could not bâ— unlesse there they were But will you say Whenâ— Obj. should these arise Doth God aâ— ter in his love in his nature 〈◊〉 his fidelity Or doe the Promises which are the great staâ— of faith goe and come ebbâ— â—nd flow Doe they vary from â—â—emselves either for truth or â—oodnesse Or doth Christ the â—undation the rock on which â—ur faith is built is not he the â—â—me yesterday to day and for ever â—f so how why whence is it â—â—at a Beleever should doubt I answer That though there â—â—e the samenesse in God in Sol. â—hrist in the Word yet there is â—ot an onenesse in us and the â—ariations in us doe in no wise â—onclude any thing in them no â—ore then the severall alteratiâ—ns in the ayre doe inferre a diâ—ersity in the Sunne which is â—â—e and the same in respect of â—selfe however the changes â—ee multiplyed here below â—herefore know that the Cap. IV. Springs Causes and Occasions oâ— doubting are or may be these 1. NAturall corruption Thiâ— The first cause of doubtings is a corrupt root thâ— seed of all sinne and of unbeâ—â— liefe This is that flesh whicâ— Originall sinne the fountaine of unbelief doth lust against the spirit aâ—â— thrusts up abundance of motâ—â— on s and corupt reasonings aâ—â— motives to interrupt our faiâ—â— in its great businesse of beleeâ— ving So that when we wouâ—â— It corrupts and misinforms the mind and withholds the will doe good evill is present witâ— us and when wee would beâ— leeve unbeliefe is preseâ— with us It is very true that in our coâ—â— version the soule is graciousâ— inlarged and the powers of 〈◊〉 It is a disease hanging about the best are crushed Yet so that still 〈◊〉 goe with a chaine about 〈◊〉 leg And though sin hath 〈◊〉 deaths-wound yet so much liâ—â— Note is still remaining as to interruâ—â— our graces to resist them yea and if we look not well unto it to stay and bind them He who hath a maime in Simile his leg cannot move in that manner or measure as he desires and a wounded hand or arme hand or arme cannot stretch out it self and lay hold at all times Corruption is in the best and will doe its part and that is one reason why we cannot doe all our part in beleeving You know in the Warres Simile how the intentions and motions of one side are stopt and kept up by the malice and subtilty and power of the other and that there may be many veines of sweetest water under the earth which yet are many times checked and controlled by the falling down of earth O this body of sinne which nolentes volentes wee must yet carry about with us how backward is it to come to Christ how unbeleeving is it how suspicious how fearfull It will not be perswaded it will not hearken it will not credit it will not yeeld it will not imbrace The very Disciples who had the presence of Christ who saw the Miracles of Christ who heard the voice of Christ how often did they doubt did they question Whence shall we have bread to feed so many * Luk. 24. 21 We had trusted it should have beene he who should have redeemed Israel So that Christ reproves them more then once or twice O slow of Luk. 24. 25 heart to beleeve c. * 38. Why doe thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my selfe But Christ apologiseth for them The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak 2. Imperfection of faith A second cause of doubtings this is another cause of doubting Why should a child fall so much and a man so seldome is it not the weaknesse in the Simile nerves and sinews and low motive parts When fire is newly kindled it is but little and hath much smoke so is it with our faith the more imperfect it is the more doubtings it finds Matth. 14. 31. O thou of little Weake faith and many doubtings goe together faith wherefore didst thou doubt Little faith and great doubtings goe together like a little heart and great mists Some men are but Babes in Christ they are but plants in the garden they are but lambs in the fold Now children are apt to feare and plants to shake and lambs to flag behind and weak beleevers to doubt Lay a little burden on Simile a childs shoulder he knowes not what to doe shew him the water hee cryes out So is it with weak beleevers Their strength is not proportioned unto unusuall exigences Neither have they experiences nor that quicknesse of art to hye them to their helps And these are great matters 1. when a man wants strength to deale with his enemy and 2. when he hath not had experience Therefore let us consider this yet more Where faith is weake or imperfect there are three things incident unto those Beleevers 1. They want ability to Three things in weak beleevers argue for their experience is little and therefore their judgments are not so setled so that they cannot alwayes maintaine their ground David David because of former experiences he is not amazed at the uncircumcised Philistine but rests upon that God for victory here who had granted him former deliverances from the Beare and the Lion And so Paul 2 Cor. 1. Paul confirms himselfe 2 Cor. 1. 10. who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver* but weak David was right in Psal 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord bast not forsaken those that seek thâ—e faith hath little experience of Gods truths and of Gods power and of Gods method and times 2. They see their wants and hindrances more then their helps and incouragements like Elisha's servant who saw the multitude of the enemies compassing the city with horses and charioÌ„ts and the reupon cryed out Alas my Master Elâ—sha's servant 2 King 6. 15 16 17. how shall we doe but at first he saw not the mountaine full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha which might have stayed and upheld him It is with new and weake Beleevers as with the Israelites Israelites who did heare of the sons of Anak those mighty Gyants and of the high mighty walls about the city of Canaan they looked on these and were greatly perplexed and discouraged but they did not looke on the strong and Almighty God who did promise to goe with them and conquer for them So do these they look upon the meer temptations and suggestions of Satan they looke upon the powerfull stirrings of remaining corruption they look upon the strength of present crosses they look upon their own weaknesses against all these they look upon Gods delayings upon their owne dulnesses and whatsoever may keep them downe but they look not upon that God who hath promised
is a glorious and singular Note We know not what a promise will doe till we lay hold way to beleeve so long untill we come downe to feeling But to begin with feeling and so rise to beleeving is a delusion both dangerous and impossible for thou canst never truely feele unlesse thou dost first beleeve Canst thou truly warme thy heart with that divine favour which faith did not let in The fourth cause of doubtings A fourth cause of doubtings is when we deny Faith its We give not faith its perfect work and full scope to all objects and all occasions matter and grounds to work How is that It is when we guide the whole businesse below and not above I will give you some instances 1. You know that the condition of Grace is exposed to many short allowances in externalls Foure instances and the condition of sinfull men is capable of large Prosperity of evill men and adversities of good prosperity in worldly things A good man may have many wants and an evill man may have in this life his good things as Abraham speaks of Dives Now when a person looks upon the bulke upon the outward part upon the shell upon the rinde of things and sees plenty with evill men and poverty with good men honour shining there and contempt clouding here fulnesse for them and leannesse for these pleasures and liberties attending them and sorrowes and restraints befalling these when I say he looks on this and no higher then this it is possible that suspitions and doubtings may start up it is possible that the soul may sink downe somewhat at it See an evidence in Asaph Psal 73. 2. Psal 73. 2. My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipt 3. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked 12. These are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches 13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands in innocency 14. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning Observe here his distrusts and doubts As if his gracious course did no way benefit him or as if he had served God for nought And thus he goes on whiles he bends his thoughts downward whiles he keeps in his faith whiles he denyed it matter to work upon but ver 17. But 17. there he gives scope for faith to worke and then he is free againe and well againe Vntill I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end 2. In case of the sinfull condition Whiles we look on it and deny Faith its matter also to work upon we shal be ful of doubtings Let a man look only Sinfull condition upō his sins upon the nature of them the aggravations of them what will come of it 1. Strong humiliations and those are good 2. Doubtings and despaires and those are bad The single considerations of sin are the matter onely of our feare they are a grievous burden David was not able Psal 38. 4. to stand under it My sins are too heavy a burden for me to bear Psal 38. 4. For what hope is there in Nothing in a sinner to uphold a sinner our selves What is in a sinner to uphold a sinner No burden is an ease to it selfe Let people behold their sinnes and not use their faith they cannot but doubt for now sinne appears in all the motives and causes of feare and now God appeares not in the nature of a friend but with the countenance of an enemy and of a severe Judge and where now can the troubled soule anchor or fasten or ease it selfe God you know hath given unto Man two eares and two eyes if we make use of one onely our lives wil often hang in doubt and suspence If wee have not an eare * Psa 81. 8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak c. to heare what God saith to an humbled sinner as well as an eare to heare what Conscience will say unto a sinner If we have not an eye to look unto Christ as well as an eye to look unto our sins an eye to behold the brazen Serpent as well as an eye to behold the biting fiery Serpent we cannot then but doubt As we must give conscience Note its scope to work upon sin so we must give Faith its scope to work upon Christ else we shall neither be freed from our doubtings nor yet from our sinnes which cause those doubtings 3. In case of bodily distractions Bodily distractions and occurrences which put us into an exigence or strait if we look below onely if wee looke upon their strength and our strength onely it will now be with us as with David tired out and almost David spent by the huntings and pursuings of Saul * 1 Sam. 27. 1. I shall surely one day fall by the hand of Saul or as with Peter who Peter looking upon the waves and not upon Christ began to sink and cryed Lord save mee Mat. 14. 30 or as with Jehoshaphat whiles he looked upon the great Armies Iehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. 12. We know not what to doe Not long since we might have read this in our very faces Our selves when the Churches abroad A little before the K. of Sweden came into Germany were in great distresse wee looked on their dust and ashes their ruines and weaknesse we looked on man and gave up all for lost We did not look upon God and therefore our ship was full of water our hearts did faile us doubts and feares like a black cloud did overspread us Nay at * This was preached in the times of the great calamities of the Church in Germany this very time wee heare of an externally disproportionable strength that the enemies are more in number they are confederate they complot they intend a great designe and now I find the fears the doubts wagging and assuredly whiles we look downward onely and not upward whiles wee lay events issues upon the creature Whiles our eyes are down our fears will up whiles we give faith no scope to look up and work upon that God who can save by a few as well as by many wee shall never be freed from doubtings The very same is true in our personall occurrences as long as we look on the things onely which we meet withall and oppose our own strength unto them it will be with us as an Simile house without pillars tottering with every blast or as with a ship without an anchor tossed with every wave For every crosse is too hard for us though none can be too hard for God 4. So for temptations Temptations Here also our doubtings fly up because our faith flies not out O say we we are not able to beare to withstand to overcome the temptations are strong and many and daily Suppose so And what do we Verily we are soone
his old age that by faith he gave Rom 4. 20 glory to God But how came he so to doe The Text saith that He considered not his owne body now dead when he was about an hundred yeares old nor the ver 19. deadnesse of Sarahs wombe but he considered him who had promised and was perswaded that what he had promised hee ver 21. was able also to performe Why This is the right course to elicite or draw out our beleeving We must not consider our selves but we must consider him who promiseth Our reasons of beleeving must be found in him alone on whom we are to beleeve Therefore I beseech you to remember that the Promises of God are not onely objects of faith but they are also grounds of beleeving They doe not onely containe excellent good for us but likewise the motives to beleeve that good Besides the goodnesse in them which respectively answers our conditions and the presenting of that goodnesse unto us by way of gift there is all reason conjoyned with these to affect our hearts to lay hold on them namely 1. A graciousnesse that the Lord will freely and for his owne sake doe us all that good 2. A fidelity that the Lord who hath graciously promised will also faithfully performe And 3. sufficiencie of power in God to make good unto us whatsoever word of goodnesse is gone out of his lips So that from all these a Christian against all his doubtings may yet see ground to beleeve the Promises of God because 1. The Promises are the Declarations of God for good unto us 2. They are willing Declarations arising onely from the good will of our God 3. He dispenseth the good in them to sinners freely without any worthinesse or desert on their parts 4. There is not any good promised which God is not willing or able to make good Lastly let any person beleeve on them and he shall confesse that faithfull is that God who promised and that that God who hath promised cannot lye But now on the contrary If you look for grounds of beleeving in and from your selves it cannot be that ever your hearts should be free from doubtings If either you make your owne worthinesse the cause of beleeving you shall never come to beleeve This were not to receive good from God but to buy and purchase it and is absolutely against the nature of free promises as also against the disposition of true faith which empties us of our selves and seeth the cause of all our good to be only in him who is All-goodnesse Or if you think that you must first finde the good in your selves which ye are to fetch from the Promises you cannot then beleeve you must unavoidably doubt still because it is impossible for a sinner or a needy Christian ever to draw his helps out of himselfe or to prevent the promises of God As he cannot deserve any good from God promising so he cannot bring any good to Gods promises Ho Esa 55. 1. every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters saith the Prophet and he that hath no money Come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price If thou be a thirsty person here is all provision freely for thee 4. Another thing which I would commend also to doubting Christians in this case shall be this Take some solid paines to cleare your entrance into Covenant with God thereby you shall cleare your interest in all particular promises upon your occasions There is a gracious Covenant Jer. 31. 33 32. 38 Eze. 36. 28 Hos 2. 23. Heb. 8. 10. spoken of in the Scripture twixt God and his people He makes us to be his people and we take him to be our God And when that Covenant is passed twixt God and a person that there is a mutuall acceptation then the Lord estates this person into all the particular promises As when the woman and man enter into the covenant of mariage now all is setled on her and she hath title sufficient So when the Lord God and a sinner are married to each other when they are entred into a Covenant Thou art my God and none else my heart is thine my life shall be thine c. The Lord saith unto such a one And I am thine all my mercy is thine my Christ is thine my Promises thine If thou needest any good for soul or body all good is thine I assure thee O Christian if If this door were unlocked all the roomes would easily be seene this were once out of doubt that thou and God were entred into Covenant thou wouldst not so much doubt thy title or question thy right to apply any particular promise to any condition of exigence wherein thou lyest All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. 5. Lastly consider well whether there be nothing in a Christ which may not be able to over-argue thy disputes against thy applying of the Promises I remember that Luther in his Commentary on Genesis prescribes unto tempted persons one very compendious way to withstand all temptations whatsoever Let Satan Luthers speech come any way or the world any way or sinne move any way doe thou answer all with this onely Christianus sum I am a Christian I may not yeeld to any sin for I am a Christian And surely me thinks this also might be a compendious way to resolve the doubtings of a Christian Christum habeo I have a Christ O Christian if thou didst look more on thy Christ thou mightst look more on the Promises When wilt thou remember No looking on the Promises without a Christ that as there is no comfortable looking on God without a Christ so there will be no confident looking on the Promises of God without a Christ Christ Jesus is thy Jacobs ladder thy prayers get up by him and Gods Promises come down by him All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in him 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 20. There was a Book in the Revelation which none of the Elders and Worthies could open but yet the Lambe could open it The Promises are a precious Book every leafe drops myrrhe and mercy yet the weak Christian cannot open it nay he is afraid to open it and to reade his portion there Neverthelesse thy Christ can open the Promises for thee and by thy Christ as thou mayst find a way for heaven hereafter so mayst thou espie a way for thy comfort now And why may Christ reply to the doubting Christian art thou afraid to beleeve to beleeve my Fathers word and thy Fathers word Did he ever faile any who trusted on him Is hee not willing to give who was willing to promise Should he lose of his glory if thou receivedst of his grace Or shouldst thou lose of thy comfort if thou shouldst beleeve in his promise Dost thou not care for his good Why then art thou troubled Or in good earnest
groane under it cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me And surely neither the sense of this nor the resistance of this nor second desires of deliverance from this can be any evill signs of thy condition 5. Lastly in the sense of inward rebellions and workings thy way is not to nourish doubting but thy duty it is to stir up beleeving When Paul felt that agony twixt the law of his members and the law of his minde indeed he was much troubled at it but yet he did not conclude against his condition in grace No but he acquits that Rom. 7. 25. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God though with the flesh the law of sinne and sets his faith to worke ver 24. Who shall deliver mee ver 25. I thanke God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mark his practise This is my condition I feele rebellious lusts yea I feele them sometimes captivating of me what course shall I now take to be delivered of them to vanquish them I conflict with them but I cannot conquer them I cannot conquer them yea but Jesus Christ can conquer them and deliver me from them and to him will I goe by faith Thus must thou doe in the sense of that native rebellion and vile operation of thy flesh Thou must by faith goe unto Christ thou must acknowledge thy vilenesse and thy insufficiency and also his sufficiency Thou must exalt Jesus Christ by faith in his Mediatorship and trust on him that he will by his Almighty Spirit crucifie thy sinfull flesh more and which was one end of his comming into the world destroy those works of sin and Satan 2. Another cause of doubting in a Christian may be the sense of wrath O! saith such a one would you have me to beleeve or imagine you that I can doe so I who feele the very wrath of God in my soule and the terrors of the Almighty wounding me for my transgressions What can or 〈◊〉 I beleeve mercy for me who now feele wrath upon me can I beleeve that God will be mercifull whom I sensibly apprehend to be wrathfull This is a notable case and Sol. needs a wary and circumspect resolution Neverthelesse I shall at least endeavour to ungirt this burden for a troubled soule 1. There are two sorts of persons who in this life may feele the wrath of God First such as are unquestionably wicked of whom some of them feele the wrath of God as the beginning of their everlasting perdition That wrath inflicted on them is but the beginning of a just hell due unto them Thus Judas felt the wrath of God And some of them feele the wrath of God as a meanes for their humiliation and conversion 〈◊〉 they in Acts 2. 37. who were pricked in their hearts and thereupon cryed out What shall we doe felt the wrath of God Secondly such as are unquestionably good of whom some have felt Gods wrath in case of desertion as Heman Ezra Job and others and some in case of notorious corruption or sinning as David whose bones were broken for it and Gods face hid from him for it and his moisture turned into the drought of summer 2. Againe you must distinguish of those effects which appeare in persons under the sense of divine wrath for they are twofold 1. Some feele the wrath of God and are either onely inraged against God with blasphemies or inraging their hearts the more to goe on in sinning against God thinking at least by the pleasure of sinne to drowne the sense of wrath or running into absolute despaire of Gods mercy and therefore never attempting any course of repentance because they give up all hope of mercy Where there is such a sense of wrath as this in all respects and for ever the condition is very fearfull 2. Some feele the wrath of God and are hereupon occasionally induced either to the study and care of an holy reformation of their sinful hearts and wayes or to a particular restauration of themselves from grosse sins into which they are falne and for which now they feele the sore displeasures of an angry Father If thy condition be either of these that thou feelest wrath and that hath driven thee to a search of thy naturall estate and to the discovery of it and to an humbling for it and to all the meanes by which thou mayst be delivered as well and rather from thy sinfulnesse as from Gods wrath or if this wrath felt awakens thy conscience and hath been a meanes to scourge thee out of some particular sinning to thy former and better walkings with God thou mayst now safely beleeve on mercy yea though thou as yet feelest wrath yet mayst thou beleeve mercy And my reason is this because now mercy is thy portion thy condition now is right under many promises of mercy to pardon thee for it is a truly penitentiall condition See Esay 55. 7. Ezek. 18. 21 22 Hos 14. 1 2 4. 3. Though mercy be thy portion yet know thou that the sense of wrath will not off untill thou dost beleeve actually on that mercy It is not mercy in the Promise which alone can remove the sense of wrath but it must be mercy applyed by faith for till faith works in the soule of a man till the poore soule looks on God through the Perspective of faith God appeares not as a mercifull but as a wrath full God to it And therefore thou being in such a condition as I have delivered thou mayst safely venture on mercy though thou feelest wrath the forenamed Saints did so and upon beleeving thou shalt in due time feele the sense of mercy to take off the sense of wrath Thy faith will see a reconciled God and then thou shalt enjoy a pacified conscience 3. A third cause of doubting may be a condemning conscience But saith the trembling Christian My conscience tels me of my sinnings and of wonderfull sinfulnesse within me and God is greater then my conscience who will assuredly condemne me O I may not beleeve This seemes to be a knotty Sol. case Whether a person may beleeve Gods absolving of him though Conscience in him be condemning I will deliver my opinion thus 1. First you must distinguish of a condemning conscience Conscience may either condemne 1. A mans action Or 2. His person 1. A mans actions are condemned by Conscience when Conscience being rightly inlightned and informed by the Word of God pronounceth of them that they are evill and damnable that they are contrary to Gods holinesse and glory and therefore are to be abhorred and crucified and forsaken 2. A mans person is condemned by conscience not onely when conscience findes sins in the person but likewise the person in sins i. not onely such corruptions in the heart but also the heart approving and loving of them and resolved to keep them and goe on in them Now observe me in two Conclusions answerable to these two Propositions 1. If
As take a man in a journey Simile where he meets with two waies he looks on this and inclines it may be the right and then he looks on that and supposeth that it may be the right and then he looks upon both and â—â—akes a stand and goes on in neither So it is with the soâ—le in doubtings spiritually There are two wayes before it two objects two works to beleeve â—r not to beleeve and * Dictated from the spirit and from the flesh from that by way of perswasion from this by way of disswasion arguments to incline to the one and â—o the other drawing into some equality of strength and weight â—ust like a paire of scales answerably ballanced so that both are â—at a stand there is no turning either to the right hand nor to the left Therefore the Schoolmen say well that Dubitatio est motus supra utramque partem contradictionis cum formidine determinandi alteram partem ejus That you may yet conceive 3. Things to be further observed this clearly remember 1. In our minds there are Assentings which are the adherents of the understanding to truths known And there are Dissentings which are the bearings off from those truths There the soule positively inclines here it declines there it puts out the hand and here it keeps it in 2. Doubtings properly stand betweene them both they are not plainly the one nor plainly the other If I may speak freely I conceive them to have a twang of either they are a medium a middle thing as your mixt colours are which you cannot style directly white or directly black The soule hath a desire to joyne unto Truth it hath a desire to share in that goodnesse which it apprehends yet it neither Doubtings are staggeâ—ings Rom. 4. 20 fastens nor yet rejects but like the fish to the bait it likes it and is striking at it but dares not and swims about or like Simile a wave of the sea that is the Apostles comparison James 1. 6. thrusting to the shore and yet drawing back or like a Meteor hovering in the aire twixt up and downe Such rowling reeling actions of the soule are doubtings they are a recoyling adventuring The soule sees reason of either side to draw and withdraw to give on and to give back It sees Christ and the promises knowes the goodnesse and bounty in the one and the other whereupon it is giving on upon them and putting out the hand but then instantly it checks it selfe and is stayed with contrary arguments and feares I may not be so bold Perhaps they belong not unto me So that the person is hanging betwixt hope and feare I would but I may not I may but I dare not It is just with the soul as with those at Chesse they set out a man and think to take a King but then presently they are checked and draw him back againe God he is my Lord and my King nay and yet he is not He will do me good yet I feare he will not He hath pardoned my sins and yet I fear he hath not He doth heare my prayer yet I doubt he doth not My estate is good and happy neverthelesse I suspect it is not Thus doth a man waver and rowle and is like a man in the Simile ungrounded places he no sooner plucks up one leg out of the dirt but the other â—inks in the soule is not determined one way or other 3. One thing know more that though the mind doth not pitch or rise unto a determinate action in spirituall doubtings yet it ever inclines towards a determinate object That is Note though the doubting Christian cannot come yet to quit those uncertaine and trembling and shivering motions and bring them to a stayednesse and positive fixing yet his mind hones it lookes after Christ and the promises it doth not reject nor doth it give up all hopes it keeps in it two things which Infideliâ—y and Despaire want 1. One is that it priseth 2. Things Christ and the promises though it cannot claspe them 2. Another is that it gives not up the case as desperate and impossible but though it cannot fixe yet it will be hovering about them Cap. II. The kinds and diversities of them THe second thing respects the sorts of doubtings and these I must also touch I conjecture that there are 4. Sorts of doubtings foure sorts of doubtings 1. Some are of admiration in these the mind doth not gainsay simply no it doth beleeve and is onely solicitous about the hidden manner or way of performance or accomplishment Such a doubting was that of the Virgin Luke 1. 34. How Luk. 1. 34. shall this be seeing I know not a man Non doubit at esse faciendum sed quomodo fieri possit inquirit saith S. * Tom. 5. de Mariae interrog Ambrose 2. Others are of confirmation Where the soule beleeves but desires something more to secure and settle it so that it might be put out of all doubt as was that of Gedeons Judg. 6. Judg 6. 36 37. 36 37 39. Which kindes of doubtings are the cravings of a little more indulgent security from God in matters of extraordinary concernment not that we properly question the verity of him but that in respect of our selves we might work the more confidently upon clearer evidence and warrant 3. A third sort are of negation and this is such a forme of scrupling wherein we plainly suspect God of his good word of truth and is incident unto evill men in their generall course and to good men in respect of some particular carriages and â—usinesses as is evident in Zaâ—â—arias Luke 1. 18. Whereby shall Luk. 1. 18. 〈◊〉 know this This question was â—question of doubting and this â—oubting no question was an â—â—beleeving one It did not creâ—â— the Angels message so is it â—â—pressed ver 20. Thou shalt be â—â—mbe because thou beleevest not â—y words 4. A fourth sort are of inquiâ—ation where the mind is diâ—ersly carried and is not come â—â— a rest as when a cause is not â—ome to a sentence but hangs 〈◊〉 suspence Now of this sort of â—oubtings wee speak at this â—me which againe may be â—ranched 1. Into Reall which questiâ—ns the principles themselves â—ther for truth or goodnesse â—nd so they respect matters of â—aith or else they question actiâ—ns touching lawfulnesse or unâ—awfulnesse and so they respect â—atters of fact In which respect they are more specially styled Scruples of conscience which are nothing else but some grating and painfull doubts about points As Rom. 14. 23. practicall Oâ— which see the Casuists 2. Into Personall Where noâ— the things in themselves but iâ— respect of our selves are questioned and onely questioned noâ— peremptorily denyed or rejected viz. I know and beleevâ— that God is a Father that Chrisâ— is a Redeemer and the Saviouâ— of sinners I now doubt Not whether there be any truth oâ— good in these
pull in our faith which is now speeding towards heaven by the blood of Jesus Christ for us The more tendernesse wee we gaine of the sins the more shynesse and fear grows on us and seldome doth the soule recover its former hold and ancient correspondence and intimatenesse with God untill there hath been a proportionable humiliation and spaces of setled reformation Twixt which and the great discovery of speciall and renewed assurance the heart meets with many a wave with many a sad day with many a fearfull rising with many strong and terrible doubtings So then you see that speciall sinnes after conversion doe cause great doubtings in the soule because they make a jar a wound they lay a barre twixt us and God they keep up God and keep down faith and give up all the matters of disheartning and feare they make the soul to be at a stand to goe away from the gates of heaven many times with singular checks and heavinesse 6. A sixt cause of doubtings A sixt cause of doubtings may be indispositions unto or about spirituall duties when our Altar seemes to have no fire our bodies to have no soules our affections to bee estranged from our services when we pray but not with that fervencie when we hear but not with that attentivenesse when we set upon any sort of duty but not with that alacrity with that joy with those becomming spirits Nay sometimes there is a strange listleâ—nesse a kind of flat dulnesse drowzinesse that we hardly move upon our Like the Disciples work much adoe to draw our selves unto duty Like the Disciples It troubles a Captain when he cannot make his men come on and fight the soule is so heavy that it can hardly watch and pray Out of which kind of slumberings the hearts of Christians doe ordinarily awake with doubtings and that about two particulars especially 1. One respects the verity Two places of doubtings hence and being of Grace As Gedeon in another case Judg. 6. 13. If the Lord be with us why then is all this be falne us So here If truth of Grace were in me how should all these indispositions dulnesses deadnesses accompany me Where the Spirit of Christ is there is liberty but I am as one chained up Where Grace is truely Note kindled there is a holy fire to warme the heart in duty I have rejoyced in the way of thy testimonies Psal 1 19. 14. and Ps 119. 14 with my whole heart have I sought thee So David Thy word David was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart for I am called by thy Name O Lord of Hosts saith Jeremiah Chap. 15. 16. And the Ier. 15. 16. Prophet Esay Chap. 56. 7. saith Esay 56. 7. God will make his people joyfull in his house of Prayer And besides all this we are commanded to serve the Lord with gladnesse Psal 100. 2. Psa 100. 2 Whereupon the soule misgives How can my condition be good which differs so much from the secret and lively dispositions of Grace How can it be good which is so unanswerable to that quicknesse promised and found in the people of God How can I bee good who about the actions of good am so dull and heavy awkeward and flow c. 2. But then suppose the soule can cleare and assoyle it self from this feare by knowing that fire may be where it doth not alwayes flame and the root may live where the branches do not alwayes flourish and by finding some answerable dulnesses in some eminent Davids who often have prayed for quickning yet there ariseth another doubting from our dulnesse and indisposition which is a feare of acceptance The Lord will not accept of these services because they are so heavy they are therefore without any efficacie Suppose I may be good yet they are bad and can win no favour with God Thus the soule is oft-times much perplexed by reason of its indispositions as if either it were totally bad or God intended little good unto it because it is not quickned and more enlivened in the services presented unto him And verily it will much trouble a tender and sincere heart to observe in it selfe such flat and dull opinions of God and Christ and such an ineptitude in it selfe in doing that which to doe with the best of its strength and might and affections it sees reasons and hath desires thereto 7. A seventh spring or occasions A seventh cause of doubtings of doubtings may be fruitlesse indeavours I call them so because we thinke them so What is that This it is When we find out defects in our particular graces and in particular duties or some effects of particular corruptions and have gone to God by Prayer and in his Ordinances so that we have a long time prayed for the filling up and inlarging of our weak faith love sorrow joy assurance and prayed against that hardnesse passionatenesse or whatsoever sinfulnesse observed in the heart And yet we seeme to be still where we were wee creep on with the same impotencies in grace and move on with the same burdens of sinfull motions and propensions O now the soule sits downe with much sorrow and with dolefull conclusions Well it is in vaine to seeke any more God will make that good to me which he threatned unto Moab Esay 16. 12. He shall Esa 16. 12 come unto his Sanctuary and shall not prevaile I have sought him a long time and have not prevailed I shall never rise above these risings If God had a purpose to doe me good I should have beene sped ere this The opinion of succeslesnesse must needs cause doubtings because 1. God seems to have a controversie Three things in this with the soule Surely saith the heart something is the matter that I cannot have audience all is not right and eaven twixt God and mee 2. The very stayes and supports of duty seeme to faile us You know that the Pâ—omises are the great incouragements of all our services and what have we to bind God but his owne Promises by which he hath bound himselfe He hath said that hee will heare and answer Upon which assurance of his we came in and prayed but cannot get any thing though we presse God upon his owne promise Whereupon the soule is brought to a stand If God will not answer his owne word how shall he answer me 3. Now we suspect not our petitions but our persons and uncomfortably judge or feare that we have been deceived in our progresse towards heaven God would be to us as to his a God hearing Prayers if we had been to God as his serving him with a perfect heart for God heareth not sinners Joh. Joh. 9. 31. 9. 31. But If any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Whereupon the soule strongly argues against it selfe My heart is sinfull or else my prayers had been succesfull I regard iniquity in my
see here is ground of doubtings yet if a man could look out of himselfe and know that his righteousness is to be found in Christ and God hath appointed it so that I am to be justified by that righteousness onely now the soul may have a stay to rest on Yet my Saviours righteousnesse was perfect was accepted and he is mine and his righteousnesse is mine 3. Till we know the dispositions if I may so speak in God about our justifying we cannot but doubt for a man reasoneth thus I have committed great sins which now do grieve me and I hate them and I have left them but I know not how they may be pardoned those will now cause doubtings Untill wee know that God for Christ will justifie us frō great sins as well as small 1 Cor 6. 8 9. and that 1 Cor. 6. 8 9 10. he blots out the thick cloud as well as the cloud Esay 44. 22. Esa 44. 22 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins and that there were expiatory sacrifices not onely for infirmities but also for enormities all which typified the vertue of the blood of Christ which justifies from great sins c. But I have nothing to move Ob. God to pardon them Yet pardoning is a gracious Sol. work God pardons sins not for thy sake but for his owne sake Esay 43. 25. I even I am Esa 43 25 he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and for his Christs sake Eph. 1. 7. In Eph. 1. 7. whom onely we have redemption even the forgivenesse of our sinnes But God will call me hereafter Ob. to account again though for a while he seems to be graciously pleased No the Lord in his new Covenant Sol. of Grace assures the contrary Jer. 31. 34. I will forgive Jer. 31. 34 their iniquity and I will remember their sinne no more So that you manifestly see how the ignorance of our Justification leaves the soule in great doubtings because 1. A man knows not where to cast his burden 2. Where to find his righteousnesse 3. What is the vertue and fulnesse and love and graciousnesse the fidelity and irrevocablenesse of God in justifying a sinner by Christ 10. A tenth cause of doubtings A tenth cause of doubtings is disputation against the Promises You have heard heretofore that the ignorance of the Promises is an occasion of doubting and now I am to shew you that the arguing of the soule against them is also another cause But you will say Doth any Ob. man dare to dispute against Gods Promises I answer The Promises may Sol. The Promises considered two wayes be considered 1. In respect of their absolute truth and goodnesse thus they are not disputed against unlesse by Atheists and positive unbeleevers as were those scoffers 2 Pet. 3. 4. who said Where is the promise of his comming 2. In respect of their application and extent Thus many weak beleevers are subject to argue against them Not whether they be verity and mercy not whether righteousnesse and peace doe meet in them but whether these doe reach to them and may be applyed by them Nay that is not all they do ofttimes upon unjust grounds thrust away the Promises from themselves And now the soule must needs be hurried with feares and doubtings in case the condition be sensible because 1. The Promises are to faith Three reasons of it as ground unto the Anchor cast out an Anchor and if it hath not ground to fasten or Simile hitch in the Ship rowls still This is a truth If faith cannot pitch and fixe the soule cannot be quiet and setled David in one place useth the comparison of a bird that his soule did hye unto God as a bird unto her nest Whiles the bird is in Noabs dove foūd no rest for the sole of her foot the ayre it is hovering and flying and restlesse so is it with the soule untill faith can settle it under the wings of a Promise Nay againe the Promises are called the breasts of consolation When the child is hungry and distempered nothing quiets it but the breasts And assuredly if the Promises doe not still the soule nothing can Now when a man will rove from this ground of faith when he will fly from his rest when he refuseth the breasts of consolation no marvaile if his soule be full of doubts and feares For this is all one as if a lame man should throw away his crutches or a weak man his staffe or a sick man his cordials or a sinking man the bough which holds him up The goodnesse of the Lord promised to David was that Psa 27. 13 which did hold up all his faintings and so all Gods people have still been held and staffed up by Gods Word And therefore that person must needs be full of doubts who withdraws his shoulder from such a stay and rock upon which hee should leane and rest himselfe 2. This is but selfnesse which is ever accompanied with unquietnesse for why dost thou refuse to apply those Promises which God hath made Is it not because 1. Thou wouldst have more goodnesse first 2. Lesse unbeliefe first And is not this a self-seeking yea in some sort a self-standing What an odde and unseemly Note So thou hast promised to pardon sins c. method of worshiping of God is this Lord I have but weak grace and thou hast promised to strengthen it and perfect and finish it but I will not beleeve thy Promise belongs to me untill I have first a greater increase of my grace Or thus Lord I find much unevennesse in duty and thou hast promised to give thy Spirit which shall cause mee to walk in thy way but I will not beleeve this Promise untill I be first more enabled in duty Or thus Lord I find much sinfulnesse in me and thou hast promised to change cleanse the heart and to subdue iniquity but I will not beleeve this Promise untill first I see my sins subdued When I find my graces increased then I will beleeve that thou wilt increase them when I find my Whē thou hast done it then I will beleeve that thou wilt doe it obedience continued and my sinnes subdued then will I beleeve that thou wilt cause me to walk and wilt subdue sins q. d. If thou wilt performe thy Promise before I doe beleeve thy Promise then I will beleeve thy Promise This is as Simile if a man would see the blood in the veines before the veins are opened or wash his hands cleane before he hath turned the cock to let out the water 3. A man is still held by the powers of his corruption And where corruptions or wants are still found in their former measure there the tender soule will doubt and feare Let a man bestow himselfe much in hearing or much in praying or much in conferring yet if he have the
Jesus Christ Whence two things arise to keep doubtings and feares off viz. 1. That though our holinesse be weak yet Christs is strong that righteousnesse which justifies is full When And so it must be or else wee could not truly be reputed just we look upon our selves Ah Lord think we How shall we appeare before God! How will he accept of us Such poor such weak such sinfull hollow people I answer Christs righteousnesse is full his coat was seamlesse ours is made up and strangely cut but his righteousnesse is compleat and He is made unto us righteousnesse yea and that of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. God hath set him out to be our righteousnesse and he justifies us by it 2. Though our services be weak yet we are justified by Christs righteousnesse Aaron was to beare the iniquity of the holy offerings Exo. 28. 38. Their holy offerings had some unholy mixtures but Aaron was to beare them i. he was to take the iniquities away from them and to make the offerings accepted Christ is this Aaron who by his righteousnesse covers all the blemishes makes up all the weaknesses in holy duties Therefore my brethren in all our approaches to God wee should not doubt It is the Apostles own argument Heb. 10. 21. Having such an High-priest over the house of God 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith And ver 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering c. It is as if the Apostle had said If men did know what a Christ they have what a full righteousnesse there is in him what he doth with it how he justifies their persons and justifies their services pleads for them beautifies them ingratiates them with the Father they would not doubt so much as they doe they would be better perswaded of God when they come and pray unto him I remember the Apostle hath an excellent phrase in Heb. 9. 24. that Christ doth appeare for us It is a Metaphor from a Lawyer If a man hath a case he goes to his Lawyer and reports all to him desires him to undertake the whole businesse and upon the committing of the Case to him he appeares for his Plaintiffe opens the Case pleads for him before the Judge and the Cause is carryed So is it with Christ he appears for us i. When a poore sinner a weak beleever comes to him and opens his condition his wants his infirmities Christ undertakes for him he pleads for him he ever lives to make intercession he moves his Father in his behalfe brings out his righteousnesse his bloud and merits and what he did and suffered for him c. And thus doth Christ for every particular service duty and prayer for him who beleeves on him The tenth cause of doubtings was disputation against the Promises O saith the troubled and fearfull soule all these promises which you produce and apply to my condition they are nothing to me they belong not to me There is indeed goodnesse and truth a wonderfull worth in them and they suit with my condition exactly but I may not lay hold on them I should but presume to take the bread which belongs to children but not to dogs not to such a sinner as I am Good Christian doe but track thine owne spirit or the spirit of any distressed in conscience thou shalt find this to be the last hold usually of unbeliefe namely a reasoning against Gods Promises the which reasoning is sometimes through meere tendernesse of spirit as when the soule hath arguments to it selfe of that force to represent a present incapacity of any good which God hath promised and till they be removed it dares not lay hold on the Promises but if they could be satisfied then it is drawne in to beleeve But sometimes there is a reasoning against the Promises through wilfulnesse of spirit as when all the arguments of a doubting sinner are so clearly resolved and answered by the expresse words of God that the person cannot gainsay it yet the person rather bends still against the Promises then labours to honour God in them by beleeving This later reasoning is an irrationall way and unworthy of our abetting I should think such a Christians doubtings to arise rather from a fixed and heavy melancholy then any other speciall cause Neverthelesse somewhat to help the other Christian who argues reasoneth against the Promises meerly out of tendernesse and feare of his right and title I would commend a few things to his consideration 1. No spirituall good is furthered nor evill weakned by keeping the soule and Gods Promises asunder Tell me seriously Is not all our help for sould and body in the full and whole latitude of it couched in Gods Promises Are they not our wells of salvation and breasts of consolation our sun and shield and what vessell hath a poore sinner to draw with out of those wells what mouth hath he to milk out those breasts but faith It is faith which knits the Promises and our conditions together it is faith which makes them to meet each other And till the Promises meet in their vertue and influence with this condition of thy soule thou shalt never be helped or bettered by them Till the plaister and the wound doe meet it will never be an helping nor healing plaister Thou shalt be utieras as thou wast and the Promise shall be ubi erat where it was it shall never do thee good till thou dost apply it 2. It is beleeving which must cleare our title O saith the Christian if I knew that the Promises belonged unto me I would then beleeve I answer First this is a preposterous course and utterly impossible as if there could be any well-grounded perswasion of our interest before we have any such interest No but personall perswasion is a consequent worke it cannot be the antecedent or leading work You must buy the lands before you can be perswaded that they are yours But secondly if ever you would cleare your title to the Promises you must then beleeve for it is faith which doth intitle you and gives you interest and propriety As the Apostle spake of a great good After ye beleeved ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Ephes 1. 13. that I say in this case I fever you would be perswaded that God seales his Promises unto you then doe you first put your seal unto the Promises Beleeve and then thou shalt see the good of them to be thy good 3. The ground of a Christians beleeving Gods Promises must not be in him who is to apply them but onely in him who makes them O! this is it which gravels and labyrinths and still distresseth us that we set up the grounds of faith in our selves and not in God We are loth to acknowledg that the sole ground of beleeving is to be found only in that God who promiseth It is said of Abraham when God promised him a child in
forbids and therefore absolves or binds No subject you know hath this power to release or bind of himselfe but that is the royall prerogative of the King It is true if the Word condemnes us then our consciences may doe so too and if the Word absolves us so may our consciences too But this is virtute prima not virtute propria It is because the Word doth it not because Conscience of it selfe without the Word can doe either rightly Whence two things arise to informe and direct us viz. 1. Satans judgment of our Satans judging is but usurped estate is but usurped It doth not belong to him to sit upon our soules It is against the Law of Nations that the same party should be witnesse and Judge And we may say to him truly what the Pharisees proudly objected to Christ By what authority doth he these things Or as they to Moses who made thee a Judge over us Assuredly the enemy of our salvation is not to be the Judge of it he being so maliciously vowed against our happinesse it is most unfit for him to decide it and therefore though he usurps a judgement upon Christians yet as David spake in another case Thou Lord wilt not leave the righteous when he is judged No assuredly Satan shall one day be judged for taking upon him the judging of Gods people And doe you thinke that Satan will give a true judgement unto us of our spirituall condition who dares give in false evidence before God himselfe of Job and who is said to accuse the brethren before God day and night 2. No testimony is to be admitted which is contrary to the judgment of the Word Beleeve not every spirit 1 Joh. 4. All judgement of our estates being contrary to the Word is false 1. but try the spirits whether they are of God The Word must judge us another day therefore it is to judge of us now Satans judgement is usurped and our owne is oft times erroneous as in wicked and presumptuous sinners who sentence well for their safety although God doth proclaime and pronounce bitter woes unto them And as our judgements are oft times erroneous so are they in the times of distresse suspicious and hasty We doe not testifie of our selves with judgements cleared and totally informed by the Word of all our estate but with judgments affected and distempered as David in his fit I am cast out of thy presence God did not cast him off but his distempered judgement did cast him out 2. Maintain the judgment of the Word against all judgment When a man hath throughly viewed and pierced into the secrets of his heart and wayes by the informing light of Gods blessed Spirit and takes his flesh and spirit asunder I meane his sinnes weaknesses graces and dispositions and layes these with all he knows of himselfe before the Lord in a most sincere ingenuity so that if he were now to die he durst venture the eternall salvation of his soule with his God that hee keeps nothing back either of what is his owne by nature or of what is Gods by grace If now the Word decides for him that his condition is heavenly his heart is upright hee is indeed one who is truly interessed in Christ this man or woman should now uphold this decisive testimony of the Word lay it up as the great copy of his eternall salvation and in case of opposite verdict and testimony not to molest himselfe with reasoning and doubting but to preserve the authority of Gods testimony by beleeving and most upright walking with God in all the powers of duty There yet remaine two springs of doubtings to be cured and then I have done with that subject 13. The thirteenth spring of doubtings was the new rising of old sinnes This I told you could not but amaze the soule to see the dead rise out of the grave againe and to reade the debt as if it were not yet crossed It doth exceedingly disquiet us about our spirituall condition Now consider 1. There are five times Five times in which former sins may revive when we and our sinnes doe meet 1. One is the day of our legall humiliation when the Law like searching physick enters deep stirs up the evill humour casts our sins into our very faces and sets them in order before us and reproves us for them with undenyable conviction and horrour 2. Another is the day of our piercing afflictions when the Lord doth send his messengers unto us of wrath cuts off frō us our delights tears away our joyes crosseth us in our aims and we see God hewing our friends from us our children from us our earthly delights and contents for miserable evils are oft times a cause to make us see our sinfull evils We doe many times come to perceive our faults by our punishments As Pharaoh did when the plagues were on him I have done evill in not letting the people goe And Balaam when he saw the Angel and heard him threatning I will now returne And so the children of Israel then saw and confest their murmuring and stubbornnesse when God sent evil Angels amongst them i. some messengers of his wrath and displeasure 3. A third is the time of some horrible and common judgement whether it be upon particular persons or a Nation interessed in the same guilt of sinne with our selves For this is a time of common fire which raging and flying up and downe makes men run into their closets and bring out their concealed jewels so doe common and extraordinary judgments return us into our selves and gives up unto us those our hidden sins which we feare will draw the same fire of judiciall wrath upon our owne persons I doe not doubt but at the last great Plague many of the sinfull botches broke out upon a fear lest that judiciall botch should have broken in upon your bodies and houses 4. A fourth time is the time of death For though sin and a sinner really meet in all their course of life yet sense of sin and a sinner doe not alwayes meet untill the day of death for death is a strict and unavoidable summons to give up our accounts and then the unjust steward must look about him how he shall answer his most just Lord and Master This time of meeting evidently manifests it selfe to our owne experience who though we have kindled our sinnes in the time of our health and strength yet have we not met with the flashes of them but in the times of sicknesse and weaknesse 5. A last time of meeting is the day of Judgement and this is a most certaine and infallible time It is possible for a man to escape the legall meeting by conviction and the miserable meeting by afflictions judgements and death it selfe for some die like Nabal they live wretchedly and die senslesly but at the day of Judgement they and their sinnes must meet and shall because then the secrets of all hearts shall