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A59685
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The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs spirit in reconciling of a sinner to God / by Tho. Shepard ...
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Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing S3133; ESTC R3907
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171,496
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360
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other reason but because it is commanded and called to accept of it this puts an end unto all doubts all feares all discouragements and the soule answers as those Ier. 3.22 Behold we come for thou art the Lord our God As a man in great want of bread one comes and freely offers him bread to preserve his life the man takes it if you aske him Why doe you take it you are a poore fellow unworthy of it never did yet one houres work for it he answers T is true I am unworthy but yet because it is offered to me to preserve life I gladly take it the man doth not promise absolutely to me that this bread is mine and shall feed me but he tels me if I doe receive it it shall certainly be mine to feed me and this is the main ground of his receiving of it Just so it is in Faith Aske an humbled sinner Why doe you beleeve Why doe you take Christ as your owne Hath the Lord said absolutely that he is yours No saith the soule but the Lord freely offers himselfe unto me who am undone without him and saith if I doe receive him he shall be for ever mine to give life to me and therefore I thankfully accept of him this is the ground of Faith The Scripture sets out this in a lively similitude of a great Supper to which many were invited what was the ground of their comming to it Behold all things are ready if you come and eate they are not yours if you doe not come but if you come at my call and invitation then all things shall be yours And hence it is that they that came not were excluded they that came were received with welcome I know t is a question of some difficulty among some viz. Whether an absolute testimony of actuall favour and justification be not the first ground of Faith They that make Faith to be an absolute assurance of Gods favour must of necessity maintain this assertion and then these things will follow 1. That a Christian must be justified before he beleeve for the cause of Faith must goe before Faith This proposition Thou art justified reconciled is according to this assertion the cause of faith for no proposition can therefore be true because we are perswaded that it is true but it must be first true before I am perswaded of it the wall is not white because my eye sees it so but it must first be white and then I see it so Now to make actuall justification before faith is crosse to the whole current of Scripture We beleeve that we might be justified Gal. 2.16 we are not justified that we might beleeve We passe from death to life by faith Iohn 5.24 we are not in a state of life before faith When the Lord Iesus saw their faith Mat. 9.2 he then said Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee The Word saith He that beleeveth not is condemned already Iohn 3.18 and therefore unlesse the Spirits witnesse be crosse to the Word it doth not say to one that beleeveth not that he is absolved already To be justified by faith and to be justified by Christs righteousnesse is all one in the Scriptures phrase and meaning Gal. 2.16 17. Add therefore we may as well say that we are justified before and without Christ as before and without faith And indeed this doctrine of being justified by faith and by this meanes to have remission of sinnes the Apostle Peter affirms to be the doctrine of all the Prophets Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witnesse that whosoever beleeve in him shall receive remission of sinnes not that they had remission of sinnes before they did beleeve I know not any one Protestant Writer that maintaines our justification before and without faith except learned Chamier who not knowing how to avoid the blow of Bellarmines horned argument that if Faith be an assurance of our actuall justification then we are first justified before we beleeve he affirmes we are justified before faith and therefore that when the Scripture saith we are justified by faith the reason of that saith he is not because our faith doth efficere justificationem i. e. is a cause meaning instrumentall of our justification but because efficitur in justificato i. e. is wrought in a justified person but if that be the reason of the phrase we may affirme our justification to be as well by love and sanctification and holy obedience as by faith because these are wrought in a justified person also Then no mans ministry nor the doctrine delivered by the faithful Ministers of Christ froÌ„ out of the Scriptures can be any ground of faith for before faith no Minister of Christ can say to any man in particular or any men in generall that they are already justified and reconciled and therefore beleeve it but to deny that doctrine which is opened out of the Scriptures by the Ministers of Christ to be the ground of Faith is expresly crosse to the testimony of Scriptures and the end of the Ministery and of the messengers of Christ who have the keyes of office given to them that what they bind on earth is bound in heaven what they loose on earth is loosed in heaven whose sins they remit they are forgiven whose sins they retain they are retained Mat. 16.16 Ioh. 20.23 Most excellent for this purpose is the Apostles dispute Rom. 10. You need not go up to heaven nor down to hell to fetch Christ himselfe to tell you whether you shall be justified and saved ver 6 7. For the word is nigh them verse 8. that opens Christs heart unto thy heart But what word might some say is this Is it not the internall word of the Spirit onely The Apostle answers It is that word which we preach hereby you shall know whether you shall live or no but what is that word Paul preached is it not an absolute testimony that all your sins are already pardoned by Christ and therefore beleeve it No but If thou beleevest with thine heart that God raised up Christ from the dead thou shalt be saved vers 9.11 12. What can be more full yet consider tâ—at one place more Iohn 17.20 I pray for all them that shall beleeve on me through their word What is the ground or meanes of beleeving in Christ It is said here expresly Their word Is it not the word of Christ rather then the word of the Apostles and of their successors in the doctrine they delivered is it their word Truly that which thâ—y delivered was the word of Christ and that which is opened from their doctrine in the Scriptures is the word of Christ yet as they open it and apply it so t is their word and this Word is the ground by which all that Christ prayes for doe beleeve in Christ the bare Word I grant cannot perswade without the Spirit yet the Spirit will not give ground to Faith without the Word but as
in glory not having our loynes girt and lamps burning nor readinesse to meet the Lord in glory Mat. 25.1 2 3 4 5. c. oh that I were able therefore to give you a blush and a dark view of this glory that might raise up our hearts to this work Consider the glory of the place the Jewes did and doe dreame still of an earthly Kingdome at the comming of their Messiah the Lord dasheth those dreames and tells them His Kingdome is not of this world and that he went away to prepare a place for them that where he is they might bee John 14.2 3. and be with him to see his glory John 17.23 24. the place shall be the third heaven called our Fathers house built by his owne hand with most exquisite wisdome fit for so great a God to appeare in his glory Iohn 14.2 3. to all his deare children called also a Kingdome Mat. 25.31 Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you which is the top of all the worldly excellencie called also an inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 which the holy Apostle infinitely blesseth God for as being our owne and freely given to us being our Fathers inheritance divided among his sonnes which is a greater priviledge then to bee borne an heire to all the richest inheritances on this earth or to bee Lord of all this visible world for this inheritance hee tells us is 1. incorruptible whereas all this world waxeth old as a garment 2. T is undefiled never yet polluted with any sinne no not by the Angels that fell for they fell in paradâ—â—â— when Guardians to man whereas this whole creation groaneth under the burden and bondage of corruption Rom. 8. 3. This never fadeth away t is not like flowers whose glory and beauty soone witheâ—s but this shall be most pleasant sweet and ever delightsome after we have been ten thousand yeers in it as it was the first day we entred into it for this is the meaning of the word and so it differs from incorruptible whereas in this world suppose a man should ever enjoy it yet there growes a secret satiety and fulnesse upon our hearts and it growes common and blessings of greatest price are not so sweet as the first time wee enjoy them they clog the stomach and glut the soule but here our eyes ears minds hearts shall be ever ravished with that admirable glory which shines brighter then ten thousand suns the very fabrick of it being Gods needle-work if I may so say quilted with variety of all flowers in divers colours by the exactest art of God himselfe as the Apostle intimates Heb. 11.10 Secondly consider of the glory of the bodies of the Saints in this place the Lord shall change our vile bodies which are but as dirt upon our wings and clogs at our feet as the Apostle expressâ—th it Phil. 3. ult Paul was in the third heaven and saw the glory doubtlesse of some there see what he saith of them 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 1. It shall be an incorruptible body it shall never dye nor â—ot againe no not in the least degree tending that way it shall never grow weary as now t is by hard labour and some time by holy duties nor faint nor grow wrinkled and withered Adams body in innocencie potuit non mori we say truly but this non potest mori it cannot dye and hence it is that there shall be no more sicknesse paines griefes fainting fits c. when it comes there 2. It shall be a glorious body it shall rise in honour saith Paul and what glory shall it have verily it shall be like unto Christs glorious body Phil. 3. ult which when Paul saw Acts 9. did shine brighter then the sun and therefore here shall be no imperfection of limbes scars or maimes naturall or accidentall deformities but as the third heaven it selfe is most lightsome Gen. 1.1 2. so their bodies that inhabit that place shall exceed the light and glory thereof these being more compacted and thence shining out in greater lustre that the eyes of all beholders shall be infinitely ravished to see such clods of earth as now we are advanced to such incomparable beauty and amiablenesse of heavenly glory 3. It shall be a powerfull strong body It is sowne in weaknesse saith Paul it shall rise in power it shall be able to help forward the divine operations of the soule which are now clogg'd by a feeble body it shall be able to beare the weight of glory the joy unspeakable and full of glory which our weake bodies cannot long endure here but we begin to burst and breake in pieces like vessels full of strong spirits with the weight and working of them and therefore the Lord in mercy keeps us short now of what else we should feele it shall be able to sing Hallelu-jahs and give honour glory power to the Lambe that fits upon the Throne for evermore without the least weariness 4. It shall be a spirituall body our bodies now are acted by animall spirits and being earthy and naturall growes feeds eates drinkes sleepes and hath naturall affections and desires after these things and â—is troubled if it wants them but then these same bodies shall live by the indwelling of the Spirit of God powred out abundantly in us and upon us and so acting our bodies and swallowing up all such natural affections and motions as those be here as Moses being with God in the Mount forty dayes and nights did not need any meat or drinke the Lord and his glory being all unto him how much more shall it bee thus then I doe not say we shall be spirits like the Angels but our bodies shall be spirituall having no naturall desires after any earthly blessing food rayment c. nor troubled with the want of them and hence also the body shall be able as well to ascend up as now it is to descend down as Austin shewes by a similitude of lead which some artists can beat so small as to make it swim we are now earthly and made to live on this earth and hence fall downe to the center but we are made then to bee above for ever with the Lord the Lord proceeding from imperfection to perfection as the Apostle here shewes not first spirituall and then naturall but first that which is naturall in this life and then that which is spirituall 3. Consider the glory of the soule now we know but in part and see but in part now we have joy at some times and then eclipses befall us on a sudden but then the Lord shall be our everlasting light Isa. 60.19 then we shall see God face to face 1 Ioh. 3.1 2. we shall then know and see those things that have been hid not onely from the wicked but from the deepest thoughts of the Saints themselves in this world 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul saw some things not fit to be uttered or that he could not utter we shall be swallowed up in