which like a greater fire put the other out But he poor Soul though alwayes denying his own desires breaking of his will in pieces lying upon a rack and fast nailed to the Cross where the body of sin was bleeding to death yet found his Spirit in horrid torments and deprived of those divine delights which cheared the bright souls of the blessed Martyrs and made them shine with a greater luster then did their fires But since I cannot express the soreness of this Agony in which he a long time lay I shall only add that it was so great that one day being quite tired and spent he fell into a kind of trance and remained as immoveable for some space as if he had been dead And a blessed occasion this was though all his acquaintance that were come to comfort him imagined he would then have expired For he thought he saw a man coming to him with a very smiling aspect as though he knew him who bad him get up and go as fast as he could to a certain Oratory that was not far off and in his way where he should meet with some relief When he was come to himself he thought this Vision or what else you please to call it was in stead of an Oracle and had discovered to him one of the greatest causes that he continued so long ill of these grievous distempers And that was That while he afflicted and tormented himself with the remembrance of what was passed he neglected to implore the help of God with such constant prayers as was nieet for the redress of his present evils and prevention of the like in time to come This began to make a vehement commotion in his mind for he saw there was nothing truer then that We are apt to pray least when we have greatest need of it and are wont to spend that time in looking upon our sores which should be imployed in looking up to Heaven for its Balm to drop into them And truly so lively were the colours wherein this was set before his eyes that he was ready to burst into tears and pour out his Soul there before he stir'd from the bed whereon he lay But remembring presently the voyce to which he thought himself so much beholden had bid him make what speed he could to a particular place where he might address his prayers to his Saviour he arose and dressed himself without any further delay And though he knew that our Lord hears the suits of his humble Clients every where yet he would not be disobedient to the directions he had received but made haste to go and see what good might wait for him in that Oratory or Chappel which had been built in the rode by some charitable person for the use of devout passengers to Jerusalem And no sooner had he entred within the doors but he fell upon his knees and there sent out his Soul in such strong and passionate desires as left all words behind which were not able to accompany them If the throng of his thoughts which upon this occasion were assembled had not been so great you might have received a better account of them But truly such was the violence wherewith they pressed forth and so great were their numbers that he found it very difficult either then to range them in any order or afterward to recall them distinctly to his mind Yet some of them carried this sense as I have been certainly informed by him from whom he hides none of the secrets of his Soul O thou Almighty Goodness the Father of the Fatherless the Patron of the Poor the Protector of Strangers cast thy gracious eyes upon a miserable Pilgrim who all torn and ragged implores thy mercy When I look on my self I dare scarce be so bold as to lift up mine eyes unto thee When I think in what condition I am and what I have done it so confounds me that I can hardly think of any thing else It is the greatness of my misery alone that constrains me to this presumption of prostrating my self at thy feet The weight of which oppresses me so much that it hath left me little more power then to expose my self before thee as an object of thy wondrous Charity O what a Wilderness am I faln into where I can find no water What Desarts are these in which all comfort forsakes my Soul Into what strange regions am I wandred where there is nothing but darkness and the vallies of the shaddow of death O the terrors that surround me how dreadful are they O the affliction and torment which I indure what tongue can express it my Soul is parcht and dryed up My spirits are consumed by the heat of thy displeasure May I not now beg one drop of comfort from thee O my God my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and barren land I remember thy loving kindness in former times I call to mind the dayes of old And I cannot but wish at least to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary There is none in Heaven that I desire but thee nor on earth besides thee My Soul followeth hard after thee O when wilt thou come unto me O hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble hear me speedily I am poor and needy make haste unto me O God thou art my helper and deliverer O Lord make no tarrying I am come a great way from all my friends and kindred and there is none to pitty me O my God be not thou far from me draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it I am poor and sorrowful let thy Salvation set me up on high For thou who searchest the hearts knowest that I am travelling nowhither but to thee All the world have I left that I may find my happiness only in thee And at thy heavenly motion it was that I undertook this long journey I am become a Pilgrim meerly in obedience to thy Will Yea thus far I acknowledge thou hast most graciously conducted me Hitherto I have been highly favoured and wonderfully helped by thee And wilt thou now at last abandon me who have ahandon'd all things else for the sake of thee Hast thou called me from mine own Country and Fathers house that I may perish by famine here and only for want of thee O my Lord give me leave to plead for a Soul which once I thought was dear unto thee Pitty O pitty an Heart which thou hast made too great for all the World and cannot be satisfied with less than thee Canst thou see it dye for lack of one smile from thee yea canst thou let it dye of love to thee for that hath brought me thus far to seek thee And wilt thou suffer it to dye at thy feet Canst thou endure to behold it perish in thy arms into which it now throws it self with all the force it hath Shall it miscarry full of
there any reason to fear drowning after he had walked half a furlong or to imagine it would not bear him up the next half as well as it had done the former none at all sure The winds that blew and the rough waves that began to lift up themselves were no less subject to that power which upheld him then the smooth and quiet surface of the Sea It was as easie to walk upon a Billow as upon the still water The blustering wind had no more power there then the silent Aire Whence then proceeded this change that the man who lately trampled upon the Sea and gloried over the deep doth now feel himself slip into the bosome of it and is in danger to be swallowed up by it The firm ground which he thought was under him is gone and he is left to the mercy of the angry waves Was not the change within before his feet felt any Did not a violent fear lay hold upon him and did he not let go his hold of the hand which before sustained him Yes this was the business If his Faith had been as strong as once it was his condition had been as safe in the midst of the storm as before it was in the calm When this Anchor broke the waters began to suck him in They challenged him then for their proper goods because his Faith was in a manner already shipwrackt But did his Gratious Master so part with him Would he lose a servant because he was weak and wanted confidence in him Or did he delay to help him and only hold him up by the chin when all his body was in the deep No when he cryed for relief and beseeched to be saved he instantly put forth his hand caught hold of him and rescued him from the jaws of death He only chides him because he doubted but neither lets him sink into the belly of the waters nor stayes his succours till he was in greater need of them He straightway lends him more power and chuses rather to incourage a little Faith then let him perish because he had no more Now this story methinks bears a great resemblance with that condition wherein you and many more besides have been We have a great mind to go to Jesus and for that end to walk here in the World as he walked But it is very much that we who are so earthly and have such ponderous affections to things here below should be able to tread them under our feet and keep our selves above the soft pleasures of the flesh into which we are apt to sink This seems no less a wonder then it was for a body of earth to walk upon the face of the Sea which uses to swallow down such heavy things that come into it Whence is it I pray that we have this strength and can lift up our selves above our natural propensions to lead the life of God Is it from our own Vertue or rather must we not acknowledge that we receive it from that voice which saith to us as unto that Apostle of our Lord Come This sure is the cause to which it must be ascribed And it cannot be of less efficacy afterward then it was at the first but when he still saith Follow me he gives a greater power and force unto us so to do But how comes it about then that you and others begin sometimes to sink or at least to imagine that you are falling into the World and that the sensual life will at last draw you into its embraces again Truly there is the same cause of it that there was in him and that is Diffidence You forget your self and distrust God and that works a decay of the Vertue and ability that was in your heart You regard more the winds and the waves the difficulties and temptations that you are incompassed withall then the power and the love of Jesus which attends upon you and so you begin first to fear and then to fall Yet behold what a loving and kind Master you serve He doth not take this so ill at your hands as to let you quite go and fall still lower and lower into the water untill you be drown'd But if you look earnestly upon him and call to him and intreat him to take pitty upon you and not to leave you he gives you his hand presently and sets you in safety Though now you have been very distrustful of his goodness and have fainted in your mind as if he would not regard you yet his tenderness is so great that he bids me assure you he will not forsake you nor fail to support and help your feeble soul Only in his name I must a little chide you and give you a gentle reproof in his own words saying O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt I say no more because I see you are sorrowful and hope you will give me no more the like trouble Indeed replyed the Pilgrim I deserve a more severe reprehension and you deal too favourably with me when you give me so mild a rebuke But I suppose you use me thus tenderly that I may be sensible of the gratious nature of our Lord who hath compassion on our weakness and is loath to discourage those by any sharpness of his who are too apt to invent over many discouragements to themselves And truly I am so apprehensive of his lenity and behold also so great a portion of it in your self that were it not upon that account I should again be apt to stand in fear of creating not only you but him a greater trouble then you are able to bear I am you see very foolish alwayes complaining and exercising your patience I have so many scruples and little fears am so unconstant and wavering in my thoughts so frequently sick and out of order so forgetful also of your counsels that perhaps by this time you begin to reflect and consider how great a burden you have drawn upon your self by undertaking the charge of me And I pray tell me sincerely whether you are not a little weary of me and do not wish your self rid of such an impediment for I can scarce call my self your Friend any longer but your Trouble or your Burden Tell me I say is not this a fitter name for me then any else And can you find in your heart to own that sweet relation to him any more who hath made himself so unpleasing on all occasions and nothing but disquieted your happy repose I doubt if you could see my heart and behold what a seed of new troubles and doubts lodges there you would tell me plainly that you shall never enjoy your self till you be divorced from me You surprise me strangely said the Good old man and did I not consider that you have suspected the kindness of God himself I should be so amazed at this alteration in you as to lose the use of words and not know what to say to you Little did I think that
the noise of it but still men are to seek what this great thing should be They awake men out of their sleep and make them look and gaze about them but let them see nothing of that which they have to take in hand They bid them indeed Believe but it is very hard to know when they do They have intangled Faith in Disputes when it should have been imployed in good Works They have obscured a plain thing in many laborious definitions of it They have made it so subtill and to consist in so nice a point that it is a difficult thing for any to see it They handle matters of doubt weakly and as before a people that will accept of any thing In the Doctrine of Manners there is little to be had but Generality and Repetition The bread of life they toss up and down but break it not They say in the gross that men must live well but they tell them not how to live They bring not their Doctrines down to Cases of Conscience that a man may be warranted in his perpetual Actions whether they be lawfull or not Nor take they care to teach men their lawful liberty as well as their restraints To keep them from superstitious Observances as well as Prophane transgressions Nay I wish we could not say that it is the least of some mens care to promote a godly life Faith is made a thing that is quite distinct from it Good Works and Faith are commonly opposed in the Justification of a sinner The one is thought to exclude the other And to be justified it is said to be necessary that a man do Nothing for it The most that Christ can get is by way of Gratitude which you know is small or none in bad Natures At the best they will put him off with desires or purposes or an indeavour of a new life though still these things be ineffectual All which is said for no other end but that you may not have mens persons in admiration That you may be at liberty to prove all things and hold fast that which is good That you may not bear a greater reverence to Masters then you do to Truth which is ready to become the portion of those who are more in love with it then with their party And since you seem to me to be one of those I shall spare no pains to bring you and Truth together But if you think it needful I will give you further satisfaction in this which we have contested and make you confess that there is nothing plainer then that which I have said of Faith in Christ You will gratifie me very much replyed the other if you will be at the trouble to teach me this lesson better And I am prepared already by what I have now learnt to consider and weigh not who but what it is that I hear Very good said he again let me Catechise you then a little and be not offended at this common and easie Question Do you not think that Christ came into the World for some end Nay was he not sent of God upon some high design You cannot doubt of it and therefore I will not stay for your answer But tell me what do you think that great end was Wherefore for instance did he dye and shed his blood Was it only that our sins might be pardoned Did he bear the Cross that we might bear none Did he deny his own Will that we might have liberty to do ours Is his Death to excuse us from holy living Hypocrisie indeed thinks so but true Religion teaches us that the intent of his death was by keeping us from dying to make us alive to God By saving us from execution when we were condemned to render us honest men by denying of himself to teach us to take up our Cross and follow him Will you hear what they that knew the mind of Christ have taught us in this argument He that committeth sin saith St. John is of the Devil 2 Joh. 3.8 for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil which is as much as to say that he appeared in the world that men might cease to sin And so St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 5.15 That he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him which dyed for them and rose again i.e. will come to judge them as a little before he had declared This is the end for which he gave himself for his Church That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5.25 26 27. that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Nor is it a slight and superficial Holiness that he intends the clensing only of the outside or the washing away of some pollutions but He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Titus 2.14 and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works For he hath reconciled us as it is in another place in the body of his flesh through death Colloss 1.21 22. to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight And to say no more St. Peter also teaches us that He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 1.24 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed I know not what sense Hypocrisie may pick out of these words which hopes the scourges on Christs back will save sinners from the lash and that his death shall preserve them from dying though their sins still live But it is evident to them that are sincere that the Apostles meaning is our Saviour dyed not meerly to save us from dying of our wounds or to take away the anguish and torment of them but that our Natures might be healed and made sound and whole again He is such a Physitian as removes the pain and the smart by curing of the wound that easeth the part affected by making it well that doth not lend his Creeple patient a Crutch to support him but infuses strength into his feet and anckle-bones and spirits into his sinnews that he may walk in the wayes of Gods commandments I wish there was nothing harder then this to understand in the Book of God It is not a truth which men cannot but which they will not understand It is against a corrupt interest or else they would not resist it There is a strong party in their heart against this end of Christs death or else there would be no dispute about it The biass that inclines their will is not on the side of this truth It contradicts their pleasures their unlawful gain or some such thing which they are loath to leave and therefore it
and take great heed that they be not gulled with the flatteries and enchantments of the World and of the Flesh And truly there is very great need of this watchfulness for the Flesh will be solliciting your attendance and desire you to make provision for it It will complain of your neglects too and be angry that it is not more kindly used It will grudge at all the time and care that is bestowed on your Soul and say it is too much You must expect that it will murmur at the commands of Christ and think it self very much in jured by them But as you must not regard these complaints so I will tell you a way whereby you shall cease them and make it better satisfied Let it know that if it will not be content with what you do it shall have worse usage then hitherto Tell it that you will not have so much kindness for it unless it will be quiet Perswade it that it is better to consent to obedience sooner for else it shall fare more hardly and you will take a severer course to bring it under For so I have read that Hilarion an ancient Pilgrim was wont to do When he found his flesh to be much displeased that it was denyed any thing He insulted over it on this fashion Thou Ass canst thou not tell when thou art well and hast but a light burden upon thy back I will make thee that thou shalt not kick again in hast I will lay such loads upon thee that thou shalt stand quietly and have no power to Wince And I will not feed thee with Corn but with straw I will punish thee with hunger and thirst I will afflict thee with fasting and bring thee low with harder labours I will make thee think more of thy meat then of gluttony and riot Thou shalt be glad of a drop of drink and rest well content without compotations and excess of Wine Thou hadst better have been more moderate in thy desires for I will teach thee to be well pleased with a sparer diet It had been more for thine ease if thou hadst been more diligent for I will cure thee of thy Sloth by exacting of thee more grievous tasks In this manner he quieted and still'd all its grumblings and affrighted away its reluctance and idle disposition And in the same way may you bring it to some reason and make it capable of good advice lest by craving too much it have the less and by incroaching upon the better part it lose the freedom that it doth enjoy Terrifie your selves with the thoughts of severer Discipline which you must be forced to use and represent to your selves effectually that if there be no other way this sluggish temper must be banished by a rigorous and sharp pennance which you can less endure than this easie service of our Lord. By this means sure you will procure liberty for your souls to follow their nobler propensions and to provide for their return to their own Country and their Fathers House Which if you mean to effect then you must take more time whatsoever the Flesh or the World shall object to consider more seriously the worth and price of your Souls than which I know not what can be more powerful to drive away your sleep and to make you attend with all earnestness to the securing of their happiness Remember I again beseech you that it is too long that you have remained in ignorance of your selves That it is high time now to look about you lest your Souls quite forget themselves and never recover the memory of what and whence they are Let my counsel therefore be acceptable to you and revolve very often in your mind the words of that Heathen whom I have brought hither to make you ashamed Retire much into your selves and there demand of your Souls that they declare their quality and condition to you They are able to make you an answer and therefore bid them tell you what is their parentage and kindred of what house they are descended what is their nature their portion their inheritance and do not cease till you have received satisfaction Ask them if they are not the Daughters of God Sisters to Angels Images of Divinity Hearken if they will not tell you that they are spirits of a vast understanding purer than the Light swifter than the Lightning whose portion and dowry is immortality whose place is the Universe whose capacity is a picture of Infinity and who are born to be heirs of the other world to have the honour of being Kings and to raign with God for ever And when your souls have dealt faithfully with you and let you know such things as these you must be as faithful and just to them and assure them that you will have a great care of them and attend upon them according to their birth and quality Think what a madness it is to throw away this nobler Moity of man for that which no discreet person would purchase with the loss of his health or the price of the pains of the far inferiour part Let every one of you say within himself O my Soul I will never be perswaded to lose thee nothing shall tempt me to be false unto thee This Body shall be hungry and starv'd nay and dye too if it were possible a thousand deaths rather than I will famish thee and suffer thee to perish I have resolved thou shalt have thy true liberty pursue thy true end for which thou wast made Look about thee and see what thou wouldst have and by the Grace of God it shall not be denyed to thy desires And what is I beseech you O you Sons of men or rather you Sons of God you children of the Most High what is it that you are most desirous to enjoy Is it not the Knowledge of God to be acquainted with your Father to recover his Image to be impressed with his Likeness to live in his Love to have the Light of his Countenance to be full of good hopes of receiving his Blessing and to be restored at last to his presence after this long banishment from him O gratifie your souls then so far as to give all diligence to fulfil these reasonable longings Be not sparing of your pains in so great a business Let them not be put off with frivolous excuses that you are not at leisure that you have other things to mind for the convenience of your Bodies or any the like pretences but instantly apply your selves more vigorously than ever to see that they have right done them and that they receive their true and full satisfaction Do not think it is such a small matter that will content them as the whole World Nay do not imagine that it will suffice them to talk of the other World to send some messages to it and receive some from it It is not enough that they speak now and then with the Father of their Being and that
shall be false though never so clear in it self lest these beloved sins should suffer any harm But if there were any honesty in mens hearts if they were void of guile they would be able to see this without the help of so many testimonies out of holy writ that it was not a thing worthy of the Son of God to come and dye for any less end then to make the World better and render it obedient to the Creator For what do you mean I beseech you when you say that Jesus satisfied for your sins What was it do you think that he gave satisfaction unto Was it not all those Glorious Attributes of God his Wisdom his Truth his Justice his Holiness saving the Honour of which he might now pass by the offences of returning sinners Was it not that the credit of all these might be maintained and yet the rebels not perish That the Sentence might not be executed and yet the Authority of the Laws be preserved There is nothing plainer then that this death of Christ did do great honour to God in the face of the World asserted his right gave countenance to his Authority proclaimed his righteousness and purity was a not able testimony on his behalf against sinners and so there could be nothing more powerful to move God to grant a pardon to those rebels that would submit to him since now he should lose nothing by it but that which he had a mind to give away and not demaund viz. the penalties which they had incurred by the breach of his Laws But is it not manifest then that God cannot love sin nor be friends with sinners until they amend Did not the death of Christ shew that his nature is such that he cannot indulge men in their trespasses Is it not apparent that it was not fit to pardon even penitent and returning offenders unless he shewed his displeasure at their offences Did he not take care to secure his Authority when he issued out a pardon There is nothing more visible And if Hypocrisie had not over-run us and thrust true Reason as well as Religion out of doors men would easily see that Christ could not dye meerly to procure us a pardon much less that men might sin with more security and without any fear of punishment No natural reason tells us that men must needs be hateful to God while they are unlike him that all the Blood of Christ cannot wash them and make them lovely as long as they continue in actual rebellion against him His very nature is against such men his Wisdom is an enemy to them For how should he maintain any Government in the World if he himself should be the cherisher of Traitors if he should take care for their protection and set up a Sanctuary to which they may boldly fly if he should make the Altar of the Cross a refuge where they may find Salvation and Safety who are the opposers of his Authority It cannot be that God should be so liberal as to give away all his own right He cannot quit his title and claim unto our universal obedience It is impossible that Christ by his death should repeal all the Laws of God and absolve us from our duty There is no question he intended to strengthen them when he made a relaxation And when he procured a dispensation he did more establish and secure that which is not dispensed withall It is a rule of Reason that all exceptions do confirm the Law They tell us that it is not to be extended to any further indulgence And therefore Christ dying that the punishment might not be executed this is all the remission that we are to expect and not that God should remit all our duty to him It is very easie if men were well disposed to read at once in the death of Christ the greatest Love of God to us and the greatest Love to his Laws His Love to us appears in that he would for our good and that we might not be eternally undone lay aside his own right which he hath to punish forgive us a debt which we were not able to pay alter his Law and abate the strictness of it dispense with the execution of the Old Law and make a New one of Grace and Favour and that he might do so and save both us from dying and his Law from contempt by our escape that he would provide such a wise remedy as this of his Sons dying for us Herein was his Love indeed manifested and we can never sufficiently admire it that he would have him dye rather than us that he would have him suffer that we might be delivered But then this also plainly tells us the great Love that he bears to Holiness to his Laws and to our Duty which he took care should not be injured by this favour and remission Though he would not have all dye out of love to us yet he would have one lest we should still continue in the love of sin Though he would not have every one of us suffer for the breach of his Laws yet he would have Christ suffer that we might not take the boldness still to break them This death of his Son reduced things to an excellent temper providing that neither we nor God might be damnified That we might not suffer for what we have done and that he might not suffer by our doing still the same That he might be what he is and we become what we ought That the old Original Laws which require our obedience might remain in force and the rigour of them not be executed for our disobedience That he might part with some of his right and yet recover all the rest In one word that he might be moved to let go his right to punish us and we not moved to be careless in yielding him the rest of his right which he hath to our hearty and constant obedience I wish heartily that you and every body else would seriously consider this and not expect that God should not require your service and obedience for it is so much his due that for the sake of his Son he cannot part with his right and claim unto it Nay I have a bolder thing to say than all this and that is That the Death of Christ is so far from intending our pardon only that it is not the chiefest thing that he intends Of the two the purifying of our hearts and lives was more in his design than the forgiveness of sin and this was but in order to the other So much you may easily gather from many of those places of the Holy Writings which were mentioned before for though he bare our sins in his own body on the Tree yet it was for this end this was the ultimate scope of it that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness And so another Apostle saith He gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 that he might deliver us from this present evil
World By shewing his willingness to pass by our faults he would move us to acknowledge them to repent of them and become more dutiful This must be done before we can actually receive his pardon and absolution Titus 3.5 6 7. according to that of the Apostle He saved us according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost that being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs of eternal life Where it is visible to them that will not shut their eyes that his Mercy cannot save us unless we become New Creatures and that this must go before the Justification which we expect by the Grace of God And indeed reason tells us that Christ must need have more regard to his Fathers rights than to our accommodation and intend more the reclaiming of his rebellious subjects than the procuring of their pardon Which is a thing so apparent that I am ashamed to do more than mention it And besides by this time I believe you will be ready to ask me a question who have asked you so many and demand to what purpose have you made this long discourse The Answer is ready and the end of it is as clear as any thing that hath been said viz. That since justifying Faith is to have respect to our Saviour and his Death just according to the intention of God in sending of him it cannot be so little as the casting our selves upon him for pardon of sin The former part of this argument you will grant me for we must look upon an object according as it is proposed Faith cannot apprehend things otherwayes than God hath revealed them it cannot receive the Son of God in any other manner than as the Father gave him The consequent then God himself demands your assent unto for you see that he had another end and a far greater also in giveing his Son for us than the forgiveness of our offences He gave him that he might cleanse and purge our Souls from all filthiness that he might make us holy and unblameable in his sight Why do you not then thus receive him Or how comes it about that you will not only put this end behind the other but also speak as if justifying Faith had nothing else to do but to lay hold on the merits of Christ This I am sure you make to comprehend the whole notion of it for we hear of nothing besides in its definition This is either all the business of Faith or else you do very ill not to express the rest I beseech you in the Name of Christ that dyed for us reform this grand errour Let your Faith be as large as the Gospel it self And let this be your principal care that it may purifie your heart When you expect to be justified through Faith in his Blood Heb 9.14 remember that it was shed to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God And that I may resume the beginning of my discourse and so make way for a speedy conclusion let me ask you another Question or two which seem to be very pertinent to my present design If there was an end and so great an one as you have confessed of Christs coming into the World then what is he but a means unto this end He dyed saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 3.18 that he might bring us to God And by him we believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him Glory that our Faith and Hope might be in God Cap. 1.21 Our belief in God then which is no small thing but comprehends all our duty to him was the end of Christs Appearing and of all he did and therefore must not he stand in the place of a means to it It must be so said the other But what then continued the Father will become of your resting on Christ and your staying or leaning on him for Salvation Is it not manifest that this only is insufficient for your purpose that it will let you fall to the ground and leave you short of your happiness Is it not plain that this Faith fixes it self where it should proceed and rests in the means whereby it should advance to a noble end There is nothing me-thinks more evident than that the Faith which justifies a sinner is not that which lastly terminates it self in the person of Christ and which doth not clearly and in its own nature produce a cordial obedience to God Means must be used and not rested in From whence it unavoidably follows that Christ himself and his merits must not be rested in as the last end of our Faith but it must go further and beget an holy life Let us so speak of Faith then that it may be visible whither it tends Let it be seen at what it aimes and that it designs more than the casting our selves into the arms of Christ that he may protect us from the wrath to come Learn I beseech you before it be too late that Jesus cannot save a man by a naked confidence in him i.e. in his person or any thing that he hath done or can do All they that think so reproach our Saviour and make him the advocate of sin and not of sinners one that shall save their lusts and not them from the power of them They stay in the half-way to Heaven and so shall never come thither They rest when they should go forward They lean upon that staff wherewith they should walk They make Christ their support only who should be also their strength They cast themselves upon him but would not have him carry them to God and a divine nature They make him to stand in their way and not to be the way unto obedience They render him an enemy to God who shall keep his subjects with him and detain them from their duty They content themselves with what they find in him and care not for any righteousness of their own They rest satisfied with what he hath done and by vertue of that do nothing themselves And so he that is made of God a means of life they make to themselves a means of death because they make him indeed the End of all and not the means to our End CAP. XXXIX The joy which the Pilgrim conceived in this discourse and how much he applauded his happiness in having such a Friend The Serenity of his Condition after all these Clouds And how nothing troubled him but only that he could do so little to testifie his love to his Guide who easily gave him satisfaction by shewing the true grounds of Friendship IT is not to be expressed what contentment the Man took in this discourse for which he rendred him a thousand thanks professing that he had learnt a great deal in a little time and that though he never intended less than to become a Good man by Faith in Christ yet he did not so well understand till now how to