THE DOVBTING BELEEVER OR A TREATISE CONTAINING 1. The Nature 2. The Kinds 3. The Springs 4. The Remedies of Doubtings incident to weak Beleevers BY OBADIAH SEDGWICK Bachelor in Divinity and Minister of Coggeshall in Essex LONDON Printed by M. F. for Thomas Nicols and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Alley at the sign of the Bible 1641. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT Earl of VVarwick Baron of Leez c. My Noble Lord and free Patron MY LORD RENEWED heart is a very Heaven in our little world and Faith is the onely Sun in that Heaven The sinner never comes to be precious till he comes to be pious and the value of that piety still advanceth according to the quantity of true faith as the Ring is the more considerable with the Diamond I cannot conceive of a more compendious way for any Christians full and constant revenues then this To get faith and stil to use it The summe or product of which would be this Grace and Glory Heaven and Earth are ours Satan well knowes what a serviceable channell Faith is for all our traffique either for our ship to lanch out into duties or for Gods ship to come laden in to us with mercies therefore there is no Grace which hee batters and conflicts so with as with faith If we weaken or shake foundations this hath a spreading influence into the whole building A Christians faith cannot be wronged but presently all the spirituall frame becomes sensible of wrong and losse In my weak judgement it were a great prudence to secure that which being secured now secures all Nothing grows weake where faith growes strong My Lord This poore Treatise which I presume to front with your name is like Aaron and Hur who staid up the hands of Moses So doth this Treatise indeavour to stay the hand of faith in a weak Beleever who hath an ample estate on the shore and at land but those waves of doubtings when he is thrusting in too often make him to fall back and stagger Whence followes this great unhappinesse That whereas his faith might have served in many precious comforts it is almost a whole life imployed onely to answer fears and doubts I humbly present the subsequent Work to your Lordships personal use and publique patronage Be pleased at your leasure to peruse it and regard it as the first cognizance of my thankfulnesse to your Honour for the Living which you did so freely and lovingly confer upon me wherein I shall desire faithfully to serve your Lord and mine Now the Almighty God and blessed Father abundantly inrich your noble heart with all saving graces and continue you long to be an instrument of much glory to himselfe comfort to his Church and good to our Common-wealth Your Honours perpetually obliged Obadiah Sedgwick To the Christian Reader THis Treatise which now is presented to a publike cōstruction was many years past the subject of my private Meditations and Sermons I did not affect any farther publication of it then in the Pulpit but the importunity of others hath compelled it thus to appeare in print Not that the manner of handling the Subject here insisted on is excellent or exquisite but that the matter handled may be supposed to be of common use and benefit as a little star hath influence though not that glory which is proper to the Sun The Case which is here put and discussed is a Case of common experience There is no Beleever but some time or other will confesse it is his The Sun being seated in an heavenly Orbe shineth with a very pure and constant light but the candle though set and burning in a golden candlestick yet burnes with a snuffe and much variablenesse When Christians are translated and transplanted from earth to heaven then their graces shall become perfections There are no defects in heaven there are no mixtures in heaven but whatsoever is pure there it is altogether pure Yet on earth it is otherwise neither the habits of Grace nor the acts of Grace are alone 〈◊〉 any Christian When I would doe good evill is present with me said Paul And I beleeve Lord help my unbeliefe said that poore man in the Gospel Where is the Beleever who insists not more on his fears then on his faith and is not oftner lamenting his doubts then rejoycing in his assurances None have an interest in Christ but Beleevers None have title to a solid and settled peace but they And yet we see the children fearfull and bondmen confident the best of men still in suit and the worst of men quiet as if in full possession none doubting lesse then such as have most cause to doubt and none doubting more then such as have most cause to triumph in Christ And in truth thus it will be whiles grosse ignorance veiles over presumptuous sinners and mis-belief is incident to tender spirits And is not the hand of Joab in this businesse too Is not Satan in all the sins of wicked men and in most of the troubles of good men either he tempts us to sinne and that will cause us to doubt or else he tempts us to doubt and that will cause us to sin Surely it is not the shortest of his wiles and arts in matters of Religion to keep the judgements of some still staggering and in matters of a soules interest in Christ to keep the heart still doubting Doth he not know that the Christian cannot so happily improve Christ who is still in suit to prove his title to Christ For the better expediting of these soule-suits peruse if thou pleasest this ensuing Work which is I confesse not a garden for every one to walk in but onely physick for the sick or weak It is intended as an Hospitall for the lame onely for a troubled sinner onely for a weak beleever And the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort even he who establisheth us in Christ prosper it for his glory and the help of some one or other Thy Faiths servant Obadiah Sedgwick A Table of the Heads in this TREATISE CAP. I. THe nature of doubtings page 6 CAP. II. Foure sorts of doubtings 11 Those of inquietation are Either 1. Reall or 2. Personall 13 CAP. III. Quest Whether doubtings may consist with a true faith Sol. They may This is 1. explicated 16 2. Proved 17 CAP. IV. The springs of doubtings are 1. Originall sin 24 2. Imperfection in faith 26 Which 1. Wants ability to argue 28 2. Insists most on discouragements 29 3. Is unacquainted with our armory 31 3. The life of sense pa. 33 What it is 34 Three demon strations that it is a cause of doubtings 35 4. Restraining of faith 38 5. Special sins after conversion 46. Foure reasons thereof for doubtings 47. to 53 6. Spirituall indispositions 55 Two knots are made by them 1. Whether our graces betrue 56 2. Whether our services can be accepted 58 7. Fruitlesse endeavours
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
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
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