were common between them And in the next succeeding Ages this fraternal Love was so conspicuous in the Professors of his Sacred Discipline Tert. Apoâ— c. 3â— that their Enemies observ'd it as a rare and remarkable thing See how the Christians love one another see how ready they are to die for one another Now the same gracious Principle that inclines us to do one Command will make us universally willing to observe all for sincere Obedience primarily respects the Authority of the Lawgiver which binds the whole Law upon the Conscience James 2. And as he that breaks the Law wilfully in one point is guilty of all because the violation of a single Precept proceeds from the same Cause that induces men to transgress all that is contempt of the Divine Majesty so he that sincerely obeys one Command does with consent of heart and serious endeavors obey all And from hence 't is clear that without a religious and unreserved regard of the divine Commands 't is impossible there should be in any person a gracious affection to the Saints that is the product of Obedience to God and consequently the observance of his Precepts is the certain proof of our Love to his Children 2. Spiritual Love to the Saints arises from the sight of the Divine Image appearing in their Conversation Now if the Beauty of Holiness be the attractive of our Love it will be fastned on the Law of God in the most intense degree The most excellent Saints on Earth have some mixtures of Corruption their Holiness is like the Morning-light that is checquered with the shadows and obscurity of the Night and 't is our wisdom not to love their infirmities but to preserve an unstained affection to them But the Law of God is the fairest Transcript of his Nature wherein his glorious Holiness is most resplendent Psa 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes This ravish'd the heart of David with an inexpressible Affection O how I love thy Law Psal 119. it is my Meditation all the day And he repeats the declaration of his Love to it with new fervor upon this ground I love thy Law because it is pure Now Love to the Commands of God will transcribe them in our hearts and Lives As affectionate expressions to the Children of God without the real supply of their wants are but the shadows of Love so words of esteem and respect to the Law of God without unfeigned and universal Obedience are but an empty Pretence 3. The Divine Relation of the Saints to God as their Father is the Motive of spiritual Love to them And this is consequent to the former for by partaking of his Holiness they partake of his life and likeness And from hence they are the dearest Objects of his Love his eye and heart is always upon them Now if this Consideration excites Love to the Children of God it will be as powerful to incline us to keep his Commands for the Law of God that is the Copy of his Sacred Will is most near to his Nature and he is infinitely tender of it Our Saviour tells us that it is casier for Heaven and Earth to pass away Luk. 16.17 than for one tittle of the Law to fail If the entire World and all the Inhabitants of it were destroyed there would be no loss to God but if the Law lose its Authority and Obligation the Divine Holiness would suffer a Blemish The Use of the Doctrine is to try our Love to the Children of God to which all pretend by this infallible Rule our Obedience to his Commands This is absolutely necessary because the deceit is so easie and so dangerous and it will be most comfortable if upon this Trial our Love be found to be spiritual and divine The deceit is easie because Acts of Love may be expressed to the Saints from other Principles than the Love of God Some for vain-glory are bountiful and when their Charity seems so visibly divine that men admire it there is the Woâ—m of vanity at the root that corrupts and makes it odious to God The Pharisees are charged with this by our Saviour Mat. 6 2. their Alms were not the effect of Charity but Ostentation and whilst they endeavoured to make their Vices virtuous they made their Virtues vicious There is a natural Love among persons united by Consanguinity that remains so entire since the ruine of Mankind by the Fall and is rather from the force of Nature than the virtue of the Will and this in all kind Offices may be express'd to the Saints There is a sweetness of Temper in some that inclines them to wish well to all and such tender Affections that are easily moved and melted at the sight of others miseries and such may be beneficent and compassionate to the Saints in their afflictions but the Spring of this Love is good Nature not divine Grace There are humane Respects that incline others to kindness to the Saints as they are united by interest Fellow-Citizens and Neighbours and as they receive advantage by Commerce with them or as obliged by their Benefits But Civil Amity and Gratitude are not that holy Affection that is an assurance of our spiritual state There are other Motives of Love to the Saints that are not so low nor mercenary in the thickest darkness of Paganism the Light of Reason discovered the amiable excellence of Virtue as becoming the humane Nature and useful for the Tranquility and Welfare of Mankind and the Moral Goodness that adorns the Saints the Innocence Purity Meekness Justice Clemency Benignity that are visible in their Conversations may draw respects from others who are strangers to the Love of God and careless of his Commandments And as the Mistake of this Affection is easie so it is infinitely dangerous for he that builds his hope of Heaven upon a sandy foundation upon false Grounds will fall ruinously from his Hopes and Felicity at last How fearful will be the disappointment of one that has been a Favourer of the Saints that has defended their Cause protected their Persons relieved their Necessities and presum'd for this that his Condition is safe as to Eternity though he lives in the known neglect of other Duties and the indulgent practice of some Sin But if we find that our Love to the Children of God flows from our Love to God that sways the Soul to an entire compliance to his Commands and makes us observant of them in the course of our Lives What a blessed Hope arises from this Reflection We need not have the Book of the Divine Decrees opened and the Secrets of Election unveil'd 1 Joh. 3.14 for we know that we are past from Death to Life if we love the Brethren This is an infallible Effect and Sign of the Spiritual Life and the Seed and Evidence of Eternal Life Quest What must we do to
Cor. 9.3 you may call it an Apologetical or defensive answer as relating to their Enemies accusation or charge against them or Examination of them they might look upon the Religion of Christians as an unreasonable thing and therefore require a reason of their Faith and Practice which if they should the Apostle would have them ready to make their defence and shew how good grounds they had for both 3. How they were to be always ready to give an answer It doth not imply that they were bound to do it to every Caviller or trifler but when the Glory of God and the Honour of the Gospel required it and when their silence might be injurious to the Truth to their own Consciences or their Brethrens Souls and so Christian Prudence ought to judge of the seasonableness of their making their defence they were not bound always actually to do it but to be always actually ready whenever God in his Providence should call them to it Now from what our Apostle enjoyns these Saints to be always ready to do I inferr what all true Saints may be able to do at least what the nature of the thing is capable of and so the doctrinal Inference I deduce from the words is this That true Christians may give a satisfactory account of their Christianity that it is something both real and reasonable Doct. not Folly nor Fancy In speaking to this Truth two things are to be done 1. I shall shew that true Believers may give an account of the Religion they profess according to the Gospel 2. I shall give Directions in answer to the Question How a Believer may be able to experience in himself and evidence to others that his Religion that powerful Godliness in the Practice whereof he lives is more than a Fancy 1 That true Believers may give a good account of the Religion they profess Most that the carnal World is wont to object against powerfull Religion in the Saints may be reduced to three heads 1. Against their Faith in which I include their Hope as of kin to it and the Fruit of it it is objected that it is but a fancy 2. Against their Obedience and close walking with God and diligence in Duty which is the fruit of their Faith that it is but the effect of Fancy and so no better than folly an unreasonable and groundless niceness and scrupulosity 3. Against their Comforts and spiritual Enjoyments that they can be no better than their Faith and Obedience from which they proceed and are no more than meer Imaginations and delusive Conceits In answer to each of these I shall I hope evidence the contrary to be most true 1. That the Faith of a true Believer is something reall and not a Fancy By the Faith of a Saint I understand only that lively and effectual Faith which is the Instrument or Means call it as you please not only of a Saints Justification a Rom. 5.1 but Sanctification b Act. 15.9 that which is called precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 the Faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1 1. as being peculiar to them and the effect of their Election c Act. 13.48 that Faith in a word which is an apprehending Christ as the author of eternal Salvation d Heb. 5.9 a believing the record God hath given of his Son that eternal life is in him 1 Joh. 5.11 This Faith imports in it a respect to Christ as the Author of all other spiritual benefits antecedent to eternal Life Justification whereby a Believer is entitled to it Sanctification whereby he is prepared for it Consolation by which he is encouraged in seeking it and supported under the opposition and difficulties he meets with in the way to it But here I speak of Faith especially as respecting Eternal Salvation which is one principal act of it and which includes or supposes the other and the rather because the belief and expectation of Life and Immortality after Death is that which the unbelieving World looks upon as most strange and unreasonable and takes all a Believer can say of his expecting future things in another World to be but strong fancies of great Nothings There is no act of Faith against which the Objections of carnal Reason are more usually levelled than against this and if the reality of a Christians Faith appears in this it can scarce be denyed in others Now that this belief of Eternal Life is something real in a Saints Heart and not meerly a Fancy in his Brains might appear more than probable in that it hath been and still is to be found in those who are least fancyfull men as serious as judicious as rational as any in the World though not many wise men after the flesh are called e 1 Cor. 1.26 yet some are And it cannot reasonably be imagined that they who are confessedly Grave and Prudent and Discreet and free from Conceits and Fancies in all other things should dote in those only which are of the greatest Concernment to them especially if we consider that this Faith is stirring in them at such times as men use to be least given to Fancies as on the most solemn Occasions under the greatest Afflictions and at the approach of the most terrible of all temporal evils Death it self Men are most apt to be taken with Fancies and Appearances when they are wholly at Ease and flush in the World and have hope or some prospect of great things in it then they are apt to fancy things according to their Appetites and fondly to believe that that will be which they desire may be But when Death draws nigh they have nothing to encourage such imaginations and then usually their Fancies vanish they come to discover their folly and deceitfulness they judge quite contrary to what they did before they then see those things to be real which they counted but Fancies and those things to be but Fantastical which they had thought to be real Now at such a time as this the Faith of a Saint saving what desertions or Temptations may occasion in particular instances is ordinarily more-strong and active as his judgment of earthly things is more true when he is leaving them so his apprehension of heavenly is more clear when he draws nigh to them the approach of Death proves an enlivening to his Faith he hath the fairest view of the Crown of Glory when his Lord is about to set it on his head the same thoughts indeed he then hath which before he had only more clear and affecting they are at the last there being less to interrupt or discompose him It were hard to say that all the Comforts and Joyes of dying Saints and Martyrs have been meer Delusions and Cheats and yet so they must be if the apprehensions they have had of heavenly things were but Fancies and Ravings But to pass this by it will sufficiently evince the reality of a Christians Faith if we can make it appear that the
shall damn a man which he more hateth than loveth and had truly rather leave than keep and sheweth this by true endeavour XI The best man hath much evil and the worst have some good but it is that which is preferr'd and predominant in the Will which differenceth the Godly and the wicked He that in estimation choice and life performeth God and Heaven and Holiness before the world and the pleasure of sin is a true godly man and shall be saved XII The best have daily need of Pardon even for the faultiness of their holiest Duties and must daily live on Christ for pardon XIII Even Sin against Knowledge and Conscience are too oft committed by regenerate men for they know more than others do and their Consciences are more active Happy were they indeed if they could be as good as they know they should be and love God as much as they know they should love him and were clear from all the Relicts of Passion and Unbelief which Conscience tells them are their Sins XIV God will not take Satans Temptations to be our Sins but only our not resisting them Christ himself was tempted to the most heinous Sin even to fall down to the Devil and worship him God will charge Satans blasphemous Temptations on himself alone XV. The Thoughts and Fears and Troubles which Melancholy and natural Weakness and Distemper irresistably causeth hath much more of Bodily Disease than of Sin and therefore is of the least of Sins and indeed no more Sin than to burn or be thirsty in a Fever further than as some Sin did cause the Disease that causeth it or further than there is left some power in Reason to resist them XVI Certainty of our Faith and Sincerity is not necessary to Salvation but the Sincerity of faith it self is necessary He shall be saved that giveth up himself to Christ though he know not that he is sincere in doing it Christ knoweth his own Grace when they that have it know not that it is sound It is but few true Christians that attain to certainty of Salvation for weak Grace clogged with much Corruption is hardly known and usually joyned with fear and doubting XVII Probability of Sincerity and Trust in Christ may cause a man justly to live and die in Peace and Comfort without proper certainty else few Christians should live and die in peace and yet we see by experience that many do so The common Opinion of most Church-writers for 400 years after Christ was that the uncontinued sort of Christians might fall from a state of Grace in which had they continued they had been saved and therefore that none but strong confirmed Christians at most could be certain of Salvation and many Protestant Churches still are of that mind and yet they live not in despair or terror No man is certain that he shall not fall as heinously as David and Peter did and yet while they have no cause to think it likely they need not live in terror for the uncertainty No Wife or Child is certain that the Husband or Father will not murder them and yet they may live comfortably and not fear it XVIII Though Faith be so weak as to be assaulted with doubts whether the Gospel be true and there be any Life to come and though our Trust in Christ be not strong enough to banish our Fears and Troubles yet if we see so much evidence of Credibility in the Gospel and Probability of a better Life hereafter as causeth us here to fix our Hopes and Choice and to resolve for those Hopes to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and let go all the world rather than sell those Hopes and live a holy Life to obtain it this Faith will save us XIX But God's Love and Promise through Christ is so sure a ground for Faith and Comfort that it is the great Duty and Interest of all men confidently and quietly to trust him and then to live in the joy of holy Trust and Hope XX. If any man doubt of his Salvation because of the greatness of his Sin the way to quietness is presently to be willing to forsake them Either he that complaineth is willing to be holy and forsake his Sin or not if you be not willing to leave them but love them and would keep them why do you complain of them and mourn for that which you so much love If your Child should cry and roar because his Apple is sowr and yet will not be perswaded to forbear to eat it you would not pity him but whip him as perverse But if you are truly willing to leave it you are already saved from its damning guilt XXI If you are in doubt of the Sincerity of your Faith and other Graces and all your Examination leaveth you uncertain the way is presâ—ntly to end your doubt by actual giving up your self to Christ Do you not know whether you have been hitherto a true believer you may know that Christ is now offered to you consent but to the Covenant and accept the offer and you may be sure that he is yours XXII Bare examining is not alwayes to be done for assurance but labour to excite and exercise much the grace that you would be assured of The way to be sure that you believe and love God is to study the promises and goodness of God till active Faith assure you that you believe and you love God and Glory till you are assured that you love them XXIII It is not by some extraordinary act good or bad that we may be sure what state the soul is in but by the predominant bent and drift and tenor of heart and life XXIV Though we cry out that we cannot believe and we cannot love God and we cannot pray aright Christ can help us without his grace we can do nothing but his grace is sufficient for us and he denieth not his further help when once he hath but made us willing but hath bid us ask and have and if any lack wisdom let him ask it of God who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not with former folly but gives his spirit to them that ask him XXV This sin called the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is the sin of no one that believeth Jesus to be the Christ nor of any that fear it no nor of every infidel but only of some few obstinate unbelieving enemies for it is only this When men see such miraclâ—â— of Christ and his spirit as should or could convince them that he is of God and when they have no other shift they will rather maintain that he is a Câ—njuâ—â—r 〈◊〉 wrought them by the Devil XXVI Though sinful fear is very troublesomâ—â—nd not to be cherished God often permitteth and useth it to good to keep us from being bold with sin and from those sinful pleasures and love of the world and presumption and security which are far more dangerous and to take down pride