Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	act_n	believe_v	faith_n	1,015	5	5.7119	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81131	The arraignment of unbelief, as the grand cause of our nationall non-establishment: cleared in a sermon to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament, at Margarets Westminster, upon the 28th. of May, 1645. being the day of their publike fast. / By Joseph Caryl, late preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolnes-Inne, now pastor at Magnus neer the bridge, London.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1645 (1645)	Wing C749; Thomason E286_5; ESTC R200075	31,767	54

This Kingdom shall be holden up for God is able to make it stand How so God hath received it Do yee perceive no breakings forth of the love of God to his people in this Kingdom Hath he done nothing which intimates he hath received this people Surely he hath therefore we may argue God is able to make us stand therefore we shall be holden up for God hath received us A third objection is thus raised You will have us beleeve that we shall be established but I pray shew us a word for our faith Can you give us any promise Isaiah here brought a promise immediatly from Heaven he told the people from the mouth of God that they should be established can you do so too Faith is a wise grace Faith loves not to build upon the sand much lesse to build castles in the ayr Faith must have a sure foundation and nothing will serve faiths turne but the word of God It will not build upon the bare word of all the Preachers in the world As the great Mathematician said Shew me a place where I shall set mine engine and I will shake all the earth so saith faith Give me but a sure word whereupon I may fix my foot I will carry any thing but where is that word to be found what 's the text chapter and verse that England shall be established or have you any extraordinary revelation that it shall 'T is granted We have no such revelations as Isaiah brought to Ahaz and his people but we have that which serves faiths turn sufficiently and so much as amounts to a particular promise I may say There is as much ground in Scripture for faith to build on for the present temporall salvation of this distressed Kingdom as any man at first hath or had in Scripture to beleeve his eternall salvation I clear it thus Suppose we comming to a man lying in the state of nature and under trouble of conscience for his sinne should offer him Christ and pardon and he should say Shew a promise which belongs to me What promise could we tender him could we bring one with his name literally in it doth any promise speak explicitely Thomas or John do thou beleeve and thou shalt be saved There is no such word for the salvation of any man There are promises of three sorts in Scripture First Promises of free grace that God will justifie the ungodly and pardon sinne for his own Names sake Secondly Promises of grace that God will give faith repentance love and a new heart c. Thirdly Promises unto grace that if we beleeve and repent we shall be saved Promises of these three sorts are all we have to build our faith upon for eternall salvation and these we or any other Nation that is under the same condition hath to build assurance upon for temporall salvation There are promises of free grace to Nations that God will deliver and save them for his own Names sake such a promise we have though the Name of England be not expressed in it Again there are promises of grace to Nations that God will poure out a spirit of repentance and humiliation upon them and cause them to return Lastly we have promises unto grace that if a people call upon God repent and turn from their evil waies they shall be delivered If my people which are called by my Name do humble themselves and seek my face and pray and turn unto me I will hear in Heaven and deliver c. 2 Chro. 7. 14. These promises were made not only to the people of Israel but to all people who are the Israel of God Say not then this stops your faith ye cannot beleeve establishment because ye want a promise of establishment these promises are ours as well as this was Jerusalems These objections and stumbling-blocks being thus I hope answered and removed out of the way of faith let your faith gird up her loynes and rejoyce like a giant to run her race Act faith for the Kingdom as you would for your own souls Is it not a duty to beleeve when you pray and seek God about temporals in their degree and kinde as well as when about spirituals and eternals in theirs Hath not God given his people sometimes as clear evidences as strong assurances that their prayers have been heard about temporals as about eternals What if we should not be under the influences of those promises which are made unto grace to a repenting reforming people yet faith hath footing enough in those which are made of grace to give give repentance and reformation to a people and in those of free-grace that God will save for his Name sake though a people are generally impenitent and unreformed A probability of prevailing is a sufficient ground both for praying and beleeving The Prophet Joel chap. 2. 14 perswades that afflicted people to fast and pray in that he perswaded them to beleeve upon this offer only Who knoweth if he will return and repent Nineve is carried up to beleeve by the same argument Jon. 3. 9. Who can tell if God will return A peradventure from God is better then an absolute promise from any creature So long as God hath not said hee will not though hee hath not said hee will let us venture God hath not yet forbidden prayer but rather bespoken it in the hearts of his people God hath not yet declared by any work of providence against England as he did against Judah by his word Jer. 15. 1 2. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde could not be towards this people cast them out of my sight and let them go forth such as for death to death c. No he hath rather declared his willingnesse if not his resolvednesse to deliver to save to settle to establish us His heart seems to work toward us let our faith work toward him yea let our faith have a perfect work and then I doubt not but God will perfect all our works If we beleeve surely we shall be established Lastly If a shaking Kingdom be established by beleeving then how precious are beleevers Are they not the bases and pillars of a state Job puts the question concerning wisedom chap. 28. 12. Where shall wisedom be found and where is the place of understanding The depth saith It is not in me and the sea saith It is not with me ver 14. Should I put such a quaerie about the point in hand Where shall the stability of the Nation be found and what is the place of its strength Your sea would say It is not in me and your ships would say It is not in us your Garisons in fortified Cities and your Armies in the open field your correspondencies abroad and your counsels at home would or must all bring in their disclaimers and say Strength is not in us in us establishment is not to be found Where is it then the text answers Faith is our strength establishing is

from the words the first I shall but touch in generall take it thus Promises of mercy from God include mans duty Acts of spirituall duty and acts of corporall and civill duty Deliverance and establishment are promised to King Ahaz and his people but they cannot enjoy either except they beleeve The Lord made glorious promises for the restauration of Israel and concludes them all with this asseveration I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it Ezek. 36. 36. neverthelesse he adds ver 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them What the Lord will do we must beleeve he will do and we must pray that he would do it These are acts of spirituall duty And these are not all when the Lord promises we must not only set our hearts awork to beleeve and pray but we must set our hands awork to labour and do While Iacob was travelling to Padan-aram the Lord appears to him in a vision at Bethel and thus encourages him Behold I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again into this land for I will not leave thee till I have done all that I have spoken to thee of Gen. 28. 15. And when upon the discourteous usage of his uncle Laban he meditated a departure from him the Lord gives him his Passe-port ch 31. 2 Return unto the land of thy fathers and I will be with thee How might Iacob at the appearance of any danger have pleaded these promises and rested under the shadow of them for protection Lord I have thy word surer then the foundations of Heaven and earth for my safety unlesse thy truth or thy power fail I cannot miscarry let Esau threaten and muster all his forces against me let earth and hell enter league and associate themselves against me here I sit under the banner of those gracious promises which thou hast displayed over me I will not trouble my self Lord thou standest charg'd to keep me from all anoyance But doth Iacob make this use of the promise Nothing lesse He beleeves but he is not carelesse he trusts in God but he neglects not himself though God had said I will keep thee whither soever thou goest yet he labours to keep himself read how upon the approach of his bloudy brother he sends presents to appease him how he divides his flocks and family to make resistance or escape him That of Paul Acts 27. is eminent to this purpose where with his weather-beaten companions in that voyage having been in great stresse at sea he steps forth ver 22. to revive their fainting spirits with a comfortable message Be of good cheer for there shall be no losse of any mans life amongst you but of the ship For there stood by me this night the Angel of the Lord whose I am and whom I serve saying Fear not Paul thou must be brought before Caesar and lo God hath given thee all those that sail with thee Pauls faith closes fully with this promise ver 25. I beleeve God that it shall be even as he hath told me Yet at the 31 verse when the ship-men under colour of casting out Anchors were about to escape in the cock-boat Paul saith to the Centurion and the Souldiers except these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved Not saved Paul where then is the word and promise of thy God upon which thou didst even now so confidently pronounce safety to us all If we run out of the way of God we run out of the word of God To rely upon the word and then go out of the way of God is not faith but presumption Providence will not serve our negligence neither will the promise keep us except we keep the condition of the promise If ye beleeve not surely ye shall not be established Observe secondly Without beleeving there is no establishing Vnbelief is a barre in the way of promised blessings I saith the Prophet have made you large promises but take heed ye do not straiten the hand of God in giving out the mercy promised As faith stops the severest threatnings of destruction so unbelief stops the sweetest promises of deliverance Jonah prophesies chap. 3. 4. Yet fourty daies and Nineveh shall be overthrown but the faith of Nineveh overthrew that prophecie the City stood and the prophecie fell Why The people of Nineveh beleeved God and proclaimed a fast c. ver 5. What faith can do to a prophecie of judgement the same can unbelief to a promise of mercy overthrow it The Psalmist assignes this to the unbelief of the works of God as well as of his word Psal 78. 32 33. They beleeved not his wondrous works therefore their daies did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble But are not the daies of all men consumed in vanity Is not man at his best estate altogether vanity Yes but here was a speciall vanity and somewhat more poenall and judiciall lay upon that generation for their unbelief then lies upon man-kinde as the fruit of sinne in generall And what was that even the evil threatned in the text they could not be established God lets them wander fourty years in a wildernesse up and down forward and backward now in hope anon in fear now in joy anon in sorrow now a successe by and by a disappointment They looked for Canaan but to Canaan they could not come they looked for a setled condition but God kept them upon uncertainties they went toyling about the wildernesse to seek a passage out yet most of them found none but at the door of the grave this was the spending of their years in vanity and they spent them thus because of their unbelief The land of Canaan was so much promised to the Israelites that it was called the land of promise yet unbelief kept them out fourty years The Apostle is as plain Heb. 3. 19. So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief Their unbelief built a wall between them and Canaan it locked up the passages so fast that they could not enter in And as it blockt up the way against the unbeleeving Israelites so against Moses the Captain and conductor of Israel he must deliver up his leading-staff and resign his Commission to his servant Ioshua he must die on this side Iordan The reason is given Numb 20. 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron saying Because ye beleeve me not to sanctifie me in the eies of the children of Israel therefore ye shall not bring this Congregation into the land which I have given them The Prophet Ieremiah chap. 17. 5. pronounceth a curse upon the man that trusteth upon man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. The Apostle expounds whose heart that is Heb. 3. 12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living

God An unbeleeving heart is an heart departing from the living God The antithesis in the Prophet ver 7. confirmes that exposition Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Hope and trust are the contraries to unbelief But what is the portion of this unbeleeving heart No good I warrant you The sixth verse assures us so He shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good commeth As unbelief locks sinne upon our souls sorrows and judgements upon our bodies so it locks our souls out of eternall and our bodies out of temporall salvation An unbeleever shall not see when good cometh that is he shall not taste or enjoy good when it commeth So Elisha told that unbeleeving Lord when in the name of the Lord he had promised plenty in Samaria Behold thou shalt see it with thine eies but shalt not eat thereof 2 King 7. 2. That text of the Apostle carries a shew of opposition against this truth Rom. 11. 32. God saith he hath concluded them all sc Jews and Gentiles in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all It seems then that mercy rather comes in then is shut out by unbelief God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all as if God intended to make his advantage and opportunity of shewing mercy to that people by finding them in an unbeleeving condition I answer There is a two-fold mercy First the mercy of vocation Secondly the mercy of salvation when the Apostle saith that God concluded or shut them all up in unbelief that he might have mercy upon them all he means it of the mercy of vocation The Gentiles in their time were all unbeleevers then God called them and the Jews at this time are unbeleevers they deny obedience to the Gospell yet God will call them again the calling of the Jews hereafter as heretofore the calling of the Gentiles shall be of free grace there was no preparation in the one there shall be none in the other to move God to call them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ God calls us to faith when we have no faith He calls to beleeve while we are in unbelief The mercy of vocation prevents faith God doth not call men because they are beleevers or because they have faith but he calleth them to beleeve he calleth them unto faith So the Apostle arguing about that great mercy of justification Rom. 3. 19. shewes how the Lord stops every mouth and makes all the world become guilty before him God doth not justifie any person because he is guiltlesse or holy but that he may be guiltlesse and holy He doth not justifie any man because he is free from sinne but that he may be free from sinne Thus the mercy of vocation prevents our faith and the mercy of justification prevents our righteousnesse and obedience God justifies the ungodly But in giving the mercy of salvation whether it be temporall or eternall salvation God looks upon a people or a person beleeving and therefore makes promises for faith to act upon that we may be saved that we may be established A second objection rises against this point from that speech of Christ in the close of the Parable of the unjust Judge and the importunate Widow where assuring his elect who cry unto him night and day that he will avenge them speedily he adds Neverthelesse when the Sonne of man commeth shall he finde faith on the earth that is he shall not finde faith on the earth and yet then he comes upon a gracious design the deliverance of his elect It seems then that unbelief or want of faith doth not hinder mercy for this great mercy shall be given in when faith shall not be found to beleeve it See here a plentifull harvest of comfort and yet at the same time a dearth of faith none to be found upon the earth I answer first The words import only a great declining of faith in those times not a totall decay of it Secondly The intent of those words is not to bring unbelief into any credit but only to support and cherish the faith of some few in the appearing of much unbelief and despondencie in others For in hard times we hear frequently such complaints as these Do ye not see how the hearts of men fail how their spirits are down how they give up all for lost Faith was never so low as now and therefore surely we must shortly be lower then we are this prevailing raign of unbelief among us is a sad argument that evils shall raign over us too thus the heart misgives To releeve such our Lord Christ saith Neverthelesse when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith on the earth As if he had said though all ought to encrease and strengthen faith in darkest times both in themselves and others yet let no man despair because some or many do not beleeve for as their unbelief shall not make the faith that is the faithfullnesse or faith-word of God without effect Rom. 3. 3. so neither shall it make the faith of other men without effect Yea in this sense the lesse faith the more hope When you see the spirits of most drooping their flesh trembling and their hands hanging down This looks most like the time wherein Christ will come to avenge his elect and do great things And those Saints in whom faith bears up its head in such times may use the generall unbelief of their brethren as a strong advantage for their own faith and representing it to God in prayer may plead thus Lord faith failes exceedingly very few of thy oppressed people do or can be perswaded to beleeve that thou wilt help them why therefore Lord hasten in help now come to our succour Is not this the day of thy comming for thou shalt scarce finde faith on the earth to beleeve thou wilt come Thirdly Though Christ will come at last to releeve his people when little faith is to be found among them yet it shall be best with those in whom he findes most faith and wo to those who neglect the raising of their faith because they hear Christ will come when faith is down The freenesse of his grace in helping an unbeleeving generation will be no excuse but a reproof of their unbelief Our duty to beleeve is not the lesse because his goodnesse to those who beleeve not is so great yea they who to put themselves into a posture for deliverance cast away their faith are cloathed with presumption And though Christ may establish those who through weaknesse or want of faith cannot beleeve yet surely they shall never be established who through boldnesse with or wantonnesse upon his grace strive not to give him glory in beleeving To cleer which I shall now proceed to give you some demonstrations of this point why unbelief is the barre and stop of blessings This appears First From the greatnesse of the sinne of

of holy rhetorique in it Beleeve in the Lord your God so shall you be established beleeve his Prophets so shall you prosper 2 Chron. 20. 20. The prosperity of our worldly affairs as well as of our heavenly depends upon and flowes from the actings of our faith In the next place Give me leave Honourable and beloved to be an informer this day against the Kingdoms greatest enemy and the hinderer of our National establishment It was the custome of the Iews as some of the Learned have observed from the story of Naboth 1 King 21. 10. upon the day of their solemn fast to accuse and charge notorious offenders How many things and persons have been and still are suspected yea charged with that notorious offence the shaking of this nation while that which is most guilty is not thought on at all by many and not enough thought on by any I mean and I 'le name it unbelief And I mean not only unbelief abroad and at large but your own in whose ears I chiefely speak this day and into whose hands that great and noble work of establishing this shaken and of uniting this divided Kingdom is committed Though it be uncomely for me to charge you yet it is the duty of this day for you to enquire of your own hearts whether your own unbelief hath not impeded that long prayed for and long waited for effect and issue of your counsels the establishment of this Nation This Nation hath been long in counsell and yet it is not established long in action and yet it is not established We have prayed long fasted long and yet we are not established I have the text and my point to warrant if I accuse and arraign unbelief as the cause of all this Why what hath unbelief done or who hath seen it doing this evil Unbelief is an invisible enemy and therefore a more dangerous enemy But though it be invisible in its nature yet it is not only visible but palpable in its effects as holy faith also is Hence as faith is called effectuall faith and prayer effectuall prayer because these break forth and operate in glorious effects so unbelief may be called effectuall unbelief because it breaks forth and operates in lamentable effects And whatsoever is or can be lookt upon as a cause of our continued troubles and shakings is without any strain or slander reducible to unbelief as the cause of those causes and therefore the cause of those effects First Some say we are not established because we are so divided And are not our divisions the fruit of our unbelief Hearts not joyned in faith to God cannot joyn or not firmely joyn to one another in love They that go off from God and every act of unbelief in us is a step from him seldome keep close to one another Faith is the cement and soder of affection Secondly If it be said we are not established because still so unreformed sinne abounds still and therefore trouble abounds still I grant it But whence is it that sinne abounds I must set that also upon the head of unbelief It is unbelief which protects sinne and keeps it alive notwithstanding the sentence of death hath gone out so often against it Though it hath so often in these sin-mortifying duties of prayer and fasting been carried out to execution Sinne laughs at all our daies of sorrow and humiliation at our fasts and prayers while unbelief backs and stands to it For as faith is a shield to the new-man which quenches all the fiery darts of the Devil so unbelief is a shield to the old-man which quenches all the holy darts of the Spirit The word cannot wound a sinner while he is armed with unbelief Sinne will save its skinne much more its heart till faith sets it naked to the stroaks and smitings of the word Thirdly If it be said Surely we are not established because we are grown so carelesse so cold and formall in those Kingdom-establishing duties fasting and prayer Many neglect to keep them as counting such daies lost out of the calendar of their lives But most are negligent in keeping them and have turned the whole businesse into a meer bodily exercise or the hanging down of their heads for a day This neglect to keep fasts and negligent keeping of them is so grosse and notorious that it makes many hearts to bleed while they think of it Hence some have thought it most safe to move for the supersedeating of these duties fearing that such setled fasts will but more unsettle the Kingdom and rather provoke the Lord then pacifie him towards us Reasons may be given for the laying down of these Monethly and the keeping only of occasionall fasts though in one sense our monethly fasts are occasionall the great occasion why they began continuing to this day But how sad is it to consider that this should be given as a reason That we have laid down these fasts because we are weary keeping them or are grown formall in keeping of them To break off from such a duty upon these terms is a lamentation and will be one What have we fasted away the tendernesse of our hearts and our sensiblenesse of Gods hand have we prayed away our zeal for God and our love to communion with him this is dreadfull But how dreadfull soever it is this which God forbid if it be so must be charged upon unbelief Why do any neglect fasts it is because they do not beleeve it will quit cost to observe them they beleeve more gain is to be got by working in their callings and more comfort will come in by letting themselves out in pleasures therefore they will not forbear their labours or abridge themselves for a day of their pleasures No man will afflict his body as in such daies he must much lesse his soul as in such daies he ought unlesse faith shew him a benefit which will bear his charge and comforts which will swallow up his sorrows in doing them And whence is it that many who appear outwardly in these duties are so formall rather personating the faster and petitioner then being fasters and petitioners is it not from unbelief They who have slight thoughts of a duty must needs act it slightly And whence is it that prayer and fasting are at any time successelesse and ineffectuall is not this from unbelief Praying without beleeving is a taking of Gods Name in vain and in regard of any fruit a vain help for man Prayer without faith is nothing but a noise of words meer babling it is but speaking not praying In the sixth of Matthew Christ reproves those who thought to be heard for their much speaking We shall surely be heard if we pray but a little but we shall never be heard how much soever we speak And if faith be mixt in the duty how long soever we continue speaking how many words yea repetitions soever we use in it Christ will not call it much speaking but much

praying Though he reproved much speaking yet he neither did nor ever will reprove much praying Now unbelief makes that which is commonly called praying how much soever it is to be but much speaking And for that because Christ is not in it neither man nor nation shall be heard The establishing of an unsetled Kingdom calls as for the highest and purest motions of reason in counselling so for the holiest and most spirituall motions of faith in praying But as unbelief darkens the light of reason that it cannot see or holds it in unrighteousnesse so it clips the wings of prayer that it cannot ascend or returns it answerlesse Fourthly Should it be said Instruments have been unfaithfull they have not acted up to the highest either of their abilities or of their duties and therefore surely we are not established Then I must return unbelief as guilty of this unfaithfullnesse Want of faith is the cause of all the unfaithfullnesse that ever was in the world the very root of apostasie both from God and man Faith keeps the heart steady and will see us die rather then offer a thought of withdrawing from a known duty Faith blasts all tempting objects yea it out-bids all tempers shewing greater good in doing our duty then the world can offer us for omitting or falling off from it shewing us greater evil in neglecting our duty then the world can threaten us with for doing or comming up to it When Paul began to be jealous of his Thessalonians 1 Ep. 3. 5 6 7. Lest by some means the tempter had tempted them he presently sent a messenger to them to know how their faith did and as soon as the messenger returned bringing good tiding of their faith namely that their faith was in heart and in good plight Paul was comforted he knew as long as their faith stood they would stand against all temptations he might turn them loose into the world they would take no hurt A beleever is the greatest conquerer This is the victory that overcommeth the world even our faith 1 Joh. 5. 4. and that which betrayes us into the hand of every temptation is unbelief It makes men act basely and render themselves prisoners to every promise of preferment or hope of profit to every whispering threat of danger and fear of losse Where unbelief reigns it either divides the man or amazes him either it makes him an hypocrite with two hearts or a coward without a heart And between those who have two hearts and those who have no hearts the best work in the world may soon miscarry Unbelief nurses ignoble emulations undue ambitions base covetousnesse it moves to self-seeking caries to self-ends makes the spirit poor and private it bids us shift and comply with all humours and advises to follow not the reason goodnesse truth or justice of an undertaking but the successes or advantages of it Fiftly Some charge our unsettlement upon unresolvednesse fearfullnesse and want of courage in carrying on the work If so These also I see by their complexion are the children of unbelief for that is it which causeth a man to hang like a meteor in the ayr between Heaven and earth not knowing which way to move They who have little faith have much fear and they who have no faith are in a readinesse to be all fear to be slain by fear so were they of whom the Prophet Jeremie speaks chap. 22. 1. They are slain and not by the sword Fear saves the enemy a labour courage in battell is usually flatted by unbelief and though some may shew valour who have no faith yet faith is the truest spring and support of valour By faith they waxed valiant in fight Heb. 11. Courage in counselling and reforming fades also and dies away by unbelief Vnbelief makes a man afraid of displeasing any one but God It speakes as the messenger to Micaiah 1 King 22. 13. Let thy word be like one of them and speak that which is good Many have given counsell before suiting both the humour and design of the King therefore said that messenger do thou vote with them too let there be no dissent among the Prophets speak that which is good that which is pleasingly good he meant no matter whether it be justly or truly good else it may go ill with thee thou mayest be cast in prison and fed with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction With such words as these will unbelief if it be admitted to speak its minde prepare the heart for counsell every morning It tells such fearfull stories or lying prophecies rather as will not let a man speak or act beyond his own interests When Hezekiah made that bold reformation removing the high places breaking the Images cutting down the groves and breaking in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made and was now made an Idol calling it Nehushtan to the record of those noble acts the Holy Ghost affixes the character of the agent He trusted in the Lord God of Israel 2 King 18. 4 5. What difficulty or danger will not trust in God carry man thorow in Gods way And sutely it carried Hezekiah thorow very great ones in that his zealous reformation What visions of fear and danger might unbelief have represented to Hezekiah What! remove the highest places it may remove you from your high place will you cut down the groves that act may cut down your life will you break the Images especially that famous one the Brazen serpent take heed it be not the breaking of your Kingdome Do you not know how your people are engaged to these courses I grant they are superstitious but this nation will not easily part with them if you will be so strict in reforming you may embroil all Consider what the Kingdom will bear enquire how the City will take this and how the countrey it is wisedom to look to your own peace and to follow safe counsels as well as right or holy counsels How did the faith of Hezekiah triumph over these discouraging base suggestions And if ever any have been or shall be led into captivity by their power resolve it that man was first captivated by unbelief Sixtly Some charge our non-establishment upon our carnall confidence our trusting in an arme of flesh They will tell us we have made an Idol of the Parliament an Idol of our Armies we have leaned so much upon our staves that we have broken some of them crackt others and endangered the rest If this be a true charge I must lay it as all the former upon the back of unbelief They who beleeve God too little do alwaies beleeve man too much that which makes God but as a man will quickly make man as a God whereas faith while it causes us to be so diligent in the use of means as if God would do nothing for us causeth us so to withdraw our trust from the means as if God were to do all for us faith shews us as much need of