is that it hath made betweene God and it selfe when the Soule is truly burdened with it when it hath the sight of Gods infinite holinesse and knowes what the consequence of an eternall estate meanes and yet for me to venture all so as I am lost for ever if I miscarrie here and that when I have nothing to commend me to God when he can see no good in me nothing but that which his Soule loathes and abhorres surely now to venture upon the free Grace of God is a most glorious worke of Faith And that Faith that can doe this we need not feare but it will carry through all outward troubles Secondly if your Faith can keepe you in love to holy duties although you find nothing come in by them you pray you heare you reade you receive Sacraments and yet you finde your hearts as hard and your corruptions as strong as ever yet if still you can continue not onely the practice of holy duties but love unto them this is a great worke of Faith The three latter are Luthers three difficulties of Faith namely first To beleeve things impossible to reason secondly To hope for things that are deferred and thirdly To love God when he shewes himselfe to be an enemie If Faith can doe these things there is no feare but it will overcome all outward difficulties that possibly can befall CHAP. XVI The meanes to maintaine and strengthen our Faith LAstly if Faith be the Grace that carryes through all then it is our wisedome to labour what wee can to maintaine and strengthen our Faith Let us looke especially to that wherein our chiefe strength lyes let not a Dalilah let not any carnall content get away no nor in the least degree abate our strength let us be sure we looke to our Shield that that be safe and sound As that Heathen Epaminondas being dangerously wounded with a Speare so that hee sunke downe as one dead but after comming to himselfe hee asked if his Target were safe his chiefe care was about that so should ours be about the Shield of our Faith The Devill labours above all things against us in this hee cares not what men doe so be it their Faith be neglected Especially therefore labour to strengthen your Faith in these three things The first is the principall and ground of all namely The assurance of your interest in the Covenant of Grace that you are received by God into that free rich glorious Covenant of life in Christ That now you are not to stand or fall by what is in your selves or what comes from you but by the perfect righteousnesse of that blessed Mediator who hath undertaken your Cause with God doubts and fears about this doe much weaken the spirits of men when troubles come upon them Secondly in the assurance of Gods fatherly love unto and care over you in the sorest and hardest afflictions that can befall you As it is an argument of much ignorance to perswade ones selfe that God loves one because of present prosperitie so it is exceeding weakenesse to call Gods love in question upon the feeling the smart of affliction to thinke that none of Gods people are afflicted in such a kinde as I am If it were in some other kind it were not so much but being thus I am afraid that God never loved mee and that he hath now quite forsaken mee Thirdly in the assurance of the blessed issue of all that all will be peace and comfort at the last if Faith be strong in these it will be able to encounter with all assaults whatsoever this strengthening of our Faith must be First by much meditation in the covenant of grace the rich promises and glorious manifestations of Gods goodnesse in his Word that so the soule may be acquainted with the promises and have alwayes a word at hand to relieve it selfe withall Secondly by keeping conscience cleare that it may speake peace and encourage us that it may not upbraid us that it may not cast feares into us that it may not cast camps of spirit within us Thirdly take heed of listening to the reasonings of flesh and blood venture we our selves wholly upon the word if wee have that never argue the cause any further Wee read of Saint Paul Gal. 1. 16. that he dared not to consult with flesh and blood after Christ was once revealed in him if he had he had never beene able to deny himselfe as hee did carnall reasonings are great enemies to Faith they are the strong holds of Satan which must be battered downe Prov. 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and leave not unto thine owne understanding There we see that leaning to ones owne understanding and trusting in God are opposed one to another Fourthly keepe Faith in continuall exercise upon all occasions looke up to God in the strength of a promise for assistance in all things for sanctifying for blessing every thing unto you live by Faith in whatsoever you undertake or doe that so when greater tryalls come faith may be in a readinesse being alwayes kept active and stirring Fifthly labour much to keepe up your converse with God in his ordinances in all holy duties that you may be exercised in them with life and power that there being a holy sweet familiarity between God and the soule it may be more able freely and cheerfully and confidently to repaire unto him in times of trouble and exercise its Faith upon him as that God betweene whom and the soule there is daily a sweet intercourse God letting himselfe out daily in his love and mercie to the soule and the soules working up its selfe and inlarging it selfe in love and delight and praise to God againe And when sufferings come then stir up and put forth the grace of Faith in the exercise of it looke up to God for strength and assistance commit your selfe and cause wholly to him plead the promise plead your call that hee hath called you to this plead the cause that it is his Master Tindall in a Letter of his to Master Frith who was then in prison hath foure expressions of the worke of Faith in time of suffering If you give your selfe cast your selfe yield your selfe commit your selfe wholly and onely to your loving Father then shall his power bee in you and make you strong hee shall set out his truth by you wonderfully and work for you above all your heart can imagine And observe this rule labour to strengthen and exercise your Faith before your heart bee too deepely affected with your affliction Wee usually have our first and chiefest thoughts upon our Troubles and spend the strength of our spirits in poring upon them and tyre our selves in the workings of our unbeleeving discontented spirits giving libertie to the reasonings of our hearts so that wee are sunke before any promise can come to us wee are not able to
entertainment and commanded that all the former Edicts should be cancelled in his presence There is a notable relation that wee finde in Josephus concerning Agrippa that upon a time he invited Caius the Emperour to a supper and gave the Emperour great content in his entertainement whereupon the Emperour said unto him let mee gratifie thee by giving thee what thou wilt Agrippa asked although it were with the venture of the losse of all hee had as followeth Dread Prince since it is your good pleasure to thinke mee worthy to be honoured by your presence I beseech you to give commandement that the Statue which you have charged Petronius to erect in the Temple of the Jewes may never be advanced there this hee did although hee knew it was as much as his life was worth to aske any thing of Caius that was not answerable to his humour Many Christians would hardly goe so farre in venturing themselves either for Church or countrey as hee here did for the Jewes Theodoret likewise tells us of a Noble Spirit in one Terentius a Captaine of the Emperour Valens who being returned out of Armenia with a great victory the Emperour bad him aske a reward he asked onely that hee would be pleased to grant to those of the Orthodox Religion one publike Church in Antioch and although the Emperour were angry and tore his Petition and bade him aske something else yet hee persisted in this and refused any other reward for all the service hee had done And Eusebius relates a Noble example of a great Noble man Vetius Epagathus appearing in the cause of the Christians not being able to beare the unjust dealings hee saw against the Christians hee demanded that hee might be heard in defence of the Brethren but all that sate at the Tribunall being against it because hee was a Noble man the President asking him if hee were a Christian hee plainely and publikely confest it and so was taken in amongst the Martyrs being afterwards called The Advocate of Christians Where have wee Noble men now of such free and disingaged spirits to venture themselves in any publike cause for God and their people who should bee free to speake if not you Gallasius upon Exod. 22. 28. sayes of Augustus that he was wont to say that in a free Citie Tongues ought to be free Where should tongues or hearts be free if not in your honourable Assemblies If you would shew your Noble mindes shew the liberty of your spirits sayes Saint Chrysostome Liberty I say the same that that blessed Saint John had from whom Herod heard againe and againe It is not lawfull for you to take your brother Philips wife That liberty also that before him he had that said to Ahab It is not I but you and your Fathers house that troubles Israel Wherefore seeke to get that Nobility of minde which the Prophets had and Apostles had which such as serve riches cannot have for nothing takes away the liberty of the spirit so much as the desire of worldly things thus Chrysostome It is beneath true Noblenesse of spirit to aime at no higher pitch in your desires and endeavours then to provide for your owne ease and safety when publike causes for God and his people call you out to venture your selves Seneca in one of his Epistles speaking of a true raised excellent spirit describes it to be such a one as seekes where it may live most honestly and not most safely Nature hath brought us forth magnanimous sayes hee it hath given us a glorious and lofty spirit what is that seeking where it may live best not where it may be most secure What though you should suffer something it will bee your honour that while you suffer the Church and your Country prospers It was the honour of the Fabii and the Fabritii that they being poore themselves they made the Common-wealth rich Venture you your selves for God and his people and trust God with your honors estates and posterities doe not say you are alone you know not how many you may have to cleave to you if you have a heart to appeare howsoever desolate righteousnesse saith Jerome loseth not her comfort which hath God to be with it that is more then all It was a brave resolution of Luther which we finde in one of his Epistles to Staupitius wherein hee professeth that he had rather be accounted any thing then be accused of wicked silence in Gods cause Let mee be accounted sayes he proud covetous yea a murderer yea guilty of all vices so I bee not proved to be guilty of wicked silence while the Lord and his cause doe suffer And know that the more dishonoured and trampled upon any cause of God is the more he expects that you should appeare for it I have read that among the Persians the left hand is accounted the more honorable place Xenophon reports of Cyrus that those whō he honoured most he placed at his left hand upon this ground because it was most subject to danger hee would have those who were most honourable to stand by him there where he was most weake and lyable to danger Thus where the cause of God is most opposed and most like to suffer there God would have the most noble spirits to stand and to appeare in that and to doe this is truely honourable indeed Who knowes whether you bee raised for such a time as this who knowes whether you have beene preserved from such and such dangers that you have beene in that you might bee reserved as a publike blessing for the Church of God and your Countrey I have read of Philip King of Spaine going from the Low-countries into Spaine by Sea there fell a grievous storme in which almost all the Fleete was wracked many men lost and himselfe hardly escaped he said he was delivered by the singular providence of God that he might live to roote out Lutheranisme which hee presently began to doe this evill use hee made of his great deliverance Some of you have been delivered from great dangers but for a better purpose that you might now be of use to roote out profanenesse Atheisme and superstition and happy are you and happy shall we be in you if it may appeare that you are reserved for this worke of the Lord. Thirdly let all goe rather then bee brought to commit any sinne we had better have all the world cast shame in our faces and upbraid us then that our consciences should cast dirt in them It is better to endure all the frownes and anger of the greatest of the earth then to have an angry conscience within our brest it is better to want all the pleasures that earth can afford then to lose the delights that a good conscience will bring in Oh let the bird in the brest alwayes be kept singing whatsoever we suffer for it it is better to lose all we have then to make ship-wracke of a
way often to come upon wicked men in the very height of all their jollities As wee read of Absalom when hee had a purpose to slay his brother Amnon he bade his servants to observe when they saw his heartmerry and then to fall upon him and slay him When Belshazzar was most in his jollitie then the hand-writing came out against him When the people of Israel had their own desire and were satisfying their lusts to the full Psal 78. 29 30 31. then the wrath of God came upon them Wee read Job 20. 22 23. a threatning against the wicked That in the fulnesse of his sufficiencie hee shall be in straights When hee is about to fill his belly God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him and shall raine it upon him while hee is eating Oh how much better is it that in the fulnesse of our sufficiencie we doe willingly and freely give God glory in an humble yeelding up of all wee have unto him then that in the fulnesse of our sufficiencie wee should be brought into most miserable straights in spight of our hearts and that by the wrath of God himself Oh how grievous a condition is that to be forced by the wrath of God to part with that which wee might have parted withall upon such sweet and honourable termes in the cause of God in testimony to his truth in his service and the expressisions of our dearest Love unto him And howsoever it is not long that you can possibly hold this prosperity that now you do enjoy Suppose the fairest that God should let things go on in an ordinary course of bounty and patience within a little while all the comforts of the world will leave you and you must leave them and what if you did for the cause of God part with them a yeere or two sooner then otherwise you should what great matter is this what is a yeare or two or ten yeeres enjoyment of them there is no such excellencie in them as that a few yeeres enjoyment of them should bee prized at any such high rate Are there not Arguments enough from all Gods love and his mercifull dealings with you to prevaile with your hearts for such a thing as this how hath God spared you in your greatest extremities when you have cryed unto him hee hath beene mercifull to you hee hath watched over you for good all your dayes hee hath done great things for you oh what infinite reason is there then that hee should have the honour of your chiefest delights and greateâ—â— prosperitie How often to gratifie the flesh have many opportunities of spirituall good beene neglected why then should not now for the honour of God some opportunities for fleshly delights bee denyed God never gave you these things upon any other termes but that you should be willing to part with them for the honour of his name wheÌ„ he calleth for them God never made you owners but stewards of them for his service and if ever you were brought to Christ into covenant with God in him you did then resigne up all unto him you professed to part with all for him you sold all for the pearle that is you were willing to part with what was sinfull for the present and as it were enter into bond to give up whatsoever you were or had to the Lord when it should bee called for But may wee not take the comfort of those blessings that God gives us Besides what hath beene said in answer to a former objection of the like nature consider these two things First have you not taken too much comfort already in them it may bee you have taken more then your share more in one moneth then God hath allowed for the whole yeere and then you have spent your comfort afore hand and had neede therefore now bee willing to deny your selfe in that which others may have comfort in and that which otherwise you might comfortably have enjoyed as Hosea 9. 1. Rejoyce not oh Israel as other people so I may say to you you are not to rejoyce so much as others may Hee that hath but a hundred pound to maintaine him the whole yeare if he shall spend almost all of it the first moneth he had neede live very sparingly the rest of the yeare Secondly what doe you with your comfort when you have it doth it fit you for service to God hath God so much the more glory from you then hee hath from others by how much the more comfort you have then others else wherefore would you have comfort if not to fit you for service cursed be that comfort that hath not an higher end then meerely to satisfie the flesh And thus much for the time wherein Moses denyed himselfe it was when he was growne up in the prime of his time then when he might have enjoyed all his honours and pleasures to the full CHAP. IX SECT 3. Faith is the principle that must carry through and make honorable all a Christins sufferings NOw followes the third thing which is the principle by which Moses did all this he is willing to part with all the glory of the world and rather to bee in an afflicted estate and this he is enabled to doe by faith for so saies the text by faith Moses refused c. It was not out of any sullen vexing humour as it is reported of Dioclesian and Maximian Herculius they suddenly gave over their Empires and cast off their honours and betooke themselves to a private life Eusebius makes the cause thereof to be a phrenzie And Nicephorus saies it was rage and madnesse arising from hence because they saw themselves labour so much in vaine for the rooting out of the Christians Master Brightman in his commentary upon the Revelation the sixt chapter and the fifteenth verse sayes it was the feare and the horrour of the Lambe that was struck into their hearts by the power of Iesus Christ as the fulfilling of that place where it is said the Kings of the earth and the great men and the mighty men hid themselves for the feare of the Lambe Whatsoever their principle was Moses his principle here was of another nature a divine principle of faith from whence the point is Faith is the grace that enables to deny the glory and delights of the world and to endure afflictions in the cause of God Every grace workes to take off the heart from the things of the world and gives strength to beare afflictions but faith hath the principall worke in this and in this faith manifests much of her glory and excellency In this chapter we have many excellent fruits of faith enabling the worthies of the Lord to doe great things but scarce any so great as this to enable to that selfe-denyall that here is recorded of Moses It was faith that carried Abraham and all the Patriarkes through their troubles David in all his troubles exercises his faith and findes
while with Paul but at last he for sooke him and embraced this present world Ninthly when a man is acted by his pride there is joyned with his sufferings a desire of revenge hee would if he could return evill for evill and doth as farre as hee dares The heart is enraged against those from whom they doe suffer but those who have Faith to be their principle they commit their cause to God though men curse they blesse they can heartily pray for their persecuters as Christ and Stephen did for theirs The Banner over a gracious heart in all the troubles that befall it is Love and therefore whatsoever the wrongs be that are offered to such there is still a Spirit of Love preserved in it Tenthly if vaine-glory be the principle hee loves to make his sufferings knowne and in the making of them knowne he will aggravate them with all the circumstances he can to make them appeare the more grievous that so hee in the suffering of them may appeare the more glorious It is a good observation that Master Brightman hath upon that expression of Saint John Rev. 1. 9. I was in the I le that is called Patmos he does not say I was banished into the I le by the wicked cruelty and malice of mine enemies No onely thus I was in the I le The humble man rather desires that his sufferings might make God knowne then that himselfe or any others should make his sufferings knowne he desires no further notice should bee taken of them then whereby God may bee glorified in them Lastly a proud man makes his boast of himselfe what he did and how hee answered and what successe hee had whereas the other makes his boast onely of God The boasting in our selves in regard of our services or sufferings makes both us and all that we doe or suffer to be vile and base in the eyes of God and man It is a notable witty expression of Luther by mens boasting of what they have done sayes he haec ego feci haec ego feci I have done this and I have done this they become nothing else but Feces that is dregges Thirdly a man may suffer much likewise from a Naturall conscience where there is no principle of Faith yet this is the best principle of all others next to that of Faith but it may be where there is true sanctifying and saving grace many of the Heathens suffered much in their way of Religion out of the principle of a naturall conscience As Socrates was condemned to be poisoned for opposing the multiplicity of Gods teaching that there was but one God In a way of justice the Naturall Conscience of Fabritius set him so strong against any opposition that it was said of him That you might sooner turne the course of the Sunne then Fabritius from the course of justice Now Naturall Conscience may put a man upon a way of suffering First by the strength of that conviction it hath of some Truths of God of the Equitie of them of that Divine Authoritie that there is in them of the dependance they have upon the prima veritas the first Truth which is God himselfe Secondly Naturall Conscience may be convinced of a greater good that there is in the enjoyment of the peace and quiet of the mind then in the enjoyment of all outward comforts whatsoever and a greater evill in the torment of spirit and miserie that will follow if any thing be done against that light it hath then there is in all evils that the world can inflict Thirdly Naturall Conscience may so urge Truths upon the Soule it may so follow it with importunitie casting feares and terrors into the heart that it will never suffer the Soule to be at quiet in a way of selfe-seeking in any way of providing for the flesh contrarie to that light that God hath set up in it Wherefore although there be not much naturall courage in a man nor seeking vaine-glory from men yet the losse of many comforts and many evils may be suffered out of the power of the light that there is in a Naturall Conscience But there is much difference betweene this kind of suffering and that which comes from a Principle of Faith as thus First where it is onely from a Naturall Conscience the Soule is urged and put on by force of a command but it is not encouraged by it receives not strength from it is not sweetened with the Promise it findes no Promise of the second Covenant at least no abilitie to close with any Promise from whence it receives helpe in the sufferings but where there is a Principle of Faith the Soule findes three sorts of Promises in the Gospel with which it closeth from which it findes much helpe As first the Promises of assistance secondly the Promises of acceptance thirdly the Promises of reward both here and eternally hereafter These Naturall Conscience hath no skill in it puts on a man to suffer but it gives no strength he goeth to it in his owne strength Conscience urgeth the Soule so as it dares not doe otherwise but it doth not assure it that God accepts either of person or performance it lookes to present quiet having nothing to perswade it that it shall at length attaine unto the glorious reward that God hath promised unto those who suffer out of faith for his Name sake Secondly Naturall Conscience doth not make a man glad of that light it hath and the power and activenesse that there is in it that it will not suffer him to be at quiet unlesse he doe denie himselfe in that which is deare unto him if he had not that light which he hath he might enjoy himselfe in his owne way without that trouble and vexation of spirit that now he feeles he therefore opposeth and seekes to extinguish his light rather then to use any meanes to maintaine and cherish it but where there is a Principle of Faith that Soule loves that light it hath and blesseth God for it accounting of it a great mercie and therefore seekes by all meanes to maintaine and encrease it and joynes side with it all he can Thirdly where there is onely a Naturall Conscience such a one is very hardly brought to suffer any thing he seekes to put off the Truth as much as he can that he might not be convinced by it there must be wonderfull cleare evidence that he can by no meanes shift off or else he will never be convinced he will part with nothing unlesse it be wrung from him with great strength of undeniable evidence of the Truth it must so shine upon his face as that he cannot shut his eyes against it but where there is a Principle of Faith it is not so the Soule being willing and readie to yeeld up all it is or hath to God it is as willing to entertaine suffering Truths as any other Psal 18. 44. As soone