wind will blow and the rain will fall and the earth will bear fruits whether we know it or not so our knowledge of it is not at all necessary to any Divine Efficiency as such The Spirit by which we are regenerate is like the wind that bloweth whose sound we hear but know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth no nor what it is John 3.6 7 8 9. But all those things which are necessary to work objectively and morally on the soul do work in esse cognito and the knowledge of them is as necessary as the operation is It was of absolute necessity to the salvation of all before Christs coming and among the Gentiles as well as the Jews that the Spirit should sanctifie them to God by possessing them with a predominant Love of him in his Goodness and that this Spirit proceed from the Son or Wisdom of God But it was not so necessary to them as it is now to us to have a distinct knowledge of the personality and operations of the Spirit and of the Son And though now it is certain that Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but by the Son Joh. 14.6 Yet that knowledge of him which is necessary to them that hear the Gospel is not all necessary to them that never hear it though the same efficiency on his part be necessary And so it is about the knowledge of the Holy Ghost without which Christ cannot be sufficiently now known and rightly believed in Direct 4. The presence or operation of the Spirit of God is casually the spiritual Life of man in his holiness As there is no natural Being but by influence from his Being so no Life but by communication from his Life and no Light but from his Light and no Love or Goodness but from his Spirit of Love It is therefore a vain conceit of them that think man in innocency had not the Spirit of God They that say his natural rectitude was instead of the Spirit do but say and unsay for his natural rectitude was the effect of the influx or communication of Gods Spirit And he could have no moral rectitude without it as there can be no effect without the chief cause The nature of Love and Holiness cannot subsist but in dependance on the Love and Holiness of God And those Papists who talk of mans state first in pure naturals and an after donation of the Spirit must mean by pure naturals man in his meer essentials not really but notionally by abstraction distinguished from the same man at the same instant as a Saint or else they speak unsoundly For God made man in moral dispositive goodness at the first and the same Love or Spirit which did first make him so was necessary after to continue him so It was never his nature to be a prime good or to be good independently without the influence of the prime good Isa 44.3 Ezek. 36.27 Job 26.13 Psal 51.10 12. 143.10 Prov. 20.27 Mal. 2.15 John 3.5 6. 6.63 7.39 Rom. 8.1 5 6 9 13 16. 1 Cor. 6.11 2.11 12. 6.17 12.11 13. 15.45 2 Cor. 3.3 17. Ephes 2.18 22. 3.16 5.9 Col. 1.8 Jude 19. Direct 5. The Spirit of God and the Holiness of the soul may be lost without the destruction of our essence or species of humane nature and may be restored without making us specifically other things That influence of the Spirit which giveth us the faculty of a Rational Appetite or Will inclined to good as good cannot cease but our humanity or Being would cease But that influence of the Spirit which causeth our adherence to God by Love may cease without the cessation of our Beings as our health may be lost while our life continueth Psal 51.10 1 Thes 5.19 Direct 6. The greatest mercy in this world is the gift of the Spirit and the greatest misery is to be deprived of the Spirit and both these are done to man by God as a Governour by way of reward and punishment oft-times Therefore the greatest reward to be observed in this world is the increase of the Spirit upon us and the greatest punishment in this world is the denying or with-holding of the Spirit It is therefore a great part of a Christians wisdom and work to observe the accesses and assistances of the Spirit and its withdrawings and to take more notice to God in his thankfulness of the gift of the Spirit than of all other benefits in this world And to lament more the retiring or withholding of Gods Spirit than all the calamities in the world And to fear this more as a punishment of his sin Lest God should say as Psal 81.11 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice Israel would none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels And we must obey God through the motive of this promise and reward Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will powre out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words to you Joh. 7.39 He spake this of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive Luke 11.13 God will give his holy Spirit to them that ask it And we have great cause when we have sinned to pray with David Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit in me Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and stablish me with thy free Spirit Psal 51.10 11 12. And as the sin to be feared is the grieving of the holy Spirit Ephes 4.30 so the judgement to be feared is accordingly the withdrawing of it Isaiah 63.10 11. But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them Then he remembred the daies of old Moses and his people saying Where is he that brought them up Where is he that put his holy Spirit within them The great thing to be dreaded is lest those that were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost should fall away and be no more renewed by repentance Heb. 6.4 6. Direct 7. Therefore executive pardon or justification cannot possibly be any perfecter than sanctification is Because no sin is further forgiven or the person justified executively than the punishment is taken off and the privation of the Spirit being the great punishment the giving of it is the great executive remission in this life But of this more in the Chapter of Justification following Direct 8. The three great operations in mâ—n which each of the three persons in the Trinity eminently perform are Natura Medicina salus the first by the Creator the second by the Redeemer the third by the Sanctifier Commonly it is called Nature Grace and Glory But either the terms Grace and Glory must
done the settling of your faith when once you have found out the soundest evidences and are able to answer all Objections For you must grow still in the fuller discerning and digesting the same evidences which you have discerned For you may hold them so loosely that they may be easily wrested from you And you may see them with so clear and full a knowledge as shall stablish your mind against all ordinary causes of mutation It is one kind or degree rather of knowledge of the same things which the Pupil and another which the Doctor hath I am sure the knowledge which I have now of the evidences of the Christian Verity is much different from what I had thirty years ago when perhaps I could say neer as much as now and used the same Arguments 17. Consider well the great contentions of Philosophers and the great uncertainty of most of those Nations to which the Infidels would reduce our faith or which they would make the test by which to try it They judge Christianity uncertain because it agreeth not with their uncertainties or certain errours 18. Enslave not your Reason to the objects of sense While we are in the body our souls are so imprisoned in flesh and have so much to do with worldly things that most men by averseness and disuse can hardly at all employ their minds about any higher things than sensitive nor go any further than sense conduceth them He that will not use his soul to contemplate things invisible will be as unfit for believing as a Lady is to travel a thousand miles on foot who never went out of her doors but in a Sedan or Coach 19. Where your want of learning or exercise or light doth cause any difficulties which you cannot overcome go to the more wise and experienced Believers and Pastors of the Church to be your helpers For it is their office to be both the preservers and expounders of the sacred Doctrine and to be the helpers of the peoples faith The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mal. 2.7 20. Lastly Faithfully practise with Love and alacrity what you do believe lest God in justice leave you to disbelieve that which you would not love and practise So much to direct you in the method of your endeavours for the getting and strengthening of faith CHAP. III. The Evidences of Faith THese things in the Order of your enquiry being presupposed proceed to the consideration of the Evidences themselves which fully prove the Christian Verity And here omitting the preparatory considerations recited at large in my Reasons of the Christian Religion I shall only set before you the grand Evidence it self with a brief recital of some of those means which bring it down to our notice in these times The great infallible witness of CHRIST is the SPIRIT of GOD or the Holy Ghost Or that divine operation of the Holy Spirit which infallibly proveth the attestation of God himself as interesting him in it as the principal cause As we know the Coin of a Prince by his image and superscription and know his acts by his publick proper Seal And as we know that God is the Creatour of the world by the Seal of his likeness which is upon it Or as we know the Father of a child when he is so like him as no other could beget So know we Christ and Christianity to be of God by his unimitable image or impression The Power Wisdom and Goodness of God are the essentialities which we call the Nature of God These in their proper form and transcendent perfection are incommunicable But when they produce an effect on the creature which for the resemblance may analogically be called by the same names the names are logically communicable though the thing it self which is the Divine Essence or Perfections be still incommunicable But when they only produce effects more heterogeneal or equivocal then we call those effects only the footsteps or demonstrations of their cause So GOD whose Power Wisdom and Goodness in it self is incommunicable hath produced intellectual natures which are so like him that their likeness is called his Image and analogically yet equivocally the created faculties of their Power Intellect and Will are called by such names as we are fain for want of other words to apply to God the things signified being transcendently and unexpressibly in God but the words first used of and applied to the creature But the same God hath so demonstrated his Power and Wisdom and Goodness in the Creation of the material or corporeal parts of the world that they are the â—estigia and infallible proofs of his causation and perfections being such as no other cause without him can produce but yet not so properly called his Image as to his Wisdom and Goodness but only of his Power But no wise man who seeth this world can doubt whether a God of perfect Power Wisdom and Goodness was the maker of it Even so the person and doctrine of Christ or the Christian Religion objectively considered hath so much of the Image and so much of the demonstrative impressions of the Nature of God as may fully assure us that he himself is the approving cause And as the Sun hath a double Light Lux Lumen its essential Light in it self and it s emitted beams or communicated Light so the Spirit and Image of God by which Christ and Christianity are demonstrated are partly that which is essential constitutive and inherent and partly that which is sent and communicated from him to others In the person of Christ there is the most excellent Image of God 1. Wonderful Power by which he wrought miracles and commanded Sea and Land Men and Devils and raised the dead and raised himself and is now the glorious Lord of all things 2. Wonderful Wisdom by which he formed his Laws and Kingdom and by which he knew the hearts of men and prophecied of things to come 3. Most wonderful Love and Goodness by which he healed all diseases and by which he saved miserable souls and procured our happiness at so dear a rate But as the essential Light of the Sun is too glorious to be well observed by us but the emitted Light is it which doth affect our eyes and is the immediate object of our sight at least that we can best endure and use so the Essential Perfections of Jesus Christ are not so immediately and ordinarily fit for our observation and use as the lesser communicated beams which he sent forth And these are either such as were the immediate effects of the Spirit in Christ himself or his personal operations or else the effects of his Spirit in others And that is either such as went before him or such as were present with him or such as followed after him Even as the emitted Light of the Sun is either that which is next to its
means is a condition of our further reception of more grace And perseverance in true holiness with faith is the condition of our final Justification and Glorification of which more anon Direct 24. You can no further believe the fulfilling of any of these conditional Promises than you know that you perform the condition It is presumption and not faith for an impenitent person to expect the benefit of those Promises which belong to the penitent only And so it is for him that forgiveth not others to expect to be forgiven his particular sins And so in all the rest of the Promises Direct 25. But be sure that you ascribe no more to your selves for performing any condition of a Promise than God doth A condition as such is no cause at all of the performance of the Promise either natural or moral only the non-performance of the condition is a cause of the non-performance of the Promise For the true nature of a condition as such is only to suspend the benâ—fit Though naturally a condition may be meritorious among men and for their own commodity which God is not capable of they ordinarily make only meritorious acts to be conditions As God also doth only such acts as are pleasing to him and suited to their proper ends But this is nothing to a condition formally which is but to suspend the benefit till it be done Direct 26. When you find a Promise to be common or universal apply it as boldly as if your name were written in it and also when you find that any particular Promise to a Saint is but a branch of that universal Promise to all Saints or to all that are in the same case and find that the case and reason of the Promise proveth the sense of it to belong to you as well as them If it be said that whosoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 You may apply it as boldly as if it were said If thou John or Thomas be a Believer thou shalt not perish but have everlasting life As I may apply the absolute Promise of the Resurrection to my self as boldly as if my name were in it because it is all that shall be raised John 5.22 24 25. 1 Cor. 15. So may I all the conditional promises of pardon and glory conditionally if I repent and believe And you may absolutely thence conclude your certain interest in the benefit so far as you are certain that you repent and believe And when you read that Christ promiseth his twelve Apostles to be with them and to reward their labours and to see that they shall be no losers by him if they lose their lives c. You may believe that he will do so by you also For though your work be not altogether the same with theirs yet this is but a branch of the common Promise to all the faithful who must all follow him on the same terms of self-denial Luke 14.26 27 33. Mat. 10. Rom. 8.17 18. And on this ground the promise to Joshua is applied Heb. 15. I will never fail thee nor forsake thee because it is but a branch of the Câ—venant common to all the faithful Direct 27. Be sure that you lay the stress of all your hopes on the Promises of God and venture all your happiness on them and when God calleth to it express this by forsaking all else for these hopes that it may appear you really trust Gods word without any secret hypocritical reserves This is the true life and work and tryal of faith whether we build so much on the Promise of God that we can take the thing promised for all our treasure and the Word of God for our whole security As Faith is called a Trusting in God so it is a practical kind of Trust and the principal tryal of it lyeth in forsaking all other happiness and hopes in confidence of Gods promise through Jesus Christ To open the matter by a similitude Suppose that Christ came again on earth as he did at his Incarnation and should confirm his truth by the same miracles and other means and suppose he should then tell all the Country I have a Kingdom at the Antipodes where men never die but live in perpetual prosperity and those of you shall freely possess it who will part with your own estates and Country and go in a ship of my providing and trust me for your Pilot to bring you thither and trust me to give it you when you come there My power to do all this I have proved by my miracles and my love and will my offer proveth How now will you know whether a man believe Christ and trust this promise or not why if he believe and trust him he will go with him and will leave all and venture over the Seas whithersoever he conducteth him and in that ship which he prepareth for him But if he dare not venture or will not leave his present Country and possessions it is a sign that he doth not trust him If you were going to Sea and had several Ships and Pilots offered you and you were afraid left one were unsafe and the Pilot unskilful and it were doubtful which were to be trufled when after all deliberation you chuse one and refuse the rest and resolve to venture your life and goods in it this is properly called trusting it So trusting in God and in Jesus Christ is not a bare opinion of his fidelity but a PRACTICAL TRVST and that you may be sure to understand it clearly I will once open the parts of it distinctly Divines commonly tell us that Faith is an Affiance or Trust in God and some of them say that this is an act of the understanding and some that it is an act of the will and others say that Faith consisteth in Assent alone and that Trust or Affiance is as Hope a fruit of Faith and not Faith it self And what Affiance it self is is no small controversie And so it is what Faith and Christianity is even among the Teachers of Christians The plain truth is this as to the name of Faith it sometime signifieth a meer Intellectual Assent when the object requireth no more And sometime it signifieth a practical Trust or Affiance in the Truth or Trustiness of the undertaker or promiser that is in his Power Wisdom and Goodness or honesty conjunct as expressed in his word and that is when the matter is practical requiring such a trust The former is oft called The Christian Faith because it is the belief of the truth of the Christian Principles and is the leading part of Faith in the full sense But it is the latter which is the Christian Faith as it is taken not secundum quid but simply not for a part but the whole not for the opinion of men about Christ but for Christianity it self or that Faith which must be profest in Baptism and which hath the promise of Justification and Salvation And
Essence or that which streameth further to other creatures And this last is either that which it sendeth to us before its own appearing or rising or that which accompanieth its appearing or that which leaveth behind it as it setteth or passeth away so must we distinguish in the present case But all this is but One Light and One Spirit So then I should in order speak 1. Of that Spirit in the words and works of Christ himself which constituteth the Christian Religion 2. That Spirit in the Prophets and Fathers before Christ which was the antecedent light 3. That Spirit in Christs followers which was the concomitant and subsequent Light or witness And 1. In those next his abode on earth And 2. Of those that are more remote CHAP. IV. The Image of Gods Wisdom 1. AND first observe the three parts of Gods Image or impress upon the Christian Religion in it self as containing the whole work of mans Redemption as it is found in the works and doctrine of Christ 1. The WISDOM of it appeareth in these particular observations which yet shew it to us but very defectively for want of the clearness and the integrality and the order of our knowledge For to see but here and there a parcel of one entire frame or work and to see those few parcels as dislocated and not in their proper places and order and all this but with a dark imperfect sight is far from that full and open view of the manifold Wisdom of God in Christ which Angels and superiour intellects have 1. Mark how wisely God hath ordered it that the three Essentialitieâ— in the Divine Nature Power Intellection and Will Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness and the three persons in the Trinity the Father the Word and the Spirit and the three Causalities of God as the Efficient Directive and final Cause of whom and through whom and to whom are all things should have three most eminent specimina or impressions in the world or three most conspicuous works to declare and glorifie them viz. Nature Grace and Glory And that God should accordingly stand related to man in three answerable Relations viz. as our Creatour our Redeemer and our Perfecter by Holiness initially and Glory finally 2. How wisely it is ordered that seeing Mans Love to God is both his greatest duty and his perfection and felicity there should be some standing emâ—nent means for the attraction and excitation of our Love And this should be the most eminent manifestation of the Love of God to us and withall of his own most perfect Holiness and Goodness And that as we have as much need of the sense of his Goodness as of his Power Loving him being our chief work that there should be as observable a demonstration of his Goodness extant as the world is of his Power 3. Especially when man had fallen by sin from the Love of God to the Love of his carnal self and of the creature and when he was fallen under vindictive Justice and was conscious of the displeasure of his Maker and had made himself an heir of Hell And when mans nature can so hardly love one that in Justice standeth engaged or resolved to damn him forsake him and hate him How wisely is it ordered that he that would recover him to his Love should first declare his Love to the offender in the fullest sort and should reconcile himself unto him and shew his readiness to forgive him and to save him yea to be his felicity and his chiefest good That so the Remedy may be answerable to the disease and to the duty 4. How wisely is it thus contrived that the frame and course of mans obedience should be appointed to consist in Love and Gratitude and to run out in such praise and chearful duty as is animated throughout by Love that so sweet a spring may bring forth answerable streams That so the Goodness of our Master may appear in the sweetness of our work and we may not serve the God of Love and Glory like slaves with a grudging weary mind but like children with delight and quietness And our work and way may be to us a foretaste of our reward and end 5. And yet how meet was it that while we live in such a dark material world in a body of corruptible flesh among enemies and snares our duty should have somewhat of caution and vigilancy and therefore of fear and godly sorrow to teach us to rellish grace the more And that our condition should have in it much of necessity and trouble to drive us homeward to God who is our rest And how aptly doth the very permission of sin it self subserve this end 6. How wisely is it thus contrived that Glory at last should be better rellished and that man who hath the Joy should give God the Glory and be bound to this by a double obligation 7. How aptly is this remedying design and all the work of mans Redemption and all the Precepts of the Gospel built upon or planted into the Law of natural perfection Faith being but the means to recover Love and Grace being to Nature but as Medicine is to the Body and being to Glory as Medicine is to Health So that as a man that was never taught to speak or to go or to do any work or to know any science or trade or business which must be known acquisitively is a miserable man as wanting all that which should help him to use his natural powers to their proper ends so it is much more with him that hath Nature without Grace which must heal it and use it to its proper ends 8. So that it appeareth that as the Love of Perfection is fitly called the Law of Nature because it is agreeable to man in his Natural state of Innocency so the Law of Grace may be now called the Law of depraved Nature because it is as suitable to lapsed man And when our pravity is undeniable how credible should it be that we have such a Law 9. And there is nothing in the Gospel either unsuitable to the first Law of Nature or contradictory to it or yet of any alien nature but only that which hath the most excellent aptitude to subserve it Giving the Glory to God in the highest by restoring Peace unto the Earth and Goodness towards men 10. And when the Divine Monarchy is apt in the order of Government to communicate some Image of it self to the Creature as well as the Divine Perfections have communicated their Image to the Creatures in their Natures or Beings how wisely it is ordered that mankind should have one universal Vicarious Head or Monarch There is great reason to believe that there is Monarchy among Angels And in the world it most apparently excelleth all other forms of Government in order to Vnity and Strength and Glory and if it be apter than some others to degenerate into oppressing Tyranny that is only caused by the great corruption of humane
and use the language the motives and the employments of the Country and people where they live so he that is most familiar with such as live by Faith upon things unseen and take Gods promise for full security hath a very great help to learn and live that life himself Heb. 10.24 25. 1 Thes 4.17 18. Phil. 3.20 21. Direct 20. Forget not the nearness of the things unseen and think not of a long continuance in this world but live in continual expectation of your change Distant things be they never so great do hardly move us As in bodily motion the mover must be contiguous And as our senses are not fit to apprehend beyond a certain distance so our minds also are finite and have their bounds and measure And sin hath made them much narrower foolish and 〈◊〉 sighted than they would have been A certainty of dying 〈◊〉 last should do much with us But yet he that looketh to live long on earth will the more hardly live by Faith in Heaven when he that daily waiteth for his change will have easily the more serious and effectual thoughts of the world in which he must live next and of all the preparations necessary thereunto and will the more easily despise the things on earth which are the employment and felicity of the sensual Col. 3.1 2 3. Phil. 1.20 21 22 23. 1 Cor. 15.31 As we see it in constant experience in men when they see that they must presently die indeed how light then set they by the world how little are they moved with the talk of honour with the voice of mirth with the sight of meat or drink or beauty or any thing which before they had not power to deny and how seriously they will then talk of sin and grace of God and Heaven which before they could not be awakened to regard If therefore you would live by faith indeed set your selves as at the entrance of that world which faith foreseeth and live as men that know they may die to morrow and certainly must be gone ere long Dream not of I know not how many years more on earth which God never promised you unlâ—ss you make it your business to vanquish faith by setting its objects at a greater distance than God hath set them Learn Christs warning to one and all To watch and to be alwaies ready Mark 13.33 35 37. 1 Pet. 4 7. Mat. 24.44 Luke 12.40 He that thinketh he hath yet time enough and day-light before him will be the apter to loiter in his work or Journey When every man will make haste when the Sun is setting if he have much to do or far to go Delaies which are the great preventers of Repentance and undoers of the world do take their greatest advantage from this ungrounded expectation of long life When they hear the Physician say He is a dead man and there is no hope then they would fain begin to live and then how religious and reformed would they be whereas if this foolish errour did not hinder them they might be of the same mind all their lives and might have then done their work and waited with desire for the Crown and said with Paul For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. And so much for the General Directions to be observed by them that will live by Faith I only add that as the well doing of all our particular duties dependeth most on the common health and soundness of the soul in its state of grace so our living by Faith in all the particular cases after instanced doth depend more upon these General Directions than on the particular ones which are next to be adjoyned CHAP. I. An Enumeration of the Particular Cases in which especially Faith must be used 1. How to live by Faith on GOD. THE General Directions before given must be practised in all the Particular Cases following or in order to them But besides them it is needful to have some special Directions for each Case And the particular Cases which I shall instance in are these 1. How to exercise Faith on GOD himself 2. Upon Jesus Christ 3. Upon the Holy Ghost 4. About the Scripture Precepts and Examples 5. About the Scripture Promises 6. About the Threatnings 7. About Pardon of sin and Justification 8. About Sanctification and the exercises of other Graces 9. Against inward vices and temptations to actual sin 10. In case of Prosperity 11. In Adversity and particular Afflictions 12. In Gods Worship publick and private 13. For Spiritual Peace and Joy 14. For the World and the Church of God 15. For our Relations 16. In loving others as our selves 17. About Heaven and following the Saints 18. How to die in Faith 19. About the coming of Christ to Judgement GOD is both the object of our knowledge as he is revealed in Nature and of our Faith as he is revealed in the holy Scriptures He is the first and last object of our Faith It is life eternal to know him the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Ye believe in God believe also in me was Christs order in commanding and causing Faith Joh. 14.1 Seeing therefore this is the principal part of Faith to know God and live upon him and to him I shall give you many though brief Directions in it Direct 1. Behold the glorious and full demonstrations of the Being of the Deity in the whole frame of nature and especially in your selves The great argument from the Effect to the Cause is unanswerable All the caused and derived Beings in the world must needs have a first Being for their cause All Action Intellection and Volition all Power Wisdom and Goodness which is caused by another doth prove that the cause can have no less than the total effect hath To see the world and to know what a man is and yet to deny that there is a God is to be mad He that will not know that which all the world doth more plainly preach than words can possibly express and will not know the sense of his own Being and faculties doth declare himself uncapable of teaching Psal 14.1 49.12 20. Isa 1.2 3. It is the greatest shame that mans understanding is capable of to be ignorant of God 1 Cor. 15.34 and the greatest shame to any Nation Hos 4.1 6.6 As it is the highest advancement of the mind to know him and therefore the summ of all our duty Prov. 2.5 Hos 6 6· 2 Chron. 30.21 22. Isa 11.9 2 Pet. 2.20 Rom. 1.20 28. Joh. 17.3 Direct 2. Therefore take not the Being and Perfections of God for superstructures and
what our case is and then hath taught him what he himself is as to his person and his office and what he hath done to reconcile us to God and how far God is reconciled hereupon and what a common conditional pardoning Covenant he hath made and offereth to all and what he will be and do to those that do come in the belief of all this serioâ—sly by the assenting act of the understanding is the first part of saving Faith going in nature before both the Love of God and the consenting act of the Will to the Redeemer And yet perhaps the same acts of faith in an uneffectual superficial measure may go long before this in many 6. In this assent our belief in God and in the Mediatour are conjunct in time and nature they being Relatives here as the objects of our faith It is not possible to believe in Christ as the Mediatour who hath propitiated God to us before we believe that God is propitiated by the Mediatour nor vice versâ Indeed there is a difference in order of dignity and desirableness God as propitiated being represented to us as the End and the Propitiator but as the Means But as to the order of our apprehension or believing there can be no difference at all no more than in the order of knowing the Father and the Son the Husband and Wife the King and subjects These Relatives are simul naturá tempore 7. This assenting act of Faith by which at once we believe Christ to be the Propitiator and God to be propitiated by him is not the belief that my sins are actually pardoned and my soul actually reconciled and justified but it includeth the belief of the history of Christs satisfaction and of the common conditional Covenant of Promise and Offer from God viz. that God is so far reconciled by the Mediatour as that he will forgive and justifie and glorifie all that Repent and Believe that is that return to God by faith in Christ and offereth this mercy to all and intreateth them to accept it and will condemn none of them but those that finally reject i◠〈◊〉 things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himsâ—lf not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. So that it is at once the belief of the Father as reconciled and the Son as the Reconcilâ—r and that according to the tenour of the common conditional Covenant which is the first assenting part of saving Faith 8. This same Covenant which revealeth God as thus far reconciled by Christ doth offer him to be further actualy and fully reconciled and to justifie and glorifie us that is to forgive accept and love us perfectly for ever And it offereth us Christ to be our actual Head and Mediatour to procure and give us all this mercy by communicating the benefits which he hath purchased according to his Covenant-terms so that as before the Father and the Son were revealed to our assent together so here they are offered to the Will together 9. In this offer God is offered as the End and Christ as Mediatour is offered as the Means therefore the act of the Will to God which is here required is simple Love of complacency with subjection which is a consent to obey but the act of the Will to Christ is called choice or consent though there be in it Amor Medii the Love of that Means for its aptitude as to the end 10. This Love of God as the End and Consent to Christ as the Means being not acts of the Intellect but of the Will cannot be the first acts of Faith but do presuppose the first assenting acts 11. But the assenting act of Faith doth cause these acts of the Will to God and the Mediatour Because we believe the Truth and Goodness we Consent and Love 12. Both these acts of the Will are caused by assent at one time without the least distance 13. But here is a difference in order of Nature because we will God as the End and for himself and therefore first in the natural order of intention and we will Christ as the Means for that End and therefore but secondarily Though in the Intellects apprehension and assent there be no such difference because in the Truth which is the Vnderstandings object there is no dâ—fference but only in the Goodness which is the Wills object And as Goodness it self is apprehended by the Vnderstanding ut verè bonum there is only an objective dâ—fference of dignity 14. Therefore as the Gospel revelation cometh to us in a way of offer promise and covenant so our Faith must act in a way of Acceptance Covenanting with God and the Redeemer and Sanctifier And the Sacrament of Baptism is the solemnizing of this Covenant on both parts And till our hearts do consent to the Baptismal Covenant of Grace we are not Believers in a saving sense 15. There is no distance of time between the Assent of Faith and the first true degree of Love and Consent Though an unsound Assent may go long before yet sound Assent doth immediately produce Love and Consent and though a clear and full resolved degree of consent may be some time afterward And therefore the soul may not at the first degree so well understand it self as to be ready for an open covenanting 16. This being the true order of the work of Faith and Love the case now lyeth plain before those that can observe things distinctly and take not up with confused knowledge And no other are fit to meddle with such cases viz that the knowing or assenting acts of faith in God as reconciled so far and in Christ as the reconciler so far as to give out the offer or Covenant of Grace are both at once and both go before the acts of the will as the cause before the immediate effect and that this assent first in order of nature but at once in time causeth the will to love God as our End and to consent to and chuse Christ in heart-covenant as the means and so in our covenant we give up our selves to both And that this Repentance and Love to God which are both one work called conversion of turning from the creature to God the one as denominated from the terminus à quo viz. Repentance the other from the terminus ad quem viz. Love are twisted at once with true saving Faith And that Christ as the means used by God is our first Teacher and bringeth us to assent And then that assent bringeth us to take God for our End and Christ for the Means of our actual Justification and Glory so that Christ is
it being his work to make us thus both Believers and Saints and his perfective work of our real Sanctification being as necessary to us as our Redemption or Creation Matth. 28.19 2â— Heb. 6.1 2 4 5 6. Direct 18. Therefore as every Christian must look upon himself as being in special Covenant with the Holy Ghost so be must understand distinctly what are the benefits and what are the conditions and what are the duties of that part of his Covenant The special Benefits are the Life Light and Love before mentioned by the quickening illumination and sanctification of the Spirit not as in the first Act or Seed for so they are presupposed in that Faith and Repentance which is the Condition But as in the following acts and habits and increase of both unto perfection Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off and to as many as the Lord our God shall call See Acts 26.18 Ephes 1.18 19. Titus 3.5 6 7. The special condition on our parts is our consent to the whole Covenant of Grace viz. To give up our selves to God as our Reconciled God and Father in Christ and to Jesus Christ as our Saviour and to the holy Spirit as to his Agent and our Sanctifier There needeth no other proof of this than actual Baptism as celebrated in the Church from Christs daies till now And the institution of it Mat. 28.19 with 1 John 5.7 8 9. 1 Pet. 3.21 with John 3.5 The special Duties afterward to be performed have their rewards as aforesaid and the neglect of them their penalties and therefore have the nature of a Condition as of those particular rewards or benefits Direct 19. The Duties which our Covenant with the Holy Ghost doth bind us to are 1. Faithfully to endeavour by the power and help which he giveth us to continue our consent to all the foresaid Covenant And 2. To obey his further motions for the work of Obedience and Love 3. And to use Christs appointed means with which his Spirit worketh And 4. To forbear those wilful sins which grieve the Spirit John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you v. 7. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you v. 9. Continue in my love Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the Faith c. Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God Heb. 10.25 26. Not forsaking the assembling of your selves together c. For if we sin wilfully c. of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath done despight to the Spiâ—it of grace v. 29. Heb. 6.4 5 6. Ephes 4 3â— Grieve not the holy Spirit of God 1 Thes 5.19 Quench not the Spirit Direct 20. By this it is plain that the Spirit worketh not on man as a dead thing which hath no principle of activity in it self nor as on a naturally necessitated Agent which hath no self-determining faculty of will but as on a living free self-determining Agent which hath duty of its own to perform for the attaining of the end desired Those therefore that upon the pretence of the Spirits doing all and our doing nothing without him will lye idle and not do their parts with him and say that they wait for the motions of the Spirit and that our endeavours will not further the end do abuse the Spirit and contradict themselves seeing the Spirits work is to stir us up to endeavour which when we refuse to do we disobey and strive against the Spirit Direct 21. Though sometimes the Spirit work so efficaciously as certainly to cause the volition or other effect which it moveth to yet sometimes it so moveth as procureth not the effect when yet it gave man all the power and help which was necessary to the effect because that man failed of that endeavour of his own which should have concurred to the effect and which he was able without more help to have performed That there is such effectual grace Acts 9. and many Scriptures with our great experience tell us That there is such meer necessary uneffectual grace possible and sometime in being which some call sufficient grace is undeniable in the case of Adam who sinned not for want of necessary grace without which he could not do otherwise And to deny this blotteth out all Christianity and Religion at one dash By all which it appeareth that the work of the Spirit is such on mans will as that sometimes the effect is suspended on our concurrence so that though the Spirit be the total cause of its own proper effect and of the act of man in its own place and kind of action yet not simply a total cause of mans act or volition but mans concurrence may be further required to it and may fail Direct 22. Satan transformeth himself oft into an Angel of Light to deceive men by pretending to be the Spirit of God Therefore the spirits must be tryed and not every spirit trusted 2 Cor. 11.14 15. Mat. 24.4 5 11 24. 1 John 3.7 Ephes 4.14 Revel 10.3 8. 2 Thes 3.2 1 John 4.1 3 6. Direct 23. The way of trying the spirits is to try all their uncertain suggestions by the Rule of the certain Truths already revealed in Nature and in the holy Scriptures And to try them by the Scriptures is but to try the spirits by the Spirit the doubtfull spirit by the undoubted Spirit which indited and sealed the Scriptures more fully than can be expected in any after revelation 1 Thes 1.21 Isa 8.16 20. 2 Pet. 1.19 John 5.39 Acts 17.11 The Spirit of God is never contrary to it self Therefore nothing can be from that Spirit which is contrary to the Scriptures which the Spirit indited Direct 24. When you would have an increase of the Spirit go to Christ for it by renewed acts of that same Faith by which at first you obtained the Spirit Gal. 3.3 4. Gal. 4.6 Faith in Christ doth two waies help us to the Spirit 1. As it is that Condition upon which he hath promised it to whom it belongeth to give us the Spirit 2. As it is that act of the soul which is fitted in the nature of it to the work of the Spirit That is as it is the serious contemplation of the infinite Goodness and Love of God most brightly shining to us in the face of the Redeemer and as it is a serious contemplation of that heavenly glory procured by Christ which is the fullest expression of the Love of God and so is fittest to kindle that Love to God in the soul which is the work of the Spirit These are joyned Rom. 5.1 2 5 6. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we
in with the heavenly Spirit in his own way when we set our selves to be most heavenly Heavenly thoughts are the work which he would set you on and the Love of God is the thing which he works you to thereby And nothing will so powerfully inflame the soul with the Love of God as to think that we shall live in his Love and Glory for ever more Set your selves therefore to this work and it will be a sign that the Spirit sets you on it and you may be sure that he will not be behind with you in a work which both he and you must do To this sense the Apostle bids us pray in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. Because though prayer must be from the Spirit which is not in our power yet when we set our selves to pray it is both a sign that the Spirit exciteth and a certain proof that he will not be behind with us but will afford us his assistance Direct 29. Conveâ—se with those who have most of the Spirit as far as you can attain it And that is not those that are most for revelations or visions or that pretend to extraordinary illuminations or that set the Spirit against the Word or that boast most of the Spirit in contempt of others But those who are most humble most holy and most heavenly who love God most and hate sin most Converse with such as have most of the Spirit of love and heavenliness is the way to make you more spiritual as converse with learned men is the way to learning For the Spirit giveth his graces in the use of suitable means as well as he doth his common gifts Jude 20 21. Heb. 10.24 25. 3.13 Ephes 4.12 15 16. Direct 30. Lastly The right ordering of the body it self is a help to our spirituality A clean and a chearful body is a fitter instrument for the Spirit to make use of than one that is opprest with crudities or dejected with heavy melancholy Therefore especially avoid two extreams 1. The satisfying the lusts of the flesh and clogging the body with excess of meat or drink or corrupting the fantasie with foolish pleasures 2. And the addicting your selves to distracting melancholy or to any disconsolate or discontented thoughts And from hence you may both take notice of the sense of all that fasting and abstinence which God commandeth us and of the true measure of it viz. as it either fitteth or unfitteth the body for our duty and for our ready obedience to the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a cast away Rom. 13.12 13 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkâ—nness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh for lust Pampering the body and addicting our selves to the pleasing of it turneth a man from spirituality into bruitishness and savouring or minding the things of the flâ—sh destroyeth both the relish and minding of the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. And a sowre discontented melancholy temper is contrary to that alacrity requisite in Gods service and to those which the Comforter is to work in us So much for living by Faith on the Holy Ghost CHAP. IV. Directions how to exercise Faith upon Gods Commandments for Duty IT being presupposed that your Faith is settled about the truth of the Scriptures in general by the means here before and elsewhere more at large described you are next to learn how to exercise the Life of Faith about the Precepts of God in particular and herein take these helps Direct 1. Observe well how suitable Gods Commands are to reason and humanity and natural revelation it self and so how Nature and Scripture do fully agree in all the precepts for primitive holiness This is the cause why Divines have thought it so useful to read Heathen Moralists themselves that in a Cicero a Plutarch a Seneca an Antonius an Epictetus c. they might see what testimony nature it self yieldeth against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men See Rom. 19 20 c. But of this I have been larger in my Reasons of the Christian Religion Direct 2. Observe well how suitable all Gods Commandments are to your own good and how necessary to your own felicity All that God commandeth you is 1. To be active and use the faculties of your souls in opposition to Idleness 2. To use them rightly and on the highest objects and not to debase them by preferring vanity and sordid things nor to pervert them by ill doing And are not both these suitable to your natural perfection and necessary to your good 1. If there were one Law made that men should lie or stand still all the day with their eyes shut and their ears stopped and their mouths closed and that they should not stir nor see nor hear nor taste and another Law that man should use their eyes and ears and limbs c. which of these were more suitable to humanity and more easie for a â—ound man to obey though the first might best suit with the lame and blind and sick and why should not the goodness of Gods Law be discerned which requireth men to use the higher faculties the Reason and Elective and Executive Powers which God hath given them If men should make a Law that no one should use his Reason to get Learning or for his Trade or business in the world you would think that it were an institution of a Kingdom of Bedlams or a herd of beasts And should not you then be required to use your Reason faithfully and diligently in greater things 2. And if one Law were made that every man that traveleth shall stumble and wallow in the dirt and wander up and down out of his way and that every man that eateth and drinketh should feed on dirt and ditch-water or poyson c. And another Law that all men should keep their right way and live soberly and feed healthfully which of these would fit a wise man best and be easiest to obey or if one Law were made that all Scholars shall learn nothing but lies and errours and another that they shall learn nothing but truth and wisdom which of them would be more easie and suitable to humanity Though the first might be more pleasing to some fools Why then should not the goodness of Gods Laws be confessed who doth but forbid men learning the most pernicious errours and wandering in the maze of folly and wallowing in the dirt of sensuality and feeding on the dung and poyson of sin Is the love of a harlot or of gluttony drunkennenss rioting or gaming more suitable to humanity than the Love of God and Heaven and Holiness of Wisdom Temperance and doing good To a Swine or a Bedlam it may be more suitable but not
Jesus Acts 21.13 3. In so strong a fortitude of soul as to venture and give up our selves our lives and all our comforts and hopes into the hand of Christ without any trouble or sinful fears and to pass through all difficulties and tryals in the way without any distrust or anxiety of mind These be the characters of a strong and great degree of faith And you may note how Heb. 11. describeth Faith commonly by this venturing and forsaking all upon the belief of God As in Noah's case verse 7. And in Abraham's leaving his Countrey v. 8. And in his sacrificing Isaac v. 17. And in Moses forsaking Pharaoh's Court and chusing the reproach of Christ rather than the pleasures of sin for a season v. 24 25 26. And in the Israelites venturing into the Red Sea v. 29. And in Rebab's hiding the spies which must needs be her danger in her own Countrey And in all those who by faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong O hers were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in Sheep skins and Goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy They wandered in Desarts and Mountains and in Deus and Caves of the earth And in Heb. 10.32 33 c. They endured a great fight of affliction partly whilst they were made a gazing flock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst they became companions of them that were so used And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance And thus the just do live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. See also Rom. 8.33 36 37 c. These are the Spirits descriptions of faith but if you will rather take a whimsical ignorant mans description who can only toss in his mouth the name of FREE GRACE and knoweth not of what he speaketh or what he affirmeth or what that name signifieth which he cheateth his own soul with instead of true Free Grace it self you must suffer the bitter fruits of your own delusion For my part I shall say thus much more to tell you why I say so much to help you to a right understanding of the nature of true Christian Faith 1. If you understand not truly what Faith is you understand not what Religion it is that you profess And so you call your selves Christians and know not what it is It seems those that said Lord we have eaten and drunken in thy presence and prophesied in thy Name did think they had been true Believers Matth. 7.21 22. 2. To erre about the nature of true Faith will engage you in abundance of other errours which will necessarily arise from that as it did them against whom James disputeth James 2.14 15 c. about Justification by Faith and by Works 3. It will damnably delude your souls about your own state and draw you to think that you have saving Faith because you have that fancy which you thought was it One comes boldly to Christ Mat. 8.19 Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest But when he heard The Foxes have holes and the Birds have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head we hear no more of him And another came with a Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life Luke 18.18 as if he would have been one of Christs Disciples and have done any thing for Heaven And it 's like that he would have been a Christian if Free Grace had been as large and as little grace as some now imagine But when he heard Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven Come follow me he was then very sorrowful for he was very rich Luke 18.21 22 23. Thousands cheat their souls with a conceit that they are Believers because they believe that they shall be saved by Free Grace without the faith and grace which Christ hath made necessary to salvation 4. And this will take off all those needful thoughts and means which should help you to the faith which yet you have not 5. And it will engage you in perverse disputes against that true faith which you understand not And you will think that you are contending for Free Grace and for the Faith when you are proud knowing nothing but sick or doting about questions which engender no better birth than strifes railings evil surmisings perverse disputings c. 1 Tim. 6.4 5. 6. Lastly You can scarce more dishonour the Christian Religion nor injure God and our Mediatour or harden men in Infidelity than by fathering your ill-shapen fictions on Christ and calling them the Christian or Justifying Faith Direct 29. Take not all doubts and fears of your salvation to be the proper effects and signs of unbelief Seeing that in many they arise from the misunderstanding of the meaning of Gods Promise and in more from the doubtfulness of their own qualifications rather than from any unbelief of the Promise or distrust of Christ It is ordinary with ignorant Christians to say that they cannot believe because they doubt of their own sincerity and salvation as thinking that it is the nature of true faith to believe that they themselves are justified and shall be saved and that to doubt of this is to doubt of the Promises because they doubtingly apply it Such distresses have false principles bought many to But there are two other things besides the weakness of faith which are usually the causes of all this 1. Many mistake the meaning of Christs Covenant and think that it hath no universality in it and that he died only for the Elect and promiseth pardon to none but the Elect no not on the condition of believing And therefore thinking that they can have no assurance that they are Elect they doubt of the conclusion And many of them think that the Promise extendeth not to such as they because of some sin or great unworthiness which they are guilty of And others think that they have not that Faith and Repentance which are the condition of the promise of pardon and salvation And in some of these the thing it self may be so obscure as to be indeed the matter of rational doubtfulness And in others of them the cause may be either a mistake about the true nature and signs of Faith and Repentance or else a timerous melancholy causeless suspition of themselves But which of all these soever be the cause it is something different from proper unbelief or distrust of God
and the everlasting miseries of the damned in Hell being the due effects or punishment of sin are the second cause of our necessity of pardon And therefore these also must be thought on seriously by him that will seriously believe in Christ 4. The Law of God which we have broken maketh this punishment our due Rom. 3. 5. 7. And the Justice of God is engaged to secure his own honour in the honour of his Law and Government Direct 2. Vnderstand well what Christ is and doth for the Justification of a sinner and how not one only but all the parts of his office are exercised hereunto In the dignity of his person and perfect original holiness of his natures divine and humane he is fitly qualified for his work of our Justification and Salvation His undertaking which is but the Divine Decree did from eternity lay the foundation of all but did not actually justifie any His Promise Gen. 3.15 and his new Relation to mâ—â— thereupon did that to the Fathers in some degree which his after-incarnation and performance and his Relation thereupon doth now to us His perfect Obedience to the Law yea to that Law of Mediation also peculiar to himself which he performed neither as Priest or Prophet or King but as a subject was the meritorious cause of that Covenant and Grace which justifieth us and so of our Justification And that which is the meritorious cause here is also usually called the material as it is that matter or thing which meriteth our Justification and so is called Our Righteousness it self As he was a sacrifice for sin he answered the ends of the Law which we violated and which condemned us as well as if we had been all punished according to the sense of the Law And therefore did thereby satisfie the Law-giver and thereby also merited our pardon and Justification so that his Obedience as such and his Sacrifice or whole humiliation as satisfactory by answering the ends of the Law are conjunctly the meritorious cause of our Justification His New Covenant which in Baptism is made mutual by our expressed consent is a general gift or act of oblivion or pardon given freely to all mankind on condition they will believe and consent to it or accept it so that it is Gods pardoning and adopting instrument And all are pardoned by it conditionally and every penitent Believer actually and really And this Covenant or Gift is the effect of the foresaid merit of Christ both founded and sealed by his blood As he merited this as a mediating subject and sacrifice so as our High Priest he offered this sacrifice of himself to God And as our King he being the Law-giver to the Church did make this Covenant as his Law of grace describing the terms of life and death And being the Judge of the world doth by his sentence justifie and condemn men as believers or unbelievers according to this Covenant And also executeth his sentence accordingly partly in this life but fully in the life to come As our Teacher and the Prophet or Angel of the Covenant he doth declare it as the Fathers will and promulgate and proclaim this Covenant and conditional Pardon and Justification to the world and send out his Embassadours with it to beseech men in his Name to be reconciled to God and to declare yea and by sacramental investiture to seal and deliver a Pardon and actual Justification to Believers when they consent And as our Mediating High Priest now in the Heavens he presenteth our necessity and his own righteousnesses and sacrifice as his meritâ— for the continual communication of all this grace by himself as the Head of the Church and Administrator of the Covenant So that Christ doth justifie us both as a subject meriting as a sacrifice meriting as a Priest offering that sacrifice as a King actually making the Justifying Law or enacting a general Pardon as a King sententially and executively justifying as a Prophet or Angel of the Covenant promulgating it as King and Prophet and Priest delivering a sealed Pardon by his Messengers And as the Priest Head and Administrator communicating this with the rest of his benefits By which you may see in what respects Christ must be believed in to Justification if Justifying Faith were as it is not only the receiving him as our Justifier It would not be the receiving him as in one part of his office only Direct 3. Vnderstand rightly how far it is that the righteousness of Christ himself is made ours or imputed to us and how far not There are most vehement controversies to this day about the Imputation of Christs Righteousness in which I know not well which of the extreams are in the greater errour those that plead for it in the mistaken sense or those that plead against it in the sober and right sense But I make no doubt but they are both of them damnable as plainly subverting the foundation of our faith And yet I do not think that they will prove actually damning to the Authors because I believe that they misunderstand their adversaries and do not well understand themselves and that they digest not and practise not what they plead for but digest and practise that truth which they doctrinally subvert not knowing the contrariety which if they knew they would renounce the errour and not the truth And I think that many a one that thus contradicteth fundamentals may be saved Some there be besides the Antinomians that hold that Christ did perfectly obey and satisfie not in the natural but in the civil or legal person of each sinner that is elect representing and bearing as many distinct persons as are elect so fully as that God doth repute every Elect person or say others every Believer to be one that in Law sense did perfectly obey and satisfie Justice himself and so imputeth Christs Righteousness and satisfaction to us as that which was reputatively or legally of our own performance and so is ours not only in its effects but in it self Others seeing the pernicious consequences of this opinion deny all imputed Righteousness of Christ to us and write many reproachful volumes against it as you may see in Thorndikes last works and Dr. Gell and Parker against the Assembly and abundance more The truth is Christ merited and satisfied for us in the person of a Mediator But this Mediator was the Head and Root of all Believers and the second Adam the fountain of spiritual life and the Surety of the New Covenant Heb. 7.22 1 Cor. 15.22 45. and did all this in the nature of man and for the sake and benefit of man suffering that we might not suffer damnation but not obeying that we might not obey but suffering and obeying that our sinful imperfection of obedience might not be our ruine and our perfect obedience might not be necessary to our own Justification or Salvation but that God might for the sake and merit of this his perfect obedience and
satisfaction forgive all our sins and adopt us for his Sons and give us his holy Spirit and glorifie us for ever so that Christs Righteousness both obediential and satisfactory is ours in the effects of it in themselves and ours relatively for those effects so far as to be purposely given for us to that end but not ours in it self simply or as if we were reputed the legal performers our selves or might be said in Law sense or by divine estimation or imputation to have our selves in and by Christ fulfilled the Law and suffered for our not fulfilling it which is a contradiction As he that both by a price and by some meritorious act doth redeem a captive or purchase pardon for a traitor doth give the money and merit in it self to the Prince and not to the Captive or Traitor himself He never saw it nor ever had propriety in the thing it self But the deliverance is the Prisâ—ners and not the Princes and therefore it is given to the Prisoner as to the effects though not in it self in that it was given for him And because Christ suffered what we should have suffered as to the value to save us from suffering and our sins were the cause of our guilt of punishment and so the remote cause of the sufferings of Christ his own sponsion being the nearer cause therefore it may be said truly that Christ did not only suffer for our benefit but in our stead or place and in a larger and less strict and proper sense that he suffered in the person of a sinner and as one to whom our sins were imputed meaning no more but that he suffered as one that by his own consent undertook to suffer for the persons of sinners and that as such an undertaker only he suffered and that thus our sins were imputed to him not in themselves as if he were in Law sense the committer of them or polluted by them or by God esteemed so to have been but as to the effects that is his suffering in that they were the occasion and the remote or assumed cause of his sufferings as his Righteousness is imputed to us as the meritorious cause of our Pardon and Justification But he could not be said no not in so large a sense as this to have obeyed in our stead considering it as obedience or holiness but only as merit because he did it not that we might not obey but that we might not suffer for disobeying More of this will follow in the next Chapter Direct 4. Vnderstand well what guilt it is that Christ doth remit in our Justification not the guilt of the fact nor of the fault in it self but the guilt of punishment and of the fault only so far as it is the cause of wrath and punishment 1. The guilt of fact is in the reality or truth of this charge that such a fact we did or omitted so far it is but Physically considered and would not come into legal consideration were it not for the following relation of it 2. The guilt of fault reatus culpae is the reality of this charge or the foundation of it in us that we are the committers or omitters of such an action contrary to the Law or that our act or omission was really a crime or fault 3. The guilt of punishment reatus poenae vel ad poenam is the foundation of this charge that we are by that Law which must judge us condemnable or obliged to punishment or it is our right for the sins so committed Now Christ doth not by justifying us or pardoning us make us either to be such as really did not do the fact or such as did not a culpable fact no nor such as did not deserve damnation or to whom it was not due by the first Law alone but to be such who are not now at all condemnable for it because the new Law which we must be judged by doth absolve us by forgiving us not making the fault no fault nor causing God to think that Christ committed it and not we or to esteem us to be such as never did commit it but remitting the punishment and that dueness of punishment and obligation to it which did before result from the fault and Law together and so the fault it self is remitted as it is the foundation from whence that obligation to punishment resulteth respectively but not simply nor as a fault in it self at all When I say the punishment and the dueness of it to us is forgiven I mean not only the punishment of sense but of loss also nor only the outward part which is executed by creatures but especially the first and great penalty of Gods own displeasure with the person and the withdrawing of his Spirit and complacential love and that which we may improperly call his obligation in Justice to condemn the sinner There was upon God before Christs satisfaction and our title to him that which we may so call a legal or relative obligation on God to punish us because else he should have done contrary to the due ends of Government and so contrary to the Wisdom and Justice of a Governour which is not consistent with his perfection But now the ends of Government are so answered and provided for that there is no such obligation on God to punish us but he may remit it without any dishonour at all nay with the honour of his Wisdom and Justice We are now non condemnandi not condemnable though we are sinners In Judgement we must confess the latter and deny the former only Direct 5. Vnderstand well what sins Christ justifieth men from or forgiveth to them and what not All sins which consist with true faith and repentance or true conversion to God in love by faith in Christ and all that went before But he forgiveth no man in a state of impenitency and unbelief nor any mans final impenitency and unbelief at all nor any other sins when those are final except it be with the common conditional forgiveness before mentioned or that absolute particular forgiveness of some present penalties which saveth no man from damnation Matth. 12.31 Acts 26.18 Rom. 8.1 30. Acts 5.31 Acts 2.38 39. Mark 16.16 John 3.16 18 36. 1 John 5.11 12. Mark 4 1â— Matth. 18.27 32. Direct 6. Vnderstand well the true nature of that Faith and Repentance which God hath made the condition of our Justification This is sufficiently opened before and the consulation of all the cavils against it would be tedious and unsavoury here Direct 7. Vnderstand well the Covenant and Promise of Justification and measure your belief and expectations by that Promise Expect no other pardon nor on any other conditions or terms than the Promise doth contain For it is Gods pardoning act or instrument and by it we must be justified or condemned And we know not but by it whom God will justifie Direct 8. Keep alwaies the assuring grounds of faith before your eyes when you look
Image of God It s essence is a Living Spirit It s essential faculties are 1. A Vital Activity or Power 2. An Vnderstanding 3. A Will. 13. His Rectitude which is Gods Moral Image on him consisteth 1. In the promptitude and fortitude of his Active Power 2. In the Wisdom of his Vnderstanding 3. In the Moral Goodness of his Will which is its Inclination to its End and Readiness for its Duty 14. Being created such a creature by a meer resultancy from his Nature and his Creator he is related to him as his Creature and in that Unity is the subsequent Trinity of Relations 1. As we are Gods Propriety or his Own 2. His Subjects 3. His Beneficiaries and Lovers all comprized in the one title of his children And at once with these Relations of man to God it is that God is as before related to man as his Creator and as his Owner Ruler and Chief Good 15. Man is also related to his fellow creatures below him 1. As their Owner 2. Their Ruler 3. Their End under God which is Gods Dominative or Honorary Image upon man and is called commonly our Dominion over the creatures So that by meer Creation and the Nature of the creatures there is constituted a state of communion between God and Man which is 1. A Dominion 2. A Kingdom 3. A Family or Paternity And the whole is sometime called by one of these names and sometime by the other still implying the rest 16. Gods Kingdom being thus constituted his Attributes appropriate to these his Relations follow 1. His Absoluteness as our Owner 2. His Holiness Truth and Justice as our Ruler 3. And his Kindness Benignity and Mercy as our Father or Benefactor 17. And then the Works of God as in these three Relations follow which are 1. To Dispose of us at his pleasure as our Owner 2. To govern us as our King 3. To love us and do us good and make us perfectly happy as our Benefactor and our end 18. And here more particularly is to be considered 1. How God disposed of Adam when he had new made him 2. How he began his Government of him And 3. What Benefits he gave him and what he further offered or promised him 19. And as to the second we must 1. Consider the Antecedent part of Gods Government which is Legislation and then herafter the consequent part which is 1. Judgment 2. Execution And Gods Legislation is 1. By making our Natures such as compared with objects Duty shall result from this Nature so related 2. Or else by Precept or Revelation from himself besides our Natures 1. The Law of Nature is fundamental and radical in our foresaid Relations to God themselves in which it is made our natural duty 1. To submit our selves wholly to God and his disposal as his own 2. To obey his commands 3. And to receive his mercies and thankfully to return them and to love him But though as Gods essential principles and his foresaid Relations are admirably conjunct in their operations ad extra so our Relative obligations are conjunct yet are they so far distinguishable that we may say that these which conjunctly make our Moral duty yet are not all the results of our Relation to a Governour as such but the second only and therefore that only is to be called the Radical Law in the strict sense the other two being the Moral results of our Rectitude The duty of subjection and obedience in general arising from our Natures related to our Creator is the radical governing Law of God in us But yet the same submission and gratitude and love which are primarily our duty from their proper foundations are secondarily made also the matter of our subjective duty because they are also commanded of God 2. The particular Laws of Nature are 1. Of our particular duties to God or of Piety 2. Or of our duties to our selves and others 1. Acts of Justice 2. And of Charity These Laws of Nature are 1. Vnalterable and that is where the nature of our persons and of the objects which are the foundations of them are unalterable or still the same 2. Or mutable when the Nature of the things which are its foundation is mutable As it is the immutable Law of immutable nature that we love God as God and that we do all the good we can c. because the foundation of it is immutable But e. g. the Law against Incest was mutable in nature For nature bound Adams children to marry each other and nature bindeth us since ordinarily to the contrary 2. The revealed Law to Adam was superinduced The parts of Gods Law must also here be considered 1. The introductive Teaching part for Gods teaching us is part of his ruling us and that is Doctrines History and Prophecy 2. The Imperative part commands to do and not to do 3. And the sanctions or motive parts in Law and execution which are 1. Promises of Beneficial Rewards 2. Threatnings of hurtful penalties 20. Gods Laws being thus described in general and those made to Adam thus in particular the next thing to be considered is mans behaviour in breaking those Laws which must be considered in the Causes and the Nature of it and the immediate effects and consequents 21. And next must be considered Gods consequent part of Government as to Adam viz. his judging him according to his Law 22. And here cometh in the Promise or the first edition of the New Covenant or Law of Grace which must be opened in its parts original and end 23. And then must be considered Gods execution of his sentence on Adam so far as he was unpardoned and so upon the world till the end 24. And next must be considered Gods enlargements and explications of his Covenant of Grace till Christs Incarnation 25. And next mens behaviour under that explained Covenant 26. And Gods sentence and execution upon them thereupon 27. Then we come to the fulness of time and to explain the work of Redemption distinctly And 1. It s Original the God of Nature giving the world a Physician or a Saviour 2. The Ends 3. The constitutive Causes Where 1. Of the Person of the Redeemer in his Essence as God and Man and in his perfections both essential and modal and accidental 28. And 2. Of the fundamental works of our Redemption such as Creation was to the first Administration viz. his first Vndertaking Interposition and Incarnation being all presupposed 1. His perfect Resignation of himself to his Father and submission to his disposing Will 2. His perfect subjection and obedience to his Coverning Will 3. His perfect Love to him 4. And the suffering by which he exprest all these The three first meriting of themselves and the last meriting as a satisfactory Sacrifice not for it self but for its usefulness to its proper ends 29. From this Offering once made to God Christ acquired the perfecter title of a Saviour or Redeemer or Mediatour which one contained
our duty towards them to do to them as we would have them do to us which is partly meant by loving them as our selves 12. That we love all mankind even Gods enemies much more our own as they are men for the dignity of humane nature and their capacity to become holy and truly amiable 13. That all means be chosen according to the end which is to be preferred before other ends and their suitableness and fitness for that end as they are to be preferred before other means III. And the order of practice is 1. That we be sure to begin with God alone and proceed to God in the creature and end in God alone It is the principal thing to be known for finding out the true method of Divinity and Religion that as in the great frame of Nature so in the frame of Morality the true motion is circular From 〈◊〉 the efficient by God the Dirigent to God the final Cause of all therefore as God is the first spring or cause of motion so the creature is the Recipient first and the Agent after in returning all to God again Therefore mark that our receiving Graces are our first graces in exercise and our receiving duties are our first duties and then our returning graces and duties come next in which we proceed from the lesser to the greater till we come up to God himself Therefore in point of practice the first thing that we have to do is to learn to know God himself as God and our God and to live as from him and upon him as our Benefactor from our hearts confessing that we have nothing but from him and shall never be at rest but with him and in him as our ultimate end and therefore to set our selves to seek him as our end accordingly which is but to seek to love him and be beloved by him in the perfection of knowledge and dâ—light 2. The whole frame of means appointed by God for the attainment of this end must be taken together and not broken asunder as they have all relation each to other And 1. The whole frame of Nature must be looked on as the first great means appointed to man in innocency for the preservation and exercise of his holiness and righteousness 2. And the Covenant or Law positive as conjoyned unto this 3. And the Spirit of God communicated only for such a meer sufficiency of necessary help as God saw meet to one in that condition And though these means the Creatures and the Spirit of the Creator in that degree be not now sufficient for lapsed man yet they are still to be looked on as delivered into the hand of Christ the Mediatour to be used by him on his terms and in order to his blessed ends 2. But it is the frame of the recovering and perfecting means which we are now to use And in this frame 1. Christ the Mediatour is the first and principal and the Author of our Faith or Religion and therefore from his Name it is called Christianity He is â—ow the first means used on Gods part for communicating mercy unto man and the first in dignity to be received and used by man himself but not the first in Time because the means of revealing him must go first 2. The second means in dignity under Christ is the operation of the Holy Spirit as sent or given by the Redeemer which Spirit being as the soul of outward means which are as the body is given variously in a suitableness to the several sorts of means of which more anon 3. The outward means for this Spirit to work by and with have been in three degrees 1. The lowest degree is the world or creatures called The Book of Nature alone 2. The second degree was the Law and Promises to the Jews and their fore-fathers together with the Law of Nature 3. The third and highest degree of outward means is the whole frame of Christian Institutions adjoyned to the Book of Nature and succeeding the foresaid Promises and Law Every one of these hath a sufficiency in its own kind and to its proper use 1. The Law of Nature is sufficient in its own kind to reveal a God in his Essential Principles and Relations and to teach man the necessity now of some supernatural Revelations and Institutions and so to direct him to enquire after them what and where they be 2. The Promises and Jewish Law of Types c. was sufficient in its own kind to acquaint men that a Saviour must be sent into the world to reveal the Will of God more fully and to be a sacrifice for sin and to make reconciliation between God and man and to give a greater measure of the Spirit and to renew mens souls and bring them to full perfection and to the blessed fruition of God The Jewish Scriptures teach them all this though it tell them not many of the Articles of our Christian Belief 3. The Christian Gospel is sufficient in its own kind to teach men first to believe aright in the Father Son and Holy Spirit and then to love and live aright When I say that each of these is sufficient in its own kind the meaning is not that these outward means are of themselves sufficient without the Holy Spirit for that were to be sufficient not only in suo genere but in alieno vel in omni genere not only for its own part and work but for the Spirits part also But other causes being supposed to concur it is sufficient for its own part As my Pen is a sufficient Pen though it be not sufficient to write without my hand Now the measure of the Spirits concourse with all these three degees of means is to be judged of by the nature of the means and by Gods ends in appointing them and by the visible effects And whereas the world is full of voluminous contentions about the doctrine of sufficient and effectual grace I shall here add thus much in order to their agreement 1. That certainly such a thing there is or hath been as is called sufficient not-effectual grace By sufficient they mean so much as giveth man all that Power which is necessary to the commanded act or forbearance so that man could do it without any other grace or help from God which supposeth that mans will in the Nature of it hath such a vital free self-determining power that sometimes at least it can act or not act when such bare power is given to it and sometimes doth and sometimes doth not But the word necessary is more proper than sufficient The latter being applicable to several degrees but necâ—ssary signifieth that degree without which the Act cannot be performed That there is such a thing is evident in Adams case who had that grace which was necessary to his forbearing the first sin or else farewell all Religion And there are few men will deny but that all men have still such a degree of help for many duties
12.12 Esther 8.15 So that it still remaineth clear that loving our neighbours as our selves doth entitle us to the comforts of all mens health estates prosperity honours yea and their holiness and wisdom too and this without any such participation of their sorrows as should be any considerable ecclipse of our delights if we do it all regularly as God requireth us 6. If I love my neighbour as my self I am freed from all the trouble of cross interests in buying and selling in trespassing in Law-suits It will comfort me as much if he get by me as if I get by him If his bargain prove the better as if mine did if he have the better at Law as if it were judged to my self Yea all his successes prosperity and whatever good befalleth any that I know of in the world will all be mine 7. And I shall never be loth by death to leave the world while I have no cause to fear the missing of salvation because whatever I leave behind me will be possessed by such as I love as my self They will have life and time and health and comforts and whatever my nature is loth to leave Therefore whilest I live why should it not be as comforting to me to think that so many shall live and prosper whom I love as my self as if I were my self to live and prosper 8. Yea more than so I have by Love a part in the Joyes of Heaven before I am actually there For the Joyes of all those blessed souls and of those holy Angels are mine by participation so far as to cause me to rejoyce in their felicity as if it were my own as far as I can now apprehend it Yea the Glory of the Lord Jesus and the eternal blessedness of God himself would rejoyce us more than our own felicity if we loved him as much above our selves as we ought to do we should partake of our Masters joy And now judge whether loving God as God and our neighbours sincerely as our selves would not cure almost all the calamities of our minds and give us a kind of Heaven and be a cheap and certain way to have what we can wish in all the world and even to make all the world our own And whether it be not sin it self which is the first part of all mens hell and misery Object But my neighbours meat will not fill my belly nor his health doth not ease my pain nor his fire keep me warm Answ The flesh hath got the dominion indeed when men cannot distinguish between soul and body between the pain and pleasures of the body and of the mind I do not say that Love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies but of your minds Your appetites will not be satisfied with your neighbours food but your minds may be comforted to see his welfare Your pain is not eased by your neighbours health but your minds may be pleased by it as much as if it were your own if you loved him as much as you do your self And therefore many in a danger have saved the life of a Prince a Captain a Parent a Child a Friend with the voluntary loss of their own Object This is all true but who is there in the world that doth it or findeth it possible to love another as himself And how can that be a duty which is to nature it self an impossibility Therefore let us first know what this duty is of loving our neighbours as our selves Answ Doubtless if it be the summ of the Law all true Christians do it in sincerity though not in perfection And as to the sense of it 1. You must distinguish between that sensitive and passionate affection which is in the soul as sensitive and is common to beasts with men and that rational appetite which doth will and chuse and is pleased according to the conduct of pure reason The first we doubt not will be still more to our selves than others and it is not the use of grace to destroy it but to rule and moderate it 2. You must distinguish between Love and outward actions which are the expressions of it When our Love is due as much to one as to another yet our outward actions may be under a particular Law which obligeth us to do that for one which we are not bound to do for others As to maintain our own children families servants and so our selves rather than others And the reason is because the difference of individuals maketh that fit for one which is not fit for another and so maketh every man the fittest chuser for himself and those that are neerest to him and nature instigateth him to the greatest care in doing it And all good must be done in a regular order or else confusion will destroy it And nature maketh this most orderly As every Parish must keep their own poor and yet must love other poor as well 3. You must know that Love is formally nothing but complacence as aforesaid but Love joyned with a will and purpose to do good to another is called Love of benevolence when yet the Love there is one thing and the doing good or purpose to do it is another and I may in obedience to God purpose and do more good to one whom I am bound to Love not more but less And now you may see what it is to love our neighbours as our selves 1. God must be loved above our neighbours and our selves and both must be loved purely as related and subordinate to him and for his sake There is a double respect which all things have to God 1. As they contain that excellency which he hath put upon them which is some likeness representation or signification of himself and is called his Glory shining in the creature that is it 's derived Goodness 2. As they conduce to his further service and may honour him and please him Thus all creatures must be loved only as a means even a means declaring God being derivatively and significantly good and useful and as a means to serve and please him 2. Therefore this being the formal reason of our Rational Love must also be the measure of it à quatenus ad quantum As it is certain that I must love that best which is best because I must love it only as good so it is certain that that is best which hath most likeness to God and most of his Glory upon it and that which is most pleasing to him and useful to his service Therefore if my neighbour be better than I am I must judge him better and love him better 3. Though natural self-appetite and self-preservation by which all creatures are for themselves only not feeling the hunger cold pain of others be not sinful but the effect of creating individuation yet Reason was perfect and the Will could perfectly follow Reason in its complacency and choice till sin corrupted it Reason could judge that best which was best and the Will
increase the flame And Satan hath still the bellows in his hand He knoweth that if he can corrupt or win the Commander he can rout the Army and ruine them with the greatest ease It hath been Satans grand design since the Christian name was known on earth to advance the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ and to entangle the Rulers of the world in some cause that Christ and his Word and Servants cannot favour and so to make them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch against and subdue the interest of Christ As if it were necessary that the shore be brought to the boat and not the boat to the shore And that the Physician be brought to the Patients mind or else destroyed or used as his enemy I am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scripture that are against such persons lest you should misunderstand me and think I misapply them But Christ feareth no man and hath not spoken his Word in vain and his Messengers must be faithful for he will bear them out and preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive corrasives I will but refer you to the texts that you may peruse them Matth. 21.44 Matth. 18.3.6 Matth. 25.40 45. Luke 18.7 Psal 2. Luke 19.27 Acts 9.4 5. 1 Thess 2.15 16. Read them with fear as the Words of God Blessed are those Rulers and Nations of the Earth that perceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver that with all his subtilty and industry endeavoureth to breed quarrels and sow dissentions between them and the universal King The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise the more they think themselves engaged against him because by his commands he seems to take it from them again by crossing the flesh which would use it only to fulfil its lusts Like a Dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone and then snarleth at you lest you take it from him and will fly in your face if you offer to meddle with it Men readily confess that they have their wealth from God because it cannot be denyed and because they would use the name of God as a cover to hide their covetousness and unlawful waies of getting But if you judge by their usage of it and their returns to God you would think that they believed that they had nothing at all from God but some injuries and that all their benefits and good were from themselves The Turkish and Tartarian Emperour will say that all his grandeur and power is from God that by making it most Divine he may procure the more reverence and obedience to himself But when he hath said so for his own interest he useth the same power against God and his interest to the banishing of his Word and holy Worship and the forbidding the preaching of the Gospel of salvation and to the cherishing of tyranny pride and lust As if God had armed them against himself and made his Officers to be his enemies and gave them power that they might powerfully hinder mens salvation and made great to be great oppressors As a believing Pastor is a Priest that standeth between God and the people to mediate under the great Mediatour to receive from God his Word and Ordinances and deliver them to the flocks and to offer up supplications in their names to God So believing Governours of civil Societies or Families receive from God a power to rule the subjects for their good and they use it to make the subjects good that God may be pleased and honoured by all And the obedience which they require is such as may be given to God in them They take power from God to use it for God and are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious carnal Princes as the pleasing and honouring of God is a more excellent design and work than the gratifying of fleshly lust and the advancement of a lump of clay The Kingdoms of the world would all be used as the Kingdoms of the Lord if the everlasting Kingdom were well believed The families of men would be sanctified as Churches unto God if the eternal house not made with hands were truly taken for their home and their trade were to lay up a treasure in Heaven In Cities and Countries Brethren would dwell in holy peace and all concur in honouring God if once they were made fellow Citizens with the Saints and their Burgeship and conversation were in Heaven Ephes 2.19 Phil. 3.20 21. 6. Resist Temptations as Believers If you live by Faith then fight against the world and flesh by Faith Faith must be your helmet and the Word of Faith must be your shield Eph. 6.16 And your victory it self must be by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 If Satan tell the flesh of the preferment riches or the pleasures of lust answer him with a believing foresight of Gods Judgement and the life to come Never look on the baits of sin alone but still look at once on God and on Eternity As a just Judge will hear both parties speak or see their evidences before he will determine So tell the Tempter that as you have heard what fleshly allurements can say you will see also what the Word of God saith and take a view of Heaven and Hell and then you will answer him 7. Rejoyce as Believers Can Faith set open the windows of the soul and no light of heavenly pleasures enter Can it peruse the Map of the Land of Promise or see and taste the bunch of Grapes without any sweetness to the soul That is the truest Belief of Heaven which maketh men likest those that are in Heaven And what is their character work and portion but the Joyes of Heavenly Light and Love Can we believe that we shall live in Heaven for ever Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there and not rejoyce in such believing I know we commonly say that the uncertainty of our proper title is the cause of all our want of joy But if that were all if that were the first and greatest cause and our belief of the promise it self were lively we should at least set our hearts on Heaven as the most delightful and desirable state and Love would work by more eager desires and diligent seekings till it had reacht assurance and cast out the hinderances of our joy How much would a meer Philosopher rejoyce if he could find out natural evidence of so much as we know by Faith You may perceive what their content in finding it would be by their excâ—eding pains in seeking The unwearied studies by day and night which many of them used with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world do tell us how glad they would have been to have seen but half so far as we may If they could but discover more clearly and certainly the principles and elements and forms of Beings the nature of spirits the causes of motion
the nature and cause of light and heat the order course and harmony of the universal systeme of the world what joyful acclamations would this produce in the literal studious sort of men what joy then should it be to us to know by Faith the God that made us the Creation of the world the Laws and Promises of our Creatour the Mysteries of Redemption and Regeneration the frame of the new Creature the entertainment of the spirits of the just with Christ the Judgement which all the world must undergo the work and company which we shall have hereafter and the endless joyes which all the sanctified shall possess in the sight and Love of God for ever How blessed an invention would it be if all the world could be brought again to the use of one universal language Or if all the Churches could be perfectly reconciled how joyful would the Author of so great a work be should we not then rejoyce who foresee by Faith a far more perfect union and consent than ever must be expected here on earth Alas the ordinary lowness of our Comforts doth tell us that our Faith is very small I say not so much The sorrows of a doubting heart as the little joy which we have in the fore-thoughts of Heaven when our title seemeth not much doubtful to us For those sorrows shew that such esteem it a joyful place and would rejoyce if their title were but cleared But when we have neither the sorrow or solicitousness of the afflicted soul nor yet the joy which is any whit suitable to the belief of such everlasting joyes we may know what to judge of such an uneffectual belief at best it is very low and feeble It is a joy unspeakable and full of glory which unseen things should cause in a Believer 1 Pet. 1.6 7 8. Because it is an exceeding eternal weight of glory which he believeth 2 Cor. â— 17 18. 8. Finally Learn to Die also as Believers The life of Faith must bring you to the very entrance into glory where one doth end the other begins As our dark life in the womb by nutriment from the Mother continueth till our passage into the open world You would die in the womb if Faith should cease before it bring you to full intuition and fruition Heb. 11.22 By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel Josephs faith did not die before him Heb. 11.3 These all died in faith confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth and declaring that they sought a better Country They that live by faith must die in faith yea and die by faith too Faith must fetch in their dying comforts And O how full and how near a treasure hath it to go to To die to this world is to be born into another Beggars are best when they are abroad The travail of the ungodly is better to them than their home But the Believers home is so much better than his travail that he hath little cause to be afraid of coming to his Journeys end but should rather every step cry out O when shall I be at home with Christ Is it Earth or Heaven that you have prayed for and laboured for and waited and suffered for till now And doth he indeed pray and labour and suffer for Heaven who would not come thither It is Faith which overcometh the world and the flesh which must also overcome the fears of death and can look with boldness into the loathsome grave and can triumph over both as victorious through Christ It is Faith which can say Go forth O my soul depart in peace Thy course is finished Thy warfare is accomplished The day of triumph is now at hand Thy patience hath no longer work Go forth with joy The morning of thy endless joyes is near and the night of fears and darkness at an end Thy terrible dreams are ending in eternal pleasures The glorious light will banish all thy dreadful specters and resolve all those doubts which were bred and cherished in the dark They whose employment is their weariness and toil do take the night of darkness and cessation for their rest But this is thy weariness Defect of action is thy toil and thy most grievous labour is to do too little work And thy uncessant Vision Love and Praise will be thy uncessant ease and pleasure and thy endless work will be thy endless rest Depart O my soul with peace and gladness Thou leavest not a world where Wisdom and Piety Justice and Sobriety Love and Peace and Order do prevail but a world of ignorance and folly of bruitish sensuality and rage of impiety and malignant enmity to good a world of injustice and oppression and of confusion and distracting strifes Thou goest not to a world of darkness and of wrath but of Light and Love From hellish malice to perfect amity from Bedlam rage to perfect wisdom from mad confusion to perfect order to sweetest unity and peace even to the spirits of the just made perfect and to the celestial glorious City of God! Thou goest not from Heaven to Earth from holiness to sin from the sight of God into an infernal dungeon but from Earth to Heaven from sin and imperfection unto perfect holiness and from palpable darkness into the vital splendour of the face of God! Thou goest not amongst enemies but to dearest friends nor amongst meer strangers but to many whom thou hast known by sight and to more whom thou hast known by faith and must know by the sweetest communion for ever Thou goest not to unsatisfied Justice nor to a condemning unreconciled God but to Love it self to infinite Goodness the fountain of all created and communicated good to the Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier of souls to him who prepared Heaven for thee and now hath prepared thee for Heaven Go forth then in triumph and not with terrour O my soul The prize is won Possess the things which thou hast so long prayed for and sought Make haste and enter into thy Masters joy Go view the glory which thou hast so long heard of and take thy place in the heavenly Chore and bear thy part in their celestial melody Sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God! And receive that which Christ in his Covenant did promise to give thee at the last Go boldly to that blessed God with whom thou hast so powerful a Mediatour and to the Throne of whose grace thou hast had so oft and sweet access If Heaven be thy fear or sorrow what can be thy joy and where wilt thou have refuge if thou fly from God If perfect endless pleasures be thy terrour where then dost thou expect content If grace have taught thee long ago to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity refuse it not now when thou art so near the port if it have taught thee long ago to be as a stranger in this Sodom and to renounce this