apparently vain to say That it works neither Physically nor Morally but Hyperphysically for though it may proceed from a supernatural cause and the work be such as nature cannot produce yet the kinde of operation is still either by a proper and real efficiency which is the meaning of the phrase of Physical operation or else improper and moral So that their Hyperphysical working is no third member nor overthrows that long received distinction if it were yet is not the water the capable instrument of this Hyperphysical operation God is a free agent and by meer concomitancy may make Baptism the season of Regenerating whom he please but that he never intended that Regeneration should be the end of Baptism I think may be easily proved and those two empty Treatises of Baptismal Regeneration as easily answered For men of age the matter
is out of question seeing Faith and Repentance is every where required of them to make them capable of Baptism and to make it the end of the Ordinance to effect that in Infants which is a prerequisite condition in all others is somewhat a strange fiction and hath nothing that I know considerable to underprop it Yet will it not follow that because Baptism cannot be an instrument of Regenerating Infants that therefore they have no right to it no more then because Circumcision could not confer with Grace therefore they should omit it They are as capable of the ends of Baptism as they were then of the ends of Circumcision Christ himself was not capable of all the ends of Baptism and yet being capable of some for those was he baptized So may Infants be as capable of some though not of all This Regeneration I call Through to distinguish it from those sleight tinctures and superficial changes which other men may partake of and yet Imperfect to distinguish our present from our future condition in Glory and that the Christian may know that it is sincerity not perfection which he must enquire after in his soul. SECT III. THus far the Soul is passive Let us next see by what acts this new Life doth discover it self and this Divine Spark doth break forth and how the soul touched with this Loadstone of the Spirit doth presently move toward God The first work I call Conviction which indeed comprehends several Acts. 1. Knowledg 2. Assent It comprehends the knowledg of what the Scripture speaks against sin and sinners and that this Scripture which so speaks is the Word of God himself Whosoever knows not both these is not yet thus convinced though it is a very great Question Whether this last be an act of Knowledg or of Faith I think of both It comprehends a sincere Assent to the verity of this Scripture as also some knowledg of our selves and our own guilt and an acknowledgment of the verity of those Consequences which from the premises of sin in us and threats in Scripture do conclude us miserable It hath been a great Question and disputed in whole Volumns which Grace is the first in the Soul where Faith and Repentance are usually the onely competitors I have shewed you before that in regard of the principle the power or habit whichsoever it be that is infused they are all at once being indeed all one and onely called several Graces from the diversity of their subject as residing in the several faculties of the soul the life and rectitude of which several faculties and affections are in the same sense several Graces as the Germane French British Seas are several Seas And for the Acts it is most apparent that neither Repentance nor Faith in the ordinary strict sense is first but Knowledg There is no act of the Rational Soul about any object preceding Knowledg Their evasion is too gross who tell us That Knowledg is no Grace or but a common act When a dead Soul is by the Spirit enlivened its first act is to know and why should it not exert a sincere act of Knowing as well as Believing and the sincerity of Knowledg be requisite as well as of Faith especially when Faith in the Gospel-sense is sometime taken largely containing many acts whereof Knowledg is one in which large sense indeed Faith is the first Grace This Conviction implyeth also the subduing and silencing in some measure of all their carnal Reasonings which were wont to prevail against the Truth and a discovery of the fallacies of all their former Argumentations 2. As there must be Conviction so also Sensibility God works on the Heart as well as the Head both were corrupted and out of order The principle of new Life doth quicken both All true Spiritual Knowledg doth pass into Affections That Religion which is meerly traditional doth indeed swim loose in the Brain and the Devotion which is kindled but by Men and Means is hot in the mouth and cold in the stomack The Work that had no higher rise then Education Example Custom Reading or Hearing doth never kindly pass down to the Affections The Understanding which did receive but meer notions cannot deliver them to the Affections as Realities The bare help of Doctrine upon an unrenewed Soul produceth in the Understanding but a superficial apprehension and half Assent and therefore can produce in the Heart but small sensibility As Hypocrites may know many things yea as many as the best Christian but nothing with the clear apprehensions of an experienced man so may they with as many things be slightly affected but they give deep rooting to none To read and hear of the worth of Meat and Drink may raise some esteem of them but not such as the hungry and thirsty feel for by feeling they know the worth thereof To view in the Map of the Gospel the precious things of Christ and his Kingdom may slightly affect But to thirst for and drink of the living waters and to travel to live in to be heir of that Kingdom must needs work another kinde of Sensibility It is Christs own differencing Mark and I had rather have one from him then from any that the good ground gives the good Seed deep rooting but some others entertain it but into the surface of the soyl and cannot afford it depth of Earth The great things of Sin of Grace and Christ and Eternity which are of weight one would think to move a Rock yet shake not the heart of the carnal Professor nor pierce his soul unto the quick Though he should have them all ready in his Brain and be a constant Preacher of them to others yet do they little affect himself When he is pressing them upon the hearts of others most earnestly and crying out on the senslesness of his dull hearers you would little think how insensible is his own soul and the great difference between his tongue and his heart His study and invention procureth him zealous and moving expressions but they cannot procure him answerable affections It is true some soft and passionate Natures may have tears at command when one that is truly gracious hath none yet is this Christian with dry eyes more solidly apprehensive and deeply affected then the other is in the midst of his tears and the weeping Hypocrite will be drawn to his sin again with a trifle which the groaning Christian would not be hired to commit with Crowns and Kingdoms The things that the Soul is thus convinced and sensible of are especially these in the Description mentioned 1. The evil of sin The sinner is made to know and feel that the sin which was his delight his sport the support of his credit and estate is indeed a more loathsom thing then Toads or Serpents and a greater evil then Plague or Famine or any other calamity It being a breach of the righteous
sincerely shall be Justified and Saved there is requisite in us 1. A Certainty of Knowledg That such a Proposition is written in Scripture 2. A Certainty of Assent or Faith That this Scripture is the Word of God and True Also in respect of the Minor Proposition But I do sincerely Believe or Love c. there is requisite 1. A Certainty of the Truth of our Faith in point of Being 2. And a Certainty of its Truth in point of Morality or Congruence with the Rule or its Right-being And then followeth Assurance which is the Certainty that the Conclusion Therefore I am Justified c. followeth necessarily upon the former Premises Here also you must carefully distinguish betwixt the several degrees of Assurance All Assurance is not of the highest degree It differs in strength according to the different degrees of Apprehension in all the forementioned Points of Certainty which are necessary thereunto He that can truly raise the foresaid Conclusion That he is Justified c. from the Premises hath some degree of Assurance though he do it with much weakness and staggering and doubting The weakness of our Assurance in any one point of the premises will accordingly weaken our Assurance in the Conclusion Some when they speak of Certainty of Salvation do mean only such a Certainty as excludeth all doubting and think nothing else can be called Certainty but this high degree Perhaps some Papists mean this when they deny a Certainty Some also maintain That Saint Paul's Plerophory or full Assurance is this Highest degree of Assurance and that some Christians do in this life attain to it But Paul calls it Full Assurance in comparison of lower degrees and not because it is perfect For if Assurance be perfect then also our Certainty of Knowledg Faith and Sense in the â—â—â—mises must be perfect And if some Grace perfect why not all and so we turn Novatians Catharists Perfectionists Perhaps in some their Certainty may be so great that it may overcome all sensible doubting or sensible stirrings of Unbelief by reason of the sweet and powerful Acts and Effects of that Certainty And yet it doth not overcome all Unbelief and Uncertainty so as to expel or nullifie them but a certain measure of them remaineth still Even as when you would heat cold water by the mixture of hot you may pour in the hot so long till no coldness is felt and yet the water may be far from the highest degree of heat So faith may suppress the sensible stirrings of unbelief and Certainty prevail against all the trouble of uncertainty and yet be far from the highest degree So that by this which is said you may Answer the Question What Certainty is to be attained in this Life and what Certainty it is that we press men to labour for and expect Furthermore you must be sure to distinguish betwixt Assurance it self and the Joy and Strength and other sweet Effects which follow Assurance or which immediately accompany it It is possible that there may be Assurance and yet no comfort or little There are many unskilful but self-conceited Disputers of late fitter to manage a club then an Argument who tell us That it must be the Spirit that must Assure us of our Salvation and not our Marks and Evidences of Grace That our comfort must not be taken from any thing in our selves That our Justification must be immediately believed and not proved by our Signs or Sanctification c. Of these in order 1. It is as wise a Question to ask Whether our Assurance come from the Spirit or our Evidences or our Faith c as to ask whether it be our meat or our stomack or our teeth or our hands that feed us Or whether it be our Eye-sight or the Sun-light by which we see things They are distinct Causes all necessary to the producing of the same Effect So that by what hath bin said you may discern That the Spirit and Knowledg and Faith and Scripture inward Holines and Reason and inward Sense or Conscience have all several parts and necessary uses in producing our Assurances which I will shew you distinctly 1. To the Spirit belong these particulars 1. He hath indited those Scriptures which contain the promise of our Pardon and Salvation 2. He giveth us the habit or power of Believing 3. He helpeth us also to Believe Actually That the Word is true and to receive Christ and the priviledges offered in the promise 4. He worketh in us those Graces and exciteth those Gracious Acts within us which are the Evidences or Marks of our interest pardon and Life He helpeth us to perform those Acts which God hath made to be the Condition of Pardon and Glory 5. He helpeth us to feel and discover these Acts in our selves 6. He helpeth us to compare them with the Rule and finding out their qualifications to Judg of their Sincerity and Acceptation with God 7. He helpeth our Reason to Conclude rightly of our State from our Acts. 8. He enliveneth and heighteneth our Apprehension in these particulars that our Assurance may accordingly be strong and lively 9. He exciteth our Joy and filleth with comfort when he pleaseth upon this Assurance None of all these could we perform well of our selves 2. The Part which the Scripture hath in this Work is 1. It affordeth us the Major Proposition That whosoever Believeth Sincerely shall be saved 2. It is the Rule by which our Acts must be tryed that we may Judg of their Moral Truth 3. The Part that Knowledg hath in it is to Know that the foresaid Proposition is written in Scripture 4. The Work of Faith is to Believe the Truth of that Scripture and to be the matter of one of our chief Evidences 5. Our Holiness and true Faith as they are Marks and Evidences are the very Medium of our Argument from which we Conclude 6. Our Conscience and internal Sense do acquaint us with both the Being and Qualifications of our inward Acts which are this Medium and which are called Marks 7. Our Reason or Discourse is Necessary to form the Argument and raise the Conclusion from the Premises and to compare our Acts with the Rule and Judg of their Sincerity c. So that you see our Assurance is not an Effect of any one single Cause alone And so neither meerly of Faith by Signs or by the Spirit From all this you may gather 1. What the Seal of the Spirit is to wit the Works or fruits of the Spirit in us 2. What the testimony of the Spirit is for if it be not some of the forementioned Acts I yet know it not 3. What the Testimony of Conscience is And if I be not mistaken the Testimony of the Spirit and the Testimony of Conscience are two concurrent Testimonies or Causes to produce one and the same Effect and to afford the Premises to the same Conclusion and then to raise our Joy thereupon So
that they may well be said to Witness Together Not one laying down the intire Conclusion of it self That we are the Children of God and then the other attesting the same entirely again of it self But as concurrent Causes to the same Numerical Conclusion But this with Submission to better Judgments and further Search By this also you may see that the common distinction of Certainty of Adherence and Certainty of Evidence must be taken with a grain or two of salt For there is no Certainty without Evidence no more then there is a Conclusion without a Medium A small degree of Certainty hath some small glimpse of Evidence Indeed 1. the Assent to the truth of the promise 2. and the Acceptation of Christ offered with his benefits are both before and without any sight or consideration of Evidence and are themselves our best Evidence being that Faith which is the Condition of our Justification But before any man can in the least Assurance conclude that he is the Child of God and Justified he must have some Assurance of that Mark or Evidence For who can conclude Absolutely that he shall receive the thing contained in a Conditional Promise till he know that he hath performed the Condition For those that say There is no Condition to the New Covenant I think them not worthy a word of confutation And for their Assertion That we are bound immediately to Believe that we are Justified and in special Favour with God It is such as no man of competent knowledg in the Scripture and belief of its truth can once imagine For if every man must believe this then most must believe a lye for they never shall be Justified yea all must at first believe a lye for they are not Justified till they believe and the believing that they are Justified is not the faith which Justifieth them If only some men must believe this how shall it be known who they be The truth is That we are Justified is not properly to be Believed at all For nothing is to be Believed which is not written but it is no where written that you or I are Justified only one of those premises is written from whence we may draw the Conclusion That we are Justified if so be that our own hearts do afford us the other of the Premises So that Our Actual Justification is not a matter of meer Faith but a Conclusion from Faith and Conscience together If God have no where promised to any man Justification immediately without Condition then no man can so believe it but God hath no where promised it Absolutely therefore c. Nor hath he declared to any man that is not first a Believer that he loveth him with any more then a common love Therefore no more can be believed but a common love to any such For the Eternal Love and Election is manifest to no man before he is a Believer SECT V. 2. HAving thus shewed you what Examination is and what Assurance is I come to the second thing promised To shew you That such an Infallible Certainty of Salvation may be attained and ought to be laboured for though a Perfect Certainty cannot here be attained And that Examination is the means to attain it In which I shall be the briefer because many writers against the Papists on this point have said enough already Yet somewhat I will say 1. because it is the common conceit of the Ignorant Vulgar That an Infallible Certainty cannot be attained 2. and many have taught and printed That it is only the Testimony of the Spirit that can assure us and that this proving our Justification by our Sanctification and searching after Marks and Signs in our selves for the procuring of Assurance is a dangerous and deceitful way Thus we have the Papists the Antinomians and the ignorant Vulgar conspiring against this doctrine of Assurance and Examination Which I maintain against them by these Arguments 1. Scripture tells us we may know that the Saints before us have known their Justification and future Salvation 2 Cor. 5.1 Rom. 8.36 Joh. 21.15 1 Joh. 5.19 4.13 3.14 24. 2.3 5. Rom. 8.15 16 36. Ephes. 3.12 I refer you to the places for brevity 2. If we may be certain of the Premises then may we also be certain of the undenyable Conclusion of them But here we may be certain of both the Premises For 1. That whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but shall have everlasting life is the voyce of the Gospel and therefore that we may be sure of That we are such Believers may be known by Conscience and internal Sense I know all the question is in this Whether the Moral Truth or Sincerity of our Faith and other Graces can be known thus or not And that it may I prove thus 1. From the natural use of this Conscience and internal Sense which is to acquaint us not only with the Being but the Qualifications of the Acts of our Souls All voluntary Motions are Sensible And though the heart is so deceitful that no man can certainly know the heart of another and with much difficulty clearly know their own yet by diligent observation and examination known they may be for though our inward Sense and Conscience may be depraved yet not extirpated or quite â—â—â—â—inguished 2. The Commands of Believing Repenting c. were in Vain especially as the Condition of the Covenant if we could not know whether we perform them or not 3. The Scripture would never make such a wide difference between the Godly and the Wicked the Children of God and the Children of the Devil and set forth the happiness of the one and the misery of the other so largely and make this Difference to run through all the veins of its doctrine if a man cannot know which of these two estates he is in 4. Much less would the Holy Ghost urge us to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure if it could not be done 2 Pet. 1.10 And that this is not meant of Objective Certainty but of Subjective appeareth in this That the Apostle mentioneth not Salvation or any thing to come but Calling and Election which to Believers were Objectively Certain before as being both past 5. And to what purpose should we be so earnestly urged to examine and prove and try our selves Whether we be in the Faith and whether Christ be in us or we be Reprobates 1 Cor. 11.28 and 2 Cor. 13.5 Why should we search for that which cannot be found 6. How can we obey those precepts which require us to Rejoyce always 1 Thes. 5.16 to call God our Father Luk. 11.2 to live in his Praises Psal. 49.1 2 3 4 5. and to long for Christs Coming Rev. 22.17 20. 1 Thes. 1.10 and to comfort our selves with the mention of it 1 Thes. 4.18 which are all the Consequents of Assurance Who can do any of these heartily that is not
wilt not accept them Why dost thou therefore stand whining and complaining that thou art not Pardoned and Adopted when thou shouldst take them being offered thee Were he not mad that would lie weeping and wringing his hands because he is not pardoned when his Prince stands by all the while offering him a pardon and intreating and threatning and perswading and correcting him and all to make him take it What would you say to such a man Would you not chide him for his folly and say If thou wouldst have Pardon and Life why dost thou not take it Why then do you not say the like to your selves Know ye not that Pardon and Adoption are offered you only on the Condition of your Believing And this Believing is nothing else but the Accepting of Christ for thy Lord and Saviour as he is offered to thee with his benefits in the Gospel And this Accepting is principally if not only the Act of thy Will So that if thou be willing to have Christ upon his own terms that is to Save and Rule thee then thou art a Believer Thy willingness is thy Faith And if thou have Faith thou hast the surest of all Evidences Justifying Faith is not thy Perswasion of Gods special Love to thee or of thy Justification but thy Accepting Christ to make thee Just and Lovely It may be thou wilt say I cannot Believe It is not so easie a matter to Believe as you make it Answ. Indeed to those that are not willing it is not easie God only can make them willing But to him that is willing to have Christ for King and Saviour I will not say Believing is easie but it is already performed for this is Believing Let me therefore put this Question to every doubting complaining Soul What is it that thou art complaining and mourning for What makes thee walk so sadly as thou dost Because thou hast not Christ and his benefits Why art thou willing to have them on the forementioned Condition or art thou not If thou be Willing thou hast him Thy Accepting is thy Believing To as many as Receive him that is Accept him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God even to them that Believe on his Name Joh. 1.12 But if thou art not Willing why dost thou Complain Methinks the tongue should follow the bent of the heart or Will And they that would not have Christ should be speaking against him at least against his Laws and Ways and not complaining because they do not enjoy him Dost thou groan and make such moan for want of that which thou wouldst not have If indeed thou wouldst not have Christ for thy King and Saviour then have I nothing to say but to perswade thee to be Willing Is it not madness then to lie complaining that we have not Christ when we may have him if we will If thou have him not take him and cease thy complaints Thou canst not be so forward and willing as he is And if He be Willing and thou be Willing who shall break the Match I will not say as Mr Saltmarsh most horridly doth That we ought no more to Question our Faith which is our first and foundation Grace then we ought to Question Christ the Foundation of our Faith But this I say That it were a more wise and direct course to Accept Christ offered which is Believing then to spend so much time in doubting whether we have Christ and Faith or no. SECT XII 3. ANother Cause of many Christians trouble is Their mistaking Assurance for the Joy that sometime accompanieth it or at least confounding them together Therefore when they want the Joy of Assurance they are as much cast down as if they wanted Assurance it self Doctor Sibbs saith well That as we cannot have Grace but by the work of the Spirit so must there be a further Act to make us Know that we have that Grace and when we Know we have Grace yet must there be a further Act of the Spirit to give us Comfort in that Knowledg Some Knowledg or Assurance of our Regenerate and Justified Estate the Spirit gives more ordinarily but that sensible Joy is more seldom and extraordinary We have cause enough to keep off doubtings and distress of spirit upon the bare sight of our Evidences though we do not feel any further Joys This these complaining Souls understand not and therefore though they cannot deny their willingness to have Christ nor many other the like Graces which are infallible Signs of their Justification and Adoption yet because they do not feel their spirits replenished with comforts they throw away all as if they had nothing As if a Child should no longer take himself for a son then he sees the smiles of his Fathers face or heareth the comfortable expressions of his mouth And as if the Father did cease to be a Father when ever he ceaseth those smiles and speeches SECT XIII 4. ANd yet further is the trouble of these poor Souls increased in that They know not the ordinary way of Gods conveying these expected Comforts When they hear that they are the free gifts of the Spirit they presently conceive themselves to be meerly passive therein and that they have nothing to do but to wait when God will bestow them Not understanding that though these Comforts are Spiritual yet are they Rational raised upon the Understandings apprehension of the Excellency of God our Happiness and of our Interest in him and by the rolling of this blessed Object in our frequent Meditations The Spirit doth advance and not destroy our Reason It doth rectifie it and then use it as its ordinary instrument for the conveyance of things to our Affections and exciting them accordingly and not lay it aside and Affect us without it Therefore our Joys are raised discoursively and the Spirit first revealeth our Cause of Joy and then helpeth us to Rejoyce upon those revealed grounds So that he who Rejoyceth groundedly knoweth why he Rejoyceth ordinarily Now these mistaken Christians lie waiting when the Spirit doth cast in these Comforts into their hearts while they sit still and labour not to excite their own Affections Nay while they Reason against the Comforts which they wait for These men must be taught to know that the matter of their Comfort is in the Promises and thence they must fetch it as oft as they expect it And that if they set themselves dayly and diligently to Meditate of the Truth of those Promises and of the rare excellency contained in them and of their own title thereto in this way they may expect the Spirits assistance for the raising of holy Comfort in their Souls But if they lie still bewailing their want of Joy while the full and free Promises lie by them and never take them and rip them up and look into them and apply them to their hearts by Serious Meditation They may complain for want of Comfort long
4. punct 4. * That it is not properly any act of faith at all much less the Justifying Act to Believe that my sins are pardoned or that Christ dyed in a special sence for Me or that I am a Believer or that I shall be saved Besides what I have said in the Appendix to my Aphorisms of Justification I refer you for satisfaction to Judicious Mr Anth Wotton de Reconciliat Part. 1. Lib. 2. Cap. 15. N. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Pag. 87 88 89 90 c. * I use the word Evidence all along in the vulgar sence as the same with Signs and not in the proper sence as the Schools do * Therefore that saying of Cajetane is not so much to be valued as by some of our Divines it is Certitudine fidei quilibet scit certo se habere donum infusum fidei idque absque formidine alterius partis Except he take Certitudo fidei in a very large improper sence * Read Gataker Shadows without Substances pag. 83 84. * The distinction in the Schools used of Certitudo fidei Certitudo Evidentiae I deny not But that hath a quite different sence from this as it is used * Therefore I say not that our first Comfort much less our Justification is procured by the sight of Evidences But our Assurance is * Their common Error That Justifying faith is nothing else but a perswasion more or less of the Love of God to us is the Root of this and many more mistakes To Justifie us and to Assure us that we are Justified are quite different things and procured by different ways and at several times usually Vid. Aquin. ad 1. Sent. dist 17. art 1.2 3. q. 112. Scotum ad 3. Sent. dis 23. q. unicâ Bonavent 1. Sent. q. 17. Biel in 2. Sent. dist 27. q. 3. §. 5. * Yet I believe that their divines have some of them made the difference betwixt us and the Papists seem wider then it is as do these words of one of them Ex hoc unico articulo quantumvis minutus a plerisque reputari queat universus Papatus Lutheranismus dependet Martinus Eisengrenius initio Apolog. de Cert Salv. And so have some of our Divines on the other side as Luther in Gen. 41. Etiamsi nihil preterea peccatum esset in doctrina pontificia just as habemus causas cur ab ecclesia infideli nos sejungeremus §. 6. Hindrances of Examination 1. Satan Judg. 4.19 21. Judg. 16.21 §. 7. Read on thâ—s Subject Mr. Young his Books which handle it fully Luke 13.24 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 1 King 22.5 6 §. 8. * Or as Mr. Saltmarsh saith every man is bound to believe but no man to Question whether he believe or no. p. 92 93 And this Faith he saith is a being perswaded more or less of Christs love p. 94. So that by this Doctrine every man is bound to believe that Christ loveth him and not to question his belief If it were only Christs common love he might thus believe it but a special love to him is no where written §. 9. Hinderances which keep many that do Examine from attaining strong Assurance cause many to be deâ—ceived Mat. 19.20 §. 10. Some further Hinderances which keep some Christians without Assurance and Comfort Remedy §. 11. You sit poreing â— searching for pillers of hope within you be-bestow much pains to answer your own fears but the ready way to make the business clear is by going to Christ. Stand not so much upon this Question Whether you have believ'd in truth or no but put al out of doubt by a present faith The door is open enter live You may more easily build a new fabrick of comfort by 〈…〉 then repair your old dwâ—lling and clear all suits that are brought against your tenure Simonds Deserted Soul pag. 554. Flowings of Christs Blood c. pag. 95. §. 12. Mr Paul Bayne I think one of the holiest choicest men that ever England bred yet describeth the temper of his spirit thus I thank God in Christ sustentation I have but Su vâ—ties Spiritual I taste not any In his Letters §. 13. In watchfulness and dâ—ligence we sooner meet with comfort then in idle complaining Our Care therefore should be to get sound Evidence of a good estate then to keep those Evidences clear Dâ— Sibbs Preface to Souls Conflict As if a poor man should complain for want of money when a chest full stands by him and he may take what he wil Is it not better take it out then lie complaining for want §. 14. God wil keep the rich store of consistent and abiding comforts till the great day that when all the family shall come together he may pour out the fulness of his hidden treasures on them We are now in the morning of the day the feast is to come a breakefast must serve to stay the stomack till the King of Saints with all his friends sit down together Simonds Deserted Soul pag. 507. §. 15. So some think they are Gods people because they are of such a party or such a strict opinion and when they change their opinion they change their comfort Some that could have no comfort while they were among the Orthodox as soon as they have turned to such or such a Sect have comfort in abundance partly through Satans delusion and partly because they think their change in Opinion hath set them right with God and therefore they rejoyce So many Hypocrites whose Religion lieth only in their Opinions hâ—ve their Comfort also only there §. 16. §. 17. When men dally with sin and will be playing with snares and baits allow a secret liberty in the heart to sin conniving at many workings of it and not setting upon mortification with earnest endeavors though they be convinced yet they are not perswaded to arise with all their might against the Lords enemies but do his work negligently which is an accursed thing for this God casteth them upon sore straits Simonds Deserted Soul c. pag. 521.522 Some would have men after the committing of gross sin to be presently comfortable and believe without humbling themselves at all Indeed when we are once in Christ we ought not to question our state in him c. But yet a guilty conscience will be clamorous and full of Objections and God will not speak peace to it till it be humbled God will let his best children know what it is to be too bold with sin c. Dr Sibbs Souls Conflict Preface §. 18. See Dr Sibs Souls Conflict pag. 480 481. ☜ Souls Conflict pag. 480 481. Men experimentally feel that comfort in doing that which belongs unto them which before they longed for and went without Dr Sibbs Souls Conflict pag. 45. * Preface to Souls Conflict §. 19. Non est mirum si â—imenâ— Melancholici quia causam timoris continuo secum portant Anima enim estiâ—voluta cum caligine tenebrosa et
and men of Command p. 504 5. To Ministers Five means which they must use p. 506 6. To Parents and masters of Families Severall Considerations to urge them to the performance p. 527 Some of their objections answered p. 537 Directions to Parents for teaching their Children p. 546 The summe or Fundamentals of Divinity which Children and others must first be taught p. 548 Some further Directions only named p. 550 The Contents of the Fourth Part. CHAP. I. REproving our expectation of Rest on earth with divers Reasons against it p. 559 â—hap 2. Reproving our lothness to die and go to our Rest. p. 574 The hainous aggravations of this sin p. 575 Considerations against it and to make us willing and objections answered p. 583 â—hap 3. A Directory for a heavenly life 1. Reproof of our unheavenliness and Exhortation to set our hearts above p. 598 Twelve moving considerations to heavenly-mindedness p. 604 â—hap 4. Seven great Hindrances of heavenliness to be avoided p 645 â—hap 5. Ten general Helps to a heavenly life p. 668 â—hap 6. The great duty of heavenly meditation described and the Description explained p. 686 â—hap 7. Directions 1. Concerning the fittest Time for this Meditation p. 696 2. Concerning the fittest Place p. 712 3. Concerning the preparation of the heart to it p. 714 Chap. 8. Of Consideration and what power it hath to move the soul. p. 718 Chap. 9. What faculties and affections must be acted in this Contemplation p. 724 By what objects and considerations and in what order ibid. More particularly 1. The exercise of Judgment p. 725 2. The acting of Faith p. 728 3. The acting of Love p. 731 4. The acting of Desire p 736 5. The acting of Hope p. 739 6. The acting of Courage or holy Boldness and Resolution p. 742 7. The acting of Joy p. 744 Chap. 10. By what Actings of the soul to proceed to this work of heavenly Contemplation beside Cogitation p. 749 As 1. Soliloquy Its parts and method p 750 2. Speaking to God p. 754 Chap. 11. Some advantages for raising and affecting the soul in its Meditations of Heaven In generall by making use of sense or sensitive things p 756 Particularly 1. By raising strong suppositions from sense p. 759 2. By comparing the objects of Sense with the objects of Faith p. 761 Twelve helps by comparison to be affected with the Joys of Heaven p. 76â— Chap. 12. Direction how to manage and watch over the heart whiâ—â— we are in this work of Contemplation p. 781 Chap. 13. An abstract or brief summe of all for the help of the weak p. 787 Chap. 14. An example of the acting of Judgment Faith Love Joy and Desire by this duty of Heavenly Meditation p. 790 The Conclusion commending this duty from its necessity and excellency p. 83â— THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. CHAP. I. HEBR. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God SECT I. IT was not only our interest in God and actual fruition of him which was lost in Adams Covenant-breaking fall but all spiritual knowledg of him and true disposition towards such a felicity Man hath now a heart too suitable to his estate A low state and a low spirit And as some expound that of Luk. 18.8 when the Son of God comes with Recovering Grace and discoveries and tenders of a spiritual and eternal Happiness and Glory he findes not faith in man to beleeve it But as the poor man that would not beleeve that any one man had such a sum as an hundred pound it was so far above what he possessed So man will hardly now beleeve that there is such a Happiness as once he had much less as Christ hath now procured When God would give the Israelites his Sabbaths of Rest in a Land of Rest he had more ado to make them beleeve it then to overcome their enemies and procure it for them And when they had it only as a small intimation earnest of a more incomparably glorious Rest through Christ they stick there and will yet beleeve no more then they do possess but sit down and say as the Glutton at the feast Sure there 's no other Heaven but this Or if they do expect more by the Messiah it is only the increase of their earthly felicity The Apostle bestows most of this Epistle against this distemper and clearly and largely proves unto them That it 's the end of all Ceremonies and Shadows to direct them to Jesus Christ the Substance and that the Rest of Sabbaths and Canaan should teach them to look for a further Rest which indeed is their Happiness My Text is his Conclusion after divers Arguments to that end a Conclusion so useful to a Beleever as containing the ground of all his comforts the end of all his duty and sufferings the life and sum of all Gospel-promises and Christian-priviledges that you may easily be satisfied why I have made it the subject of my present Discourse What more welcome to men under personal afflictions tiring duty successions of sufferings then Rest What more welcom news to men under publick calamities unpleasing employments plunderings losses sad tydings c. which is the common case then this of Rest Hearers I pray God your attentions intention of spirit entertainment and improvement of it be but half answerable to the verity necessity and excellency of this Subject and then you will have cause to bless God while you live that ever you heard it as I have that ever I studied it SECT II. THe Text is as you may see the Apostles Assertion in an entire proposition with the concluding illative The Subject is Rest The Predicate It yet Remains to the people of God It s requisite we say somewhat briefly 1. For Explication of the terms 2. Of the Subject of them Therefore i. e. It clearly follows from the former Argument There Remains 1. In order of speaking As the Consequence follows the Antecedent or the Conclusion the Premises So there Remains a Rest or it remains that there is another Rest. 2. But rather in order of being As the bargain remains after the earnest the performance after the promise the Anti-type after the Type and the ultimate end after all the means so there remains a Rest To the People of God God hath a two-fold people within the Church One his only by a common vocation by an external acceptation of Christ and covenanting sanctified by the blood of the Covenant so far as to be separated from the open enemies of Christ and all without the Church therefore not to be accounted common and unclean in the sence as Jews and Pagans are but holy and Saints in a larger sence as the Nation of the Jews and all Proselited Gentiles were holy before Christs coming These are called Branches in Christ not bearing fruit and shall be cut off c. for they are in the Church and in him by the foresaid profession and external Covenant but
Hope our Diligence of all Mercies of all Ordinances as before is proved It is not for themselves but for this Rest that all these are desired and used Praying is not the end of Praying nor Preaching the end of Preaching nor Beleeving the end of Beleeving these are but the way to him who is the way to this Rest. Indeed Christ himself is both the way and the Rest the means and the end singularly desireable as the way but yet more as the end If any thing then that ever you saw or enjoyed appear lovely and desireable then must its end be so much more SECT II. 2. IN order of Good the last is still the Best For all good tends to perfection The end is still the last enjoyed though first intended Now this Rest is the Saints last estate Their beginning was as a Grain of Mustard-seed but their perfection will be an estate high and flourishing They were taken with David from the sheep-fold to reign as Kings for ever Their first Day was a day of small things but their last will be an everlasting perfection They sowed in tears but they reap in Joy If their prosperity here their res secundae were desireable much more their res ultimae their final Blessedness Rondeletius saw a Priest at Rome who would fall down in an Extasie when ever he heard those words of Christ Consummatum est It is finished but observing him careful in his fall ever to lay his head in a soft place he suspected the dissimulation and by the threats of a cudgel quickly recovered him But methinks the fore-thoughts of that Consummation and last estate we speak of should bring a considering Christian into such an unfeigned Extasie that he should even forget the things of the flesh and no care or fear should raise him out of it Surely that is well which ends well and that 's Good which is Good at last and therefore Heaven must needs be Good SECT III. 3. ANother Rule is this That whose absence or loss is the worst or thâ— greatest evil must needs it self be best or the greatest Good And is there a greater loss then to lose this Rest If you could ask the Restless Souls that are shut out of it they would tell you more sensibly then I can For as none know the sweetness like those who enjoy it so none know the loss like those that are deprived of it Wicked men are here sensless of the loss because they know not what they lose and have the delights of flesh and sense to take them up and make them forget it But when they shall know it to their Torment as the Saints do to their Joy and when they shall see men from the East and West sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and themselves shut out when they shall know both what they have lost and for what and why they lost it surely there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth He that loseth Riches may have more and he that loseth honor may repair it or if not yet he is not undone He that loseth life may save it But what becomes of him that loseth God and who or what shall repair his loss We can bear the loss of any thing below if we have it not we can either live without it or dye and live eternally without it But can we do so without God in Christ As God gives us outward things as auctuaries as over-plus or above measure into our bargain so when he takes them from us he takes away our superfluities rather then our necessaries and pareth but our nails and toucheth not the quick But can we so spare our part in Glory You know whose Question it is What shall it profit a man to win all the world and lose his own Soul will it prove a saving match Or what shall a man give for the ransom of his Soul Christians compare but all your losses with that loss and all your sufferings with that suffering and I hope you will lay your hand upon your mouth and cease your repining thoughts for ever SECT IV. 4. ANother Rule is this That which cannot be given by man or taken away by man is ever better then that which can And then I hope Heaven will carry it For who hath the Key of the everlasting Treasures And who is the Disposer of the Dignities of the Saints Who saith Come ye Blessed and go ye Cursed Is it the voyce of God or of meer man If every good and perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights whence then cometh the gift of Eternal Light with the Father Whose priviledg soever it is to be Key-keepers of the visible Churches here below sure no meer man but the Man of Sin will challenge the Keyes of that Kingdom and undertake to shut out or take in or to dispose of that Treasure of the Church We may be beholden to men as Gods instruments for our Faith but no further For what is Paul or who is Apolio but Ministers by whom we beleeved even as the Lord gave to every man Surely every step to that Glory every gracious gift and act every deliverance and mercy to the Church shall be so clearly from God that his very name shall be written in the forehead of it and his excellent Attributes stampt upon it that he who runs may read it was the work of God and the Question may easily be answered whether it be from Heaven or of men Much more evidently is that Glory the gift of the God of Glory What can man give God or earth and dust give Heaven Surely no! And as much is it beyond them to deprive us of it Tyrants and persecutors may take away our Goods but not our chief Good our Liberties here but not that state of Freedom our Heads but not our Crown You can shut us up in Prisons and shut us out of your Church and Kingdom but now shut us out of Heaven if you can Try in lower attempts Can you deny us the light of the Sun and cause it to forbear its shining Can you stop the influences of the Planets or deny us the dew of Heaven or command the Clouds to shut up their womb or stay the course of the flowing streams or seal up the passages of the deep how much less can you deprive us of our God or deny us the light of his countenance or stop the influences of his Spirit or forbid the dew of his Grace to fall or stay the streams of his Love and shut up his overflowing ever-flowing Springs or seal up the bottomless depth of his bounty You can kill our Bodies if he permit you but try whether you can reach our Souls Nay it is not in the Saints own power to give to or take away from themselves this Glory So that according to this Rule there 's no state like the Saints Rest.
review of which intire work there is no doubt but his soul may take comfort And it is not to be made so light of as most do nor put by with a wet finger That Scripture doth so ordinarily put Repentance before Faith and make them joyntly conditions of the Gospel Which Repentance contains those acts of the Wills aversion from sin and Creatures before exprest It is true if we take Faith in the largest sense of all then it contains Repentance in it but if we take it strictly no doubt there is some acts of it go before Repentance and some follow after Yet is it not of much moment which of the acts before mentioned we shall judg to precede Whether our aversion from sin and renouncing our Idols or our right receiving Christ seeing it all composeth but one work which God doth ever perfect where he beginneth but one step and layeth but one stone in sincerity And the moments of time can be but few that interpose between the several acts Yet though the disposition to all gracious acts be given at once I conceive in our Actual turning the term from which in order of nature is considerable before the term to which we turn If any object That every Grace is received from Christ and therefore must follow our receiving him by Faith I answer There be receivings from Christ before believing and before our receiving of Christ himself Such is all that work of the Spirit that brings the soul to Christ There is a passive receiving before the active Both power and act of Faith are in order of Nature before Christ actually received and the power of all other gracious acts is as soon as that of Faith Though Christ give pardon and Salvation upon condition of believing yet he gives not a new heart a soft heart Faith it self nor the first true Repentance on that condition No more then he gives the Preaching of the Gospel the Spirits motions to believe c. upon a pre-requisite condition of believing SECT V. 4. ANd as the Will is thus averted from the fore-mentioned objects so at the same time doth it cleave to God the Father and to Christ. Its first acting in order of Nature is toward the whole Divine Essence and it consists especially in electing and desiring God for his portion and chief Good Having before been convinced That nothing else can be his happiness he now findes it is in God and there looks toward it But it is yet rather with desire then hope For alas the sinner hath already found himself to be a stranger and enemy to God under the guilt of sin and curse of his Law and knows there is no coming to him in peace till his case be altered And therefore having before been convinced also That onely Christ is able and willing to do this and having heard this mercy in the Gospel freely offered his next act is Secondly to accept most affectionately of Christ for Saviour and Lord. I put the former before this because the ultimate end is necessarily the first intended and the Divine Essence is principally that ultimate end yet not excluding the humane nature in the second person But Christ as Mediator is the way to that end and throughout the Gospel is offered to us in such terms as import his Being the means of making us happy in God And though that former act of the soul toward the Godhead do not justifie as this last doth yet is it I think as proper to the people of God as this nor can any man unregenerate truly chuse God for his Lord his portion and chief good Therefore do they both mistake They who onely mention our turning to Christ and they who onely mention our turning to God in this work of Conversion as is touched before Pauls preaching was Repentance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And life eternal consists first in knowing the onely true God and then Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17.3 Though Repentance Assent Good works c. are required to our full Justification as subservient to or concurrent with Faith yet is the true nature of this justifying Faith it self contained in this most affectionate accepting of Christ for Saviour and Lord. And I think it necessarily contains all this in it Some plead it is the Assenting act some a Fiducial adherence or recumbency I call it Accepting it being principally an act of the Will but yet also of the whole soul. This Accepting being that which the Gospel presseth to and calleth the receiving of Christ I call it an Affectionate accepting though Love seem another act quite distinct from Faith and if you take Faith for any one single act so it is yet I take it as essential to that Faith which justifies To accept Christ without Love is not justifying Faith Nor doth Love follow as a Fruit but immediately concur nor concur as a meer concomitant but essential to a true accepting For this Faith is the receiving of Christ either with the whole soul or with part â—â—t with part onely for that is but a partial receiving And 〈◊〉 clear Divines of late conclude That justifying Faith resides â—â—rn in the Understanding and the Will therefore in the whole soul and so cannot be one single act All those Affections that are for the receiving and entertainment of Good called the concupiscible must receive and entertain Christ. I adde it is the most affectionate accepting of Christ because he that loves Father Mother or any thing more then him is not worthy of him nor can be his Disciple and consequently not justified by him And the truth of this Affection is not to be judged so much by feeling the pulse of it as by comparing it with our affection to other things He that loveth nothing so much as Christ doth love him truly though he finde cause still to bewail the coldness of his Affections I make Christ himself the Object of this Accepting it being not any Theological Axiom concerning himself but himself in person I call it an Accepting him for Saviour and Lord. For in both relations will he be received or not at all It is not onely to acknowledg his sufferings and accept of pardon and glory but to acknowledg his soveraignty and submit to his Government and way of saving and I take all this to be contained in justifying Faith The work which Christ thus accepted of is to perform is to bring the sinners to God that they may be happy in him and this both really by his Spirit and relatively in reconciling them and making them sons and to present them perfect before him at last and to possess them of the Kingdom This will Christ perform and the obtaining of these are the sinners lawful ends in receiving Christ And to these uses doth he offer himself unto us 5. To this end doth
give them such rejoycings in it and yet never bestow it on them It cannot be Nay doth he give them the earnest of the inheritance Eph. 1.14 And Seal them with the Holy Spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 And yet will he deny the full possession These absurdities may not be charged on an ordinary man much less on the Faithfull and Righteous God SECT VI. SIxthly And Lastly The Scripture mentioneth particularly and by name those who have entered into this Rest. As Henoch who was taken up to God So Abraham Lazarus the thief that was crucified with Christ c. And if there be a Rest for these sure there is a Rest for all believers CHAP. II. Motives to study and preach the Divine Authority of Scripture SECT I. THus much may suffice where the Scripture is believed to confirm the truth of the point in hand viz. The certain futurity of the Saints Rest. And for Pagans and Infidels who believe not Scripture it is besides the intention of this discourse to endeavor their conviction I am endeavouring the consolation and edification of Saints and not the information and conversion of Pagans Yet do I acknowledg the subject exceeding necessary even to the Saints themselves for Sathans assaults are oft made at the foundation and if he can perswade them to question the verity of Scripture they will soon cast away their hopes of Heaven But if I should here enter upon that task to prove Scripture to be the infallible word of God I should make too broad a digression and set upon a work as larg as the maine for whose sake I should undertake it Neither am I insensible of how great difficulty it would prove to manage it satisfactorily and how much more then my ability is thereto requisite Yet lest the tempted Christian should have no relief nor any Argument at hand against the temptation I shall adventure upon a confirming Argument or two but I shall premise first a word of entreaty to my brethren of the Ministery to preach this a little more to their people And that not any body but some of the choicest whom God hath especially furnished for such a task would be pleased in a full Treatise to undertake it To which end I give them some of the Reasons of my request entreating the Lord to enable and perswade some of them to the work 1. I desire them to consider whether any thing yet published be neer compleat or such as the weight of the subject requires Whether much more may not be said and is necessary to be said then is yet said by any that hath writ on this subject 2. Whether if Christians who have opportunity do their duty would it not be a singular part of their work to endeavour the conversion of Pagans and Infidels And as I said before without some Arguments to demonstrate to them the verity of Scripture how are we furnished for such a work Or what have we to say but naked affirmation Yea how can we maintain the credit of Christianity if we were put to dispute the case with an unbeliever 3. Whether the assertion of some of our Divines that a naturall man without the extraordinary Testimony of the Spirit cannot be perswaded of the verity of Scripture notwithstanding all Arguments that can be produced be not very derogatory to the Authority of Scripture and do not justifie the world in their unbeliefe for it is not their sin to deny assent to that which hath not sufficient evidence As if we confessed to them we have not Arguments to convince you but you must be convinced by the Spirit without Arguments as if the Spirit did not deal with us as rationall creatures and did perswade without Argument and not by it As if many wicked men did not believe the truth of Scripture Yet I confesse ther 's great difference betwixt naturall and Spirituall beliefe 4. Is not this the ground-work of the whole Fabrick of Christianity And the very foundation of our faith And therefore should it not be timely and soundly laid and frequently and clearly taught 5. Is not Faith a rational Act of a rational Creature And so the Understanding proceeds discursively in its production And is not that the strongest Faith which hath the strongest Reasons to prove the Testimony to be valid upon which it resteth and the clearest apprehension and use of those Reasons And the truest Faith which hath the truest Reasons truly apprehended and used And must not that on the contrary be a weak or false faith which receives the Verity and Validity of the Testimony from weak or false Grounds though the Testimony of it self be the truest in the world Our Divines use to say concerning love to Christ that it is not to be measured by the degree of Fervor so much as by the Grounds and Motives so that if a man should love Christ upon the same Reasons as a Turk loves Mahomet it were no true love if he love him upon false grounds it must needs be a false love and if upon common grounds it can be but a common love And is it not then as clear that to believe in Jesus Christ upon the grounds that a Turk believes in Mahomet or to believe Scripture upon the same reasons that the Turk believes the Alcoran is no true Faith Supposing that both have the like verity of their Reasons 6. Is the generality of Christians able to give any better then some such common reason to prove the verity of Scripture Nay are the more exercised Understanding sort of Christians able by sound Arguments to make it good if an Enemy or a Temptation put them to it Nay are the ordinary sort of Ministers in England able to do this Let them that have tried judg 7. Can the Superstructure be firm where the Foundation is Sandy And can our Affections and Actions be sound and strong when our belief of Scripture is unsound or infirm Sure this Faith will have influence into all For my own part I take it to be the greatest cause of coldness in Duty weakness in Graces boldness in Sinning and unwillingness to die c. that our Faith is either unsound or infirm in this point Few Christians among us for ought I finde have any better then the Popish implicit faith in this point nor any better Arguments then the Papists have to prove Scripture the Word of God They have received it by Tradition godly Ministers and Christians tell them so it is impious to doubt of it and therefore they believe it And this worm lying at the root causeth the languishing and decay of the whole yet is it usually undiscerned for the root lieth secret under ground But I am apt to judg that though the most complain of their uncertainty of salvation through want of assurance of their own Interest and of the weakness of the applying Act of Faith yet the greater cause of all
would fill mens ears with the constant lamentations of their miserable state and despairing accusations against themselves as if they had been the most humble people in the world and yet be as passionate in the maintaining their innocency when another accuseth them and as intolerably peevish and tender of their own reputation in any thing they are blamed for as if they were the proudest persons on earth still denying or extenuating every disgraceful fault that they are charged with This cherishing of sin doth hinder Assurance these four ways 1. It doth abate the degree of our Graces and so makes them more undiscernable 2. It obscureth that which it destroyeth not for it beareth such sway that Grace is not in Action nor seen to stir nor scarce heard speak for the noise of this Corruption 3. It puteth out or dimmeth the eye of the Soul that it cannot see its own condition and it benummeth and stupifieth that he cannot feel its own case 4. But especially it provoketh God to withdraw himself his Comforts and the Assistance of the Spirit without which we may search long enough before we have Assurance God hath made a separation betwixt Sin and Peace Though they may consist together in remiss degrees yet so much as Sin prevaileth in the Soul so much will the Peace of that Soul be defective As long as thou dost favour or cherish thy Pride and Self-esteem thy aspiring projects and love of the world thy secret lusts and pleasing the desires of the flesh or any the like unchristian practise thou expectest Assurance and Comfort in Vain God will not encourage thee by his precious gifts in a course of sinning This worm will be crawling and gnawing upon thy Conscience It will be a freting devouring canker to thy Consolations Thou mayst steal a spark of false comfort from thy worldly prosperity or delights or thou mayst have it from some false Opinions or from the delusions of Satan But from God thou wilt have no more Comfort then thou makest Conscience of sinning However an Antinomian may tell thee That thy Comforts have no such dependance upon thy Obedience nor thy discomforts upon thy disobedience and therefore may speak as much Peace to thee in the course of thy sinning as in thy most conscionable walking yet thou shalt find by experience that God will not do so If any man set up his Idols in his Heart and put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a Minister or to God to enquire for Assurance and Comfort God will Answer that man by himself and in stead of comforting him he will set his Face against him he will Answer him According to the multitude of his Idols Read Ezek. 14.3 4 5 6 7 8 9. SECT XVIII 9. ANother very great and common Cause of want of Assurance and Comfort is When men grow Lazy in the spiritual part of duty and keep not up their Graces in constant and lively Action As Dr Sibbs saith truly It is the lazy Christian commonly that lacketh Assurance The way of painful duty is the way of fullest Comfort Christ carryeth all our Comforts in his hand If we are out of that way where Christ is to be met we are out of the way where Comfort is to be had These three ways doth this Laziness debar us of our Comforts 1. By stopping the Fountain and causing Christ to withhold this blessing from us Parents use not to smile upon children in their neglects and disobedience So far as the Spirit is Grieved he will suspend his Consolations Assurance and Peace are Christ's great Encouragements to faithfulness and obedience And therefore though our Obedience do not Merit them yet they usually rise and fall with our Diligence in duty They that have entertained the Antinomian dotages to cover their Idleness and Viciousness may talk their non-sence against this at pleasure but the laborious Christian knows it by experience As prayer must have Faith and Fervency to procure its success besides the Bloodshed and Intercession of Christ Jam. 5.15 16. so must all other parts of our Obedience He that will say to us in that Triumphing day Well Done Good and Faithful Servant c. Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Will also clap his Servants upon the back in their most Affectionate and Spiritual Duties and say Well Done Good and Faithful Servant take this Fore-taste of thy Everlasting Joy If thou grow seldom and customary and cold in Duty especially in thy secret Prayers to God and yet findest no abatement in thy Joys I cannot but fear that thy Joys are either Carnal or Diabolical 2. Grace is never apparent and sensible to the Soul but while it is in Action Therefore want of Action must needs cause want of Assurance Habits are not felt immediately but by the freeness and facility of their Acts Of the very Being of the Soul it self nothing is felt or perceived if any more Be but only its Acts. The fire that lyeth still in the flint is neither seen nor felt but when you smite it and force it into Act it is easily discerned The greatest Action doth force the greatest Observation whereas the dead or unactive are not remembred or taken notice of Those that have long lain still in their graves are out of mens thoughts as well as their sight but those that walk their streets and bear Rule among them are noted by all It is so with our Graces That you have a Habit of Love or Faith you can no otherwise know but as a consequence by reasoning but that you may have the Acts you may know by Feeling If you see a man lie still in the way what will you do to know whether he be drunk or in a swoun or dead Will you not stir him or speak to him to see whether he can go Or feel his pulse or observe his breath Knowing that where there is life their is some kind of motion I earnestly beseech thee Christian observe and practise this excellent Rule Thou now knowest not whether thou have Repentance or Faith or Love or joy Why be more in the Acting of these and thou wilt easily know it Draw forth an Object for Godly sorrow or Faith or Love or Joy and lay thy heart flat unto it and take pains to provoke it into suitable action and then see whether thou have these Graces or no. As Doctor Sibbs observeth There is somtimes Griefe for sin in us when we think there is none it wants but stirâ—ing up by some quickening word The like he saith of Love and may be said of every other Grace You may go seeking for the Hare or Partridge many hours and never find them while they lie close and stir not but when once the Hare betakes him self to his legges and the bird to her wings then you see them presently So long as a Christian hath his Graces in lively Action so long for the most
chiefly pressed those Duties which must be used for the attainment of this Everlasting Rest. In this I shall chiefly handle those which are necessary to raise the heart to God and to our Heavenly and comfortable life on Earth It is a Truth too evident which an inconsiderate Zealot reprehended in Master CULVERWELL as an Error That many of Gods Children do not enjoy that sweet Life and blessed Estate in this World which God their Father hath provided for them That is Which he offereth them in his Promises and chargeth upon them as their duty in his Precepts and bringeth even to their hands in all his Means and Mercies God hath set open Heaven to us in his Word and told every humble sincere Christian That they shall shortly there live with himself in unconceiveable Glory and yet where is the person that is affected with this Promise whose heart leaps for joy at the hearing of the news or that is willing in hopes of Heaven to leave this World But even the godly have as strange unsavory thoughts of it as if God did but delude us and there were no such Glory and are almost as loath to die as men without hope The consideration of this strange disagreement between our Professions and Affections caused me to suspect that there was some secret lurking unbelief in all our hearts and therefore I wrote those Arguments in the second Part for the Divine Authority of the Scripture And because I finde another cause to be the carelesness forgetfulness and idleness of the Soul and not keeping in action that Faith which we have I have here attempted the removal of that cause by prescribing a course for the daily acting of those Graces which must fetch in the Celestial Delights into the heart O the Princely joyful blessed Life that the godly lose through meer idleness As the Papists have wronged the merits of Christ by their ascribing too much to our own Works so it is almost incredible how much they on the other extream have wronged the safety and consolation of mens Souls by telling them that their own endevors are onely for Obedience and Gratitude but are not so much as Conditions of their Salvation or Means of their increased Sanctification or Consolation And while some tell them That they must look at nothing in themselves for Acceptation with God or Comfort and so make that Acceptance and Comfort to be equally belonging to a Christian and a Turk And others tell them That they must look at nothing in themselves but onely as signes of their good Estate This hath caused some to expect onely Enthusiastick Consâ—lations and others to spend their days in enquiring after signes of their sincerity Had these poor Souls well understood that Gods way to perswade their wills and to excite and actuate their Affections is by the Discourse Reasoning or Consideration of their Vnderstandings upon the Nature and Qualifications of the Objects which are presented to them And had they bestowed but that time in exercising holy Affections and in serious Thoughts of the promised Happiness which they have spent in enquiring onely after Signes I am confident according to the ordinary Workings of God they would have been better provided both with Assurance and with Joyes How should the Heir of a Kingdom have the comfort of his Title but by fore-thinking on it It s true God must give us our Comforts by his Spirit But how by quickening up our souls to beleeve and consider of the promised Glory and not by comforting us we know not how nor why or by giving men the foretasts of Heaven when they never think of it I have here prescribed thee Reader the delightfullest task to the Spirit and the most tedâ—ous to the Flesh that ever men on Earth were imployed in I did it first onely for my self but am loath to conceal the means that I have found so consolaâ—ory If thou be one that wilt not be perswaded to a course so laborious but wilt onely go on in thy task of common formal duties thou mayest let it alone and so be destitute of delights except such as the World and thy Forms can afford thee but then do not for shame complain for want of comfort when thou dost wilfully reject it And be not such an Hypocrite as to pray for it while thou dost refuse to labor for it If thou say Thy comfort is all in Christ I must tell thee it is a Christ remembred and loved and not a Christ forgotten or onely talked of that will solidly comfort Though the Directory for Contemplation was onely intended for this Part yet I have now premised two other Uses The heart must be taken off from Resting on Earth before it will be fit to converse above The first Part of saving Religion is the taking God onely for our End and Rest. CHAP. I. USE VI. Reproving our Expectations of Rest on Earth SECT I. DOth this Rest remain How great then is our sin and folly to seek and expect it here Where shall we finde the Christian that deserves not this Reproof Surely we may all cry guilty to this accusation We know not how to enjoy convenient Houses Goods Lands and Revenues but we seek Rest in these enjoyments We seldom I fear have such sweet and heart contenting thoughts of God and Glory as we have of our earthly delights How much Rest do the voluptuous seek in Buildings Walks Apparel Ease Recreations Sleep pleasing Meats and Drinks merry Company Health and Strength and long Life Nay we can scarce enjoy the necessary Means that God hath appointed for our Spiritual good but we are seeking Rest in them Do we want Minister Godly Society or the like helps O think we if it were but thus and thus with us we were well Do we enjoy them O how we settle upon them and bless our selves in them as the rich fool in his wealth Our Books our Preachers Sermons Friends Abilities for Duty do not our hearts hug them and quiet themselves in them even more then in God Indeed in words we disclaim it and God hath usually the preheminence in our tongues and professions but it s too apparent that it s otherwise in our hearts by these Discoveries First Do we not desire these more violently when we want them then we do the Lord himself Do we not cry out more sensibly O my Friend my Goods my Health then O my God! Do we not miss Ministry and Means more passionately then we miss our God Do we not bestir our selves more to obtain and enjoy these then we do to recover our communion with God Secondly Do we not delight more in the Possession of these then we do in the fruition of God himself Nay be not those mercies and duties most pleasant to us wherein we stand at greatest distance from God We can read and study and confer preach and hear day after day without much weariness because in these we have to do with
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. â— WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the â—â—anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou
conversion Acts 13.48 2 Theirs in Law-title or by promise after conversion Quum aequilibrium illud hoc uâ—um praestat juxta Arminium ut reddaâ— salutem hominum â—em contingentem libratane in ancipiti isne rem tantam impâ—â—se affectasse dicendus est qui vult esse collo catam in loco tam lubrico ac veluti tenui filo pendentem adco ut vâ—l levissimo momentâ— impellatur ad perniciem Amyral Desens doctr Calvini pag. 115. §. 1. Definit § 2. §. 3. §. 4. Col. 1.12 Act. 26.18 Act. 20.32 Joh. 15.19 Mat. 10.38 Luk. 14 27. Heb. 10.36.6.15 §. 5. §. 6. Q. Whether to make Salvation our end be not mercenary or Legal As if the very seeking of life at all were the surest way to miss of it Clean contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture §. 7. * Viz. by way of merit strictly so called * Believed for us legally or so far as the Law required Faith but not as it is the Condition or Command of the New Covenan◠§. 8. I speâ—k the moâ—e of this because I find that many moderate men who think they have found the mean between the Antinomâ—an and the Legalist yet do fouly err in this point As Mr F. in the Marrow of Modern Divinity a book applauded by so many eminent Divines in their commendatory Epistles before it And because the doctrine That we must Act from Life but not For Life or in thankfulness to him that hath saved us but not for the obtaining of Salvation is of such dangerous consequence that I would advise all mâ—n to take heed of it that regard their Salvation 1 Cor 15. ult 2 Cor. 4.17 5.10 11. I here undertake to prove that this forementioned doctrine reduced to practise will certainly be the damnation of the practâ—ser But I hope many Antinomians do not practise their own doctrine §. 9. * Christ hath put no such questions to us nor bid us put such to our selves Christ had rather that men would enquire after their true willingness to be saved then their willingness to be damned §. 10. * The Scriptures before cited do prove both Joh. 1.12 See more of this hereafter §. 1. §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. I speak all this of men of age converted by the Word not of those sanctified in Infancy §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. * Some think That the pravity of nature containeth a want of the â—otentia as well as of the habit Some say The potentia prima Others The Potentia secunda Some think The work of the spirit doth but make an impression on the internal sense answerable to that qualicas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae passionem officit in sensibus c. It seemeth yet to me that Grace is that Potentia secunda per quam prima naturalis in actum producitur Vid. de hoc Parkeri Theses §. 8. §. 9. Dr Crispe §. 10. Mat 11.12 Mâ—â— 7.13 Luk. 13.24.25 1 Pet 4 18 * See Doctor Jennison on this Subject James 5.16 1 Pet. 3.21 Gal. 3 3. Mat. 24.13 Mark 13.13 22. §. 11. §. 12. Prov. 4.6 Mat. 11.30 1 John 5.3 2 Cor. 12.4 Num 24.15 16 5. Deut. 34.1 2 3 4. Math. 13.44 45 46. Act. 7.55 56. §. 1. 1. Cessation from all that action which hath the nature of means 1 Cor. 13.8 1. Knowledg 2. Faith How far 3 Prayer 4 So Fasting Weeping Watching Preaching Sacraments §. 2. 2. Perfect freedom from Evil. 1 Sin Rev. 21.27 2 Sorrow and suffering Joh. 16.20 21 22. §. 3. 3. Personal perfection in the highest degree both of Soul Body Gen. 2.15 Dan. 12.3 §. 4. 4. Chiefly the neerest fruition of God the chief Good 1 Joh. 3.2 O qui perpetua mundum ratio ne gubernas Tetrarum coelique saâ—or qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes stablisque manâ—ns das cuâ—cta moveri Principium â—ector dux semita terminus idem Tu requies tranquilla piis te cernere finis Boetius Vide Gerson part 3. Alphabet divini Amoris cap. 14. egregie de attributis c excellentiis divinis expatiantem 1 Kings 1â— 8 Some inâ—erpret most of those Scriptures in the Revelations of the Churches glory on earth then it would hold a minori Tu es Recreator omnium qui dixisti Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis c. Anima enim quae est in te radicata in centro suo recreata quiâ—tata est quae vero in te non est multâ—s Vanis phanâ—asmatibus fatigatur Tu sufficientis simus es Qui te habet totum habet qui non mendicus est pauper quia quicquid preter te est non reâ—icit non sufficit Gerson part 3. Alphabet amoris divini cap. 14. * Psalm 36.9 Acts 2 28 * Psalm 33.1 John 1.12 1 John 1.3 1 Joh. 4.15 16 Psalm 148. I take not the word Real as opposite to feigned but to Relative See Mr Wallis Answer to the L. Brook fully on this Q. How do we enjoy God §. 5. 5. A sweet and constant Action of all the powers of the Soul in the fruition of God 1 Of the Senses I think the Apostle speaks of flesh and blâ—od in a proper sense and not of sin Yea the Body The Tongue in praising Psal. 33.1 2 and 147.1 §. 6. 2. Of the soul. 1 God shall be enjoyed by our knowledg * Scalig. Exercit. 107 sect 3. Dicit Voluntatem nihil aliud esse quam intellectum extentum ad habâ—ndum faâ—iendum id quod cognoscit Vide D. Makowski Colleg. in dâ—sp 18. vitâ— Pibonis de Justif. Passiva And for my part I think not That the Soul is divisible into several faculties but rather as Dorbell is c. Dr Jackson Mr Pemble c. the Understanding and Will be the same with the Soul and one another Or distinct Acts of the same Soul not faculties * Lord Brook Union of the Soul Truth Hosea 6.2 3. Rev. 2 5. and 3.2 * Scoti glossa est vera vâ—z 〈◊〉 Cognoscam te Aâ—â—â—do Frucado Vide Scotum in 4. â— sentea distruct 48. Q 1 p. 256 §. 7. 2. Memory Luke 1 19. 2 10. Acts 13.32 Luke 16 25. §. 8. 3. Affections 1. Love * I know it 's commonly said That Justification hath no degrees but yet it is taken for several Acts whereof that of Christ absolving and acquitting us at the last Judgment is the most compleat Justification Psal. 119.97 John 11.33.35 36. Cant. 1.5 5.2 6.9 4.9 10 c. 1 Pet. 1.12 Eph. 3.18 §. 9. 2. By Joy Rev. 2.17 Prov. 14.10 Joh. 15.11 and 16.24 and 17.13 Psa 94.12 13 1 Thes. 5.16 Psa 32.11 33.1 c. Mat. 9.15 Mat. 25. §. 10. God will joy in us as well as we in him 2 Thes. 1 10. So the Lord is said to Rejoice and to take pleasure in his people Psal. 147 11. and 149 4. Luk. 24 37 38 39. Mark 16.7 §. 11. Job 42 3. Levit.
oculis mentibus hominum objicitur destitutum est icta vi Spiritus quae sola potest homines abducere a peccato ad vitae spem efficaciter revocare Amyrald Defens Calvin p. 154. Whether the Spirit without means do call In what sense the Spirit enlighteneth Quomodo causa illa supernaturalis intellectum liberet a nativis quibus occupatur tenebris mens humana non comprehendit Effectum summo Dei beneficio persentiscimus rationem operationis non tenemus Amyrald defens Doctr. Calvin pag. 200. Some confidently do with Grotius appeal to Antiquity in the points of universal sufficient Grace and Free-will and natures integrity Concerning which see Chamier Bogermans Annotations on Grotij Piet. and Vshers Eccles. Brittan Primord What the ancient Church thought and did against Pelagius So Johan Latius de Pelag. Comment Nichol. Bodicher in Socin Remonstr Videlius c. What is the meanes of this call Whether nature and Creatures be sufficient Object from Rom. 2 16. Answered John 15.22.24 expounded 2 They are but part of the externally called Rom. 8.30 3 They are Regenerate by the spirit of Christ This Regeneration effectual Vocation the first Conversion and first Sanctification are all one thing proved See Bishop Downams appendix to the Covenant of Grace in Confutation of Mr. Pemble where this division is asserted See Ames medul cap. 26. § 8. Doctor Ames against Grevincho hath fully confuted himself pag. 260.261 c. The whole tenth Chap. is exceeding well worth the reading to prove the vitall seed or habit to go before the Act of Faith See Pemble vind Grat. pag. 10 11 12 13 14. c. The first Sanctification is before Justification and threfore mentioned first in the Description See Mr. Rich. Hooker in his Discourse of Justification asserting this same order And Pet. Martyr on Rom. c. 3. p. 157. sheweth fully how the spirit goeth before faith and yet in the increase followeth after it Act. 26.18 explained 2 Thes. 2 13. opened * Which controversie I pretend not here to determine acknowledging its difficulty requires a better judgment for its explication then mine yet I hitherto judge it an error In ascribing Regeneration to the spirit I include the word But not as the proper instrumental cause of Regeneration Different way of working of the Spirit and Word If any had rather say that the Word is Causa efficiens minus principalis procatarctica I contend not See Dr. Twisse Vind. Grat. p. 231. l. 1. part 2. l. 2. part 1. p. 160. Whether Word and Sacraments work in genere causae efficientis vel finalis The Word how it sanctifieth Vide Paâ—keri Theses de Traductione peccat de hoc dubio * And that onely by a way of swasion which is properly by the Word or by the first work of Nature giving him Reason Necessity of this Regeneration John 3.3 * I mean that this is not a sufficient way to their salvation but yet it may conduce to the good of others to restrain their vicious actions and somewhat more b Mens conceit that they are all Regenerate by their Baptism confuted Baptism can be no means of an Infants Regeneration Nam signa corporea in animas incorporeas agere signum imprimere ex vulgatissima regula Physicà non possunt Lamb. Danaeus Cont. Bellar. ad Tom. 2. Cont. 4. p. 238. Regeneration not the end why Christ would have men baptized * Dr. Burgâ—s and Mr. Tho. Bedford of Baptismal Regeneration * The Institution being supposed Though some Question whether Christs Baptism was a legal Ceremony or a Gospel Ordinance Aaron and his sons were to be washed at the entering upon the Priesthood And Christ saith Iâ— becomes us to fulfil all Righteousness and it was the Righteousness of the Law that he came to fulfil and not the Righteousness or Condition of the Gospel And we finde not that he himself received the Sacrament of his Supper But these are doubtful Vid. Grotti votum ad Artic. 9. § 3. 1 The Soul is convinced â— e. 1 Knoweth 2 Assenteth to the Truth of Scripture-threats And knows its own sin and guilt and misery Therefore not any other but this Knowledg is the first Grace in regard of the order of their acting though in the viâ—al Seed they are together 2 The Soul is sensible of what it is convinced Necessity of sensibility What the Soul is convinced and sensible of 1 Of the evil of sin Nallâ— offensa Dâ—i est venialis de se nisi 〈◊〉 per respâ—ctum ad divinam miserecordiam quae non vult de facto quamlibet offensam imputare ad mortem cum illud posset justissime Et ita concluditur quod peccatum mortale veniale in esse tasi non distinguuntur intrinsecè essentialiter sed solum per respectum ad divinam gratiam c. Gerson de vita Spirit Corol. 1. So Papists then confess the damning merit of every sin 2 Of its own misery by reason of sin Quisquis desolationem non novit nec consolationem agnoscere potest Et quisquis consolationem ignorat esse necessariam superesâ— ut non habeat gratiam Dei Inde est quod homines seculi negotiis flagitiis implicati dum miseriam non sentiunt non attendunt misericordiam Bernard Serm. XXXI de temp Whether this be the work of the Law or Gospel Necessity of this sense of sin and misery ☜ Why some gracious souls can scarce perceive and others scarce remember this work of Humiliation 3 Of the Creatures vanity and insufficiency Every natural man is an Idolater and doth not indeed take the Lord for his God ☜ Pride is the great sin against the first and great Commandment Man naturally is his own Idol Regeneration works back the heart to God again It convinceth fiâ—st That the Creature cannot be our God secondly Nor our Jesus Providences and especially Affliction do â—sually much further this Conviction 4 Of the need of Christ and his sufficiency and worth Quest. Are not all the forementioned works common till this last Answ. No. 1 Of the necessity of Christ. Phil. 3 7 8 9. Revel 5.3 4 5 6. Heb. 9.22 13.12 Acts 4 1â— 2 Of Christs sufficiency John 11.42 Heb. 7.25 3 And of his excellency § 4. Now of the change of the Wiâ—â— and Affection 1 It turneth from sin with abhorrency 2 Abhorreth and lamenteth its miserable state 3 Renounceth all his former Idols and Vanities Sin is first Directly against God as God Secondly Directly onely against his Laws Of the first sort is onely gross idolatry In what sense we turn from the Creature A twofold Error in the descriptions of Conversion Our turning from sin is as essential to true Conversion as our believing in Christ. Heb. 11.6 * Besides though the person please not God nor his actions so as for God to justifie them or to take delight in them as gracious yet some actions of wicked men tending to Reformation
may please God in some respect secundum quid as Ahabs Humiliation A flat necessity both of coming to God as the End or our chief Good and to Christ as the way to the Father * Viz. As it is put for all obedience to the Commands proper to the Gospel Which part of this turning goes first The terminus a quo considerable before the terminus ad quâ—m in order of nature Object Answ. § 5. As the Will turns from evil so at the same time to God and the Mediator 1 To the Godhead in order of Nature 2 To the Mediator as the way which is by Faith John 14.6 Acts 20.21 5.31 11.18 26.20 What justifying Faith is It s proper Act is the Acceptation of Christ offered * So Doctor Prestons judgment is and Master Woollis against the Lord Brook p. 94. It is an Accepting of Christ offered rather then the belief of a Proposition affirmed So that excellent Philosopher and Divine Love to Christ whether it be not Essential to justifying Faith See more of this in the Positions of Justification Love to Christ must be the strongest Love Luke 14.26 Doctor Sibbs Souls Conflict Justifying Faith is the Accepting Christ both for Saviour and Lord. So that our Subjection to Christ as our Lord is part of that Faith which justifieth How this differs from the abhorred doctrine of the Socinians you may see in the Aphorisms of Justification What Christ doth for us upon our Acceptance Covenanting with Christ is an essential part of our actual Conversion and of our Christianity Next Christ delivereth himself to the sinner and he delivereth himself up to Christ. Lastly The believer persevereth in this Covenant and all the forementioned grounds of it to the death Heb. 10.29 Matth. 24.13 Revel 2.26 27. 3.11 12. John 15.4 5 6. 8.31 15.9 Col. â— 23 Rom. 11.22 § 6. The Application of this Description by way of Examination Whether thy Infant Baptism will serve or no I am sure thy Infant Covenant will not now serve thy turne But thou must Actually enter Covenant in thy own person John 15.4 5 6. Matth 24.13 Heb. 10.38 39. * I speak not this to the dark and clouded Christian who cannot discern â—hat which is indeed within him Deut. 32.29 § 7. Why called People of God 1 By Election 2 Special Redemption 3 Likeness to him 1 Pet. 1.16 4 Mutual Love 5 Mutual Covenanting 6 Neer Relations 7 Future Cohabitation ☜ §. 1. Confirmation from other Scriptures The Truth confirmed from other Scriptures 1 Affirming the Saints to have been predestinate to this glory Isa. 14.24 2 That it is procured for them by the blood of Christ. Paul Hobson * I confesse the later is the more proper expression and oftner used in the Scriptures Exod. 23.22 Psal. 11.5 Psal. 5.5 Isa. 63.10 Lam. 2.5 Paul Hobson Iâ—a 53.11 § 3. 3 It is promised to them § 4. 4 The means and motions towards it do prove that there is such an end * Mr. Burroughs thinks this is meant of the violence of persecution but Lukes phrase coâ—â—uteth that § 5. 5 So do the beginnings fâ—â—â—tasts earnests and seals 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 §. 6. 6 Some have entered it already § 1. ☜ a I mean not an absolute necessity as if what is said were not convincing b I believe Mr. Eliot in New England will have more comfort in his work for those Indians then we in England in our controversies and contentions about inferiour things c By Testimony I mean not the cure of the understandings disability for that 's necessary either by common grace to work a common Faith or by speciall grace for speciall Faith Doct. Presion on Attributes pag. 57. d I mean it is now to us the onely ordinary sufficient means of revealing Christ. Religio 〈◊〉 Chiâ—â—â—â— pâ—r Apostâ—los tradiâ—a Scripta est super scripta Prophetarum Apostolorum fundata Dr. Sutlive Contra Bellarm. de Monach pag. 11. See Dr Jackson of Saving Faith Sect. 2. cap. 2. pag. 143. c. See this more fully in Dr. Preston on the Attributes pag. 61 62 63 64. Yet we acknowledg it belongs to the Church first To be a Witness and Keeper of the Scriptures secondly To judg and discern betwixt Scriptures which are true and genuine and which are false and supposititious or Apocryphal thirdly To divulge and preach the Scriptures fourthly To expound and interpret them Dr. Whitaker De Sacra scriptura Q. 3. contr 1. cap. 2. pag. 203 204. * I would fain know of any Papist why their Church believes the Scripture to be the Word of God If the Laiety must believe it upon the authority of the Church and this Church be the Pope and his Clergy then it followeth that the Pope and Clergy believe it on their Authority As Paraeus in Thâ—mat Seculari xv Et quia Papa solus vel cum praelatis est Ecclesia ideo Papa praelati Scripturis credunt propler seipsos lâ—icos voluit crâ—dere Scripturis propter Papam praelatos a Sicut in Poloniá ubi non solum preces recitant â—ala criminosa contra Christianos corum magistratus continentes sedetiam aâ—dacter sâ—â—e on â—â— christianorum metu imprimunt quaecunque volunt ut testatur Buxtorsius Synagogae Judaicae c. 5 p 170. 1 Pet. 3.15 b As Graserus when he saw his legs begin to swell with a Dropsie said Euge Deo sit laus gloria quod jam mea instet liberatio horula gratissima Melch. Adam in vita Graseri § 2. Impias argumentationes si ratio refutare non possit fides irridere debet quae ratiocinationes evertit in captivitatem redigit omnem intellectum in Christi obsequium August * Though 〈◊〉 extend 〈…〉 far as 〈…〉 a Sequor te non quâ— duâ—is sed quo trahis inquit Scaliger ad Câ—rdanum in Exercit * He that doubts of this let him see Dr. Jackson of Saving Faith pag. 146.147 And Mr Pinkes Sermons of the Sincerity of Love to Christ * Articulus 6. fidei Judaicae sic se habet Credo perfectâ fide quod omne quodcunque prophetae docuerunt locuti fuerunt veritas sincera sit Oâ—tvus autem sic Credo perfecta fide quod lex tota perinde ut ea bodierno tempore in manibus nostris est it a per Deum ipsummet Mosi tradita sit vid. Buxtorf Synagogae Judaicae cap. 1. pag. 4.5 § 1. § 2. The word Foundation being a Metaphor is to be banished dispute till first explained a Ad benè esse fidei perfectionem b Necessitate praecepti * Primario propter se Secundario propter aliud A facto ad jus ad licitum vel debitum non valet Argum. As Peter Gal. 2.11 12.13 § 1. 2 Tim. 3.16 * Donum Miraculorum linguarum dandarum fuisse extraordinarium et a solis Apostolis peculiari privelegio dato a Christo