a God is it whom I am bound to serve and who hath taken me into his Covenant as his child How happy are they who have such a God engaged to be their God and Happiness And how miserable are they who make such a God their revenging Judge and enemy Shall I ever again wilfully or carelesly sin against a God of so great Majesty If the Sun were an intellectual Deity and still looked on me should I presumptuously offend him Shall I ever distrust the power of him that made such a world Shall I fear a worm a mortal man above this great and terrible Creator Shall I ever again resist or disobey the word and wisdom of him who made and ruleth such a world Doth he govern the whole world and should not I be governed by him Hath he Goodness enough to communicate as he hath done to Sun and Stars to Heaven and Earth to Angels and Men and every wight and hath he not Goodness enough to draw and engage and continually delight this dull and narrow heart of mine Doth the return of his Sun turn the darksome night into the lightsome day and bring forth the creatures to their food and labour doth its approach revive the torpid earth and turn the congealed winter into the pleasant spring and cover the earth with her fragrant many-coloured Robes and renew the life and joy of the terrestrial inhabitants and shall I find nothing in the God who made and still continueth the world to be the life and strength and pleasure of my soul Psal 66.1 c. Make a joyful noise unto God all ye Lands sing forth the honour of his Name make his praise glorious say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works Come and see the works of God He is terrible in his doing towards the children of men He ruleth by his power for ever his eyes behold the Nations let not the rebellious exalt themselves O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard who holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Psal 86.8 9 10. Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and dost wonderous things thou art God alone Psal 92.5 6. O Lord how great are thy works thy thoughts are very deep a bruitish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this Faith doth not separate it self from natural knowledge nor neglect Gods Works while it studyeth his Word but saith Psal 143.5 I meditate on all thy Works I muse on the work of thy hands Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide Sea c. Nay it is greatly to be noted that as Redemption is to repair the Creation and the Redeemer came to recover the soul of man to his Creator and Christ is the way to the Father so on the Lords day our commemoration of Redemption includeth and is subservient to our commemoration of the Creation and the work of the ancient Sabbath is not shut out but taken in with the proper work of the Lords day and as Faith in Christ is a mediate grace to cause in us the Love of God so the Word of the Redeemer doth not call off our thoughts from the Works of the great Creator but call them back to that employment and fit us for it by reconciling us to God Therefore it is as suitable to the Gospel Church at least as it was to the Jewish to make Gods works the matter of our Sabbath praises and to say as Psal 145.4 5 10. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty and of thy wonderous works And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declare thy greatness All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee Psal 26.6 7. I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compass thine Altar O Lord that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wonderous works Psal 9.12 I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart I will shew forth all thy marvelous works Direct 14. Let Faith also observe God in his daily Providences and equally honour him for the ordinary and the extraordinary passages thereof The upholding of the world is a continual causing of it and differeth from creation as the continued shining of a Candle doth from the first lighting of it If therefore the Creation do wonderfully declare the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God so also doth the conservation And note that Gods ordinary works are as great demonstrations of him in all his perfections as his extraordinary Is it not as great a declaration of the Power of God that he cause the Sun to shine and to keep its wonderous course from age to age as if he did such a thing but for a day or hour and as if he caused it to stand still a day And is it not as great a demonstration of his knowledge also and of his goodness Surely we should take it for as great an act of Love to have plenty and health and joy continued to us as long as we desired it as for an hour Let not then that duration and ordinariness of Gods manifestations to us which is their aggravation be lookt upon as if it were their extenuation But let us admire God in the Sun and Stars in Sea and Land as if this were the first time that ever we had seen them And yet let the extraordinarniess of his works have its effects also Their use is to stir up the drowsie mind of man to see God in that which is unusual who is grown customary and lifeless in observing him in things usual Pharaoh and his Magicians will acknowledge God in those unusual works which they are no way able to imitate themselves and say This is the finger of God Exod. 8.19 And therefore miracles are never to be made light of but the finger of God to be acknowledged in them whoever be the instrument or occasion Luke 11.20 There are frequently also some notable though not miraculous Providences in the changes of the world and in the disposal of all events and particularly of our selves in which a Believer should still see God yea see him as the total cause and take the instruments to be next to nothing and not gaze all at men as unbelievers do but say This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes Psal 118.23 Sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath done marvelous things Psal 98.1 Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well
that they used the method which I now direct you to And if you consider it well you will find that the miracles of Christ himself and all those of his Apostles after him were wrought for the confirmation of Christianity it self immediately and mostly before the particular Epistles or Books were written and therefore were only remotely and consequentially for the confirmation of those Books as such as they proved that the Writers of them were guided by the infallible Spirit in all the proper work of their office of which the writing of the Scriptures was a part 1. Therefore settle your belief of Christianity it self that is of so much as Baptism containeth or importeth This is more easily proved than the truth of every word in the Scriptures because there are controversies about the Canon and the various readings and such like And this is the natural method which Christ and his Spirit have directed us to and the Apostles and the ancient Churches used And when this is first soundly proved to you then you cannot justly take any textual difficulties to be sufficient cause of raising difficulties to your faith in the essentials But you may quietly go on in the strength of faith to clear up all those difficulties by degrees I know you will meet with some who think very highly of their own mistakes and whose unskilfulness in these things is joyned with an equal measure of self conceitedness who will tell you that this method smells of an undervaluing of the Scripture But I would advise you not to depart from the way of Christ and his Apostles and Churches nor to cast your selves upon causeless hinderances in so high a matter as Saving Faith is upon the reverence of the words of any perverted factious wrangler nor to escape the fangs of censorious ignorance We cannot better justifie the holy Scriptures in the true Method than they can in their false one And can better build up when we have laid the right foundation than they can who begin in the middle and omit the foundation and call the superstructure by that name 2. Suspect not all Church-history or Tradition in an extreme opposition to the Papists who cry up a private unproved Tradition of their own They tell us of Apostolical Traditions which their own faction only are the keepâ—rs of and of which no true historical evidence is produced And this they call the Tradition of the Church But we have another sort of Tradition which must not be neglected or rejected unless we will deny humanity and reject Christianity Our Traditio tradens or active Tradition is primarily nothing but the certain history or usage of the universal Christian Church as Baptism the Lords day the Ministry the Church Assemblies and the daily Church exercises which are certain proofs what Religion was then received by them And 2. The Scriptures themselves Our Traditio tradita is nothing else but these two conjunctly 1. The Christian Religion even the Faith then professed and the Worship and Obedience then exercised 2. The Books themselves of the holy Scriptures which contain all this with much more But we are so far from thinking that Apostolical Oral Tradition is a supplement to the Scriptures as being larger than them that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than such Tradition and that we have no certainty by any other than Scriptural Tradition of any more than the common matters of Christianity which all the Churches are agreed in But he that will not believe the most universal practice and history of the Church or world in a matter of fact must in reason much less believe his eye-sight 13. When you have soundly proved your foundation take not every difficult objection which you cannot answer to be a sufficient cause of doubting For if the fundamentals be proved truths you may trust to that proof and be sure that there are waies of solving the seeming inconsistent points though you are not yet acquainted with them There are few Truths so clear which a sophister may not clog with difficulties And there is scarce any man that hath so comprehensive a knowledge of the most certain Truths as to be able to answer all that can be said against it 14. Come not to this study in a melancholy or distracted frame of mind For in such a case you are ordinarily incapable of so great a work as the tryal of the grounds of Faith And therefore must live upon the ground-work before laid and wait for a fitter time to clear it 15. When new doubts arise mark whether they proceed not from the advantage which the tempter findeth in your minds rather than from the difficulty of the thing it self And whether you have not formerly had good satisfaction against the same doubts which now perplex you If so suffer not every discomposure of your minds to become a means of unbelief And suffer not Satan to command you to dispute your faith at his pleasure For if he may chuse the time he may chuse the success Many a man hath cast up a large account well or written a learned Treatise or Position well who cannot clear up all objected difficulties on a sudden nor without Books tell you all that he before wrote especially if he be half drunk or sleepy or in the midst of other thoughts oâ— business 15. When you are once perswaded of the truth of Christianity and the holy Scriptures think not that you need not study it any more because you do already confidently believe it For if your faith be not built on such cogent evidence as will warrant the conclusion whether it be at the present sound or not you know not what change assaults may make upon you as we have known them do on some ancient eminent Professors of the strictest Godliness who have turned from Christ and the belief of immortality Take heed how you understand the common saying of the Schools that Faith differeth from Knowledge in that it hath not Evidence It hath not evidence of sense indeed nor the immediate evidence of things invisible as in themselves but as they are the conclusions which follow the principles which are in themselves more evident It is evident that God is true and we can prove by good evidence that the Christian Verity is his Revelation And therefore it is evident though not immediately in it self that the matter of that word or revelation is true And as Mr. Rich. Hooker truly saith No man indeed believeth beyond the degree of evidence of truth which appeareth to him how confidently soever they may talk I remember that our excellent Vsher answered me to this case as out of Ariminensis that faith hath evidence of Credibility and science hath evidence of Certainty But undoubtedly an evidence of Divine Revelation is evidence of Certainty And all evidence of Divine Credibility is evidence of Certainty though of humane faith and credibility the case be otherwise 16. Yea think not that you have
attestation by the same threefold impress of his Image before described 1. In the holy Wisdom and Light which was in their doctrine 2. In the holy Love and Piety and Purity which was conspicuous in their doctrine and in their lives 3. And in the evidences of divine Power in the many gifts and wonders and miracles which they wrought and manifested And these things seem a fuller testimony than the miracles of Christ himself For Christs miracles were the deeds of one alone and his resurrection was witnessed but by twelve chosen witnesses and about five hundred other persons and he conversed with them but forty daies and that by times But the miracles of the Disciples were wrought by many and before many thousands at several times and in many Countreys and for many and many years together and in the sight and hearing of many of the Churches So that these first Churches had sight and hearing to assure them of the divine miraculous attestation of the truth of their testimony who told them of the doctrines miracles and resurrection of Christ And all this from Christs solemn promise and gift John 14.12 Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father But if it be demanded How did the next Christians of the second age receive all this from the first Churches who received it from the Apostles I answer by the same evidence and with some advantages For 1. They had the credible humane testimony of all their Pastors Neighbours Parents who told them but what they saw and heard 2. They had a greater evidence of natural infallible certainty For 1. The doctrine was now delivered to them in the records of the sacred Scriptures and so less liable to the misreports of the ignorant forgetful or erroneous 2. The reporters were now more numerous and the miracles reported more numerous also 3. They were persons now dispersed over much of the world and could not possibly agree together to deceive 4. The deceit would now have been yet more easily detected and abhorred 3. But besides this they had also the supernatural testimony of God For the Apostles converts received the same spirit as they had themselves And though the miracles of other persons were not so numerous as those of the Apostles yet the persons were many thousands more that wrought them All this is asserted in the Scripture it self as Gal. 3.3 4. 1 Cor. 14. 12. and many places And he that should have told them falsly that they themselves had the spirit of extraordinary gifts and miracles would hardly have been believed by them And all this also the following Ages have themselves asserted unto us The question then which remaineth is How we receive all this infallibly from the subsequent Ages or Churches to this day The answer to which is still by the same way with yet greater advantages in some respects though less in others As 1. We have the humane testimony of all our ancestors and of many of our enemies 2. We have greater evidence of natural certainty that they could not possibly meet or plot together to deceive us 3. We have still the supernatural divine attestation though rarely of miracles yet of those more necessary and noble operations of the Spirit in the sanctification of all true Believers which Spirit accompanieth and worketh by the doctrine which from our ancestors we have received More distinctly observe all these conjunct means of our full reception of our Religion 1. The very Being of the Christians and Churches is a testimony to us that they believed and received this Religion For what maketh them Christians and Churches but the receiving of it 2. The ordinance of Baptism is a notable tradition of it For all that ever were made Christians have been baptized And Baptism is nothing but the solemn initiation of persons into this Religion by a vowed consent to it as summarily there expressed in the Christian Covenant And this was used to be openly done 3. The use of the Creed which at Baptism and other sacred seasons was alwaies wont to be professed together with the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue the summaries of our faith desire and practice is another notable tradition by which this Religion hath been sent down to following Ages For though perhaps all the terms of the Creed were not so early as some think thus constantly used yet all the sense and substance of it was 4. The holy Scriptures or Records of this Religion containing integrally all the doctrine and all the necessary matter of fact is the most compleat way of tradition And it will appear to you in what further shall be said that we have infallible proof that these Scriptures are the same which the first Churches did receive what ever inconsiderable errours may be crept into any Copies by the unavoidable oversight of the Scribes 5. The constant use of the sacred Assemblies hath been another means of sure tradition For we have infallible proof of the successive continuation of such Assemblies and that their use was still the solemn profession of the Christian Faith and worshipping God according to it 6. And the constant use of Reading the Scriptures in those Assemblies is another full historical tradition For that which is constantly and publickly read as the doctrine of their Religion cannot be changed without the notice of all the Church and without an impossible combination of all the Churches in the world 7. And it secureth the tradition that one set day hath been kept for this publick exercise of Religion from the very first even the Lords day besides all occasional times The day it self being appointed to celebrate the memorial of Christs Resurrection is a most currant history of it as the feast of unleavened bread and the Passeover was of the Israelites deliverance from Egypt And the exercises still performed on that day do make the tradition more compleat And because some few Sabbatarians among our selves do keep the old Sabbath only and call still for Scripâ—ure proof for the institution of the Lords day let me briefly tell them that which is enough to evince their errour 1. That the Apostles were Officers immediately commissioned by Christ to disciple the Nations and to teach them all that Christ commanded and so to settle Orders in the Church Mat. 28.19 20 21. Acts 15. c. 2. That Christ promised and gave them his Spirit infallibly to guide them in the performance of this commission though not to make them perfectly impeccable John 16.13 3. That de facto the Apostles appointed the use of the Lords day for the Church Assemblies This being all that is left to be proved and this being matter of fact which requireth no other kind of proof but history part of the history of it is in the Scripture and the rest in the history of all following Ages In
the Scripture it self it is evident that the Churches and the Apostles used this day accordingly And it hath most infallible history impossible to be false that the Churches have used it ever to this day as that which they found practised in their times by their appointment And this is not a bare narrative but an uninterrupted matter of publick fact and practice So universal that I remember not in all my reading that ever one enemy questioned it or ever one Christian or Heretick denyed or once scrupled it So that they who tell us that all this is yet but humane testimony do shew their egregious inconsiderations that know not that such humane testimony or history in a matter of publick constant fact may be most certain and all that the nature of the case will allow a sober person to require And they might as well reject the Canon of the Scriptures because humane testimony is it which in point of fact doth certifie us that these are the very unaltered Canonical Books which were delivered at first to the Churches Yea they may reject all the store of historical tradition of Christianity it self which I am here reciting to the shame of their understandings And consider also that the Lords day was settled and constantly used in solemn worship by the Churches many and many years before any part of the New Testament was written and above threescore years before it was finished And when the Churches had so many years been in publick possession of it who would require that the Scriptures should after all make a Law to institute that which was instituted so long ago If you say that it might have declared the institution I answer so it hath as I have shewed there needing no other declaration but 1. Christs commission to the Apostles to order the Church and declare his commands 2. And his promise of infallible guidance therein 3. And the history of the Churches order and practice to shew de facto what they did And that history need not be written in Scripture for the Churches that then were no more than we need a revelation from Heaven to tell us thas the Lords day is kept in England And sure the next Age needed no supernatural testimony of it and therefore neither do we But yet it is occasionally oft intimated or expressed in the Scripture though on the by as that which was no further necessary So that I may well conclude that we have better historical evidence that the Lords day was actually observed by the Churches for their publick worship and profession of the Christian Faith than we have that ever there was such a man as William the Conquerour in England yea or King James much more than that there was a Caesar or Cicero 8. Moreover the very Office of the Pastors of the Church and their continuance from the beginning to this day is a great part of the certain tradition of this Religion For it is most certain that the Churches were constituted and the Assemblies held and the worship performed with them and by their conduct and not without And it is certain by infallible history that their office hath been still the same even to teach men this Christian Religion and to guide them in the practice of it and to read the same Scriptures as the word of truth and to explain it to the people And therefore as the Judicatures and Offices of the Judges is a certain proof that there have been those Laws by which they judge especially if they had been also the weekly publick Readers and Expounders of them and so much more is it in our case 9. And the constant use of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ hath according to his appointment been an infallible tradition of his Covenant and a means to keep him in remembrance in the Churches For when all the Churches in the world have made this Sacramental Commemoration and renewed covenanting with Christ as dead and risen to be their constant publick practice here is a tradition of that faith and Covenant which cannot be counterfeit or false 10. To this we may add the constant use of Discipline in these Churches it having been their constant law and practice to enquire into the faith and lives of the members and to censure or cast out those that impenitently violated their Religion which sheweth that de facto that Faith and Religion was then received and is a means of delivering it down to us Under which we may mention 1. Their Synods and Officers 2. And their Canons by which this Discipline was exercised 11. Another tradition hath been the published confessions of their Faith and Râ—lâ—gâ—on in those Apologies which persecutions and calumnies have caused them to write 12. And another is all those published Confutations of the many heresies which in every age have risen up and all the controversies which the Churches have had with them and among themselves 13. And another is all the Treatises Sermons and other instructing writings of the Pastors of those times 14 And another way of tradition hath been by the testimony and sufferings of Confessors and Martyrs who have endured either torments or death in the defence and owning of this Religion In all which waies of tradition the doctrine and the matter were joyntly attested by them For the Resurrection of Christ which is part of the matter of fact was one of the Articles of their Creed which they suffered for And all of them received the holy Scriptures which declare the Apostles miracles and they received their faith as delivered by those Apostles with the confirmation of those miracles So that when they professed to believe the doctrine they especially professed to believe the history of the life and death of Christ and of his Apostles And the Religion which they suffered for and daily professed contained both And the historical Books called the Gospels were the chief part of the Scripture which they called The Word of God and the Records of the Christian Religion 15. To this I may add that all the ordinary prayers and praises of the Churches did continue the recital of much of this history and of the Apostles names and acts and were composed much in Scripture phrase which preserved the memory and professed the belief of all those things 16. And the festivals or other dayes which were kept in honourable commemoration of those Apostles and Martyrs was another way of keeping these things in memory Whether it were well done or not is not my present enquiry only I may say I cannot accuse it of any sin till it come to over-doing and ascribing too much to them But certainly it was a way of transmitting the memory of those things to posterity 17. Another hath been by the constant commemoration of the great works of Christ by the dayes or seasons of the year which were annually observed How far here also the Church did well or ill I now meddle
will not let man know it also and turn one sin against another and let the love of Reputation help to subdue the love of Lust Opening a sin yea or a strong temptation to a sin doth lay an engagement in point of common credit in the world upon them that were before under the divine engagements only It will be a double shame to sin when once it 's known And as Christ speaketh of a right hand or eye so may I of your honour in this case it is better go to Heaven with the shame of a penitent confession than to keep your honour till you are in Hell The loss of mens good opinion is an easie price to prevent the loss of your salvation Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy So 1 John 1.9 10. James 5.15 16. Direct 14. Especially take heed of heinous sins called mortal because inconsistent with sincerity Direct 15. And take heed of those sins which your selves or others that fear God are in greatest danger of Of which I will speak a little more distinctly CHAP. XIII What sins the best should most watchfully avoid and wherein the infirmities of the upright dâ—ffer from mortal sins Qâ—est WHat sins are religious people who fear sin most in danger of and where must they set the strongest watch Answ 1. They are much in danger of those sins the temptations to which are neer and importunate and constant and for which they have the greatest opportunities They have senses and appetites as well as others And if the bait be great and alwaies as at their very mouths even a David a Solomon a Noah is not safe 2. They are in danger of those sins which they little think of for it is a sign that they are not forewarned and fortified nor have they overcome that sin for victory here is never got at so cheap a rate especially as to inward sins If it have not cost you many a groan and many a daies diligence to conquer selfishness pride and appetite it 's twenty to one they are not conquered 3. They are much in danger of those sins which they extenuate and count to be smaller than they are For indeed their hearts are infected already by those false and favourable thoughts And they are prepared to entertain a neerer familiarity with them Men are easily tempted upon a danger which seemeth small 4. They are much in danger of those sins which their constitutions and temperature of body doth encline them to and therefore must here keep a double watch No small part of the punishment of our Original sin both as from Adam and from our neerest Parents is found in the ill complexion of our bodies The temperature of some inclineth them vehemently to passion and of others unto lust and of others to sloth and dulness and of others to gulosity c. And grace doth not immediately change this distemper of the complexion but only watch over it and keep it under and abate it consequently by contrary actions and mental dispositions Therefore we shall have here uncessant work while we are in the body Though yet the power of grace by long and faithful use will bring the very sense and imagination and passions into so much calmness as to be far less raging and easily ruled As a well ridden horse will obey the Rider and even dogs and other bruits will strive but little against our government And then our work will grow more easie For as Seneca saith Maxima pars libertatis est bene moratus venter A good conditioned belly is a great part of a mans liberty meaning an ill conditioned belly is a great part of mens slavery And the same may be said of all the senses fantasie and passions in their respective places 5. We are much in danger of the sins which our callings trades and worldly interest do most and constantly tempt us to Every man hath a carnal interest which is his great temptation and every wise man will know it and there set a double watch The carnal interest of a Preacher is applause or preferment The carnal interest of Rulers and great men I shall pass by but they must not pass it by themselves The carnal interest of Lawyers and Tradesmen is their gain c. Here we must keep a constant watch 6. We are much in danger of those sins the matter of which is somewhat good or lawful and the danger lyeth only in the manner circumstances or degree For there the lawfulness of the matter occasioneth men to forget the accidental evil The whole Kingdom feeleth the mischief of this in instances which I will now pass by If eating such or such a meat were not lawful it self men would not be so easily drawn to gluttony If drinking wine were not a lawful thing the passage to drunkenness were not so open The apprehension that a lusory lot is a lawful thing as Cards Dâ—ce c. doth occasion the heinous sin of time-wasting and estate-wasting gamesters If apparel were not lawful excess would not be so easily endured Yea the goodness of Gods own Worship quieteth many in its great abuse 7. We are much in danger of those sins which are not in any great disgrace among those persons whom we most honour and esteem It is a great mercy to have sin lie under a common odium and disgrace As swearing and drunkenness and cursing and fornication and Popish errours and superstition is now amongst the forwardest Professors in England For here conscience is most awakened and helped by the opinion of men or if there be some carnal respect to our reputation in it sometimes yet it tendeth to suppress the sin And it is a great plague to live where any great sin is in little disgrace as the prophanation of the Lords day in most of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and they say tipling if not drunkenness in Germany and as backbiting and evil speaking against those that differ from them is among the Professors in England for too great a part and also many superstitions of their own and dividing principles and practices 8. But especially if the greater number of godly people live in such a sin then is the temptation great indeed and it is but few of the weaker sort that are not carryed down that stream The Munster case and the Rebellion in which Munster perished in Germany and many other but especially abundance of Schisms from the Apostles daies till now are too great evidences of mens sociableness in sinning We all like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own way Isa 53 6. And like sheepâ—n â—n this that if one that is leading get over the hedge all the rest will follow after but especially if the greater part be gone And do not think that our Churches are infallible and that the greater part of the godly cannot erre or be in the wrong For that would
your honours and attendance Is a day that is spent or a life that is â—xtinct any thing or nothing Is there any sweetness in a feast that was eaten or drink that was drunk or time that was spent in sports and mirth a year ago Certainly a known vanity should not be preferred before a probable endless joy But when we have certainty as well as excellency and eternity to set against certain transitory vanity what room is left for further deliberation whether we should prefer the Sun before a squib or a flash of lightening that suddenly leaves us in the dark one would think should be an easie question to resolve Up then and work while it is day and let us run and strive with all our might Heaven is at hand as sure as if you saw it You are certain you can be no losers by the choice You part with nothing for all things you escape the tearing of your heart by submitting to the scratching of a bryer You that will bear the opening of a vein for the cure of a Feaver and will not forbear a necessary Journey for the barking of a Dog or the blowing of the wind O leap not into Hell to scape the stinking breath of a scorner Part not with God with Conscience and with Heaven to save your purses or your flesh Chuse not a merry way to misery before a prudent sober preparation for a perfect everlasting joy You would not prefer a merry cup before a Kingdom You would let go a lâ—sser delight or commodity for a greater here Thus a greater sin can forbid the exercise of a less And shall not endless joy weigh down a brutish lust or pleasure If you love pleasure take that which is true and full and durable For all that he calleth you to Repentance and Mortification and necessary strictness there is none that 's more for your pleasure and delight than God or else he would not offer you the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand nor himself to be your perpetual delight If you come into a room where are variety of pictures and one is gravely reading or meditating and another with a cup or harlot in his hand is profusely laughing with a gaping grining mouth would you take the latter or the former to be the picture of a wise and happy man Do you approve of the state of those in Heaven and do you like the way that brought them thither If not why speak you of them so honourably and why would you keep holy-daies in remembrance of them If you do examine the sacred records and see whether the Apostles and others that are now honoured as glorified Saints did live as you do or rather as those that you think are too precise Did they spend the day in feasting and sports and idle talk Did they swagger it out in pride and wealth hate their brethren that were not in all things of their conceits Did they come to Heaven by a worldly formal hypocritical ceremonious Religion or by faith and love and self-denial and unwearied labouring for their own and other mens salvation while they became the wonder and the scorn of the ungodly and as the off-scouring and refuse of the world Do you like holiness when it is for from you in a dead man that never troubled you with his presence or reproofs or in a Saint in Heaven that comes not near you Why then do you not like it for your selves If it be good the nearer the better Your own health and your own wealth do comfort you more than another mans And so would your own holiness if you had it If you would speed as they that are now beholding the face of God believe and live and wait as they did And as the righteous God did not forget their work and labour of love for his Name so he will remember you with the same reward if you shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.10 11 12. O did you but see what they now enjoy and what they see and what they are and what they do you would never sure scorn or persecute a Saint more If you believe you see though not as they with open face If you believe not yet it is not your unbelief that shall make Gods Word of none effect Rom. 3.3 God will be God if you be Atheists Christ will be Christ if you be Infidels Heaven will be Heaven if you by despising it go to Hell Judgement sleepeth not when you sleep I'ts coming as fast when you laugh at it or question it as if your eyes were open to foresee it If you would not believe that you must die do you think that this would delay your death one year or hour If ten or twenty years time more be allotted you it passeth as swiftly and death and judgement come as surely if you spend it in voluptuousness and unbelief as if you watcht and waited for your change We preach not to you Ifs and And 's It is not perhaps there is a Heaven and Hell But as sure as you are here and must anon go hence you must as shortly quit this world and take up your abode in the world that 's now to us invisible And no tongue can express how sensible you will then be of the things that you will not now be made sensible of O then with what a dreadful view will you look before you and behind you Behind you upon Time and say It is gone and never will return and hear conscience ask you How you spent it and what you did with it Before you upon Eternâ—ty and say It is come and to the ungodly will be an Eternity of woe What a peal will conscience then ring in the unbelievers ears Now the day is come that I was forewarned of the day and change which I would not believe whither must I now go what must I now do what shall I say before the Lord for all the sin that I have wilfully committed for all the time of mercy which I lost How shall I answer my contempt of Christ my neglect of means and enmity to a holy serious life What a distracted wretch was I to condemn and dislike them that spent their lives in preparation for this day when now I would give a thousand worlds to be but one of the meanest of them O that the Church doors and the door of grace were open to me now as once they were when I refused to enter Many a time did I hear of this day and would not believe or soberly consider of it Many a time was I intreated to prepare and I thought an hypocritical trifling shew would have been taken for a sufficient prepâ—â—â—tion Now who must be my companions How long must I dwell with woe and horrour God by his Ministers was wont to call to
work on earth And that some should do the extraordinary work in laying the foundation and leaving a certain Rule and Order to the rest and that the rest should proceed to build hereupon and that the wisest and the best of men should be the Teachers and Guides of the rest unto the end 24. And how necessary was it that our Sun in glory should continually send down his beams and influence on the earth even the Spirit of the Father to be his constant Agent here below and to plead his cause and do his work on the hearts of men and that the Apostles who were to found the Church should have that Spirit in so conspicuous a degree and for such various works of Wonder and Power as might suffice to confirm their testimony to the world And that all others as well as they to the end should have the Spirit for those works of Love and Renovation which are necessary to their own obedience and salvation 25. How wisely it is ordered that he who is our King is Lord of all and able to defend his Church and to repress his proudest enemies 26. And also that he should be our final Judge who was our Saviour and Law-giver and made and sealed that Covenant of Grace by which we must be judged That Judgement may not be over dreadful but rather desirable to his faithful servants who shall openly be justified by him before all 27. How wisely hath God ordered it that when death is naturally so terrible to man we should have a Saviour that went that way before us and was once dead but now liveth and is where we must be and hath the keyes of death and Heaven that we may boldly go forth as to his presence and to the innumerable perfected spirits of the just and may commend our souls to the hands of our Redeemer and our Head 28. As also that this should be plainly revealed and that the Scriptures are written in a method and manner fit for all even for the meanest and that Ministers be commanded to open it and apply it by translation exposition and earnest exhortation that the remedy may be suited to the nature and extent of the disease And yet that there be some depths to keep presumptuous daring wits at a distance and to humble them and to exercise our diligence 29. As also that the life of faith and holiness should have much opposition in the world that its glory and excellency might the more appear partly by the presence of its contraries and partly by its exercise and victories in its tryals and that the godly may have use for patience and fortitude and every grace and may be kept the easilier from loving the world and taught the more to desire the presence of their Lord. 30. Lastly And how wisely is it ordered that God in Heaven from whom all cometh should be the end of all his graces and our duties and that himself alone should be our home and happiness and that as we are made by him and for him so we should live with him to his praise and in his love for ever And that there as we shall have both glorified souls and bodies so both might have a suitable glory and that our glorified Redeemer might there be in part the Mediatour of our fruition as here he was the Mediatour of acquisition I have recited hastily a few of the parts of this wondrous frame to shew you that if you saw them all and that in theâ—r true order and method you might not think strange that Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Ephes 2.11 which was the first part of Gods Image upon the Christian Religion which I was to shew you But besides all this the WISDOM of God is expressed in the holy Scriptures thesâ— several waies 1. In the Revelation of things past which could not be known by any mortal man As the Creation of the world and what was therein done before man himself was made Which experience it self doth help us to believe because we see exceeding great probabilities that the world was not eternal nor of any longer duration than the Scriptures mention in that no place on earth hath any true monument of ancienter original and in that humane Sciences and Arts are yet so imperfect and such important additions are made but of late 2. In the Revelation of things distant out of the reach of mans discovery So Scripture History and Prophecy do frequently speak of preparations and actions of Princes and people afar of 3. In the Revelation of the secrets of mens hearts As Elisha told Gebeâ—i what he did at a distance Christ told Nathaniel what he said and where So frequently Christ told the Jews and his Disciples what they thought and shewed that he knew the heart of man To which we may add the searching power of the Word of God which doth so notably rip up the secrets of mens corruptions and may shew all mens hearts unto themselves 4. In the Revelation of contingent things to come which is most frequent in the Prophecies and Promises of the Scripture not only in the Old Testament as Daniel c. but also in the Gospel When Christ foretelleth his death and resurrection and the usage and successes of his Apostles and promiseth them the miraculous gifts of the Spirit and foretold Peters thrice denying him and foretold the grievous destrâ—ction of Jerusalem with other such like clear predictions 5. But nothing of all these predictions doth shine so clearly to our selves as those great Promises of Christ which are fulfilled to our selves in all generations Even the Promises and Prophetical descriptions of the great work of Conversion Regeneration or Sanctification upon mens souls which is wrought in all Ages just according to the delineations of it in the world All the humblings the repentings the desires the faith the joyes the prayers and the answers of them which were foretold and was found in the first Believers are performed and given to all true Christians to this day To which may be added all the Prophecies of the extent of the Church of the conversion of the Kingdoms of the world to Christ and of the oppositions of the ungodly fort thereto and of the persecutions of the followers of Christ which are all fulfilled 6. The WISDOM of God also is clearly manifested in the concatenation or harmony of all these Revelations Not only that there is no real contradiction between them but that they all conjunctly compose one entire frame As the age of man goeth on from infancy to maturity and nature fitteth her endowments and provisions accordingly to each degree so hath the Church proceeded from its infancy and so have the Revelations of God been suited to its several times Christ who was promised to Adam and the Fathers before Moses for the first two thousand years and signified by their Sacrifices was
not But doubtless the observing of anniversary solemnities for their commemoration was a way of preserving the memory of the acts themselves to posterity How long the day of Christs Nativity hath been celebrated I know not Reading what Selden hath said on one side and on the other finding no currant Author mention it that I have read before Nazianzene and finding by Chrysostome that the Churches of the East till his time had differed from the Western Churches as far as the sixth of January is from the 25 of December But that is of less moment because Christs birth is a thing unquestioned in it self But we find that the time of his fasting forty daies the time of his Passion and of his Resurrection and the giving of the Holy Ghost were long before kept in memory by some kind of observation by faâ—ts or festivals And though there was a controversie about the due season of the successive observation of Easter yet that signified no uncertainty of the first day or the season of the year And though at first it was but few daies that were kept in fasting at that season yet they were enough to commemorate both the forty daies fasting and the death of Christ 18. And the histories of the Heathens and enemies of the Church do also declare how long Christianity continued and what they were and what they suffered who were called Christians such as Plinies Celsus Porphyry Plotinus Lucian Suâ—tonius and others 19. And the constant instruction of Children by their Parents which is Family-tradition hath been a very great means also of this commemoration For it cannot be though some be negligent but that multitudes in all times would teach their children what the Christian Religion was as to its doctrine and its history And the practice of catechizing and teaching children the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue and the Scriptures the more secured this tradition in families 20. Lastly A succession of the same Spirit which was in the Apostles and of much of the same works which were done by them was such a way of assuring us of the truth of their doctrine and history as a succession of posterity teleth us that our progenitors were men The same spirit of Wisdom and Goodness in a great degree continued after them to this day And all wrought by their doctrine and very credible history assureth us that many miracles also were done in many ages after them though not so many as by them Eusebius Cyprian Augustine Victor Vlicensis Sulpitius Severus and many others shew us so much as may make the belief of the Apostles the more easie And indeed the Image of Gods WISDOM GOODNESS and POWER on the souls of all true Christians in the world successively to this day considered in it self and in its agreement with the same Image in the holy Scriptures which do imprint it and in its agreement or sameness as found in all Ages Nations and Persons is such a standing perpetual evidence that the Christian Religion is Divine that being still at hand it should be exceeding satisfactory to a considerate Believer against all doubts and temptations to unbelief And were it not lest I should instead of an Index give you too large a recital of what I have more fully written in my foresaid Treatise I would here stay yet to shew you how impossible it is that this Spirit of Holiness which we feel in us and see by the effects in others even in every true Believer should be caused by a word of falshood which he abhorreth and as the Just Ruler of the world would be obliged to disown I shall only here desire you by the way to note that when I have all this while shewed you that the SPIRIT is the great witness of the truth of Christianity that it is this spirit of Wisdom Goodness and Power in the Prophets in Christ in the Apostles and in all Christians expressed in the doctrine and the practices aforesaid which I mean as being principally the Evidences or objective witness of Jesus Christ and secondarily being in all true Believers their teacher or illuminater and sanctifier efficiently to cause them to perceive the aforesaid objective Evidences in its cogent undeniable power And thus the Holy Ghost is the promised Agent or Advocate of Christ to do his work in his bodily absence in the world And that in this sense it is that we Believe in the HOLY GHOST and are baptized into his Name and not only as he is the third person in the Eternal Trinity And therefore it is to be lamented exceedingly 1. That any Orthodox Teachers should recite over many of these parts of the witness of the SPIRIT and when they have done tell us that yet all these are not sufficient to convince us without the testimony of the Spirit As if all this were none of the testimony of the Spirit and as if they would perswade us and our enemies that the testimony which must satisfie us is only some inward impress of this Proposition on the mind by way of inspiration The Scriptures are the Word of God and true Overlooking the great witness of the Spirit which is his special work and which our Baptism relateth to and feigning some extraordinary new thing as the only testimony And it is to be lamented that Papists and quarrelling Sectaries should take this occasion to reproach us as Infidels that have no true grounded faith in Christ as telling us that we resolve it all into a private inward pretended witness of the Spirit And then they ask us who can know that witness but our selves and how can we preach the Gospel to others if the only cogent argument of faith be incommunicable or such as we cannot prove Though both the Believing soul and the Church be the Kingdom of the Prince of Light yet O what wrong hath the Prince of Darkness done by the mixtures of darkness in them both So much for the first Direction for the strengthening of Faith which is by discerning the Evidences of Truth in our Religion CHAP. VIII The rest of the Directions for strengthening our Faith I Shall be more brief in the rest of the Directions for the increase of Faith and they are these Direct 2. Compare the Christian Religion with all other in the world And seeing it is certain that some way or other God hath revealed to guide man in his duty unto his end and it is no other you will see that it must needs be this 1. The way of the Heathenish Idolaters cannot be it The principles and the effects of their Religion may easily satisfie you of this The only true God would not command Idolatry nor befriend such ignorance errour and wickedness as doth constitute their Religion and are produced by it as its genuine fruits 2. The way of Judaism cannot be it For it doth but lead us up to Christianity and bear witness to Christ and of it self is evidently insufficient its
Gods Love And so the gift of the Spirit of Miracles and Infallibility for writing and confirming Scriptures was promised to the first age which is not promised to us Direct 17. Take not any good mans observation in those times for an universal promise of God For instance David saith Psal 73. I have been young and now am old yet did I never see the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread But if he had lived in Gospel times where God giveth greater heavenly blessings and comforts and calleth men to higher degrees of patience and mortification and contempt of the world he might have seen many both of the righteous and their seed begging their bread though not forsaken yea Christ himself asking for water of a woman John 4. Direct 18. Take heed of making promises to seem instead of precepts as if you were to do that your selves which God hath promised that he will do If God promise to deliver his Church or to free any of his servants from trouble or persecution you must have a precept to tell you what is your own duty and what means you must use before you mâ—st attempt your own deliverance What God will do is one thing and what you must do is another This hath been the strange delusion of the people that call themselves the Fifth-Monarchy men in our times who believing that Christ will set up righteousness and pull down Tyrants in the earth have thought that therefore they must do it by arms and so have been drawn into many rebellions to the scandal of others and their own ruine Direct 19. Take heed of mistaking Prophecies for Promises especially dark Prophecies not understood Many things are foretold by God in Prophecies which are mens sins Herod and Pontius Pilate and the people of the Jews fulfilled Prophecies in the crucifying of Christ and all the persecutors and muderers of the Saints fulfil Christs Prophecies and so do all that hate us And say all manner of evil falsly against us for his sake Mat. 5.11 12. But the sin is never the less for that It is prophesied that the ten Kings shall give up their Kingdoms to the beast that in the last daies shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts and in the last daies shall be perilous times c. These are not Promises nor Precepts It hath lamentably disturbed the Church of Christ when ignorant self-conceited Christians who see not the difficulty grow confident that they understand many Prophecies in Daniel the Revelations c. and thereupon found their presumption miscalled faith upon their own mistakes and then form their prayers their communion their practice into such schism and sedition and uncharitable waies as the interest of their opinions do require as the Millenaries before mentioned have done in this generation Direct 20. Think not that all Gods Promises are made to meer sincerity and that every true Christian must be freed from all penal hurt however they behave themselves For there are further helps of the Spirit which are promised only to our diligence in attending the Spirit and to the degrees of industry and fervour and fidelity in watching praying striving and other use of means And there are heavy chastisements which God threatneth to the godly when they misbehave themselves Especially the hiding of his face and with-holding any measure of his Spirit The Scripture is full of such threatnings and instances Direct 21. Much less may you imagine that God hath made any Promise that all the sins of true Believers shall work together for their good They misexpound Rom. 8.28 who so expound it as I have elsewhere shewed For 1. The context confirmeth it to sufferings 2. The qualification added to them that love God doth shew that the abatement of love to God is none of the things meant that shall work our good 3. And it sheweth that it is Love as Love and therefore not the least that is consistent with neglect and sin which is our full condition 4. Experience telleth us that too many true Christians may fall from some degrees of grace and the Love of God and die in a less degree than they once had and that less of holiness doth not work for their good 5. And it is not a thing suitable to all the rest of Gods method in the Scriptures that he should assure all beforehand that all their sins shall work for their good That he should command obedience so strictly and promise rewards so liberally and threaten punishment so terribly and give such frightful examples as Solomons Davids and others are and at the same time say Whatever sin thou committest inwardly or outwardly by neglecting my Love and Grace and Spirit by loving the world by pleasing the flesh as David did c. it shall all be turned to do thee more good than hurt This is not a suitable means to men in our case to keep them from sin nor to cause their perseverance Direct 22. Vnderstand well what Promises are universal to all Bâ—lievers and what are but particular and proper to some few There are many particular Promises in Scripture made by name to Noah to Abraham to Moses to Aaron to David to Solomon to Hezekiah to Christ to Peter to Paul c. which we cannot say are made to us Therefore the Covenant of Grace which is the Vniversal Promise 〈◊〉 especially be made the ground of our faith and all other as they are branches and appurtenances of that and have in the Scripture some true signification that they indeed extend to us For if we should believe that every Promise made to any Saint of God as Hannah Sarah Rebecca Elizabeth Mary c. do belong to us we should abuse our selves and God And yet to us they have their use Direct 23. It is of very great importance to understand what Promises are absolute and which are suspended upon any condition to be performed by us and what each of those conditions it As the Promise to the Fathers that the Messiah should come was absolute God gâ—ve not a Saviour to the world so as to suspend his coming on any thing to be done by man The not drowning of the world was an absolute Promise made to Noah so was the calling of the Gentiles promised But the Covenant of Promises sealed in Baptism is conditional and therefore both parties God and man are the Covenanters therein And in the Gospel the Promises of our first Justification and Adoption and of our after pardon and of our Justification at Judgement and of our additional degrees of grace and of our freedom from chastisements have some difference in the conditions though true Christianity be the main substance of them all Meer Christianity or true consent to the Covenant is the condition of our first Justification And the continuance of this with actual sincere obedience is the condition of non-omission or of continuance of this state of Jâ—stification And the use of prayer and other