their faces with shame and souls with sorrow who have designed nothing but peculiarity of Honour to the Gospel and edification to men by ingaging in that profession after the same manner as some in the Church of Corinth were sometime an humbling to holy Paul by their Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Back-bitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults and other enormities that were among them 2 Cor. 12.20 21. I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved Brethren I warn you 1 Cor. 4.14 lest any of you should cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of as some others have done But ye Beloved if ye have any mind to lift up the head of your way which the weakness of some and wickedness of others in it have caused to hang down and to complain of being fallen into too many ill hands if you have any desire to open mens eyes to see that which you say you see and to commend your cause to their Consciences as that which is of God then labour to outstrip and excel all that dwell about you in humility sobriety meekness patience long-sufferance gentleness goodness injustness and fairness of dealing in love mercy and bounty and in your readiness to every good work For the most of men are sooner perswaded to think well of this or that way which comes forth in the Name of God by the goodness of their behaviour that profess it than by the strength of their Arguments by which they assert it and better understand the plain language of a good life than the subtilties of Disputation Men may talk over their way long enough before they get any ground of men unless the goodness of their cause be made to shine through the goodness of their conversations I nothing doubt but that if the Argument from Life in the Anabaptists as they will needs call us did but as far excel those that are contrary minded as their Argument from Scripture for their way does excel theirs for their way that oppose them there would be but few that truly fear the Lord would be able to hold it out against them But the unhappiness is there is some unlovely thing or other which some that are weak and others that are unworthy lay as a stumbling-block in their way and their eye is so much upon this as that it causes them to suspect there 's somethng worse in the Argument for our way then they can see Sect. 11 Though in the mean while there is not that Christian Candor and Fairness which might well be expected from those who will needs burden the way of our profession it self with the unworthiness and wickedness of some of our profession who are indeed a greater burden unto us than they are an eye-sore unto them Nor do they in this play the part of judicious men as from the strange judgements which have as they say befallen many of our profession to argue the naughtiness of the way and profession it self For would it at all follow that because the sins and abominations that were found among the children of Israel were more and greater than those in Sodom and Samaria Ezek. 16.47 48 51. that therefore the external Form of Worship amongst them and professed by them was not of God Or that because in the Apostles time there was such Wickedness among the Christians as was not so much as named among the Heathen and many walking in pernicious wayes 1 Cor. 5.1 2 Pet. 2.2 that therefore the Christian Religion and Profession was but a delusion Or might they not as well conclude that because such strange and fearful judgements one in the neck of another pursued the Congregation of Israel first and the several primitive Churches after as broke both the one and the other in pieces and left them at last dreadful spectacles of the Lords sore displeasure that therefore the Form of Religion and Worship amongst the one people or the other was not in their respective times and seasons of God but the contrivement of men Would it be worthy wise men thus to argue Or is their arguing against our way from the aforesaid premises of any better import I would pray them to judge I will not deny but that possibly the Judgments of God may have at times pursued many under our Form both particular persons and whole Churches when they have corrupted their waies and turned Religion into meer Form and prided themselves in the Form as if this of it self would exalt them above all others in Gods favour and this is nothing but what I have now been foretelling from Scripture grounds shall yet befall more of them if they bring forth no other fruit to God but leaves But this severity of God against particular persons or Churches that have been under our Form upon the account before specified is so far from being an argument that our Form is not of God that it rather turns to an excellent testimony and amounts to a kind of demonstration that it is of God For by how much the nearer any fort of men have been wont to draw unto God in the Form of his Worship and yet have been tardy in some extravagances or other that have prophaned or brought disgrace upon the way of God professed by them by so much the severer hath the Lord still been found in the way of his proceeding against them When the Lord in an unusual way of Judgement smote Nadab and Abihu Priests of the Lord for their unworthy act this was the account of it Levit. 10.3 This is it that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified Upon which account above fifty thousand of the men of Bethshemesh and Uzza also were handled more roughly for being so bold with the Ark than the Philistines were 1 Sam. 6. 1 Chron. 13. And it s very probable that Annanias and Saphira had never fallen in this world by so severe a stroke as they did for telling a lie had they not made their approach so near to God as they did in the Form of their Profession Acts 5. And in that the Lord was more quick in his Judgements inflicted on Israel and sometimes more severe than he was in his proceedings against the heathen round about it was because their sins were so much the more provoking by how much they were a people nearer to God in Form of Profession and by special obligation then others were Amos 3.2 And when the Lord Christ threatens to spew the Church of Laodicea out of his mouth for her luke-warmness Revel 3.16 he presently adds as many as I love I rebuke and chasten be Zealous therefore and repent vers 19. the nearness of relation hastens the rod. Is it any argument that the Church of Rome is the true Church of Christ Or that the Form of her Worship is of the best kind because she sits so long as a Queen and sees no mourning Or
or as he had said vers 14. to save For that clearly is the sence of Faiths being dead in this place and not its barrenness of good Works Though that 's true likewise that Faiths being dead in another sence i. e. void of spiritual vigour force and power is the cause why it is alone and not accompanied with the goodness of conversation yet here in this place the deadness of Faith is the effect of its being alone and not the cause of it the deadness of Faith proceeds from the absence of Works as here spoken of and not the absence of Works from the deadness of Faith Faith is dead being alone saith he that is because it is alone for so it is plain that its being alone carries the force of a reason why it is dead And therefore Faiths being dead here notes it utter inability to justifie or save which answers the scope of the Apostle which is to convince the carnal professor that his Faith without Works would not save him as is manifest by the fourteenth Verse upon which the following Discourse to the end of the Chapter depends He sayes after Verse 26. That as the body without the spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also In which comparison or similitude as the body answers Faith so the Spirit answers Works and as the absence of the spirit from the body is the cause why the body is dead and does not the service unto which a living man is appointed so the absence of Works from Faith is the cause why Faith is dead and does not him in whom it is the service unto which the true Faith is appointed to wit to justifie or save him that hath it Sect. 4 And here by the way we have clearly set before us the true sence in which Works are necessary to justification as well as Faith and that is as they do qualifie Faith for that Work or Office of justifying unto which God of his meer Grace hath designed it For so is the will of God that though he will so magnifie his grace in the salvation of men as to justifie and save them by Christ upon or upon condition of their believing in him yet hath he therein made such provision to magnifie his holiness and his love of it in his Creature as that he will not confer the grace of Justification upon any other Faith or entitle any other believing unto that attonement which Christ hath made by his blood than such as hath its fruit unto Holiness the end of which will be everlasting life In which sence I conceive it is that Faith is said to be made perfect by Works James 2.22 that is as I understand put into a compleat capacity of attaining its end which is to justifie as a house is then said to be perfected when nothing is wanting in it as to the end and service for which it is built 2 Chron. 8.16 So is Faith when nothing is wanting to it to answer the end whereto it is to serve But now as long as Faith is alone or by it self without Works it is dead as we heard before and so in no capacity to justifie or reach its end Nor does it come under the saving influence of the Promise till it Work by Love that being the only kind of Faith that hath the promise to avail Gal. 5.6 and therefore Works added to Faith as children are added to their Mother being the same thing that makes the difference between that Faith that will justifie and that which will not and which brings that kind of believing under the promise without which all other believing is excluded hence it is I conceive that Works may well and truly be said to perfect Faith as putting it into a right capacity of reaching its end But thus much on the by in this place Sect. 5 As Iames so Iohn opposeth the vain confidence that is built upon the dead Faith 1 Iohn 1.6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth This doubtless he wrote in opposition to some professors of the Christian Faith who though they walked in darkness led lives disagreeing to the light of Christs Doctrine yet said profest and were confident that they had fellowship partnership with God and with his Son Jesus Christ in his Love Saving-mercy and promises of Grace as if as these were Gods to give so they were all theirs to enjoy But as he would take them off their vain confidence in this so he directs them how to be better built in the next Vers 7. saying But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Meaning I suppose that if that perswasion which they had of fellowship with God interest in his Grace Love and Mercy and share in Christs blood were but accompanied with an upright endeavour of purifying themselves as he is pure and of being holy in all manner of conversation as he that had called them is holy which I think is the same thing as to walk in the light as he is in the light then they might be confident indeed that they had fellowship with God in his Grace and Love and share in Christs blood to cleanse them from all sin But otherwise and without this what ever their opinion pretence or confidence was of their good condition they did but lie and falsifie the truth Of which delusion and dangerous deceit he admonisheth the Christians Chap. 3.7 8. saying Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous as he is righteous he that committeth sin is of the Devil By which saying he suggests that there were some amongst them of another opinion and perswasion and that they were in danger of being deceived by them to think that though they did indulge themselves in some sin yet they might be counted and dealt withall as righteous persons as being in Christ and knowing of him as they supposed In opposition to which vain conceit and lying imagination he had said in the verse before Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him The like admonition ministred by Paul to the Ephesians implyeth like danger from men of the same profession Eph. 5.6 Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience .. Implying that there were some among them that were otherwise perswaded than that those unholy wayes from which he had newly before dehorted them would expose them to the wrath of God who trusted in Christ for salvation For of such he prophecied whilst he was yet with them Acts 20.30 That of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things wrested or swerving things to draw away Disciples after them Men professing the same Faith and expecting
same Inheritance But alas If the fore-mentioned steps of Abrahams Faith as troden by his Children do discriminate the Faith of the right kind from that which is of another race how many mens Faith who call Abraham Father will hereby be discovered to be but Bastardly and such as will never make good their title to the Inheritance which God hath promised to Abraham and his spiritual seed Does the Call of God back'd with a Promise by means of Abrahams Faith taking hold of the Promise with one hand and of the Command with the other draw him out of his own Country from his ancient Acquaintance Kindred and Fathers house which otherwise were lawful enjoyments What then shall we think of their Faith who though the Lord give forth Command upon Command back'd with great and precious Promises on purpose to draw men not out of their own Country but out of their ill Company out of their Intemperance and Excess out of their Uncleanness out of their Covetous practices out of their Pride and ridiculous fashions out not only of prophane Swearing and filthy Talking but out of light vain frothy frivolous Discourse and Communication out of their lukewarmness heartlessness and deadness in Religion and yet for all that are not drawn out of these unprofitable sinful and vain wayes unto this day Can any thing be plainer than this That either they have no Faith at all or that the Faith they have is of a bastard kind and such as shall never inherit Both they and their Faith must be judged of by their Works If they were Abrahams Children they would do the Works of Abraham but seeing they do the Works of the Devil they thereby plainly prove themselves to be his Children and not Abrahams as Christ who could not be mistaken hath told them Joh. 8.39.44 These as the unregenerate Jews that lived under the Word and Ordinances of God and yet were not renewed to God by them would needs claim from Abraham but Christ you see hath found them out another Father O that all such would therefore be perswaded now while it is called to day to take fast hold of the Commands of Jesus Christ made very pleasant and acceptable by the huge Promises that are annexed to them which would then certainly draw them out of their vain Conversation Shall Abrahams Faith enable him at Gods Command to offer to him his only and beloved Son Isaac and shall not thine enable thee to part with thy only beloved Lust Doest thou think thou hast more to say why thou shouldest not part with thy sin than Abraham had why he should not part with his Son If not then either cease flattering thy self as if thou wert one of Abrahams Children and Heir to the same Promise or else cease from thy vain and sinful wayes that thou mayest be so indeed CHAP. IX Shewing that it hath been the common and universal Property of the Faith of Gods Elect both in former and latter Ages of the World as well to depend upon and so to be ordered by the counsels commands and directions of God touching the way to life as upon his grace power and promise for life it self and that it is the highest point of Wisdom in men so to do And that mens mistrust of the suparlative goodness of Gods wayes counsels and commands and putting more confidence in their own proceeds from their mistrust of his power wisdom or good-will towards them in relation to their happiness Sect. 1 HAving shewed the nature of Abrahams Faith in the Properties and Effects of it and after what manner it disposed him in his deportment towards God and how the same is set forth as a pattern unto all men of that kind of Faith by which Justification is to be had let us now also take a further view of the same grace of Faith as it hath shewed it self acting its part in other of the Saints alwayes carrying in our eye along with us our own Faith and comparing it with theirs to see whether it affects and acts us as theirs did them as undoubtedly it will if it be of the same nature and kind with theirs For as all men in all Nations and Generations are of one bloud Acts 17.26 so all Saints in all Nations and Generations are in the general of our Faith Ephes 4.5 And as the one hath the same motion and operation in reference to the life Natural in all men so hath the other the same influence and operation in reference to the life Spiritual in all Saints Now then that which hath been in a manner as Natural to the Faith of all the Saints as the motion of the bloud in the veins is to all living men is this viz. To be verily perswaded that as happiness and salvation are assuredly to be had from God so the certain way not to miss of it but to receive it upon his Promise is and hath been still to eye his counsels and to follow the guidance of his directions and commands in all things as the direct way leading thereunto And the truth is for the creature man to be thus acted and steered in his dependance upon his God is the most rational thing under heaven and most connatural to that principle of understanding and light which God hath placed in men For first God by his preventing grace in propounding gracious terms and vouchsafing convenient and sufficient means of salvation unsought for on mans part hath given a plentiful proof and clear demonstration of his love and good-will to men and of his desire of their salvation And then secondly Having so done what is more rational than for men to be fully confident that the Lord will put them upon nothing advise them nothing command them nothing but what doth certainly tend to and perfectly consist with their chief good Will any tender Mother put her dearly beloved Child upon any thing but what tends to his good Or if she should would it not argue either want of Wisdom or of Love in her or both A want of neither of which are in God And then Thirdly If men are or have cause to be confident that God will advise or enjoyn them nothing but what hath a true and real tendency to their salvation which is his design towards them and that which he seeks after Is it not then most reasonable and the greatest wisdom in men to commit themselves to the guidance of God and to acquiess in his wisdom and love As being confident that that being truly followed will lead and bring them to that salvation which God hath offered and they desire and seek after It hath been in this Faith and confidence That the Saints from time to time have sincerely followed God which way soever he hath led them and not been turned out of his way by the greatest dangers or sufferings that could befal them from the hand of men as judging his Will and Counsel made known to them as to be
conceive vouchsafed by the gift of Jesus Christ for all such means and opportunities of grace even unto those that shall perish and so much power and ability of improving those means and opportunities for the end for which God gives them as will discharge the Lord of their condemnation and cast their loss of Salvation wholly upon themselves yet I cannot but fear that many make that ability which God hath given unto the creature on this behalf greater in their own thoughts than it is in it self And I am not without fears too lest the large apprehensions which some have touching the power of the creature and what all men are able to do out of the stock of common grace wherewith God hath prevented them and what others are able to do out of that stock of special grace with which God hath blessed them should have betrayed them into too low and too narrow apprehensions touching the necessity of additional supplies from God for the issueing of common grace into special and for the maintenance activity and growth of special grace it self And there is too much cause to fear also That the largness of manies apprehensions touching what God hath already given in this kind hath contributed much towards the making of their dependance upon God low and little and their applications to him weak and faint for further supplies and consequently their receptions in this kind to amount but to little Which if such a thing be as is too much cause to fear then I am perswaded that this is the true reason why many whose judgements run too much this way are less spiritual are flatter and duller Christians less versed in the Work of God upon the heart whose Religion lies more in matters of a Controversal and Disputable nature or in matters of external Form and Order And while men are busied and taken up with the skirts and borders of Religion and in the mean while neglect their inward and close communion with God and study of their own hearts and their spiritual trade and intercourse with God it 's no marvel if they be found but huskish dry and barren in the power of holiness and experimental part of a Christian For surely the Spirit of God does not take pleasure in this or that opinion which men hold in Religion but as it serves them in bringing them neerer to him and causing them to prize him his grace and presence more and working in them a greater love of his likeness and longing after the power of his grace to conform them to it Nor is the other extream Opinion touching mens being meer Passives in the hand of Grace and that Grace alwayes works it's effects in men in an irresistable way any better friend I conceive to the thriving way of depending upon God for more grace in a due use of what they have alreay received For as the Opinion of mens having more power than they have or that that power which they have is more conducible to the principal end Salvation then indeed it is obstructs their applications to and dependance upon God for what is indeed necessary on this behalf so does an Opinion of having received no power at all freez the Soul and bind up the faculties of it from using and improving that power which it hath from God in seeking of more and consequently deprives them of receiving more or at least of so much more as otherwise they might have Sect. 13 All which I have noted for Caution lest while men are striving who shall approve themselves the greatest friends to the grace of God in point of Opinion they should in the mean while fall short of the powerful and saving effects of it in their own hearts And since the end of all Doctrines and Ordinances in Religion and consequently of every particular Branch Point and Opinion concerning them is to bring men back again to God and to restore them to his likeness and similitude it concerns every man therefore in his holding and managing any matters of Controversie hereabout to be so true to his own and others Souls as thereby to drive on the principal end of all and to steer himself in holding or letting go Opinions as they appear consonant or repugnant to that end CHAP. XI Shewing how Faith worketh by Love both to God and Men. Sect. 1 THere is one property more of Faith which I have had oft occasion to mention but shall now a little further enlarge on and so conclude this part of my Discourse touching the nature of Faith And this quality in Faith is that property of it by which it works by Love which is made the badge and character of that Faith that shall avail men Gal. 5.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love As the Apostle shews that not circumcision but Faith avails men under the Gospel so he shews too what manner of Faith it is that does so namely such as works by love not every Faith that is so called but that Faith which is thus distinguished So that it concerns every one as he desires to have something that will avail him in the sight of God and in the great concernments of his Soul not only to prove himself to be in the Faith but to prove his Faith to be that Faith which will avail him by this operation of it here specified When he sayes that Faith works by love I take it for granted that he means love both to the Lord and unto men for they go together as inseparable companions Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 And he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 4.20 But then the Question will be How Faith works by Love And the Answer is It does so First by working this grace heavenly qualification spiritual affection or principle in the soul and so in the second place disposing the man in whom it is by means of this principle unto a deportment and actions suitable to such an affection And this I would set out in Two things especially Sect. 2 1. First Faith raises this principle of Love in the soul both to God and men by having it self so much to do with the Love of the Lord as indeed it hath For the Love of God and Jesus Christ to poor man is the very element in which Faith lives the food and nourishment upon which it continually feeds the lovely and most beautiful object which it delights continually to behold lodges in the bosome of it and finds no rest but in this bed of Love Faith is wonderfully intent on it exceeding busie with it marvellous curious in its inspections into enquiries about it 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and beleeved the Love that God hath to us And by means of Faiths free frequent familiar and intimate
and procured by the Word there the Word by means of this Faith works effectually to the raising or producing of that love which is the end or design of the Commandement It 's said of some Heb. 4.2 that the word did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it The Word is then said not to profit men when it looses it's end and design of good towards them when it does not work in them and procure from them that frame and disposition of Soul and habit of behaviour which does answer its nature and scope as when the Doctrine of Love is preached to them and yet no such thing is wrought in them But the cause of this disappointment is the not mixing the Word with Faith If men do not verily beleeve it to be a Word from the Lord or that it comes from him upon like or far better termes than hearty counsel from a Friend as both able and faithful to advise and direct upon the best termes for good or if they think themselves and their own good not much concerned in it and the like no marvel if it profit them not if it procure not that complyance from them which should give it an abiding place in the Soul to work there as seed does which is wont to bring forth Fruit according to its kind But where the Word the Doctrine of Love for example is mixed with Faith with respect to the authority power wisdom design of good in the author and the conducibleness of the word it self to the real and substantial happiness and felicity of the person himself in whom this Faith is there it prospers in the thing for which it is sent Sect. 4 Having now thus shewed how Faith works by love by contributing to its being and consequently to its motions and operations and considering that Faiths working by love is the characteristical mark and distinguishing property of that Faith which shall avail men unto salvation let us now put our selves upon the tryal of our Faith and so upon our title to life by this evidence And I will begin with that love which is wrought by Faith to the Lord. Hath then the sight and sence which Faith hath given you of the wonderfulness of the Fathers love and of the Sons love in doing suffering and designing such marvellous things for Persons so unworthy of them and so worthy of what is directly contrary to them as we are as may well astonish the rational part of the whole Creation I say hath the sight and sence of this divine fire of Love kindled upon your souls and caused a heavenly burning of affection to the Lord. Hath the sence which Faith hath given you of his love to you exceedingly endeared your souls by way of return in love to him Hath your Faith opened such a passage for Christs love to come at the Soul as that you can say with the Saints of old The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again 1 Cor. 5 14 15. Hath it such a force and influence upon you in causing you to devote your selves your lives to him as his love to you had upon him in causing him to give his life for you and himself unto you Sect. 5 1. To what degree any Man or Woman loves another to the same degree they are usually wont to be desirous and careful to please them And therefore the Apostle supposeth this to be the natural effect of that conjugal relation and affection that is between Husband and Wife viz. the ones caring to please her Husband and the others caring to please his Wife 1 Cor. 7.33 34. And there 's no doubt but it is so with all those that love the Lord indeed the more they abound in that affection to him the more desirous the more thoughtful and the more careful are they how to please the Lord in every thing they do and in every thing he would have done And therefore the Scripture measures mens love to the Lord by their care to do his commands which are indeed the things that please him 1 John 5.3 For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandements And again John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And verse 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me And again verse 23. If a man love me he will keep my words And yet again verse 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings 1 John 2.5 But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected And therefore when men are not full of thought and care about what will please and what will displease the Lord and desirous and industrious to come at his mind hereabout but are untender and do things at a venture either in his Worship their own calling or in their converse with men not laying it close to the heart to give glory to God in all it argues that things are not yet as they should be with them in their love to the Lord. Sect. 6 2. Again where the Soul by means of Faith hath had a taste of the exceeding sweetness and preciousness of the Lords love 1 Pet. 2.3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious and is thereby brought in love with his love as highly prizing it and the sence of it there the soul will be wonderful fearful of acting or doing any thing that might make any breach between the Lord and it that might offend or grieve him or that should cause him to turn away in displeasure or to hide his face or to with-hold the influences of his quickening and comforting grace And if at any time through want of care and watchfulness such a soul hath been surprized and drawn to speak or act yea though but in the in most parts of the soul that which tends to grieve the Spirit to provoke the Lord and to work any estrangement O what humbling is there what taking of shame what begging crying and earnest intreating that God would passe it by that it might not obstruct the course of their communion with the Lord And if it hath wrought any distance and the Lord hath hereupon withdrawn himself a little O how the poor soul is cast down how earnest in her pursuit after her Beloved that hath withdrawn himself and is gone and how restless till the breach be made up and the Lord hath smiled again upon the soul by some gracious effects of his presence there Such things as these are undoubtedly found in greater or lesser proportion where true and entire love to the Lord hath been raised by Faith in the Soul Ps 51.7 8 9 10 11 12. Cant. 5.2 8. Sect. 7 3. Furthermore to what degree Faith works by Love to
you remain in the same condition until death what judgment you shall have There 's no fear of the Judges awarding of any sentence contrary to Law contrary to the Doctrine of the Scriptures If your cause be good by that you do not need to fear the Judges being made against you if your cause be naught in the account of that there 's no hopes of deceiving or bribing the Judge as your cause is in the eye of the Law so and no otherwise will it be in the sentence of the Judg. And for your ease and accomodation in this great and weighty affair of your Souls and to the end you may not be mistaken in your own cause by mistaking the nature terms and true intent of the rule of your tryal by which you must be justified or condemned ignorance wherein and mistakes whereabout are wonderful dangerous I have in this Book laboured to fit things to your hands by opening the Doctrine of Justification especially in those parts of it that are most liable to mens mistakes and to deliver it from the incombrance of those crooked notions and mis-apprehensions by which men are in danger of making that to become a snare to them which God hath prepared for a Table That therefore to which I exhort you is that you put your selves upon the tryal now before-hand as men who are to run a race or to try masteries otherwise are wont to be proving their ability by a more private running of the Race or enuring of their bodies to other exercise before the day of publick striving for mastery comes Deal faithfully with your own Souls in trying your selves before the Barr of your own Conscience now for the present by that Doctrine of Faith here laid before you The Conscience is as it were Christs Delegate deputed by him to make Judgement by the rule of his Word of a mans spiritual condition in the interim before the solemn Assize and day of publick tryal come And therefore mens thoughts are said in the mean while mark that word in the mean while to accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2.15 that is to justifie or condemn as it finds a man guilty or not guilty according to that rule by which he is to be tryed by Chaist It is true the Conscience does not alwayes make that infallible Judgement in a mans case as Christ himself will do either for want of a right understanding of the rule of Judgement or the true state of a mans cause as being defiled and darkened and the eye of it made dim by too much communion with sinful lusts which it may be have corrupted and bribed it partially to favour the mans cause or at least to be neuteral as not to justifie so not to condemn but to leave things in doubt But to what degree it is truly enlightened in the nature of Christs Law and the nature of a mans cause that is to be tryed by it so far it will and can hardly do otherwise than make the same judgement and determination concerning a mans condition if a man will bring his cause before it as Christ himself will do Otherwise there would not be that ground of spiritual triumph and rejoycing in the verdict of Conscience which was found in Paul and his Christian companions upon that account 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world Sect. 3 The Devil as he makes it his work and business to accuse the very servants of God themselves before God day and night Rev. 12.10 so at certain times and seasons which he watches for on purpose as after some notable slip in the Christian walk or in time of some deep affliction and especially towards the hour of death he will accuse them at the Judgement-seat of their own Consciences and bring their cause to a tryal there to force them if possible to despair of any good issue when they shall come to be tryed before the Lord which he will say hard to if he can but confound and puzzle them in the evidences of their Justification and defence in the Court of their conscience And you shall find still in the issue and upshot that the stress and pinch will lye upon the evidence of the goodness of a mans Faith for if a man be but sure he have a right shield of Faith in the hand of his Soul he will easily be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil Ephes 6.16 If he lay to their charge and set before them the greatness and multitude of the sins and miscarriages which they have been guilty of at times heightened with all the provoking circumstances of aggravation the plea and defence will be that Christ the lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world John 1.29 That the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 That he is the propitiation for our sin and not for ours only but also for the sin of the whole world 1 John 2.2 And that not only few and small offences but even all manner of sin and blasphemy that against the Holy Ghost excepted shall be forgiven unto men Mat. 12.31 If he tell you though that be granted yet it will not follow that therefore your sins are forgiven or that you are actually cleansed by the blood of Christ because though Christ gave himself a ransom for all yet all shall not be saved by him for that wide is the gate broad the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Mat. 7.14 And so put you upon proving your title to the promise of Remission of Sin by his Blood your plea will be your belief in him as that to which the promise of Justification and eternal Salvation is made in whomsoever found John 3.16 Mark 16.16 Acts 16.31 Rom. 3.25 But then its like he will go further with you and argue against you that it does not follow that because you have some Faith in Christ as that he is the Son of God that he dyed was buried and rose again that therefore you are justified and shall be acquitted before the Lord because there is a certain kind of formal feigned and dead Faith which will not save James 2.14 And that Simon Magus did believe though for all that he were in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Acts 8.13 and so did others who for all that were in no very good condition John 2.23 and 12.42 43. If therefore he shall lay to your charge that yours is but a Faith of this sort and kind and consequently that it will not avail you nor render your title to the promise valid you have no other way to deal with him and so defend your selves against this Article of Indictment but by producing such proofs and evidences of the truness goodness