they are only the adequate form or record of that which is strictly and primarily called our Religion or Christianity For there are divers particular Books of the New Testament which contain much more than is essential to Christianity And many appurtenances and histories and genealogies and circumstances are there recorded which are indeed subservient helps to our Religion but are not strictly our Religion it self 8. As the use of the Scripture must thus be judged of according to the purpose of the holy Spirit so the Perfection of the Scripture must be judged of in relation to its intended use It was not written to be a systeme of Physicks nor Oratory nor to decide grammatical Controversies about words but to record in apt expressions the things which God would have men to know in order to their faith their duty and their happiness And in this respect it is a perfect word But you must not imagine that it is so far the word of God himself as if God had shewed in it his fullest skill and made it as perfect in every respect both phrase and order as God could do And if you meet in it with several words which you think are less grammatical logical or rhetorical than many other men could speak and which really savour of some humane imperfection remember that this is not at all derogatory to Christianity but rather tendeth to the strengthening of our faith For the Scriptures are perfect to their intended use And God did purposely chuse men of imperfect Oratory to be his Apostles that his Kingdom might not be in word but in power and that our faith might not be built upon the wisdom and oratory of man but on the supernatural operations of the Almighty God As David's sling and stone must kill Goliah So unlearned men that cannot out-wit the world to deceive them shall by the Spirit and Miracles convince them Looking for that in the Scripture which God never intended it for doth tempt the unskilful into unbelief 9. Therefore you must be sure to distinguish the Christian Religion which is the vital part or kernel of the Scriptures from all the rest And to get well planted in your mind the summ of that Religion it self And that is briefly contained in the two Sacraments and more largely in the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue the summaryes of our Belief Desire and Practice And then wonder no more that the other parts of Scripture have some things of less moment than that a man hath fingers nails and hair as well as a stomach heart and head 10. Distinguish therefore between the Method of the Christian Religion and the Method of the particular Books of Scriptures The Books were written on several occasions and in several Methods and though that method of them all be perfect in order to their proper end yet is it not necessary that there be in the Method no humane imperfection or that one or all of them be written in that method which is usually most logical and best But the frame of Religion contained in those Books is composed in the most perfect method in the world And those systemes of Theology which endeavour to open this method to you do not feign it or make it of themselves but only attempt the explication of what they find in the holy Scriptures Synthetically or Analytically Though indeed all attempts have yet fallen short of any full explication of this divine and perfect harmony 11. Therefore the true Order of settling your faith is not first to require a proof that all the Scriptures is the Word of God but first to prove the marrow of them which is properly called the Christian Religion and then to proceed to strengthen your particular belief of the rest The contrary opinion which hath obtained with many in this Age hath greatly hindered the faith of the unskilful And it came from a preposterous care of the honour of the Scriptures through an excessive opposition to the Papists who undervalue them For hence it comes to pass that every seeming contradiction or inconsistency in any Book of Scripture in Chronology or any other respect is thought to be a sufficient cause to make the whole cause of Christianity as difficult as that particular text is And so all those Readers who meet with great or inseparable difficulties in their daily reading of the Scriptures are thereby exposed to equal temptations to damning infidelity it self So that if the Tempter draw any man to doubt of the standing still of the Sun in the time of Joshua of the life of Jonas in the belly of the Whale or any other such passage in any one Book of the Scriptures he must equally doubt of all his Religion But this was not the ancient method of faith It was many years after Christs resurrection before any one Book of the New Testament was written and almost an Age before it was finished And all that time the Christian Churches had the same Faith and Religion as we have now and the same foundation of it That is the Gospel preached to them by the Apostles But what they delivered to them by word of mouth is now delivered to us in their writings with all the appurtenances and circumstances which every Christian did not then hear of And there were many Articles of the Christian Faith which the Old Testament did not at all make known As that this Jesus is the Christ that he was born of the Virgin Mary and is actually crucified risen and ascended c. And the method of the Apostles was to teach the people the summ of Christianity as Paul doth 1 Cor. 15.3 4 c. and Peter Act. 2. and to bring them to the belief of that and then baptize them before they wrote any thing to them or taught them the rest which is now in the holy Scriptures They were first to Disciple the Nations and baptize them and then to teach them to observe all things whatever Christ commanded And the main bulk of the Scriptures is made up of this last and of the main subservient histories and helps And accordingly it was the custom of all the Primitive Churches and ancient Doctors to teach the people first the Creed and summ of Christianity and to make them Christians before they taught them so much as to know what Books the Canonical Scriptures did contain For they had the summ of Christianity it self delivered down collaterally by the two hands of tradition 1. By the continuation of Baptism and publick Church-professions was delivered the Creed or Covenant by it self And 2. By the holy Scriptures where it was delivered with all the rest and from whence every novice was not put to gather it of himself but had it collected to his hand by the Churches And you may see in the writings of all the ancient defenders of Christianity Justin Athenagoras Talianus Clemens Alexandrinus Arnobius Theoph. Antioch Lactantius Tertullian â—usebius Augustine c.
that they used the method which I now direct you to And if you consider it well you will find that the miracles of Christ himself and all those of his Apostles after him were wrought for the confirmation of Christianity it self immediately and mostly before the particular Epistles or Books were written and therefore were only remotely and consequentially for the confirmation of those Books as such as they proved that the Writers of them were guided by the infallible Spirit in all the proper work of their office of which the writing of the Scriptures was a part 1. Therefore settle your belief of Christianity it self that is of so much as Baptism containeth or importeth This is more easily proved than the truth of every word in the Scriptures because there are controversies about the Canon and the various readings and such like And this is the natural method which Christ and his Spirit have directed us to and the Apostles and the ancient Churches used And when this is first soundly proved to you then you cannot justly take any textual difficulties to be sufficient cause of raising difficulties to your faith in the essentials But you may quietly go on in the strength of faith to clear up all those difficulties by degrees I know you will meet with some who think very highly of their own mistakes and whose unskilfulness in these things is joyned with an equal measure of self conceitedness who will tell you that this method smells of an undervaluing of the Scripture But I would advise you not to depart from the way of Christ and his Apostles and Churches nor to cast your selves upon causeless hinderances in so high a matter as Saving Faith is upon the reverence of the words of any perverted factious wrangler nor to escape the fangs of censorious ignorance We cannot better justifie the holy Scriptures in the true Method than they can in their false one And can better build up when we have laid the right foundation than they can who begin in the middle and omit the foundation and call the superstructure by that name 2. Suspect not all Church-history or Tradition in an extreme opposition to the Papists who cry up a private unproved Tradition of their own They tell us of Apostolical Traditions which their own faction only are the keepâ—rs of and of which no true historical evidence is produced And this they call the Tradition of the Church But we have another sort of Tradition which must not be neglected or rejected unless we will deny humanity and reject Christianity Our Traditio tradens or active Tradition is primarily nothing but the certain history or usage of the universal Christian Church as Baptism the Lords day the Ministry the Church Assemblies and the daily Church exercises which are certain proofs what Religion was then received by them And 2. The Scriptures themselves Our Traditio tradita is nothing else but these two conjunctly 1. The Christian Religion even the Faith then professed and the Worship and Obedience then exercised 2. The Books themselves of the holy Scriptures which contain all this with much more But we are so far from thinking that Apostolical Oral Tradition is a supplement to the Scriptures as being larger than them that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than such Tradition and that we have no certainty by any other than Scriptural Tradition of any more than the common matters of Christianity which all the Churches are agreed in But he that will not believe the most universal practice and history of the Church or world in a matter of fact must in reason much less believe his eye-sight 13. When you have soundly proved your foundation take not every difficult objection which you cannot answer to be a sufficient cause of doubting For if the fundamentals be proved truths you may trust to that proof and be sure that there are waies of solving the seeming inconsistent points though you are not yet acquainted with them There are few Truths so clear which a sophister may not clog with difficulties And there is scarce any man that hath so comprehensive a knowledge of the most certain Truths as to be able to answer all that can be said against it 14. Come not to this study in a melancholy or distracted frame of mind For in such a case you are ordinarily incapable of so great a work as the tryal of the grounds of Faith And therefore must live upon the ground-work before laid and wait for a fitter time to clear it 15. When new doubts arise mark whether they proceed not from the advantage which the tempter findeth in your minds rather than from the difficulty of the thing it self And whether you have not formerly had good satisfaction against the same doubts which now perplex you If so suffer not every discomposure of your minds to become a means of unbelief And suffer not Satan to command you to dispute your faith at his pleasure For if he may chuse the time he may chuse the success Many a man hath cast up a large account well or written a learned Treatise or Position well who cannot clear up all objected difficulties on a sudden nor without Books tell you all that he before wrote especially if he be half drunk or sleepy or in the midst of other thoughts oâ— business 15. When you are once perswaded of the truth of Christianity and the holy Scriptures think not that you need not study it any more because you do already confidently believe it For if your faith be not built on such cogent evidence as will warrant the conclusion whether it be at the present sound or not you know not what change assaults may make upon you as we have known them do on some ancient eminent Professors of the strictest Godliness who have turned from Christ and the belief of immortality Take heed how you understand the common saying of the Schools that Faith differeth from Knowledge in that it hath not Evidence It hath not evidence of sense indeed nor the immediate evidence of things invisible as in themselves but as they are the conclusions which follow the principles which are in themselves more evident It is evident that God is true and we can prove by good evidence that the Christian Verity is his Revelation And therefore it is evident though not immediately in it self that the matter of that word or revelation is true And as Mr. Rich. Hooker truly saith No man indeed believeth beyond the degree of evidence of truth which appeareth to him how confidently soever they may talk I remember that our excellent Vsher answered me to this case as out of Ariminensis that faith hath evidence of Credibility and science hath evidence of Certainty But undoubtedly an evidence of Divine Revelation is evidence of Certainty And all evidence of Divine Credibility is evidence of Certainty though of humane faith and credibility the case be otherwise 16. Yea think not that you have
the first so it is the Goodness of God which must be more studied by a Believer than his Power or his Wisdom because the impress of it is more necessary to us in our lapsed state 2. They have false thoughts of Gods Goodness who make it to consist only or chiefly in a communicative inclination ad extra which we call Benignity For he was as Good from Eternity before he made any creature as he is since And his Goodness considered as essential in himself and as his own perfection is infinitely higher than the consideration of it as terminated on any Creature Man is denominated good from his adaptation to the will of God and not God chiefly from his adaptation to the commodity or will of man And they do therefore debase God and deifie his creature who make the creature the ultimate end of GOD and it self and not God the ultimate end of the creature And they might as well make the creature the Beginning also of it self and God And yet this sottish notion taketh much with many half-witted Novelists in this Age who account themselves the men of ingenuity And they have also false thoughts of the Goodness of God who think that there is nothing of communicative Benignity in it at all For all the good which God doth he doth it from the Goodness of his Nature Thou art good and doest good Psal 119.68 And his doing good is usually expressed by the phrase of being good to them The Lord is good to all Psal 145.9 Psal 25 8 86.5 Object But if communicative Benignity be natural to God as his Essential Goodness is then he must do good per modum naturae ad ultimum potentiae and then the world was from Eternity and as good as God could make it Answ 1. Those Christian Divines who do hold that the Vniverse was from Eternity and that it is as good as God can make it do not yet hold that it was its own original but an eternal emanation from God and therefore that God who is the beginning of it is the ultimate end and eternally and voluntarily though naturally and necessarily produced it for himself even for the pleasure of his will And therefore that Gods Essential Goodness as it is in it self is much higher than the same as terminated in or productive of the Universe And that no mixt bodies which do oriri interire are generated and corrupted were from eternity and consequently that this present systeme called the world which is within our sight was not from eternity But that as spring and fall doth revive the plants and end their transitory life so it hath been with these particular systemes the simpler and nobler parts of the Universe continuing the same And they held that the world is next to infinitely good and as good as it is possible to be without being God and that for God to produce another God or an infinite good is a contradiction And that all the baser and pained and miserable parts of the world are best respectively to the perfection of the whole though not best in and to themselves As every nuck and pin in a watch is necessary as well as the chief parts And that all things set together it is best that all things be as they are and will be But of this the infinite Wisdom who seeth not only some little parts but the whole Universe at one perfect view is the fittest Judge 2. But the generality of Divines do hold the contrary and say that it is natural to God to be the Alsufficient pregnant good not only able to communicate goodness but inclined to it as far as his perfection doth require but not inclined to communicate in a way of natural constant necessity as the Sun shineth but in a way of liberty when and in what degrees he pleaseth which pleasure is guided by his infinite Vnderstanding which no mortal man can comprehend and therefore must not ask any further reason of the first reason and will but stop here and be satisfied to find that it is indeed Gods Will and Reason which causeth all things when and what they are and not otherwise And that God hath not made the Universe as good in it self as by his absolute Power he could have made it But that it is best to be as it is and will be because it is most suitable to his perfect Will and Wisdom And this answer seemeth most agreeable to Gods Word And as you must see that your thoughts of Gods Goodness be not false so also that they be not diminutive and low As no knowledge is more useful and necessary to us so nothing is more wonderfully revealed by God than is his amiable Goodness For this end he sent his Son into flesh to declare his Love to the forelorn world and to call them to behold it and admire it John 1 8 9 10. 3.16 1 John 3.1 Rev. 21.3 And as Christ is the chief glass of the Fathers Love on this side Heaven so it is the chief part of the office of Faith to see Gods Love and Goodness in the face of Christ Let him not reveal his Love in vain at so dear a rate and in a way of such wonderful condescension Think of his Goodness as equal to his greatness And as you see his greatness in the frame of the world so his goodness in the wonderful work of mans Redemption and Salvation Let Faith beholding God in Christ and daily thus gazing on his goodness or rather tasting it and feasting on it be the very summ of all your Religion and your lives This is indeed to live by Faith when it worketh by that Love which is our holiness and life Direct 13. Let not Faith overlook the Books of the Creation and the wonderful demonstrations of Gods Attributes therein Even such revelations of Gods goodness and fidelity as are made in Nature or the works of Creation are sometimes in Scriptures made the objects of faith At least we who by the belief of the Scriptures do know how the worlds were made Heb. 11.2 3. must believingly study this glorious work of our great Creator All those admirations and praises of God as appearing in his works which David useth were not without the use of faith Thus faith can use the world as a sanctified thing and as a glass to see the glory of God in while sensual sinners use it against God to their own perdition and make it an enemy to God and them so contrary is the life of Faith and of Sense He hath not the heart of a man within him who is not stricken with admiration of the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the incomprehensible Creator when he seriously looketh to the Sun and Stars to Sea and Land to the course of all things and to the wonderful variety and natures of the particular creatures And he hath not the heart of a Believer in him who doth not think O what
7. 2 Cor. 13.14 1 John 4.16 Prop. 12. When Sanctification is mentioned as a gift consequent to Faith it is the Love of God as our Father in Christ and the Spirit of Love that is principally meant by that Sanctification Prop. 13. The pardon of sin consisteth more in forgiving the poenam damni the forfeiture and loss of Love and the Spirit of Love than in remitting any corporal pain of sense And the restoring of Love and the Spirit of Love and the perfecting hereof in Heaven is the most eminent part of our executive Pardon Justification and Adoption Thus far Sanctification is Pardon it self Rom. 8.15 16 17. Gal. 4 6. 1 Cor. 6.10 11. Titus 3.6 7. Titus 2.13 14. Rom. 6. Rom. 8.4 10 13. Prop. 14. The pardon of the pain of sense is given us as a means to the executive pardon of the pain of loss that is to put us in a capacity with doubled obligations and advantages to Love God Luke 7.47 Prop. 15. Sanctification therefore being better than all other pardon of sin as being its end we must value it more and must make it our first desire to be as holy as may be that we may need as little forgiveness as may be and in the second place only desire the pardon of that which we had rather not have committed and not make pardon our chief desire Rom. 6 7 8. throughout Gal. 5.17 to the end Prop. 16. Holiness is the true Morality and they that prefer the preaching and practice of Faith in Christ bâ—fore the preaching and practice of Holiness and sleight this as meer morality do prefer the means before the end and their physick before their health And they that preach or think to practise Holiness without Faith in Christ do dream of a cure without the only Physician of souls And they that preach up Morality as consisting in meer justice charity to men and temperance without the Love of God in Christ do take a branch cut off and withered for the tree Some ignorant Sectaries cry down all Preaching as meer morality which doth not frequently toss the name of Christ and Free Grace And some ungodly Preachers who never felt the work of Faith or Love to God in their own souls for want of holy experience savour not and understand not holy Preaching and therefore spend almost all their time in declaiming against some particular vices and speaking what they have learned of some vertues of sobriety justice or mercy And when they have done cover over their ungodly unbelieving course by reproaching the weaknesses of the former sort who cry down Preaching meer morality But let such know that those Ministers and Christians who justly lament their lifeless kind of Preaching do mean by morality that which you commonly call Ethicks in the Schools which leaveth out not only Faith in Christ but the Love of God and the Sanctification of the Spirit and the heavenly Glory And they do not cry down true morality but these dead branches of it which are all your morality It is not morality it self inclusively that they blame but meer morality that is so much only as Aristotles Ethicks teach as exclusive to the Christian Faith and Love And do you think with any wise men or with your own consciences long to find it a cloak to your Infidel or unholy hearts and doctrine to mistake them that blame you or to take advantage of that ignorance of others The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost do shut up your Liturgy by way of Benediction but it is almost all shut out of your Sermons unless a few heartless customary passages And when there is nothing less in your preaching than that which is the substance of your Baptismal Covenant and Christianity and your customary Benediction you do but tell the people what kind of Christianity you have and what Benediction that is that you are neither truly Christians nor Blessed True Morality or the Christian Ethicks is the Love of God and man stirred up by the Spirit of Christ through Faith and exercised in works of Piety Justice Charity and Temperance in order to the attainment of everlasting happiness in the perfect vision and fruition of God And none but ignorant or brain-sick Sectaries will be offended for the Preaching of any of this Morality Luke 11.42 Wâ— to you Pharisees for ye tythe Mint and Rue and pass over Judgment and the Love of God These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone CHAP. X. The Practical Directions to live by Faith a life of Holiness or Love Direct 1. TAke Jesus Christ as a Teacher sent from Heaven the best and surest revealer of God and his Will unto mankind All the Books of Philosophers are sapless and empty in comparison of the teaching of Jesus Christ they are but enquiries into the nature of the creatures and the lowest things most impertinent to our happiness or duty Or if they rise up to God it is but with dark and unpractical conjectures for the most part of them and the rest do but grope and fumble in obscurity And their learning is mostly but useless speculations and striving about words and sciences falsly so called which little tend to godly edifying It is Christ who is made wisdom to us as being himself the wisdom of God If you knew but where to hear an Angel you would all prefer him before Aristotle or Plato or Cartesius or Gassendus how much more the Son himself He is the true Light to lighten every man that will not serve the Prince of darkness Christians were first called Christs Disciples and therefore to learn of him the true knowledge of God is the work of every true Believer John 17. â— Acts 3.23 John 8.43 47. 10.3 27. 12.47 14.24 Matth. 17.5 Direct 2. Remember that Christs way of Teaching is 1 By his Word 2. His Ministers 3. And his Spirit conjunct and the place for his Disciples is in his Church 1. His Gospel written is his Book which must be taught us 2. His Ministers office is to teach it us 3. His Spirit is inwardly to illuminate us that we may understand it And he that will despise or neglect either the Scripture Ministry or Spirit is never like to learn of Christ Direct 3. Look on the Lord Jesus and the work of mans Redemption by him as the great designed Revelation of the Fathers Love and Goodness even as the fabrick of the world is set up to be the Glass or Revelation eminently of his Greatness Therefore as you chuse your Book for the sake of the Science or subject which you would learn so let this be the designed studied constant use which you make of Christ to see and admire in him the Fathers Love When you read your Grammar if one ask you why you will say it is to learn the language which it teacheth and
this Treatise are so unlike understand 1. That they are for various uses The first Part to make men willing by awakening perswasions and the rest to direct them in the exercises of Faith who are first made willing 2. That I write not to win thy praise of an artificial comely Structure but to help souls to Holiness and Heaven and to these ends I labour to suit the means 3. That the first Sermon was published long ago and the Bookseller desiring me to give him some additions to it I thought meet first to make up the exciting part in the same style and then to add a Directory for the practice of judicious Believers 2. And if it offend thee that the second Part containeth but such matter as I have already published in my Reasons of the Christian Religion understand 1. That I perceived that that Treatise was neglected by the more unlearned sort of Christians as not descending enough to their capacities and that it would be useful to the confirmation of their Faith to draw forth some of the most obvious Arguments in as plain a manner and as briefly as I could that length nor obscurity might not deprive them of the benefit who are too slothfull or too dull to make use of more copious and accurate discourse 2. And I knew not how to write a Treatise of the Uses of Faith which should wholly leave out the Confirmations of Faith without much reluctancy of my Reason 3. And again I say I can bear the dispraise of Repetition if I may but further mens Faith and Salvation 3. And if it offend thee that I am so dull in all the Directive part I cannot well do both works at once awaken the Affections and accurately direct the mind for practice Or at least if I had spoken all those Directions in a copious applicatory Sermon style it would have swelled the Book to a very tedious costly volume And Affection must not too much interpose when the Judgment is about its proper work And being done in the beginning it may be the better spared afterward 4. If it offend you that I open the Life of Faith in somewhat an unusual manner I answer for my self that if it be Methodical true and apt for use I do that which I intend And on a subject so frequently and fully handled it were but an injury to the Church to say but the same which is said already Mr. John Ball Mr. Ezekiel Culverwell and Mr. Samuel Ward in a narrower room have done exceeding well upon this subject If you have nothing more than they have said read their Books only and let this alone 5. If it offend you that the Directions are many of them difficult and the style requireth a slow considerate Reader I answer the nature of the subject requireth it and without voluminous tediousness it cannot be avoided Blame therefore your unprepared ignorant minds and while you are yet dull of hearing and so make things hard to be uttered to your understanding because you have still need of Milk and cannot digest strong meat but must again be taught the principles of the oracles of God Heb. 5.11 12 13 14. think not to gâ—t knowledge without hard study and patient learning by hearing nothing but what you know already or can understand by one hasty reading over lest you discover a conjunction of slothfulness with an ignorant and unhumbled mind Or at least if you must learn at so cheap a rate or else stick still in your Milk and your Beginnings be not offended if others out-go you and think knowledge worthy of much greater diligence and if leaving the principles we go on towards perfection as long as we take them along with us and make them the life of all that followeth while we seem to leave them And this we will do if God permit Heb. 6.1 3. R. B. Feb. 3. 1669. The Contents of the first Part. The SERMON WHat Faith is page 2. The Text opened p. 4. The grounds of the certaâ—nty of Faith briefly intimated p. 5 c. Why God will have us live by Faith and not by sight p. 1â— c. Use 1. To inform us what a Christian or Believer is described p. 15 Use 2. The Reason why Believers are more serious in matters of Religion than unbelievers are Use 3. Of Examination p. 29 The misery of unbelievers p. 30 Marks of a true Faith p. 32 Use 4. Exhortation to the serious exercise of Faith p. 37 Some assisting suppositions p. 38 How those will live who thus believe opened in certain Questions p 4â— Motives to live by a foreseeing Faith on things not seen p. 45 The Conclusion 1. Exhorting to live by Faith 2. And to promote this life in others p. 46. The Additions Cap. 1. The conviction and reproof of Hypocrites Who live contrary to the Faith which they profess 48 Cap. 2. A general Exhortation to live as Believers 56 Cap. 3. An exhortation to the particular duties of Believers 63 The Contents of the Second Part. Chap. 1. The Believers Directory must shew him I. How to strengthen Faith 2. How to use it And I. For the first the order of the presupposed Natural Verities is briefly mentioned 8â— Chap. 2. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural evidences of Faith and the Rules therein to be observed 87 Chap. 3. The proper Evidence of Faith The SPIRIT and the Image of God himself 97 Chap. 4. The Image of Gods Wisdom on the Christian Religion It 's wonderful Method opened in thirty instances Six more instances 99 Chap. 5. The Image of Gods Goodness and Holiness on the Christian Religion in thirty instances 108 Chap. 6. The Image of Gods Power upon the Christian Religion in twenty instances 115 Chap. 7. The means of making known all this to us infallibly How the first witnesses knew it How the next Age and Churches knew it How we know it Twenty special historical Traditions of Christianity and matters of fact What the Spirits Witness to Christianity is 125 Chap. 8. Twelve further Directions to confirm our Faith 136 Chap. 9. Twenty General Directions how to use Faith or to live by it when it iâ— confirmed What Christian Faith is Errours about it 148 The Contents of the third Part. Chap. 1. How to live by Faith on God 168 Chap. 2. How to live by Faith on Jesus Christ 188 Abuses of the Doctrine of Redemption The extent of it Of Christs Office His Merits and Sacrifice Example c. Chap. 3. How to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost Of the Trinity Several doubts resolved about believing in the Holy Ghost Of giving the Spirit His operations Whether Love to God or Faith in Christ go first exactly answered And consequently whether Faith or Repentance be first Of the Spirit in Christ and the Apostles Of sufficient Grace How Faith procureth the Spirit Whether desires of grace be grace 20â— Chap. 4. How to live by faith as to Gods Commandâ— The admirable
the Scripture it self it is evident that the Churches and the Apostles used this day accordingly And it hath most infallible history impossible to be false that the Churches have used it ever to this day as that which they found practised in their times by their appointment And this is not a bare narrative but an uninterrupted matter of publick fact and practice So universal that I remember not in all my reading that ever one enemy questioned it or ever one Christian or Heretick denyed or once scrupled it So that they who tell us that all this is yet but humane testimony do shew their egregious inconsiderations that know not that such humane testimony or history in a matter of publick constant fact may be most certain and all that the nature of the case will allow a sober person to require And they might as well reject the Canon of the Scriptures because humane testimony is it which in point of fact doth certifie us that these are the very unaltered Canonical Books which were delivered at first to the Churches Yea they may reject all the store of historical tradition of Christianity it self which I am here reciting to the shame of their understandings And consider also that the Lords day was settled and constantly used in solemn worship by the Churches many and many years before any part of the New Testament was written and above threescore years before it was finished And when the Churches had so many years been in publick possession of it who would require that the Scriptures should after all make a Law to institute that which was instituted so long ago If you say that it might have declared the institution I answer so it hath as I have shewed there needing no other declaration but 1. Christs commission to the Apostles to order the Church and declare his commands 2. And his promise of infallible guidance therein 3. And the history of the Churches order and practice to shew de facto what they did And that history need not be written in Scripture for the Churches that then were no more than we need a revelation from Heaven to tell us thas the Lords day is kept in England And sure the next Age needed no supernatural testimony of it and therefore neither do we But yet it is occasionally oft intimated or expressed in the Scripture though on the by as that which was no further necessary So that I may well conclude that we have better historical evidence that the Lords day was actually observed by the Churches for their publick worship and profession of the Christian Faith than we have that ever there was such a man as William the Conquerour in England yea or King James much more than that there was a Caesar or Cicero 8. Moreover the very Office of the Pastors of the Church and their continuance from the beginning to this day is a great part of the certain tradition of this Religion For it is most certain that the Churches were constituted and the Assemblies held and the worship performed with them and by their conduct and not without And it is certain by infallible history that their office hath been still the same even to teach men this Christian Religion and to guide them in the practice of it and to read the same Scriptures as the word of truth and to explain it to the people And therefore as the Judicatures and Offices of the Judges is a certain proof that there have been those Laws by which they judge especially if they had been also the weekly publick Readers and Expounders of them and so much more is it in our case 9. And the constant use of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ hath according to his appointment been an infallible tradition of his Covenant and a means to keep him in remembrance in the Churches For when all the Churches in the world have made this Sacramental Commemoration and renewed covenanting with Christ as dead and risen to be their constant publick practice here is a tradition of that faith and Covenant which cannot be counterfeit or false 10. To this we may add the constant use of Discipline in these Churches it having been their constant law and practice to enquire into the faith and lives of the members and to censure or cast out those that impenitently violated their Religion which sheweth that de facto that Faith and Religion was then received and is a means of delivering it down to us Under which we may mention 1. Their Synods and Officers 2. And their Canons by which this Discipline was exercised 11. Another tradition hath been the published confessions of their Faith and Râ—lâ—gâ—on in those Apologies which persecutions and calumnies have caused them to write 12. And another is all those published Confutations of the many heresies which in every age have risen up and all the controversies which the Churches have had with them and among themselves 13. And another is all the Treatises Sermons and other instructing writings of the Pastors of those times 14 And another way of tradition hath been by the testimony and sufferings of Confessors and Martyrs who have endured either torments or death in the defence and owning of this Religion In all which waies of tradition the doctrine and the matter were joyntly attested by them For the Resurrection of Christ which is part of the matter of fact was one of the Articles of their Creed which they suffered for And all of them received the holy Scriptures which declare the Apostles miracles and they received their faith as delivered by those Apostles with the confirmation of those miracles So that when they professed to believe the doctrine they especially professed to believe the history of the life and death of Christ and of his Apostles And the Religion which they suffered for and daily professed contained both And the historical Books called the Gospels were the chief part of the Scripture which they called The Word of God and the Records of the Christian Religion 15. To this I may add that all the ordinary prayers and praises of the Churches did continue the recital of much of this history and of the Apostles names and acts and were composed much in Scripture phrase which preserved the memory and professed the belief of all those things 16. And the festivals or other dayes which were kept in honourable commemoration of those Apostles and Martyrs was another way of keeping these things in memory Whether it were well done or not is not my present enquiry only I may say I cannot accuse it of any sin till it come to over-doing and ascribing too much to them But certainly it was a way of transmitting the memory of those things to posterity 17. Another hath been by the constant commemoration of the great works of Christ by the dayes or seasons of the year which were annually observed How far here also the Church did well or ill I now meddle
reward of obedience and the beauties of holiness and the merciful conditions of filial obedience when we have a pardon of our infirmities and are accepted in Christ that so we may feel that Christs yoak is easie and his burden light and his Commandments are not grievous Mat. 11.28 29. 1 John 5.3 And when Faith hath taught you to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to delight to do the will of God Love which is the end of Faith will satisfie you Mat. 5.6 Psal 40.8 Direct 5. Take special notice how suitable a holy Law is to the nature of a most holy God and how much he is honoured in that demonstration of his holiness and how odious a thing it would be to wish that the most holy one would have made for us an unholy Law Would you draw the picture of your friend like an Ape or a Monkey or a Monster Or would you have the King pictured like a fool Or would you have his Laws written like the words of a Bedlam or the Laws of Barbarians or Cannibals How much more intollerable were it to wish that an unholy or unrighteous Law should be the product and impress of the most great most wise and holy God This thought should make every Believer exceedingly in love with the Holiness of Gods Commands because they are the Appearance or Image of his Holiness and necessary to his honour as he is the Governour of the world Rom. 7.6 7 12. When Paul confesseth that he could no more perfectly keep the Law without sin than a fettered prisoner can walk at liberty for that is the sense of the text yet doth he give the Law this honour that it is holy just and good and therefore he loveth it and fain would perfectly obey it if he could See Psal 19.7 12. c. 119.72 37.31 1.2 Isa 5.24 c. Direct 6. Remember that both Promises and Threatnings and Gods Mercies and his Judgements are appointed means to bring us to obey the Precepts and therefore obedience which is their end is highly to be esteemed It seemeth a great difficulty whether the Precept be for 〈◊〉 Promise or the Promise for the Precept which is the End and which is the Means whether obedience be a means to attain the reward or the reward be a means to procure obedience And the answer is as pleasant to our consideration viz. that as the works of the Trinity of persons and of Gods Power and Wisdom and Goodness ad extra are undivided so are the effects of the one in Gods Laws the effects also of the other and they are harmoniously and inseparably conjunct so that we must obey the Command that we may attain the blessing of the Promise and be assured of it And we must believe the Promise and the Reward that we may be moved to obey the Precept And when all is done we find that all comes to one and in the end the duty and the reward will be the same when duty cometh to perfection And that the reward which is promised is our perfection in that Holiness and Love and Conformity to the Will of God in which God doth take that complacency which is our ultimate end But if you look at the matter of obedience rather than the form it sometime consisteth in troublesome things as suffering persecution c. which is less desirable than the promised reward which is but pleasing God and obeying him in a more desirable and grateful matter even in perfect Love for ever And therefore the more desirable must be considered to draw us to the less desirable and that consideration of the reward and not the possessing of it is the means to our obedience not for the sake of the ungrateful matter but of the form and end Mat. 5.10 11 12 6.1 4. 10.41 42. 1 Cor. 9.17 18. 1 Tim. 5.18 Heb. 11.6 10.35 11.26 Col. 3.24 Direct 7. Remember how much Christ himself hath condescended to be made a Means or Mediatour to procure our obedience to God And surely that must be an excellent end which Christ himself became a means to He came to save his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 And to call sinners to repentance Luke 5.32 Mat. 9.13 Is Christ the Minister of sin God forbid Gal. 2.17 For this end was he revealed that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 And he died to redeem and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2.14 Christ came as much to kill sin as to pardon it Judge therefore of the worth of obedience by the nobleness and dignity of the means Direct 8. Remember still that the same Law which governeth us must judge us Let Faith see the sure and close connexion between obedience and judgement If Faith do but speak aloud to a sluggish soul Thou must be judged by the same word which commandeth thee to watch and pray and to walk in holiness with God it will much awaken the soul to duty And if Faith do but say aloud to a tempted sinner The Judge is at the door and thou must hear of this again and review sin when it will have another countenance it will do much to kill the force of the temptation Rom. 14.12 Phil. 4.17 Heb. 13.17 Mat. 12.36 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Direct 9. Be sure that your heart-subjection to God be fixed that you may live under the sense of his Authority For as Gods Veracity is the formal object of all Faith so Gods Authority is the formal object of all obedience And therefore the deep â—enewed apprehensions of his Majesty his Wisdom and absolute Authority will make us perceive that all things and persons must give place to him and he to none and will be a constant spring within us to move the will to a ready obedience in particular cases Mal. 1.6 Matth. 23.8 10. Jer. 5.22 Direct 10. Keep in memory some plain texts of Scripture for every particular duty and against every particular sin which I would willingly here write down but that the book swelleth too big and it is so plentifully done already in most Catechisms where they confirm all such commands with the texts of Scripture cited to that use As you may see in the Assemblies Catechism with the proofs and more briefly in Mr. Tobias Ellis his English School where a text or more for every Article of Faith and every duty is recited for the use of children Gods Word which is the object and Rule of Faith should be before 〈◊〉 eye of Faith in this great work of causing our obedience Direct 11. Vnderstand well the different nature and use of Scripture examples how some of them have the nature of a divine Revelation and a Law and others are only motives to obedience and others of them are evils to be avoided by us 1. To Moses and the Apostles of Christ a special Commission was granted to one to settle the Tabernacle and its worship
them 2 Thes 3.7 9. For your selves know how ye ought to follow us To make our selves an example for you to follow us Phil. 3.17 Be followers together of me and mark them that so walk as ye have us for an ensample 1 Cor. 4.16 I beseech you be followers of me 1 Thes 1.6 Ye became followers of us and of the Lord So well are both examples consistent 2. The likeness of other mens cases to ours is greatly useful to our direction and encouragement If we are to travel in dangerous waies we will be glad to hear how others have sped before us and if we were to deal with a crafty deceiver we would willingly advise with others that have dealt with him If we be to learn any Trade or Artifice we would learn it of them who with best success have practised it before us If we are sick of any disease we are glad to talk with them that have had the same and have been cured of it to hear what means they used for their cure In all such cases reason teacheth us both to observe how others were affected whether their case and ours were the same what course they took and how they sped especially if they were persons known to us and the likeness of their case well known and if they were such as for wisdom and fidelity we could trust So is it in this great business of our salvation We have nothing to do but what many thousands have done before us nothing to suffer but what they have suffered no temptation to resist but what they have been assaulted with and overcame 1 Cor. 10.13 and we want no grace no help or comfort but what they did attain And the glory which we seek and hope for they possess To look to them therefore must needs be useful to us in this our wilderness state 3. And as experience is a powerful Teacher so to be the Master of other mens experiences and so many and so wise and in such various cases and in so many ages must needs be very useful to us We that are born in the last ages of the world have the benefit of the experience of all the world that have gone before us Therefore is the Scripture written so much historically that all who are there mentioned may still be our instructors Even the first brethren that were born into the world were so plain a discovery of the nature of sin and grace and of the difference of the womans and the Serpents seed that their history is useful to all generations And Abel by his faith and sacrifice and righteousness being dead by malignant cruelty yet speaketh Heb. 11.4 He that will but soberly look back to all the worlds experience may quickly be resolved whether wisdom or folly labour or idleness godliness or ungodliness temperance or sensuality furthering the Gospel of Christ or persecuting it have sped better at the last and hath proved best to the actors upon full experience I shall therefore here give you some directions how you may believingly follow the Saints And first observe that the duty hath these parts which you must distinctly mind 1. To take them for your examples under Christ and so to fix your eyes upon them and look at them and mind them as examples must be minded 2. To improve these examples which you look upon And that is 1. For your direction in duty and for your warning against sin 2. To your encouragement and consolation Direct 1. Look after them to their end and consider 1. Whither they are gone We see nothing of them after death but the corpse which we leave in dust and darkness But Faith can attend their souls to glory and see where they now are even with Christ according to his promise John 12.26 Phil. 1.23 John 17.24 with Angels and with one another in the heavenly society the City of God 2. What they are doing And Faith can see that they are beholding God and their glorified Redeemer Matth. 5.8 Heb. 12.14 1 John 3.2 They are loving God with perfect Love 1 Cor. 12. 13.1 2 c. They are praising him with perfect alacrity and joy saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty c. Rev. 4.8 They are so far minding the state of the world as to cry How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth And they are waiting in white Robes till their fellow servants also and their brethren that shall be killed as they were shall be fulfilled Rev. 6.10 11. They are rejoycing when the enemies of Christ and his Church are subdued Rev. 18.20 And they shall judge the malignant Angels and the world 1 Cor. 4.2 3. And this seemeth not to be only an approbation of Christs final Judgment For 1. Judging is very often put in Scripture for governing As in the book of the Judges it is said such and such a one judged Israel that is ruled them according to the Laws of God 2. And a Kingdom and Reign is often promised to the Saints To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 Which must needs signifie some participation in power of Government and not only in splendor of Glory And so Christ expoundeth Matth. 19.28 Luke 22.30 Ye which have followed me in the regeneration shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And of God it is said Psal 9.4 Thou saâ—est in the Thrones judging right It is too jejune and forced an exposition of them that say this is spoken only of the power which the Apostles had in their ministration on earth And as absurd is the other that it is spoken only of Apostles Pastors and Saints and Martyrs in specie that their successors shall be Popes and Prelates and great men in the world and the Saints be uppermost after Constantines conversion As if the promise meant only to reward one man because another suffered for Christ and God had promised these great things not to the persons mentioned but to others that should be their successors yea as if that Venom then poured into the Church were all the benediction And though I know not what changes are yet to come before the final Judgment yet the Millenaries opinion who restrain all this to an earthly temporal reign of some Saints for a thousand years doth seem as unsatisfactory on many accounts It is most likely therefore that as the wicked who are now very like them must be hereafter of the same Region and Society with the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 And as the godly shall be like and equal to the Angels Luke 20.36 so we shall be of the same Society with the Angels and consequently shall have their employment And as the Angels have a Ministerial Stewardship or Superintendency over men and their affairs as many Scriptures
those in Heaven you will quite misunderstand the providences of God in the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the Saints and the changes that are usually made on Earth You will begin to think that sin is safe and the wicked are not so miserable as they are nor godly diligence so profitable a thing you will not know the reasons of providence unless you can see unto the end And the ultimate end is not on Earth But go into the Sanctuary and take the prospective of the promise and look to the blessed souls with Christ and all the riddle will be expounded to you and you will be reconciled to all the providences of God You are strange to truth if you are strange to the triumphing Saints in Heaven 8. The progressive nature of your faith and godliness requireth it You are travelling to Heaven where the blessed are and are nearer to them than when you first believed And the nearer you are to them the more you should mind them and by Faith and Love be familiar with them And when you are almost at home you should be even ready to embrace your friends at the meeting 9. Your Relation to the blessed Spirits doth require it and your Christian and ingenuous disposition towards them 1. Are they not such as were latety near you in the flesh some of them your dearest companions and friends and should you causlesly forget them 2. Are they not not now your friends who love you better than they could do on earth Doubtless their knowledge and memory is not grown less to forget you if once they knew you but they are like to know much more And their Goodness being increased their Love is increased and not diminished 3. And you belong to the same Society with them even to the Body or Church of Christ whose nobler part above and inferiour part on Earth do make up the whole Is it not expresly said Heb. 12.22 23. that we are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven that is to those which as the first born are most noble and possessed of the heavenly inheritance and are there entered inhabitants already And to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant c. And what is it to come to them but to come or be joyned to that Society of which they are the nobler part Will you be Fellow-Citizens with them and have no communion with them nor seriously remember them How can you remember God himself and not remember those that are his Courtiers and nearer to him than you are And how can you think of Christ and not think of his Body Or how can you think of his Body and forget the most excellent and honourable parts Or how can you remember your selves and forget your chiefest Friends and Lovers 10. The very nature of the Life of Faith requireth us to look much to the departed Saints The Life of Faith consisteth in our conversing with the things unseen as the life of sight or sense is our conversing with things seen If you love and think on none of the Saints but those that are within your sight you live so far but as by sight Though Faith live not upon Saints properly but on God and our Redeemer yet it liveth and converseth with the Saints If it work aright it will as it were set you among them and make you live on Earth as if you heard their songs of praise and saw their Thrones of Glory 11. The present necessities of your condition in this world do require you to look much to the Saints above as is before shewed in the benefits recited We live here among such persons and things as are objects of continual sorrow to us And have we not need of some more comfortable company If you had nothing at home but chiding and discontent and poverty you will be willing of so much recreation as to be invited to feast sometimes where there is plenty pleasure and content If you lived among groaning sick or melancholy persons in an Hospital you would be glad sometimes of merryer company a little to refresh your minds Alas what a deal of sin do we daily see or hear of and what a deal of sorrow is round about us What are our News-books filled with or the daily reports which come to our ears but sin and sorrow vanity and vexation what is the employment of most of the world what is it that Court and Country City and all Societies ring of but vanity and vexation sin and sorrow And is not a walk in Heaven with better company a pleasure desirable in such a case What grief must needs dwell on the minds of sober Catholick Christians to see the Church on earth so torn so worryed so reproached as it is throughout the earth so torn in pieces by its zealous ignorant self-conceited Pastors and Members so worryed by its open and secret enemies even by the usurping tyrannizing Wolves in Sheeps cloathing who spare not the flock Matth. 7.15 10.16 Acts 20.29 so reproached by the world of Infidels and Heathens who fly from it as from an infected City and say Christians are drunkards and deceivers and lyars they are all in pieces among themselves they revile and persecute one another we will therefore be no Christians How sad is it to see the one part of the world professing Christianity to make it odious by their wickedness and their divisions and the rest of the world abhorring it because these have made it seem odious to them How sad is it to hear all Christians speak of love and Concord Unity and Peace while few of them know the way of Peace or how to hold their own hands from tearing the Church into more pieces while these peaceable words are in their mouths To see the Pastors and People as if it were for Unity and Peace contriving the ruine of all that are not of their Party and Way and studying how to extirpate one another and multiplyjng snares and stumbling blocks as necessary means to heal the Church How sad is it to see so great a faction as the Roman Kingdom for it is more properly a Kingdom than a Church to lay the necessary Vnity and Communion of all the Churches upon so many forgeries of their own upon the supposed certainty of the falseness of all mens senses in the point of Transubstantiation and upon the subjection of the Church to an universal usurpes and to keep up ignorance lest knowledge by reading the translated Scriptures and such Books as do detect their frauds should mart their markets and spoil their trade To see their Prelates take their own domination wealth and greatness to be really the prosperity of the Church and
foretaste will do more than foresight alone and will make me love the day of thy appearing and long to see thy glorious Love But alas this feeble sleeping Love doth threaten if not the thrusting of me out of doors for none but friends and hearty Lovers dwell with thee at least that I shall be set behind the door and be one of the lowest in thy Kingdom as I was in thy Love For if I have the least degree of Love I must needs have the least degree of Glory seeing that blessedness is Love it self And if I have the least in this life how can I hope to have proportionably with others the most in that I know that it is better to be a door-keeper in thy house than to reign in the Palaces of earthly sordid and polluting pleasures And that the least in thy Kingdom is greater than Emperours in the Kingdoms of darkness But how can I have faith indeed and not desire intuition or grace and not desire glory Or who can love thee truly and yet be contented to love thee but a little Or who ever tasted truly of thy Love that desired not the fulness of it If sincerity consist in the desire of Perfection and if mutual Love be heaven it self I am not sincere then if I desire not the highest place in Heaven which is suited to the measure of my natural capacity and with the freedom and wisdom of thy bounteous Will Did I grudge at my natural capacity and my rank among my fellow-creatures and aspired after the Divine Prerogatives or a Greatness without Goodness or any prohibited station or degree I might then expect the reward of Pride and to fall into Satans condemnation for falling into his sin But when wast thou ever offended at the ambition of loving thee with the most perfect Love Thou forbiddest our carnal Pride as our self-abasing folly Not thinking preferments Lordships and domination to be things too high for us but too low Thou allowest and commandest the poorest Lazarus to seek and hope for things ten thousand times more high in comparison with which these pleasures are pain these Lordships are losses this wealth is dung these Courts are deâ—â— of uncleanness wild and ravenous beasts and all this earthly pomp is shame Thou forbiddest not the pleasures and glory of the world as too good for thy servants but as too bad and base and hurtful O therefore encourage in my drooping soul that holy ambition which thou commandest Disappoint not the desires which thy self by thy Precept and thy Spirit hast excited I know thou hast promised to satisfie them that hunger and thirst after Righteousness And if my soul be acquainted with it self it is Righteousness which I desire Though the solliciting calls of vanity have drawn me too often to look aside it is the Knowledge and Love of my Creatour and Redeemer and Sanctifier which I pursue and my prayer is that thou wilt turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy way But it is the dulness of my desires which I fear lest they are not the hungring and thirsting which have thy promise and lest they should prove but as the desires of the slothful which kill him because his hands refuse to labour But thou knowest that I hate the sluggishness and indifferency of my soul and the coldness and interruptions of my desires And what is there in this world which I desire more than more desires after thee even more of that Desiring Seeking Love which is the way to enjoying and delighting Love O breath upon my soul by thy quickening Spirit that it may pant and gasp and breath after thy presence The most dolorous motions of Life and Love have more contenting sweetness in them than my dead insensibility and sleep When I can but long to love thee or when I lie in tears for want of love or when I am hating and reviling this sluggish carnal disaffected heart even in my very doubts and fears and moans I find my self nearer to content and pleasure than when I neglect thee with a dead and drowsie heart If therefore my vileness make me unfit to enjoy that pleasure in the daily prospect of thy Kingdom which reason it self adjudgeth to a serious lively faith O yet keep up the constant fervour of desire that I may never grow in love with vanity and deceit nor never be indifferent whether I stay on earth or come to thee And that in my greatest health I may never think of Thee without desire nor never kneel in prayer to thee with such an unbelieving and unprayer-like heart which doth not unfeignedly say Let thy glorious Kingdom come That so when on the bed of languishing I am waiting for the dissolution of this frame I may not draw back as flying from thy presence nor look at Heaven as less desirable than Earth nor be driven unwillingly from a more beloved habitation but with that Faith Hope and Love which animateth all thy living members I may in consort with thy Saints to the last sincerely break forth our common suit Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books written and published by the same Author 1. THE Aphorisms 2. The Saints Everlasting rest in quarto 3. Plain Scripture proof of Infant Church-membership and Baptism in quarto 4. The right Method for a settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual Comforts in thirty two Directions in octavo 5. Christian Concord or the Agreement of the Associated Pastors and Churches of Worcester-shire in quarto 6. True Christianity or Christs Absolute Dominion c. in two Assize Sermons preacht at Worcester in twelves 7. A Sermon of Judgement preacht at Pauls London Decemb. 17. 1654. and now enlarged in twelves 8. Making light of Christ and Salvation too oft the Issue of Gospel-Invitations manifested in a Sermon preached at Lawrence Jury in London in octavo 9. The Agreement of divers Ministers of Christ in the County of Worcester for Catechizing or Personal Instructing all in their several Parishes that will consent thereunto containing 1. The Articles of our Agreement 2. An Exhortation to the People to submit to this necessary work 3. The Profession of Faith and Catechism in octavo 10. Guildas Salvianus The Reformed Pastor shewing the nature of the Pastoral work especially in private Instruction and Catechizing in octavo 11. Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments and the True Nature of Visible Christianity in quarto 12. Of Justification four Disputations clearing and amicably defending the Truth against the unnecessary Oppositions of divers Learned and Reverend Brethren in quarto 13. A Treatise of Conversion preached and now published for the use of those that are strangers to a true Conversion c. in quarto 14. One sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts 15. A Winding-sheet for Popery 16. One Sheet against the Quakers 17. A second Sheet for the Ministry c. 18. Directions to Justices of Peace
disturbing and corrupting of the Church the deluding of others and the disappointing and deceiving of your selves Direct 7. Neglect not any helps which you can have by the excellent gifts of any of Christs Ministers or flocks and yet take heed that through prejudice or for the faults of either you vilifie or reject nothing which is of God But carefully distinguish between Christs and theirs Communion with the holiest and purest Assemblies is more desirable than with the less pure But yet all that is less desirable comparatively is not simply unlawful nor to be rejected The labours of an abler and more faithful Minister are much to be preferred before theirs that are less able and faithful For God worketh usually according to the aptitude of the means and of the receiver To the recovery and salvation of a soul it is necessary 1. That the Vnderstanding be made wise 2. That the Heart or Will be sanctified by Love 3. That the Life be holy and obedient To the first of these there are three things needful 1. That the Vnderstanding be awakened 2. That it be illuminated 3. That it be preserved from the seduction of temptations to deceit Now an able and faithful Pastor is suited to all these effects 1. He is a lively Preacher to awaken the understanding He is a clear intelligent methodical and convincing Teacher to illuminate it 3. He can confute gainsayers and refute objections and shame the cavils of tempters and deceivers to preserve it And 2 He speaketh all from the unfeigned Love of God and men and as all his words do breathe forth Love so they art apt to kindle such love in the hearers For every active nature tendeth to propagation 3. And the holiness of his life as well as doctrine tendeth to win the people to a holy life So that he that loveth his own soul must not be indifferent what Pastor he chuseth for the help and conduct of his soul but should most carefully seek to get the best or fittest for such necessary ends But yet it followeth not that a weaker or worse may not be heard or may not be accepted or submitted to in a case of necessity when a better cannot be had without more disturbance and hurt than the benefits are like to recompence And when we live under such a weak or cold or faulty Pastor our care must be so much the greater that we may make up that in the diligence of our attention which is wanting in his manner of expression and that we make up that in a care of our own souls which is wanting in his care And that our knowledge of his failings tempt us not to slight the truth which he delivereth and that we reject not the matter for the manner The Sheep of Christ do know his voice and they know his words and reverence and love them from what mouâ—h soever they proceed A Religious zâ—alous man that preacheth false doctrine is more to be avoided than a cold or scandalous man who preacheth the truth If you doubt of this observe these texts Matth. 23.2 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not Acts 1.17 For he Judas was numbred with us and had obtained part of this Ministry Judas the thief and traitor was an Apostle called and sent out by Jesus Christ Phil. 1.15 c. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will The one preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add afflâ—ction to my bonds what then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Acts 20.30 Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Gal. 1.7 8. If we or an Angel from Heaven bring another Gospel let him be accursed Is not all this a plain decision of the case Direct 8. While you prefer local communion with the purest Churches and â—est taught and ordered for your own edification take heed that you disown not a distant and mental communion with any part of the Church of Christ on earth which Christ himself disowneth not But first remember that you are members of the Vniversal Church and as such in mental communion with the whole present your selves and services to Christ and next as members of your Particular Church It is true that you must not own the corruptions of any Church or of any of their Worship but you must own the Church it self and own all the substance of the Worship which is good and which God owneth God doth not reject the matter for the manner nor the whole for a faulty part where the heart is sincere that offereth it nor no more must you And if they force you not to any actual sin as by false speaking subscribing or the like you must sometimes also locally joyn with such Churches when occasion requireth it As when you have no better to go to or when it is necessary to shew your mental communion or to avoid schism scandal or offence As you must not approve of your own failings in Gods Worship as in the manner of praying preaching c. and yet must not give over worshipping God though you are alwaies sure to fail even so must you do by your communion with others And here I would earnestly intreat all those that are inclinable to sinful separation to think but of these few things 1. What is more contrary to Christianity than Pride and what is a plainer sign of Pride than to separate from whole Churches and perhaps from most part of the Christian world for such faults as are no greater than others of our own and to say They are too bad for such as you to communicate with 2. Whether it be not much contrary to that clemency of Jesus Christ by which he pardoneth the failings of Believers and which we have need of our selves as well as others And whether it be not an horrid injury to our Lord to ascribe his inheritance to the Devil and to cast those out of his Church whom he himself receiveth and to deny so many of his servants to be his 3. How great a loss is it to lose your part in all those prayers of the Churches how weak soever which you disown And how can you justly expect the benefit of such prayers I would not take all their riches for my part of the benefit of those prayers of the Churches of Church which some reject because they are extemporate and others because they are forms or book-prayers or imposed nor would I take all their wealth and honour for my part in all the prayers of the Vniversal Church which
are guilty of more disorders tautologies unmeet expressions and manifold defects than any that I ever yet heard from those Ministers that pray either by habit or book Direct 9. Take heed both of carelesness and curiosity in the worshipping of God Avoid carelesness because it is prophaneness and contempt Therefore watch against idleness of mind and wandering thoughts and remember how great a work it is to speak to God or to hear from him about your everlasting state And yet curiosity is a heinous sin When men are so nice that unless there be quaint phrases and fine cadencies and jingles or at least a very laudable style they nauseate all and are weary of hearing a homely style or common things when every unmeet expression or tautology of the speaker doth turn their stomachs against the wholesomest food This curiosity cometh from a weak and an unhealthful state of soul Direct 10. Lastly Let your eye of Faith be all the while upon the heavenly Host or Church triumphant I remember how they worship God with what wisdom and purity and fervour of Love and sacred pleasure and with what unity and peace and concord And let your Worship be as much composed to the imitation of them as is agreeable to the likeness of our condition unto theirs There is no hypocrisie dulness darkness errours self-conceitedness pride division section or uncharitable contention Oh how they burn in Love to God and how sweet that Love is to themselves and how those souls work up in heavenly Joyes to the face of God in all his praises Labour as it were to joyn your selves by faith with them and as far as standeth with your different case to imitate them They are more imitable and amiable than the purest Churches upon earth Their love and blessed concord is more lovely than our uncharitable animosities and odious factions and divisions are And remember also the time when you must meet all those upright souls in Heaven whose manner of Worship you vilified and spake reproachfully of on earth and from whose communion you turned away And only consider how far they should be disowned who must be dear to Christ and you for ever The open disowning and avoiding the ungodly and scandalous is a great duty in due season when it is regularly done and is necessary to cast shame on sin and sinners and to vindicate the honour of Christianity before the world But otherwise it is but made an instrument of pernicious pride and of divisions in the Church and of hindering the successes of the Gospel of Christ CHAP. XXII How to pray in Faith PAssing by all the other particular parts of Worship as handled elsewhere in my Christian Directory I shall only briefly touch the duty of prayer especially as in private Direct 1. Let your heart lead your tongue and be the fountain of your words and suffer not your tongues in a customary volubility to over-run your hearts Desire first and pray next and remember that desire is the soul of prayer and that the heart-searching God doth hate hypocrisie and will not be mocked Matth. 6.1 3 4. Direct 2. Yet do not forbear prayer because your desires are not so earnest as you would have them For 1. Even good desires are to be begged of God 2. And such desires as you have towards God must be exercised and expressed 3. And this is the way of their usual increase 4. And a prophane turning away from God will kill those weak desires which you have when drawing near him in prayer may revive and cherish them Direct 3. Remember still that you pray to a heavenly Father who is readier to give than you are to receive or ask If you knew his Fulness and Goodness how joyfully would you run to him and cry Abba Father John 20.17 Luke 12.30 32. Mark 11.25 Matth. 6.8 32. Direct 4. Go boldly to him in the Name of Christ alone Remember that he is the only Way and Mediatour When guilt and conscience would drive you back believe the sufficiency of his sacrifice and attonement When your weakness and unworthiness would discourage you remember that no one is so worthy as to be accepted by God on any other terms than Christs Mediation Come boldly then to the Throne of Grace by the new and living way and put your prayers into his hand and remember that he still liveth to make intercession for you and that he appeareth before God in the highest in your cause Heb. 10.19 Ephes 3.12 Rom. 5.2 Heb. 9.24 7.25 26. Direct 5. Desire nothing in your hearts which you dare not pray for or which is unmeet for prayer Let the Rule of Prayer be the Rule of your Desires And undertake no business in the world which you may not lawfully pray for a blessing on Direct 6. Desire and pray to God first for God himself and nothing lower and next for all those spiritual blessings in Christ which may fit you for communion with him And lastly for corporal mercies as the means to these Matth. 6.33 Psal 42.1 2 3 c. Psal 73.25 26. Direct 7. Pray only for what is promised you or you are commanded to pray for And make not promises to your selves and then look that God should fulfil them because you confidently believe that he will do it and do not so reproach God as to call such self-conceits and expectations by the name of a particular Faith For where there is no word there is no faith Direct 8. What God hath promised confidently expect though you feel no answer at the present For most of our prayers are to be granted or the things desired to be given at the harvest time when we shall have all at once Whether you find your selves the better at present for prayer or not believe that a word is not in vain but you shall reap the fruit of all in season Luke 18.1 7 8. James 5.7 8. Direct 9. Let the Lords Prayer be the Rule for the matter and method of your desires and prayers But with this difference It must alwaies be the Rule which your desires must be formed to both in matter and method You must alwaies first and most desire the hallowing of Gods Name the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will on Earth as it is in Heaven before your own being or well-being But this is only a Rule for your General Prayers which take in all the parts For when you either intend to pray only or chiefly for some one particular thing you may begin with that or be most upon it Therefore all Christians should specially labour to understand the true sense and method of the Lords Prayer which God willing I hope elsewhere to open Direct 10. Be more careful in secret of your affections than of the order of your words yet chusing such as are aptest to the matter and fittest to excite your hearts But in your families or with others be very careful to speak to God in