them he saves We say no for even the works of Gods spirit of grace acting in us are our works and salvation is not of works but of grace And this Evangelicall lesson is hinted to us even in the Ceremoniall Law The Lord commands a yearly day of atonement Levit. 16. for the sins of the holy Place To prove this I might instance in all those Text of Scripture of which the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians are especially full and so the Epistle to the Ephesians which treat concerning the Doctrine of Justification and clear it not to be of works neither internall nor externall but of grace But I will instance but in one Titus 3. 5 6 7. But after that the kindenesse saith he and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration Mark ye by it not for it Gods mercy and free-grace is the ground of the souls acceptation and therefore consider upon what principle thou runnest that concludest I have not yet been enough humbled for to be accepted as if thy humiliation were the reason and ground of Gods acceptation Indeed we ought never to think that we are enough humbled yet we ought alwayes to think that humiliation too much and that sense of our sins too much which hinders Faith for it destroyes its end Therefore why art thou thus troubled Christian with this conceit that your Faith is no Faith because before it you wept not just so many tears It is Faiths work to beleeve and apprehend the souls acceptation before God Now Gods acceptation as you have heard is never for the souls humiliation and therefore what should hinder thy Faiths working in apprehending thy acceptation before God because thou art not accepted for this work any more then any other Nay Secondly Thy humiliation is not a ground of Faith Thou doest not therefore apply Christ because thou art so and so humbled Put case that a great Prince should be willing to bestow his son in marriage upon a poor peasant onely saith he I will make this term or condition that when you come to marrie him you shal come in sackcloth to shew what ye are he shal give you a better garment afterwards wil any one say that this maids coming to the marriage arraied in sackcloth is a ground of her so rich mariage or will any say it is a meritorious condition that she deserveth such a match to come so attired Surely no the ground of all is the Princes delight in her this is the ground of his taking her to wife and yet the King commanded that attire So the Lord saith Poor vild wretch I will give thee my Christ in marriage but thou shalt come weeping to shake hands with him weeping for thy sins he shall afterwards take off thy sackcloth garments Can any say that this is either a meritorious cōdition or a ground of acceptation or Faith Consider Christian wert thou never so much humbled thou couldst not say I will therefore beleeve because I am humbled Humiliation is a necessary antecedent to Faith 〈◊〉 ground of Faith Let 〈◊〉 that therefore be a stumbling block to thee which cannot be a pillar and foundation to thee if thy Faith cannot stand upon it let it never stumble upon it And thus I have done with the second thing I propounded which was to propound such considerations to such souls as were under this temptation as might comfort their hearts and strengthen and stablish them Onely I beseech you remember to whom I have been speaking all this while not to hard-hearted stony souls but to broken and humbled souls not to those that regard not to get their souls humbled at all but to those that are humbled that they can be humbled no more and that groan under the hardnesse of their own hearts not to those that presume to apply their hot boiling lusts and corruptions to the blood and wounds of Jesus Christ flattering themselves with a notion of Faith and conceiting they do beleeve but to those that are humbled though they cannot have a good thought of themselves I would not be misunderstood to have spoken one word to slight the work of humiliation or to cherish that licentious novell Doctrine that there is no need at all of it and a Christian shall not need regard it but what I have spoken hath been not for dead men what should they do with cordialls but for dying fainting swooning Christians not for them that consider their sins too little but for them that so dim their eyes with poring on them that they cannot see the absolute covenant of God and the free-grace of Christ and lay hold upon the promises of life There is an extream on either side the sober Christian avoids either and keeps the mean So I have done with the second thing I propounded viz. to propound some considerations which might comfort the afflicted soul under this affliction and strengthen it to resist this temptation For without question as the Devil hath a designe upon many a soul to run it upon a rack of presumption and carry it on in a blind notion of Faith so he hath a designe upon some souls to wrack them upon the sands and sink them in a pit of despair The Devils devouring voice to souls is either There is no need of humiliation or there is no humiliation enough I come now to the last thing which I propounded which is to give some directions to such souls as are burthened with this affliction and groan under this temptation how to demean themselves and what to do I will reduce all that I shall speak by way of direction to these heads First Eye the nature of the covenant and grace and promises of God more Secondly Eye the nature and cause of humiliation more Thirdly Labour to get thy heart more humbled First of all Eye the nature of God declared in the free dealings out of his grace to thee This I shall enlarge in three instances 1. Eye Gods covenant and the nature of that 2. Eye Christs grace and the nature of that 3. Eye the Promises and the nature of them First Eye the nature of God in his covenant more The cause of this affliction is Christians too much eying and poring upon their sins and themselves the penitent beleever ought to have two eyes one to look downward another to look upward This is that which David comforted himself with when he considered his own unworthinesse and the unworthinesse of his house 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is my salvation and all my desire although he maketh it not to grow David though a man according to Gods own heart yet had a wicked house Absolom had slain his brother rebelled against his Father
and preach what need men in naturall condition have of Jesus Christ what a wofull condition they are in without him what a readinesse there is in Christ to save them and upon this presse faith doe you think it is not possible that some soule may be startled and run out of it self and rest truly upon Christ and yet not be for the present so well instructed as to give you an account of the Trinity of persons And yet without question it is a truth and a fundamentall truth too Acts 19. v. 2. Paul came to Ephesus and found certain men that were Disciples v. 1. He asks them if they had received the Holy Ghost they ingenuously confest that they were so farre from receiving the gifts of the Holy Ghost that they had not so much as heard whether there was an Holy Ghost or no I know most of expositors construe it of the gifts of the holy Ghost but for my part I cannot subscribe to their opinion but think the latter clause hath more then the former and that there is an emphasis in their answer and so Ioh. 20. v. 9. we find the Disciples of Christ ignorant in the point of Christs Resurrection from the dead and Christ chides his Disciples for their ignorance in this point The Disciples were ignorant concerning the Father Ioh. 14. 8. Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Luk. 24. v. 5. The very Apostles were ignorant in the point of Christs Kingdome and rule and dreamt of Christs restoring the temporall Kingdome to Israel Act. 1. v. 6. This is the case of many a poor Christian it may be it cannot read or it hath not lived where there hath been any faithfull powerfull soule-enlightning preaching but when Gods time comes he brings the soule to heare and it doth possibly heare of its poor naturall undone condition and that there is none other name by which the Christian may be saved but onely the Name of Jesus yet this now being the work of Gods Spirit the spirit carries on its own work and creates faith in the soule brings the soule to trust and rely on Iesus Christ There may be divers fundamentall points that the soule all this while hath not heard a word concerning as how many yeare sometimes doth a Minister preach and not directly meddle with the Doctrine of the Trinity c How many weeks and not preach the Doctrine of the Resurrection But here is now the condition of such a Christian after the Spirit of God hath enlightned him and convinced him c. the poor soule that regarded not instruction before now begins perhaps to learn to read pray now he heareth the Word more enquireth concerning God more c. and every day discovers more truth then other to which the soul by nature was blinded then begins Satans work the soule reflects upon it self and begins to say now Wo is me I have my work still to begin I have made my self beleeve I have been a beleever so long and alas I have been a poor blind ignorant wretch blind to the truths of Iesus Christ c. how could I beleeve while I knew so little Yes Christian thou mayest be a Scholler though thou beest but in thy Accidence there are some truths which are the Credenda ad salutem the very foundation upon which salvation standeth Now true faith is not consistent without these I cannot rest upon Christ and Christ onely for salvation and yet not know that there is a Christ nor what this Christ is how proportionate a Saviour for me without question the knowledge of the Doctrine of faith in Iesus Christ the Son of God and the Saviour of man what he is what he hath done what need we have of him what a fulnesse there is in him what a sufficiencie of salvation for every soule that beleeveth c. is so much knowledge as is absolutely necessary and without which no soule can be saved yet this must not be understood without some caution as I shall shew you anon for though it be truth such a blind soule may be enlightned so far as truely to beleeve yet if so it will deny no truth but labour and thirst after the knowledge of every truth A man may be a Grecian and yet not know every word in the Greek tongue no not every Radix Beleevers shall not bee saved by their Book Secondly A Beleever may be ignorant in many circumstanciall points of Religion and yet be a true Beleever this is clear from many examples in Scripture Peter himself did not know he might eat those birds and beasts Acts 11. which to the Iewes were unclean The beleeving Romanes did not know their liberty in point of holy-dayes Rom. 14. and eating of meats first offered to Idolls Gal. 4. which maketh the Apostle take a great deale of paines for setting Rules to strong Christians how to carry themselves in relation to their weak brethren Gal. 5. whose consciences were stumbled at their eating both in the 24. Chap. of his Epistle to the Romanes and also in his Epistle to the Corinthians he harps upon the same string again The Churches of Galatia and Colosse were ignorant about the point of Christian liberty The indulgent Master will not throw away the childs Exercise for want of a Comma Christ rejects not the Christians Faith because it is not fringed with a knowledge in every circumstantiall in Religion I call no truth circumstantiall as by a slighting and neglective terme for it is a beame of God but as comparatively though they be truths to be known embraced loved practised yet they touch not the vitals of salvation as I may say They are not necessary to be known ad esse to make a true beleever Thirdly a Christian may be ignorant in the History of the Bible and yet have true justifying faith Every Scholler is not a Chronologer nor an Historian no more is every beleever I may know what Christ was though I know not what Moses and Aaron were I may know which way Christ took to bring my soule out of darknesse into marvellous light though I do not know which way Moses took to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt I may know there is but one King of Kings though I do not know how many Kings there were of Israel and Iudah The Disciples did not know all the Prophets had spoken Luk. 24. 25. Fourthly a Christian may be a true beleever and yet not know the meaning of many places in Scripture God would never have appointed expounders of the Law if every Christian qua Christian were to have been a generall Commentator That Well is deep and every one hath not a Bucket to draw There are that tell us that â—e Spirit reveales the meaning of Scripture to the beleever and would thence evince that whoso hath the Spirit must needs bee fit to unty every knot and unriddle every mystery of Scripture but every one that hath
nature of his disease and the vertue of the salve with which the Plaister is spread that is to be applied to the sore hee is not able yet to apply it and lay it on for cure the hand of the Chirurgeon or some other for him must doe this Ro. 8. 16. So it is with the Soule Ro. 8. 16. The Spirit it self must beare witnesse with our spirits that wee are the children of God now unlesse that be witnessed we have nothing to do with the promise the children of the promise must be the children of God and in being his children they become â—â—ires of the promise as the Apostle disputes Gal. 3. It is a sweet and remarkable expression of David to this purpose Psal 119. Psal 119. â—9 v. 49. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope It is God and his spirit that must cause us to hope and trust in his word Now in regard that the Saints and Servants of God may though they alwayes have the spirit dwelling in them yet sometimes have the Spirit not so fully and powerfully acting in them the strong and powerfull actings of the Spirit it being the effects of Gods manifestive love which may be more or lesse in a Christian though his elective love admits of no degrees I say in this regard I conceive a Christian may have true saving Faith and yet not for the present at all times bee able to apply the promises with a particular Faith as its owne proper and peculiar portion And now you have heard the reasons which may be reduced shortly thus 1. Because there may be a misunderstanding or a cleare ignorance of the vertue of the promises which must be understood before they can bee particularly applyed 2. Because there may be a misunderstanding of the soules condition it may say there is no hope and judge its wounds incurable 3. Because there may want such a constant powerfull working of the Spirit of God in the soule as must be joyned with the soules peculiar application and yet there may be true faith For the first I conceive the particular applying of the promise with a confidence they are my portion doth argue a sense of faith which may not be in the soule and yet true faith be in it Secondly Because as a man must not be judged to be no man because he wants his power to act reason in a Feaver So the estimate of the truth of faith that is in the soule must not be taken in the distemperature of the soule when under heavy temptations or secondly dark and melancholy apprehensions or thirdly overpressing afflictions or fourthly sad desertions Thirdly Because there is a difference between resting out of a principle of hope which argues onely a relyance and dependance and out of a principle of certainty and perswasion applying The truly beleeving soule when out of desertions For hope which is seen is no hope and from under temptations and not burtheâ—d with afflictions and melancholy doth alwaeys apply the promises with an application of hope it hopes they belong to it Rom. 8. 24. though not alwayes with an application of perswasion now the application of hope and the resting out of a principle of hope But our hope must be lively provided there be an acting accordingly is enough to save Rom. 8. 24. â— Pet. 1. 3. 4 We are saved by hope 1 Cor. 15. 19. 1 Col. 27. But yet this we must not rest in but labour for a full perswasion the full assurance of hope Heb. 6. 11. Thou mayest apply thy selfe to the promse when thou canst not apply the promise to thee But of this more in the next Sermon The Twelfth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith CHAP. XII Concerning those weaknesses that may accompany the highest act of faith viz. Assurance And how to satisfie the soule that scruples its faith because it cannot be assured at all or weakly and unconstantly MY subject is to discover what doubts and weaknesse may be in relation to the last and highest act of Faith in a gracious soule for there is nothing more ordinary then to heare such complaints as these from a gracious soule Alas never tell me of faith I have no opinion at all that ever I shall be saved never did poor soule live at such incertainties I pray I look upward I desire I faint I groan I swoon and yet not a drop of cordiall water of perswasion that my Christ will afford me to revive my dying spirit or if I do sometimes catch up a perswasion in my soule and come to think that I have an interest in God it is but a bare thought and so weake that it is scarce able to â—â—â—nd a day sometimes indeed for a day or a week or a month together I could blesse my soule in a good condition but then againe I am as full of doubts and feares and is there any certainty in this faith am I not like a wave of the Sea tost about with thousands of winds One while I think I am sure of heaven and glory and am as it were wrapt up into a third heaven and the diademe of glory is fitting on to my head another while I am thrown down to hell and me thinks every Devill is tracing mee I will with the help of my God endeavavor to satisfie thee and shew thee what weaknesse may consist with this act and in relation to this act of Faith in these ensuing Conclusions Conclus 1. Thou wayst have a true and certaine faith and such a one as will richly save thee and yet have no assurance of thy salvation Indeed my severall Sermons that I preacht upon this Subject doe all concurre to the proofe of this truth for if a Christian may have saving Faith and yet so much weaknesse and doubting consist and be contemporaneous with it in the soule it will necessarily follow that Assurance is not the minimum quod sic the least degree of saving Faith But now it lying in my way I shall speak something more distinctly to it There are Opinions on the right hand and on the left concerning this sublime act of our Faith 1. The Papist denies any possibility of Assurance and reviles that pretious Doctrine as licentious and pleads only for a generall faith to believe the history of the Word and the Articles of Faith c. 2. The Antinomians on the other side deny any Faith to be true Faith that is accmpanied with any kind of doubting a full assurance they will make the minimum quod sic the least Faith that can help a man to heaven Some Reverend Writers living neare the time of the reign of that Popish Doctrine denying anything of perswasion to come into the nature of true saving Faith and setting themselves in full opposition to it have not a little though unwillingly contributed to the last opinion defining Faith to be a perswasion of the
19. 11. By the judgement of the Lord David was made circumspect And Thirdly if we consider that the Christian is not self-opinionated He cares not for false glasses and is more apt to behold his graces in a diminishing then a multiplying glasse the sincere Christian concerning himself is as ready to miscall a mountain a mole-hill as the hypocrite is to misjudge every mole-hill a mountain almost as ready to miscall his good evill as the other to nickname his evill good And for the third Branch of the Doctrine That as it is the duty of Christians to be sensible and groan under the defect of Faith so it is their duty and they will not stand still but strive and pray for an increase of it Much reason might be given for that too As First From the nature of the spirit of God that worketh and dwelleth in them Faith is the spirits work 1 Cor. 12. 9. Flesh and blood never revealed it Now the spirit is a quickning spirit 1 Pet. 3. 18. It is life Rom. 8. 10. Now where there is a principle of life there will be growth It is a working spirit that phrase we have often The spirit which worketh in you c. Now the spirits work is not to undo what it hath done but to work further and more Secondly If we consider The end of the Christian in the acting of all his graces Phil. 3. 13. The Apostle expresseth it fully Perfection is his butt he knows he must draw his bow with all his strength and his arrow to the head if he means to reach the butt and he shall not hit it neither The Christians voice is Heb. 6. 1. Let us go unto perfection It is the hypocrite sets himself bounds in Religion and sayes hither will I go and no further And to adde no more Thirdly The Christian knows that the more he hath of Faith the more he hath of Christ he knows that there is a depth of sweetnesse in Christ that can never be â—adomed something more to be understood when he understands as much as he can of him when the soul hath as much as its narrow hand can grasp of him whole Christ is too big to be enclosed in mortall arms Now the soul knows that Faith is the hand must squeeze that essence of sweetnesse the arm that must claspe him and he knows that the longer his arm of Faith is the more he shall graspe of him though he shall never be able to comprehend immeasurable Christ Eph. 3. 16 17 18. This makes him alwayes complain of his dwarfishnesse that his hand of Faith is not big enough and his arm of Faith is not long enough he cannot get in so much of Christ into his soul as he would do this makes him pray for an increase of Faith and so often complain of the shortnesse of his arm he cannot beleeve as he would This makes him say with our Apostle here Lord increase my Faith I come now to the application and here is matter of Consolation and Exhortation For all Christians 1. Cons especially those that are most sensible of the weaknesse of their Faith There have been and are more dwarfs besides thee Christian Perfection is a white was never hit the best archers come an handfull short It is indeed the mark at which every one ought to levell his arrows but all the souls of Christians like the arrows of Ionathan have flown some over into glory some short some on this hand some on that none hath hit the mark Be of good comfort Christian weak Faith is Faith little ones are true children of the Father that casts none away that comes though creeping to him Heaven hath room for babes as well as men A childe may pull the latch of heavens door and go in and be welcome to the knee of the King of Glory to the bosome of him Isai 40. 11. Who feeds his flock like a shepheard and carries the lambs in his bosome Jesus Christ hath his arms full of tender sucking lambs or at least that were so upon the earth The youngest Christian if he be an heir is of age to take up his land in heaven nonage is no bar The Garden of God hath more slips then old stocks in it now indeed they are become stocks but here they were but tender slips while Christ took them up out of the land of grace and transplanted them But Secondly Eâ—hor Is it so that the best of Christians have but a weak Faith in comparison of that perfection we ought to aspire to and that it is the duty of Christians to be sensible of it and pray and strive against it Let us all then look upon it as our duty Let us pray Lord increase our Faith Let us strive after that we shall never attain to even perfection Heb. 6. 1. Now here many directions might be given The first I will give shall be to remove those things which hinder the growth of it as scruples cavillings c. From hence shall I take my rise for a subject which with the blessing of God I do intend for some time to insist upon to satisfie the souls of some poor Christians in those scruples which may perplex them touching this grace of Faith The removing of which will not a little conduce to the increasing of this grace in their souls I will begin with the first And here though I spend many Sermons I trust I shall not be tedious having intended to make it my work in these Lectures to satisfie doubting Christians in cases of conscience and to begin with those which concern this radical grace at which the Devill bends so much of his force and malice Therefore wouldest thou grow in Faith Direct 1. remove those scruples which hinder the beginning and progresse of Faith in thy soul There are two notes of a weak Faith in a gracious soul 1. A sence of no Faith 2. A fear of a false Faith First A sence of no Faith Many a soul doth beleeve that perswades it self it neither doth nor ought to beleeve you shall often meet with Christians and especially in the beginning of their conversion that will cry out O they cannot beleeve nay what have they to do to beleeve Faith were but a presumption in their soul if they could hatch it up Or if not so Secondly Yet you cannot make them think that they do beleeve no Faith and they are strangers c. Now as it is in the diseases of the body the cure is scarce wrought untill the cause be first discovered and removed so it is likewise in the troubles and disquietments of the soul we shall scarce be able to remove them out of the souls way unlesse we first finde how they came there and if we can but truely understand the cause we shall easily remove the effect In generall we must know these complaints are to be understood concerning the Acts of Faith I dare not or cannot or do
pardon of our sins and of a pardon past and done c. I have already shewed you that the essence and marrow of justifying Faith consists in the soules rolling it selfe and relying upon God for eternall salvation not in the soules assurance that God is its God in the soules goings out not in its commings in in its direct act not in its reflect act And therefore our Divines make a distinction betwixt a soules application of its self to the promise and a soules application of the promise to it selfe and grant that there may bee in the soule a certainty of Faith in respect of the object though not an assurance of Faith in respect of the subject Wee will a little enquire how perswasion comes into the nature of justifying Faith There is a double distinction which I have noted before and shall here repeat would be observed concerning this perswasion First there is a difference betwixt a Perswasion and a beleeved Perswasion on a full Perswasion Secondly there is a great deale of difference betwixt a perswasion eying the future and relating to the present There may be in a gracious soule a perswasion though he sayes he is not perswaded There is a great deale of difference betwixt Faith and the Sense and feeling of Faith as I shall shew you more hereafter Secondly there may be in a soule a certain perswasion though not a full perswasion In all Faith there is a perswasion but in all Faith there is not a full perswasion the word in Scripture translated full perswasion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4. 21. It is said that Abraham was fully perswaded it is put in opposition to doubting of unbeliefe being so saith the text hee staggered not through unbeliefe and so Rom. 14. Let him that eateth be fully perswaded that is so perswaded that hee doth not eate with any scruple of mind or doubting of spirit I may be perswaded of a thing that yet I am not fully perswaded of but have some doubts of yet when my reasons for the affirmative are more then for the negative my mind begets a perswasion and enters a perswasion in my soule from the major vote of reason Now I cannot be said to bee fully perswaded unlesse my soule runs without a rubâ— as it is ordinary amongst us when wee are informed by credible Witnesses of such a thing done wee may bee perswaded it is true and really beleeve the truth of it and yet will not sweare it and perhaps shall have scruples and doubts unlesse we saw it our selves c. So a Christian may be perswaded that Gods love is towards him but till he feeles it as well as thinkes it he will hardly have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full perswasion without any manner of doubts or scruples concerning it Again There is a great deale of difference betwixt a perswasion for the present and a perswasion for the future I am forced to put it in these Termes for want of other I meane betwixt an assurance that my sinnes are actually pardoned and a perswasion that they are pardonable and decretally and meâ—itoriously pardoned and I shall feel at last the seale of Gods love I must speake here according to the manner of men it is true it may sound harshly that a Christian should beleeve only that God will pardon his sins and will justify him I know there be some learned and pretious men that hold that the elected soule is pardoned and formally justifyed before he beleeves and so would make our justification as Master Burgesse saith wittily nothing but the fetching a Coppy out of the Courtrâ—ll but I am of his mind in his late Treatise of justification p. 17. 8. where hee gives severall Arguments against this opinion As First If it bee so then all the Elect were then made blessed and happy their sins not being imputed contrary to Eph. 2. 3. Secondly because this Doctrine would make justification onely to bee declarative when the Scriptures tell us that our sinnes are charged upon us till wee beleeve Thirdly because Christ cannot as an head represent those that are not his members now before actuall beleeving we are no members of Christ Indeed meritoriously and vertually our sinnes are pardoned before wee beleeve See the Arguments against this answered in Mr Burgesse his Treatise of justification p. 180 181. and our soules are justified before we beleeve but I with him cannot see how we are formally and actually justified before we beleeve and to his Arguments give me leave to add a fourth Fourthly Pardon of sin and justification it is an acquitting of the guilty soule before God for the righteousnesse of another now how the soule should be actually acquitted before it be actually and formally guilty I cannot understand And therefore I say a soule may be perswaded that its sins are pardonable and shall be pardoned and accordingly truly rely upon the Lord Iesus Christ for the pardon of them which is true Faith though it cannot be fully perswaded that its sinns are pardoned And thus much may briefly serve to have noted how far perswasion and assurance necessarily come into the nature of true and saving Faith and how not And concerning it I shall only nominate these conclusions to you as containing the whole truth concerning it First That a Christian may have saving Faith though he cannot be fully perswaded that God hath actually pardoned and blotted out his sins and formally justified him for a beleeving that my sins are formally pardoned is to beleeve I am justified and is the Faith of a justified person not justifying Faith properly so called Secondly That a Beleever may have true saving Faith though he could never yet at all be perswaded that God had actually and formally justified his soule by pardoning his sins This is still the application of the promise to the soule and a reflex act of Faith which conduceth more to the soules comfort then its formall justification Thirdly That a Christian may have true justifying Faith though he cannot at all times be fully and unquestionably perswaded that God will pardon his sins a rationall man in a Feaver may have lost his actings of reason though while he hath the being of a man reason hath a being in him the tongue may belye the heart when the actions cleer it A Christian may be at will God pardon me with his tongue when his heart really thinks he will and he manifestly shewes it by crying fasting fearing to sin lying groveling at the doore of free grace Fourthly That a Christian cannot have true saving justifying Faith unlesse he doth I doe not say unlesse hee think he doth or unlesse he sayes hee doth but unlesse he doth beleeve and is perswaded that God will pardon his sins it is easily perceived by its resolving not to leave crying praying walking holily and circumspectly that it is perswaded in this particular that it is best both simply and in comparison to draw near to God