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
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
ready to sit downe and to give the day to Satan never considering that God gives his Soldiers his Armes never considering that the quarrell and battle is the Lords he is engaged in the fight for all is for his sake We think that God looks on onely and beleeve not how much he curbs Satan and sustains us As if Satan might doe what he pleased and God left us alone to grapple whereas the Lord makes manifest his power in our weaknesse and 2 Cor. 12. his grace is sufficient for us and Rom. 16. he will bruise Satan shortly under our feet A fift cause of doubtings The fift cause of doubtings may be particular and speciall sins after conversion Which are like water dropped Simile into a candle making it to burne flat and dull with a black snuffe at the top and catching as it were going up and downe for hold or as a rheume a salt rheume faln into the eyes which intercepts the sight and darkens it for a time So doe our speciall sins after conversion they do dim and darken the soule and like those inclosed spirits of the ayre in the bowels of the earth they cause many fearfull shakings and tremblings as is evideÌ„t in David after his great David Psal 51. sins of Adultery and Murder they did exceedingly weaken his spiritual condition and wiped off all his comfortables Beloved these sinnes they must needs be a strong spring of doubtings if we do but consider 1. That it is their nature to Foure things here about speciall sins set us off from the shoare and harbour You know that a Ship which lies quiet in the harbour or by the shoare thrust it out lanch it into the Simile sea it is tossed againe Now in all knowne sins which wound the conscience after conversion wee loosen the Anchor and put off The Promises and Christ upon which our confidences Speciall sinnes though they loose not the estate yet they loosen our hold were anchored doe now seeme to give they will leave they will withdraw But suppose in their sensible virtue they should not which yet they do neverthelesse we cannot fasten now for the very temper of the soule is injured our spirit is wounded You know though the staffe Simile doth stand where it did and as it did yet if my hand be wounded I cannot claspe it nor use it as formerly Now what think you must not the soule needs be filled with feares and with doubts which hath thrust it selfe thus from such a gracious harbour as the mercies the loving kindnesses the sweet and blessed promises of God may it not say now as David once Psal 77. 3. I remembred God Psal 77. 3. and was troubled and well mayst thou be troubled who wouldst for such a sin pull away thy hand from such a God 2. God doth really take these sinnes ill very ill from those upon whom hee hath conferred such fruits of his love For this is a truth that Gods goodnesse aggravates our sinning in case of offences Love and Bounty can give in the strongest and heaviest aggravations As in that of David 2 Sam. 12. 7. I anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered thee out of 2 Sa. 12. 7. the hand of Saul 8. And I gave thee thy masters house and gave thee the house of Israel and Iudah and if that had beene too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things 9. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to doe evill in his sight c. Observe how the Lord pleads it and aggravates it upâ—â— David Now when a child Simile knows that he hath committed a fault concerning which his father gave him a speciall charge See thou doe it not and withall he knowes that his father is fully acquainted with all the businesse it is likely we find it so that feares and doubtings gather within the breast of the child Hee dares not keep off and yet he is afraid to come in he knows that his father hath taken it ill at his hands So it is with us after our speciall sins we know that God hates them he hates them Note Sin in any hated of God not personally but naturally not because in such persons but because in any persons Their nature is repugnant 〈◊〉 his as we hate poison 〈◊〉 Simile selfe and therefore â—et it 〈◊〉 a Toad or in a Princes 〈◊〉 we hate it still and they 〈◊〉 have falne upon such sins 〈◊〉 have incensed a gracious 〈◊〉 ther what notable fears what strange misgivings what appalings get up now upon the heart Where is my Father saith the offending child He is within saith one away hee runs or he is abroad and then downe he sits and weeps and bewailes his losse I shall never gaine his favour againe Thus it is with us after our speciall sins If God seeme to draw towards us we are ready to fly from him I heard thy voice saith Adam and was afraid and hid my selfe And if he doth not draw towards us we sit downe wring our souls and fetch many a deep Ah Ah what have I done Ah mee 〈◊〉 Where am I now I 〈◊〉 provoked my God and 〈◊〉 afraid to come unto him c. 3. God doth not easily open 〈◊〉 favour unto those who thus abuse it There was free intercourse twixt God and the soule before but now the doore is shut which before was open and God himselfe will keep the key so that nothing no meanes or wayes shall open unto us untill hee doth please You remember how David kept his distance David to Absolom from Absolom for his lewdnesse he kept him off a long time he might not see the Kings face And David himselfe for his sinnes against his Father could not without And God to David long suings see the face of God as before Psal 51. Psal 51. And now thinke you it strange that the soule should doubt Assuredly great desires Note delayed and prorogued doe cause great feares yea it breeds singular suspitions May be I shall be still put off will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Ps Psal 77. 7. 4. Nay now the soule being made sensible and having weighed all circumstances can and doth teach it selfe many Tender wounded hearts apt to multiply exceptions against theÌ„selves arguments and reasons to keep off It is apt enough to fall upon it selfe and to keep downe any readinesse which it observes to give on upon God or Christ It is some time before faith can find a way to ingratiate this offending soule and to espie a sufficient medium by and through which it may close with God for pardon and favour And when faith hath found it out then our mis-giving hearts beat us off and as our weak children pluck Simile down the bird soaring up with a string so do our weak hearts
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
heart therefore it is that the Lord heares me not Psalm Psal 66. 18 66. 18. Beloved you who deale with observation and experience can acknowledge 1. That there are spaces Observe 3. things twixt our prayers and Gods answers God hearkens what David speaks and David must hearken what God will speak Prayer is our angle our feed our dove our messenger it doth not alwayes take at first it doth not returne us alwayes a present harvest it comes in sooner and sometimes later it waits the time of the master 2. God is wise in causing these spaces hee hath ends singular ends both for his owne glory and for the good of our Graces But thirdly corruption takes occasion hereby and Satan vents his envious malice hereupon As the back-biters and Simile slanderers and contentious spirits who love to set variance twixt faithfull friends let the least occasion happen a wry look a misplaced word a mis-intended neglect a forbearing of present dispatch in some desired service let these fall out presently the back-biter envious malicious contentious spirit catcheth Loe you see his love his backwardnesse his sleighting of you c. Thus doe our corrupt hearts and Satan Looke you now you see how needlesse how Hence Davids Why is the Lord so far from hearing c. Is his mercy clean gone c. fruitlesse all the care and service of God is Alas he thinks not on you he regards not your prayers If he had loved you if he intended to do you good could this be would he have held up after so many prayers so many tears so many importunities so many pressings by his mercies by his Christ by his promises No no Thou art not in favour with God his mercies his promises belong not to thee c. Thus they 8. An eighth spring may The eighth cause of doubtings be imbecillity of judgement about the essentials of salvation And assuredly here lies the great spring of doubtings An erroneous mind is the forge which hammers all our suspitions it is the wombe which beares and breeds all our feares If it doth not find yet it makes all our knots for us What one speaks of a plain place of Scripture This verse said he had been easie had not Commentators made it so knotty That we say of a Christians condition It is gracious happy cleare sure did not erroneous judgements disturbe and vexe and unsettle them This is true that a weake judgement and a tender conscience are seldome without feare and doubting You see it in the Romans about practicall matters whereupon the Apostle presseth the stronger not to receive the weak to doubtfull Rom. 14. 1 22. disputations and if they had a particular faith to keepe it unto themselves knowing well how weak judgements like weak plants are easily stirred and shaken You may see it also in the Ephesians about doctrinall matters for Paul giving an Item unto them to overthrow their childishnesse Eph. 4. 14. he Eph. 4. 14. doth paraphrase it to be such an estate wherein men are tossed to and fro and carried Two things incident to this about with every wind c. Two things are incident unto shallow judgements by vertue of which they are objected with ease unto doubtings 1. One is They have not been conversant in the compasse of Truths there be some Truths which yet they know not they have not all their holds and strength 2. New Doctrines contrary to old Truths are not so easily over-mastered by their understandings A man must have good eyes to find out cunning glosses but doe either win misbelief or else disturb their true beliefe You shall scarce heare any new things started but withall we heare of many personsstartled as if their faith had hitherto been in vaine for tender consciences are apt to beleeve the most and therefore sometimes doe beleeve those points which are false Shall I give you instances Instances amongst our selves 1. One is an equality of humiliation before conversion as if no man were truely converted who hath not equalled the greatest penitent in the highest degrees of contrition and terror And hence it is that many distressed bowed broken soules doe exceedingly labour to grinde themselves and to fall into the flames of horrible fears thereby to assure themselves of a good estate Whereas 1. All Christians are not equall in their preparations 2. No man can judge his estate at all simply by legall humiliation 2. A full assurance at first or else no faith As if Jacobs ladder had no degrees and the Simile Sun at his first peeping were in the height of heaven Or that a Scholar must be placed in the upper forme as soone as he enters the Schoole Such inconsiderate deliveries as these they trouble the faith of many as the Apostle speaks of those in 2 Tim. 2. 18. If faith cannot be without full assurance then I am no Beleever saith David for I had my faintings Nor I saith Peter for Christ himselfe tels you I had my doubtings It is a most vaine and dangerous way for any Divine or ordinary Christian to impose Rules and to deliver a thing as a dogmaticall and common truth which he or he have in a speciall way onely observed in themselves The Spirit of God bestows upon all the Elect of God the same substantiall frame of grace but the making up and the making out of these is different As No man must say he hath Simile no soule because he feels not those particular workings of reason and desire which another doth So No man must conclude another to be out of the estate of Grace if haply there be not a plenary answerablenesse in them both for every method and measure of working grace Therefore let me caveat a An Item to the stronger Christians little here to you who are growne Christians Remember that there are some who are weak yet true members of the same body and doe not you indiscreetly insist upon your onely personall experiences those only in some particulars in all companies because you have perhaps risen high therefore none are right who are below you Consult the Scriptures and deliver us what it directs and wherein it supports You know not yet the aptnesses in tender consciences to throw downe themselves and to catch at matters and arguments of trouble Thou sendest perhaps from thy company a poore a laden and troubled heart with a bitter and amazed opinion that it hath now no faith which yet came unto thee with some weak and strong desires of firmer faith Weak judgements as I said before cannot bear all things but like some mens stomacks are presently oppressed with meats unusuall And when we have mistaken an error for truth it may prove to the soule as the mistaking of poison for medicine a businesse of troublesome and dangerous consequence 9. Ignorance of the Doctrine A ninth cause of doubtings of Justification This is another cause of
our troubles and wants His wisdome is there and his goodnesse O how shall I be delivered How Let faith work and that will tell thee how Why should I thus be troubled Why Let faith work and that will tell thee It is in very faithfulnesse saith David And It is good for me that I am afflicted No child of God thus Nay let faith work and it will cleare all That a good condition is not exempted from afflictions and that though God had one Son without sin yet he had no Son without sorrow 3. Our incouragements are more then our discouragements and our helps exceed our oppositions therefore faith is not to be restrained The Prophet healed up his servants doubtings 2 King 6. 2 Kin. 6. 16 Elâ—shaes servant 16. Feare not for they that bee with us are more then they that be with them And so Christ to his perplexed Christ to his Disciples and doubting Disciples about those exigencies and casualties to which they were exposed Feare not little flocke A Kingdome opposed to temporall safety it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdome q. d. Be not so disquieted so anxious for your lives for your safeties Though you be a flock and a little flock and the wolves are many yet let the worst come to the worst you shall have a Kingdome Oppose that to this and you need not doubt and feare So S. John 1 Joh. 4. 4. Ye are 1 Joh. 4. 4. Gods Spirit opposed to Satans Antichrists of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world Once more S. Paul Rom. 5. Rom. 5. 20 Grace opposed to sin 20. Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound And 21. As sinne reigned unto death so grace reignes through righteousnesse unto eternall life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So againe for outward troubles Esay 41. 14. Feare not thou Esa 41. 14 Help to trouble weakness And 2 Cor. 1. 5. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also c. 2 Cor. 4. 17 Our light afflictions c. work for us a far more exceeding waight of glory worme Jacob q. d. Thou art a weak creature contemptible creature a worme yet thou art Jacob and therefore fear not for I will help thee saith the Lord. Though Jacob be weak yet the God of Jacob is strong So for outward losses 2 Chron. 25. 9. said Amaziah to the man of God But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the Army of Israel The man of God answered The Lord is able to give thee much more then this From all which we see that Faith hath the better grounds to rest on there are more with faith then against it for none can be against it except the evill creatures and he who is for it is the mighty Creator All his power and his goodnesse and his Christ and his My Father is greater then all saith Christ Spirit and his Word of Truth is for it He is greater then all so that faith may have singular matter to work upon in all occurrences It is on the better side and on the greater side on that side which will carry it and beare downe the contrary Satan is against me But greater is he is that Ob. Sol. Spirit of Christ in me then he that is in the world Sin is against me But greater is Christ who is Ob. Sol. for me then sinne which is in me Grace hath much more abounded Men in their power are against Ob. me But greater is that Almighty God before whom the Nations Sol. are but as the drop of the bucket and lighter then a dust in the ballance Troubles are upon me Ob. Sol. But my comforts are greater then my sorrows and the glory which I expect infinitely exceeds the trouble which I suffer Wants are upon me Ob. Sol. But my supplies are exceeding I have a provident Father And though I have not a large portion of earth yet I have a sure Kingdome in heaven Beloved if we would but often consider of this that faith is still on the better on the surer side we would quit all our doubtings we would Note not feare what man can doe unto us what Satan can doe unto us our owne infirmities would not disable us nor afflictions for still faith falls to the surest partie and therefore give it scope Faith pitcheth upon no weak causes upon no weak helps upon no weak stayes it stayes upon the Name of the God of Iacob O how might faith out-face the greatest oppositions and trample-under all our affronts and losses and doubts if we did let it get out unto its encouragements could we once come with faith to be perswaded indeed that they who are for us are more then they who are against us Brethren in our spirituall combats we have the better cause and the better strength what help heaven can afford we have Therefore in all our distresses let us hearten our selves and incourage our faith Let us as Iehu in another case look up and say Who is on my side who and then wee may even say what the Psalmist spake Psal 124. 1. If it had not been the Lord who was on our Psa 124. 1 side now may the Beleever Israel say 2. If it had not been the Lord c. 7. Our soule is escaped as a bird out of the snare c. 8. Our help is in the Name of the Lord c. 5. A fift spring of doubtings was speciall and particular sins after conversion These like a strong disease do shake the very heart and spirit of the Christian and stagger him on every side and like a cloud fold up all our comfortable communion with God like a dead fly they fall in all our services If thou dost ill sinne lies at the doore said God to Cain And so you shall find it that speciall sinnes after conversion doe much interrupt us in our approaches and in our confidences Now the way to cure this spring is 1. To renew our sorrowes to set upon the fountaine David David did so after his great sins and so did Peter the one did Peter water his couch and his teares were his meat day and night and the other went out and wept bitterly Bitternesse of sorrow you read of it in Zach. 12. 10. imports Bitternes what it imports 1. Anguish 1. an anguish of spirit As David said for his Ionathan My soule is distressed for thee so here the falne Christian is distressed for sinning thus against his God for losing his God There is oft times a very tearing and renting in the soule 2. A sensible fulnesse of 2 Fulnesse of griefe griefe As Ioseph was full of compassion and his bowels could hold no longer upon the oration of Iudah so the falne Christian is full of holy meltings his heart
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
Conscience condemns thy person I confesse thou hast no reason to beleeve mercy for thy selfe If thy conscience tels thee to the face of God thou art in a foule sinfull course and hast been called upon by the voice of the Word and its voice to come out of it and thou dost not leave it nay art resolved to pursue it and to insist on it now God is greater then thy conscience and will assuredly condemne thee 2. If conscience condemns thy actions onely then thou mayest notwithstanding that condemnation beleeve on mercy My meaning is this Though the conscience by its discerming light represents unto thee much sinfulnesse in thy nature and former course and though it doth condemne these to be vile and most fit to be crucified abhorred and forsaken this condemnation hinders not the right of beleeving Nay no man indeed should beleeve unlesse his conscience doth condemne sin in him not onely shew him his sinnes but assure him that they are evill and unworthy his love nay most worthy of his detestation and mortification 2. Secondly you must distinguish of times when conscience doth condemne a man there are two times of a Christian 1. Some are open and free He is himselfe and besides that he heares both parties as well what is for himselfe as what is against himselfe yea and weighs matters in controversie in the right ballance of Gods Sanctuary not in Satans ballance of cunning suggestions Will conscience condemne thy person at such a time and under such circumstances Nay will not the Word of God acquit thee at such a time against all feares for the substance and reality of a pious condition 2. Some are clouded darkned either with melancholy or afflictions or temptations wherein the Christian seeth his face through a false glasse just as a Title is made by a deceitfull cunning Lawyer not according to truth not all of it but some of it What is past heretofore for action and affection or what hath falne out not in the course of life since a mans conversion but onely in case of surprisall and captivity Now perhaps conscience may condemne thee but this is an illegall sentence it is a corrupted judgement and is reversible God will not judge of thee as Conscience in such a case doth Nay he will repeale it and disanull it 4. A fourth cause of doubtings is a feare lest a man hath sinned that great sin against the holy Ghost And the main inducement to credit this is a sinning against cleare knowledge which is one ingredient in that sinne Now this is my condition saith a troubled soul I have not onely sinned but sinned against light shining in the Ministery and working on my conscience therefore I may rather conclude then question it Mercy belongs not to me To help a conscience thus Sol. inthralled I would wish that such a person would 1. Be informed 2. Be directed 1. The Information which I would commend in this case is fourefold First that the sinne against the holy Ghost is not any sin which a man commits through ignorance Whatsoever the sinne or sinnes have beene whereof the party stands guilty whether against the Law or against the Gospel suppose it be one or many hainous sinnes yet if the person be in a state of blindnesse and ignorance if there is a nescience of the fact if hee knowes not what he doth this ignorance priviledgeth the sinnings thus far that therefore they are not the sin against the holy Ghost Secondly the sin against the holy Ghost is not any sinne against the Gospel which is elicited and acted through a mis-beliefe or mis-perswasion If the sinne be a sleighting of Euangelicall doctrines nay a persecuting of them and of the professors of them yet if these acts of opposition depend totally on error in the judgment on a judgement mis-perswaded i. rather beleeving them not to be truths rather thinking those wayes to be false wayes I say this mis-beliefe preserves such sinnings yet from being sins against the holy 1 Tim. 1. 13. Ghost because the sinne against the holy Ghost supposeth light even to conviction and approbation See Heb. 6. 4. 5. Thirdly the sin against the holy Ghost is not every sinning against knowledge These are not reciprocall propositions every sin against the holy Ghost is against knowledg and every sinne against knowledge is the sin against the holy Ghost The former is true but the latter is not for many a converted man sinneth against knowledge who yet never sinneth the sin against the holy Ghost In two cases a man sinning against knowledge doth not yet sin that sin against the holy Ghost One is the case of a strong and violent temptation Another is the case of a sudden and turbulent passion It is the same with Peters case against his knowledg denying and forswearing his Master If Paul before his conversion had had Peters knowledge he had sinned this sin against the holy Ghost And if Peter in his denyall had had Pauls malice joyned with his knowledge he had also sinned that sinne but the mis-beliefe of the one before his conversion and the infirmity of the other after it preserved from this sinne Error mis-led the one and sudden feare surprised the other Fourthly there are three horrible sinnings which doe attend that sinne against the holy Ghost and the Scripture which wee were best exceeding warily to follow in resolving this case expresly delivers them 1. One is totall Apostasie from the truths of Jesus Christ knowne and tasted The truths of Christ must 1. be knowne and apprehended 2. knowne and tasted they must be approved 3. And then the person falls from these 4. Nay his fal is not particular which is incident to the best it is a totall fall not a falling in the way but a falling from the way of truth Heb. 6. 4. If they were once inlightned and tasted c. If ver 6. they shall fall away 2. A second is a malicious oppugnation of that truth which was once knowne and tasted and from which now the person is falne called Heb. 6. 6. A crueifying of the Sonne of God afresh And Heb. 10. 26. A And despiting the spirit of Grace wilfull sinning after that we have received the knowledge of the truth And it was evident in the Pharisees who saw and knew the light but hated and persecuted it unto the death 3. A third is finall impenitencie Whosoever sinnes the sin against the holy Ghost he neither doth repent nor can repent He is so justly and for ever forsaken of God and given up to a reprobate sense and a seared conscience that he cannot repent though perhaps he may see his course to be evill yet it is impossible saith the Apostle in Heb. 6. 6. to renew him to repentance FINIS