believe The Spirit of Truth is in our Dwellings because He is also The Spirit of Unity and They conceive we could not be liable to such Dissentions and Divisions as are amongst us had we The unity of Truth in our Fundamentals How many Fractions of Religion have been observed to be in Poland How many in England and in Holland and in other Christian Countries 't is hard to say I will say a strange thing no whit stranger than it is true There is not a Christian in all the World who is not an Haeretick or a Schismatick in the accompt of other Christians perhaps no better than Himself How full are all Parties of hot Disputes whereof the End commonly is rather Victory than Truth And what a Disgrace must it needs be to the Christian Name that in all the bitter Contests between the Iesuites and the Iansenists the Dominicans and the Franciscans the Gallican Church and the Church of Rome the Popish Churches and the Reformed the Regular Protestants and the Irregular the Prote stants by and for and Those against the Law establish't the Constant Protestants and the Protestants given to change the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants the Sub and Supralapsarians and many other opposite Parties too many to be now reckon'd a greater Care is commonly taken to keep up the Credit of a Syllogism or Reputation of a Side than the Unity and Peace of The Church of God If an Erasmus or a Modrerius if a Melancthon or a Wicelius if a Cassander or a Thuanus a Spalatensis or a Grotius does but indeavour to make up Breaches or perswade men to meet in the Middle way such as is the way of the Church of England or That of the Augustan Confession how is he hang'd drawn and quarter'd by the Implacable Professors of both Extremes as if the Unity of Christians and the Peace of The Church were to be of all Things the most avoided or if not to be avoided at least despair'd of as the most vain and the most fruitless if not the most odious of any project in the World So that if there was Truth as well as sharpness which God forbid in what was said by the Spanish Friar that few Soveraign Princes shall go to Hell because in All they are but few it may perhaps be said as truly in This case also that few True Christians shall go to Heaven because True Christians comparatively speaking are very few § 6. There are Multitudes indeed who are called Christians and so are Those of The Marrani Arabians and Moores in the South of Spain a kind of Baptized Iews and circumcised Christians Men as bad as the ancient Gnosticks of one Religion in their Mouths and of another in their Hearts or like that far more ancient People the People of Sepharvaim who feared the Lord and served their own Gods If not Both at once yet at least Both by Turns It being the common Custom and Policy of the very worst men to be Professors of the Religion the most in fashion the easiest and cheapest most for their Secular Ends and Interests and where their wickednesses may pass with the greatest freedom But our Saviour in the Text which is now before us did only speak of a Divine and a Saving Faith which is peculiar to unfeigned and real Christians not at all of That Human or Historical Faith which is common to every titular or nominal Christian or hypocritical Professor of Christ's Religion So that the meaning of the Text does seem to be evidently This When the Son of Man cometh to be The Judge of the Quick and Dead shall He find Faith shall He find Charity shall He find Iustice upon the Earth For Saving Faith infers Charity and Charity Justice Where Justice is wanting there can be no Christian Charity and where there is not such Charity there can be no Christian Faith Now what Corner is there in Christendom which does not live out of Charity with one sort or other of Christian People and commonly the most with their nearest Neighbours whom Christians should love as they do Themselves How universally do the Italians despise the Germans if not abhor them and again how do the Germans pay them back with Detestation How do the Little States of Italy malign the four Great ones and how do they all detest the Protestants who are of Piemont and Saluzzo What Disaffections are there in Swisserland between the Wealthy sort of Protestants and Warlike Papists Those for France against Spain and These for Spain against France and what Antipodes unto each other are these Next Neighbours parted more by their Animosities than by their Pyrenaean Hills If we look but as far back as the last Civil Wars of France what mutual Hatreds may we observe betwixt the Hugonots and the Leaguers even as great as Those in Spain between the Castilians and the Portugais or as great as Those in Italy 'twixt Guelphs and Gibelines or the Bianchi and the Neri How do the Lutherans hate the Papalins and the Papalins Them How do they Both hate the Calvinists and the Calvinists Both and what a Pique have All Three at the most sober and the most moderate of All the Protestants upon Earth in The Church of England Even the Great House of Austria is hardly in charity with it self For how often have the Spaniards diverted the Turks upon the Emperour and to shift clear Themselves how have they bribed the Bashaes to put their Master upon Germany How many Churches are there in Christendom whereof each has its different Government its different Ceremonies and Rites its different Method or Manner of Publick Worship its different Opinions from all the rest And thô their Differences are innocent when about things Indifferent yet what reciprocal Disaffections are wont to arise from That Variety What wants of Charity there have been between the principal Christians of Note the most considerable I mean both for Power and Number if not for Name too we may judge but too easily by Inquisitions upon one hand and by Rebellions upon another by the Massacres and Libels and Conspiracies upon Both. And that the stronger Parts of Christendom have not yet swallowed up the weaker They are beholden to the Great Turk next and immediately under God for having found them other Employment § 7. Now such as is the Cause a want of Faith in the first sense such is also The Effect a want of Faith in the second For besides the wants of Charity whereby I have proved the wants of Faith there are as notorious wants of Iustice whereby to demonstrate the wants of Both. Men are so generally deceitful in all their Promises and Contracts in their Alliances and Leagues in their Covenants and Ingagements in Matters of Traffick and Commerce and as well between Publick as Private Parties Obligations first meant as a Restraint unto the Guilty are so turned into a Gin to ensnare the Innocent and They who have dispensed with other mens
must follow after Both afford us matter of Caution and Comfort too The former serving to humble and the latter to support us That defends us from Praesumption and This secures us from Despair Thus have I done with the Division and in the ordering of That with the Explication of the Text. Wherein if I have trespass't by too much length it will in justice be imputed to my Desire of Perspicuity and of making it one Arrest unto the Plausible Objection that lyes against it § 6. In the ensuing Tractation of it I must begin with the Act which is here express'd and consider it as relating to the first and chief Object And this I must do in such a manner as to make it a farther Antidote against the venom of the Objection Which to the end that I may do with the more success I must explore by such ways as are not able to mislead us what of necessity must be meant by such an Act of Believing as does arise from an Habit of saving Faith For as every one that paints is not presently a Painter nor every Painter an Apelles so 't is not every Belief which can denominate a Believer nor is it every Believer who can be sav'd It will not therefore be sufficient to preach up the Faith of Christ in general which yet too many are wont to do because 't is easiest to be done nor to depredicate in particular the several rare Fruits and Effects of Faith without distinguishing all along betwixt the Roots and the Causes from whence they grow But we must first have the Patience to learn our selves and then the Care as well as Skill to make it visible unto others how much The Habit of salvifick or saving Faith is meant to grasp and comprehend in its whole Importance and so by a consequence unavoidable how much short of Salvation every Faith without This will be sure to land us Now in the bringing of this about wherein 't is certainly as needful as it is difficult to be Orthodox and yet wherein Learned men have seldom hitherto agreed we are all apt to err with the greater ease the less we are able to determin how many Acceptions of the word Faith may be found in Scripture For not to speak of its Import in human Authors we may observe it in holy Writ to have been used in so Many and Different senses that School-Divines have strangely varied touching its various significations For first Medina will acknowledge but two Acceptions of the word Faith Albertus Magnus allows of five Alphonsus à Castro admits of seven Vega goes higher as far as Nine Bonaventure and Valentia arise to ten Alexander Hallensis will have eleven Nay Sotus tells us of some who are for fifteen significations whereas Himself with Medina will own but two I will not presume to be an Umpire between so many and subtil School-men though I confess I am not able to give an absolute Assent unto either of them I can evince that the word Faith hath very various significations and easily instance in the chief whereof 't is dangerous to be ignorant or which at least it will be useful very particularly to know But when I shall have given pregnant Instances of Many and those the Most that at present I can discern I shall not be so Dogmatical as to deny that there are more First 't is clear that the word Faith does signify Faithfulness and Truth As Rom. 3. 3 4. What if some did not believe shall their Unbelief make the Faith of God of none effect no let God be true and every man a lyar Next it signify's The Promise which is in faithfulness and Truth to be performed And of this we have an instance 1 Tim. 5. 12. where the wanton young Widows are said to be lyable to Damnation because they have cast off their first Faith That is their Promise of constant widowhood which they had made unto the Church whose single Interest and Service they had thereby wedded and espous'd Thence it signify's a Confidence as that is opposed to Distrust A full Dependance on the Power and a firm adhaerence unto the Promises of our Lord. Thus it was used by our Saviour when Peter cryed as he was sinking Lord save me O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt Matth. 14. 31. In the same sense he said to the two blind men Do ye believe that I can do this according to your Faith be it unto you Matth. 9. 29. And thus 't is used by St. Iames by whom we are exhorted to ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1. 6. Again we find the word Faith set to signifie Conscience or knowledge compar'd with the Rule of Action as 't is observ'd by Theophylact and the Interlineary Gloss upon Rom. 14. 23. whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Nay Faith by a Synecdoche is made to signifie the Gospel Whereof we meet with an Example Gal. 3. 25. where when 't is said After Faith is come we are no longer under a School-Master The plain meaning of it is only This That after the coming of the Gospel we are no longer under the Law It is sometimes us'd to signifie a bare Assent And such is that Faith which is call'd historical and is common to men with believing Devils James 2. 19. But as sometimes an Assent so at other times the Object assented to And of this we have an Instance in the Epistle of St. Iude where to contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints is nothing else but to contend for the Creed it self the Christian Doctrin which is the Ground and the Rule of Faith § 7. Thus we find the word Faith in seven distinct significations But none of These will amount to a saving Faith however some of These are Ingredients in it For saving Faith is not only an Habit or Faculty of the Intellect whereby we firmly and without fear but yet withal without evidence assent to all things propos'd to be believed in the Church as reveal'd by God which is the Schoolmen's Definition of a justifying Faith or as they rather love to speak of the Faith which is infused in Iustification For This is but part of that Description which the same men afford to the Faith of Miracles whereby a man may move Mountains and yet be damn'd may cast out Devils and be himself possess'd with them as is evident from the preaching both of our Saviour and St. Paul Matth. 7. 22 23. 1 Cor. 13. 2. Nor is it only such a Relyance on the mercy of God and the merits of a Saviour as carrys with it a full Persuasion of the Remission of our Sins as some who are Enemies to the Schoolmen are wont to teach for This may possibly be alone unattended with Repentance and change of Life And being not the Mother of such an off-spring it must by
with Perseverance unto the End in conjunction with it Then the Answer of Paul and Silas is the short Summary of the Gospel and they might well promise Salvation to whosoever should accomplish the purpose of it That this indeed is the Importance may appear by the words of our blessed Saviour who having been asked by a Iew as Paul and Silas by a Gentile what Course was to be taken whereby to inherit Eternal Life gave him an Answer which some may censure as too much savouring of the Law but yet it seems not unsuitable to the oeconomy of the Gospel If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Now in as much as Paul and Silas did not teach another Doctrin but the same in other words with their Master Christ they must needs be understood to have given This Answer That if the Jailour should so believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as to imitate his Example and yield obedience to his Commands and continue so to do all the days of his life he should not fail in that Case of his being sav'd And though the Rule is very true That nothing is wanting in any Sentence which is of necessity understood which well might justifie Paul and Silas in the conciseness of their expression Yet not contented with this excuse they rather chose not to want it by speaking largely to the Jailour the Word of God After the very same manner § 13. That the People may not wrest the outward Letter of the Scripture to their Damnation we must carefully explain and disentangle it to their Safety If any of Us shall be consulted by either Believers or Unbelievers about the means of their being sav'd we have two ways of Answer and both exact but both are to be taken cum grano salis and with a due Interpretation We may answer with our Saviour They are to keep the Commandments or else with Paul and Silas that they are to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. But if the former we must add This is the chief of the Commandments that we believe on the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 23. And although we must have an inherent righteousness in part yet there is need that That of Christ be imputed to us if but to make up all the wants and the vacuities of our own For our own is no better than filthy Rags if impartially compar'd with our double Rule to wit The Doctrin and Life of Christ. We must negotiate indeed with the Talents of Grace that we may not be cast into outer Darkness yet so as to judge our selves at best to be unprofitable Servants weigh'd with the Greatness of our Redeemer and with the Richness of our Reward Or if we give them the second Answer we must also speak to them the Word of God We must explain what it is to believe in Christ and by the help of some Distinctions duly consider'd and apply'd teach them to see through all the Fallacies and flatten the edge of all objections which are oppos'd to the Necessity of strict obedience and good works When any Iustifying Vertue is given to Faith we must tell them it is meant of Faith unfeigned When we speak of the Sufficiency of Faith unfeigned we must shew them how Love is the Spirit of Faith Whether because in the Active it works by Love or else because in the Passive in which the Syriac and Tertullian translate the word by works of Charity and Obedience Faith is wrought and made perfect When we celebrate the force of a lively Faith we must season it with a Note that Faith is dead being alone When 't is said out of St. Paul that we are justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law 't is fit we add out of St Iames that we are justified by Works and not by Faith only For to shew that St. Iames does not either contradict or confute St. Paul The Works excluded by St. Paul are no other than the Deeds of the Ceremonial Law And those included by St. Iames are no other than the Works of the Moral Law So we are justified by Faith as the Root of Works and we are justified by Works as the Fruit of Faith Not by Faith without Works for then St. Iames would not be Orthodox nor yet by Works without Faith for then we could not defend St. Paul but by such a Faith as worketh and by such Works as are of Faith By Both indeed improperly as being but necessary Conditions But very properly by Christ as being the sole meritorious Cause Again because 't is very natural for Carnal Professors of Christianity so to enhaunce the Price of Faith as to depretiate good Works and make obedience to pass at the cheaper Rate They must be told that when our Saviour ascribes the moving of Mountains and other Miracles to Faith He does not speak of That Faith which is a Sanctifying Grace Gal. 5. 22. but of that Faith alone which is an Edifying Gift 1 Cor. 12. 9. by which a man may do wonders and yet be damn'd Matth â— 22 23. So when he said unto the Ruler who had besought him to heal his bed-rid Daughter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only Believe He only meant it was sufficient for the healing of her â—ody without alluding in any measure unto the saving of her Soul So far he was in that place from giving any ground of hope to a Solifidian And therefore briefly let it suffice me to say once for all That when we find men Believers without good Life we must shew them how many ways a man may be a Believer without true Faith may be justified in the Praemisses yet not sav'd in the Conclusion may get no more by his Knowledge than to be beaten with many stripes and have no more of a Saviour than to be damn'd by We must instruct them to distinguish betwixt the Act and the Habit of their Believing But above all betwixt a Speculative and a Practical Belief A Belief in the Heads and the Hearts of men A Belief which does consist with a drawing back unto Perdition and That by which a man believes unto the saving of the Soul § 14. Stand forth therefore Thou Antinomian or Thou Fiduciary or whosoever else Thou art who art a sturdy Believer without true Faith and ever namest the Name of Christ without departing from Iniquity Try thy self by this Touchstone which lyes before thee and examin whether thy Heart be not as apt to be deceiptful as 't was once said to be by the Prophet Ieremy Let the Tempter that is without make thee as credulous as he can And let the Traytor that is within make thee as confident as he will of thy Faith in Christ yet Thou wilt find when all is done there is exceeding great Truth in the Spanish Proverb That 't is a very hard Thing to believe in God And so very few there are who attain unto it
affords us besides our Being is to be reckon'd supra Computum Life at least is our stipend and Aeternity but our Donative Nay if we seriously consider that we are properly the Authors of all that is evil in our selves and nothing more than the Instruments of what is good that when we pray very devoutly 't is God that sets our lips a going and whensoever we give Alms 't is God that mollifies our hearts and that stretcheth out our hands too He abundantly requites us for our obedience by his enabling us to obey For that the Goodness of a mans life is neither infus'd by Nature nor acquir'd by Industry but a special Benefaction of God's free Grace Plato himself though an Heathen had yet Discretion enough to say Why then do the Hebrew or Roman Pharisees take a pride in the doing of this or that Duty or boast the giving of this or that Alms as if they had any thing to give which they themselves had not receiv'd Why do they glory in their Widowhood or Single life when 't is only from God that they have their Continence or why do they think to merit Heaven by being Rich in Good works when even the Goodness of their works does but increase their obligation Can they expect to be rewarded for their Acceptance or think that ought is due to them for their having been already so much oblig'd If from the liberty of their Wills they argue the merit of their Obedience they must know they do impose a double fallacy on themselves For neither can the Wills of men incline to good without Grace nor is the Liberty of their Wills any whit less of God's giving than all the rest 'T is God that makes us not only able but willing too to be obedient So that the privilege of our choice does not only not lessen but greatly heighten our Obligation And since to perform our whole Duty is but to pay our whole Debt our Lord might legally have awarded us not a Recompence but a Discharge Nay let me say a little farther That had our Master proposed to us neither an Heaven to incourage nor an Hell to fright us to our Obedience it had been yet Reward sufficient to have but our Labour for our Pains And Christ were still a Good Master in crowning our Foreheads with their own Sweat in making it the Reward of our Christian Race to injoy the Satisfaction of having run it For the Commandments of God are so extremely for our Interest and so conformable to our Reason that even in keeping them saith the Psalmist there is great Reward Psal. 19. 9 10 11. This I endeavour'd to make appear in the last days Subject of my Discourse shewing the Goodness of our Master from the Work about which he employs his Servants As I shall also make it appear upon some other opportunity And indeed 't is so impossible that any Arrears of Bliss and Glory should be due to us in Heaven for our having been obedient that is happy here on Earth that in the Nineteenth Chapter of St. Matthew at the Nine and twentieth Verse Whosoever hath forsaken either Father or Mother or Brethren or Sisters or Wife or Children or Houses or Lands for the Name of Christ and his Gospel although he shall receive an hundred fold and that perhaps in this present World yet 't is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall not purchase but inherit Eternal Life 'T is true indeed that our Obedience is the Causa-sine-quâ-non that is the Necessary Condition which is required by God to our being there But it follows not thence that 't is the Causa Energetica the effectual Cause of our coming thither For we cannot duly say A man does walk with his Hands or eat with his Ears because he neither eats nor walks without them And 't is as illogical to affirm that we can climb Heaven by our Good works because without them we fall to Hell They keep us company indeed but they do not carry us Thus if a Patron gives me a Mannor and only covenants for the payment of some small Quit-Rent or else bestows upon me an ample Field upon condition that once a year I shall present him with a Turf I cannot say that that Turf is a Recompence for the Field but an acknowledgment of the Favour Not the paying him for a Bargain but the thanking him for a Benevolence And such is the infinite Disproportion betwixt the best of our Obedience and our least Degree of Bliss that 't is but a Token of our Homage not an earning of our Reward And therefore 't is aptly observ'd by Grotius that the word in the Hebrew Text which answers to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sixth Chapter of St. Matthew v. 1. doth promiscuously signifie both a Gift and a Reward Thus Life Eternal is a Reward because 't is given upon Condition but withal it is a Gift because 't is given us Say we therefore with holy Iob If we are wicked wo unto us And if we are righteous we will not lift up our Heads Job 10. 15. Or let us say rather with St. Paul 2 Cor. 3. 5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but that our sufficiency is of God That though indeed we can work out our own Salvation yet it is upon this accompt that God Himself worketh in us both to will and to do of his good Pleasure That though perhaps we can do all things yet it is only through Christ that strengthens us That neither our Duty nor our Happiness are any way Necessary to God who as he needeth not the sinful so neither hath he need of the righteous man And therefore to pass out of this Point at the same Door where I came in let us confess that at our best we are but Unprofitable Servants that our Obedience is not the Cause but meerly the Condition of our Reward And that if ever we arrive at Eternal Life it will not be by way of Purchase as we are Servants but by way of Inheritance as we are Sons Which God of his Mercy prepare us for not for our Faith or for our Works but for the worthiness of his Son To him be Glory for ever and ever Amen A SCRIPTURAL PROGNOSTICK OF JESUS CHRIST's Second Advent TO Iudge the World A PROGNOSTICK OF THE Coming of Christ TO JUDGMENT LUKE XVIII 8. But when The Son of Man cometh shall he find Faith upon the Earth That is to say He shall not According to the Rule of all Grammarians and Rhetoricians that an Affirmative Interrogation is the most forcible way of expressing a flat and positive Denial § 1. THE Cohaerence 'twixt These and the words foregoing is so hard to be discerned at first appearance that some have thought there is none at all For if God will come speedily to the Avenging of his Elect as our Saviour saith he will in the two
next Verses before my Text who were not Elected without a Praescience as well of their Faithfulness as of their Faith How can it be that when He comes He shall not find Faith upon the Earth But if we attentively consider the Text before us as it stands in relation to all the Verses going before and more especially to the first This Objection will quickly vanish and we shall find a good Connexion between the praecedent and praesent words For our Lord having exhorted The Neophyte-Disciples to whom he spake Not to faint in their Prayers but to pray-on with Perseverance v. 1. excites them to it with an Assurance that their Prayers shall not be fruitless And that their Prayers shall not be fruitless He convinceth them by an Argument à minori ad majus This appears by his whole Parable touching the Widows Importunity praevailing over the Heart of an hardned Iudge From whence the Argument is as natural as it is logical and convincing For if the Prayer of the distressed and importunate Widow returned at last into her Bosom with good Success thô from a most corrupt Iudge who had no fear of God nor regard of Man v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with how much a greater force of reason shall all the Prayers of The Faithful receive an acceptable Return from the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation who is not only no unjust or obdurate Judge but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rewarder by way of Eminence of them that diligently seek him either sooner or later as he sees fit Yes the time is now coming when They shall be freed from their Afflictions and when the Vengeance due from God shall speedily fall on the Authors of them To which He adds by way of complaint and by a Compassionate Erotésis or Expostulation cohaering with what he said before by a Conjunction Adversative that when He shall come in the later Days to be an Avenger of his Elect The Apostasie will be so general He will find but Few of them Of the many who are Called He will find but few Chosen Amongst a Multitude of Flatterers he will find but few Friends In a world of Praetenders He will find but Few Faithful and with very much Profession very little True Faith They alone being Elect who persevere unto the End in The Faith of Christ and whose Faith is efficacious as well as sufficient to make them Faithful § 2. We see The Cohaerence of the Text which will help us not to err in the Meaning of it For in that our Lord asks When the Son of Man cometh shall He find Faith upon the Earth It is as if he should have said in plain and peremptory Terms That at his second Coming from Heaven to judge the Inhabitants of the Earth He shall not find Many Christians who will pray with that Faith which alone can inable them to pray without ceasing and not to faint When He shall come to save Believers He will find but few such in the Gospel-sense Not none simpliciter but none secundum quid Comparatively none or none to speak of The greatest part of men will perish even for want of That Faith whereby men's Prayers become effectual 'T is not through any defect of Goodness and longanimity in God that so few will be safe in the Day of Judgment But through a miserable defect of Christian Faithfulness and Faith The great Condition of the Covenant which God in Christ the only true Shechinah was pleas'd to make with the Sons of Men. Historical Faith there is in many such as is common to men with Devils who are said by St. Iames to believe and tremble A sturdy Praesumption there is in Many which they mistake for the perfection and strength of Faith A Carnal Security is in Many which they take to be the Product and Fruit of Faith There is in many such a Carnal and Human Faith concerning the Being of Heaven and Hell a Life after Death and a Day of Judgment as that there is such a Place as Constantinople or Eutopia whereof thô This is as fictitious as That is real yet by Ignaroes in Geography they are believed Both alike Thus in one sense or other Faith is as common as Infidelity a Weed which grows in most mens Gardens But very few have That Faith of which our Lord does here speak to wit a Faith which is attended with Hope and Charity a Faith coupl'd with Fear to offend our Maker a Faith productive of obedience unto That which is called The Law of Faith a Faith importing all faithfulness in the discharge of that Service we owe our Master a Faith expressed by a submission first to God rather than Man and then to Man for God's sake lastly a Faith joyned with Patience and Perseverance unto the End in the work of Prayer to which our Saviour had exhorted in the first Verse of This Chapter and which indeed is the Scope of this whole Paragraph § 3. Thus we have clearly a Praediction that the last Times will be the worst or that the World towards its End will be most dissolute and debauch't that 't will not be only an Iron-age but that the Iron will be corrupted with Rust and Canker This is the Doctrine of the Text and this must be divided into two distinct Branches as the word Faith may here be taken in two distinct Considerations For in which sense soever we understand the word Faith in the Text before us whether for a firm Adhaerence unto the Truth of Christ's Gospel in all its Doctrines or for a faithful punctuality in All Commerce and Transaction 'twixt Man and Man whether in That as the Cause of This or in This as the Fruit of That for 't is not pertinent now to mention all the other acceptions of Faith in Scripture we shall have reason to suspect The World is drawing towards its End in that the Praediction of our Saviour is drawing so near its Completion Before I come to prove or apply the Doctrine it will perhaps be worth while to take a view of the Description of the last and worst Days as St. Peter and St. Paul have drawn it up for us in their Epistles the one in Gross and the other in the Retail First St. Peter tells us in general There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own own Lusts. St. Paul acquaints us in particular what the several Lusts are This know also saith he to Timothy that in the last days perilous times shall come For men shall be Lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers make-bates otherwise called false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof From These saith He turn away And presently after he gives