little of your heart or Case Deal not with such as resolve to humour you 4. They must be men of fidelity and well tryed to be such that you may trust them with those secrets which you are called to Reveal 5. They must be men of great stayedness and wisdom that they may neither rashly pass their Judgement nor set you upon unsound unwarrantable or dangerous Courses 6. It is suspicious if they be men that are so Impudent as to draw out your secrets and scrue themselves deeper into your privatest thoughts and ways then is meet Yet a compassionate Minister when he seeth that poor Christians do endanger themselves by keeping secret their Troubles or else that they hazard themselves by hiding the greatest of their sins like Achan Saul or Ananias and Saphira and so play the Hypocrites in these Cases he may and must urge them to deal openly 7. Above all be sure that those that you seek advice of be sound in the Faith and free from the two desperate plagues of notorious false doctrine and separating dividing inclinations that do but hunt about to make Disciples to themselves There are two of the former sort and three of the latter that I would charge you to take heed of and yet all is but four 1. Among those that erre from the Faith next to Pagans Jews and Infidels whether Ranters Seekers or Socinians which I think few sober godly men are so much in danger of because of their extreme vileness I would especially have you avoyd the Antinomians being the greatest pretenders to the right comforting afflicted Consciences in the world but upon my certain knowledge I dare say they are notorious subverters of the very nature of the Gospel and that free Grace which they so much talk of and the great dishonorers of the Lord Jesus whom they seem so highly to extoll They are those Mountebanks and Quacksalvers that delude the world by vain ostentation and kill more then they well Cure 2. Next to them take heed of the Papists who will go to Rome to Saints to Angels to Merits to the most carnal delusory means for Comfort when they should go to Scripture and to Heaven for it And then take heed that you fall not into the hands of separating dividers of Christs Church The most notorious and dangerous of them are of these three sorts 1. The last mentioned the Papists They are the most notorious Schismaticks and Separatists that ever Gods Church did know on Earth For my part I think their Schism is more dangerous and wicked then the rest of their false Doctrine The unmerciful proud self-seeking wretches would like the Donatists make us believe that God hath no true Church on Earth but they and that all the Christians in Ethiopia Asia Germany Hungary France England Scotland Ireland Belgia and the rest of the World that acknowledge not their Pope of Rome to be Head of all the Churches in the World are none of Christs Churches nor ever were Thus do they separate from all the Churches on Earth and confine all Religion and Salvation to themselves who so notoriously depart from Christs way of salvation Indeed the extreme diligence that they use in visiting the sick and soliciting all men to their Church and way is plainly to get themselves followers and they are everywhere more industrious to enlarge the Popes Kingdom then Christs So far are they from studying the Unity of the Catholick Church which they so much talk of that they will admit none to be of that Church nor to be saved but their own party as if indeed the Pope had the Keys of Heaven Indeed they are the most impudent Sectaries and Schismaticks on Earth 2. The next to them are the Anabaptists whose Doctrine is not in it self so dangerous as their Schism and gathering Disciples so zealously to themselves And so strange a curse of God hath followed them hitherto as may deter any sober Christian from rash adventuring on their way Even now when they are higher in the world then ever they were on earth yet do the judicious see Gods heavy judgement upon them in their Congregations and Conversations 3. Lastly meddle not with those commonly called Separatists for they will make a prey of you for the increase of their party I do not mean that you should separate from these two last as they do from us and have nothing to do with them nor acknowledge them Christians But seek not their advice and make them not of your counsel You will do as one that goes to a Physician that hath the plague to be cured of a cut finger if you go for your comfort to any of these Seducers But if you have a Pastor that is sound in the main Doctrines of Religion and is studious of the Unity and Peace of the Church such a man you may use though in many things mistaken for he will not seek to make a Prey of you by drawing you to his party Let him be Lutheran Calvinist Arminian Episcopal Independant or Presbyterian so he be sound in the main and free from Division Thus I have shewed you the Qualifications of these men that you must seek advice of 2. Let me next adde this Let them be rather Pastors then private men if it may be And rather your own Pastor then others if they are fit For the first consider 1. It is their office to be Guides of Christs Disciples under him and to be spiritual Physicians for the curing of souls And experience telleth us and sadly of late what a curse followeth those that step beyond the bounds of their calling by invading this office and that God blesseth means to them that keep within his order 1 Thess 5 12 13. Heb. 13.7.17 Not but that private men may help you in this as a private neighbour may give you a Medicine to cure your disease but you will not so soon trust them in any weighty case as you will the Physician 2. Besides Ministers have made it the study of their lives and therefore are liker to understand it then others As for those that think long study no more conducible to the knowledge of Scriptures then if men studied not at all they may as well Renounce Reason and dispute for preheminency of beasts above men as renounce study which is but the use of Reason But it appears how considerately these men speak themselves and whence it comes and how much credit a sober-Christian should give them Let them read Psal 1.2 3. Heb. 5.11 12 13 14. 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15 16. and 2 Tim. 2.15 and let them return to their wits Paul commands Timothy though he was from his youth acquainted with the Scriptures Meditate upon these things Give thy self Wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all How much need have we to do so now 3. Also Ministers are usually most experienced in this work And wisdom requires you no more to trust your soul then you would do your
were your own This is the benefit of the unity of the Church the blessings of one member of the body are blessings to the rest and if one Rejoyce the rest may Rejoyce with them not only for their sakes but also for their own Such as God is to the rest of his children such he is and will be to you He is as ready to pity you as them and to hear your complaints and moans as theirs And lest we should think that none of them were so bad as we he hath left us the examples of his mercies to worse then ever we were You never were guilty of witchcraft and open Idolatry as Manasses was and that for a long time and drawing the whole Nation and chief part of the Visible Church on earth into Idolatry with him You never had your hand in the blood of a Saint and even of the first Martyr Stephen as Paul had You never hunted after the blood of the Saints and persecuted them from City to City as he did And yet God did not only forgive him but was found of him when he never sought him yea when he was persecuting him in his Members and kicking against the pricks yea and made him a chosen Vessel to bear about his Name and as noble an Instrument of the Propagation of his Gospel as if he had never been guilty of any such crimes that he might be an encouraging example to the unworthiest sinners and in him might appear the riches of his Mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 16. see also Titus 3.3 4 5 6 7. Is there no ground of comfort in these examples of the Saints The same we may say of the experiences of Gods people still And doubtless it were well if experimentall Christians did more fully and frequently open to one another their experiences It were the way to make private particular Mercies to be more publike and common Mercies and to give others a part in our blessings without any diminution of them to our selves Not that I would have this so openly and rashly done by those who through their disability to express their mindes do make the works and language of their Spirit seem ridiculous to carnal ears as I perceive some in a very formality would have it as if it must be one of their Church customs to satisfie the society of the fitness of each member before they will receive them But I would have Christians that are sit to express their minds to do it in season and with wisdom Especially those to whom God hath given any more eminent and notable experiments which may be of publick use Doubtless God hath lost very much of the honour due to his Name and poor Christians much of the benefit which they might have received and may challenge by the mutual interest of fellow-members for want of the publike communication of the extraordinary and more notable experiences of some men Those that write the lives of the holiest men when they are dead can give you but the outside and carkass of their Memorials The most observable passages are usually secret known only to God and their own souls which none but themselves are able to communicate For my own part I do soberly and seriously profess to you that the experiences I have had of Gods special Providences and Fatherly care and specially of his hearing prayers have been so strange and great and exceeding numerous that they have done very much to the quieting of my spirit and the perswading my soul of Gods Love to me and the silencing and shaming of my unbelieving heart and especially for the conquering of all temptations that lead to Atheism or Infidelity to the denying of special Providence or or the verity of the Gospel or of the Necessity of holy Prayer and worshipping of God Yea those passages that in the bulk of the thing seem to have no great matter in them yet have come at such seasons in such a manner in evident answer to prayers that they have done much to my confirmation O happy Afflictions and Distresses Sufferings and Danger force us to Pray and force the cold and customary Petitioner to seriousness and importunity Importunate Prayers bring evident returns such returns give us sensible experiences such experiences raise faith love and thankfulness kill unbelief and Atheism and encourage the soul in all distresses to go the same way as when it sped so well I often pity the poor seduced Infidels of this age that deny Scripture and Christ himself and doubt of the usefulness of Prayer and holy Worship and I wish that they had but the experiences that I have had O how much more might it do then all their Studies and Disputes Truly I have once or twice had motions in my mind to have publikely and freely communicated my experiences in a Relation of the more observable passages of my Life But I found that I was not able to do it to Gods praise as was meet without a shew of ostentation and vanity and therefore I forbore DIRECTION XVIII 18. Next that you may yet further understand the true Nature of Assurance Faith Doubting and Desperation I would have you observe this That God doth not command every man nor properly any man ordinarily by his Word to Belâ—eve that his sins are forgiven and himself is Justified Adopted and shall be saved But he hath prescribed a way by which they may attain to Assurance of these in which way it is mens Duty to seek it So that our Assurance is not properly that which is called A Certainty of Belief I Have said enough for the proof of this Proposition in the third Part of my Book of Rest Chap. 1â— whither I must referre you But there is more to be said yet for the Application of it But first I must briefly tell you the meaning of the words 1. God commandeth us all to believe wicked and godly that our sins are made pardonable by the sufficient satisfaction of Christ for them and that God is very mercifull and ready to forgive and that he hath conditionally forgiven us all in the New Covenant making a deed of gift of Christ and pardon and Life in him to all on condition they Believe in him and Accept what is given 2. But no man is commanded to Believe that he is Actually forgiven 3. Therefore I say our Assurance is not strictly to be called Belief or a Certainty of Belief For it is only our Certain Belief of those things which we take on the meer credit of the Witnesser or Revealer which we call Certainty of Faith Indeed we commonly in English use the word Belief to express any confident but uncertain opinion or perswasion And if any will so take it then I deny not but our Assurance is a Belief But it is commonly taken by Divines for an Assent to any thing on the credit of the word of the Revealer and so is distinguished both from the sensible Apprehension of things and
still You cannot Delight in God I say again Do but acknowledge it the great work that God requireth of you and make it your daily aim and care and business and then you will more easily and certainly attain it But while you know not your work or so far mistake it as to think it consisteth more in sorrows and fears and never endeavour in your Duties or Meditations to raise your soul to a Delight in God but rather to cast down your self with still poaring on your miseries no wonder then if you be a stranger to this life of holy Delight By this time I find my self come up to the subject of my Book of the Saints Rest wherein having said so much to Direct and Excite you for the attainment of these Spiritual and Heavenly Delights I will referr you to it for your help in that work and adde no more here but to Desire you through the course of your life to remember That the true Love of God in Christ and Delight in him and Thankful Chearful Obedience to him is the great work of a Christian which God is best pleased with and which the blessed Angels and Saints shall be exercised in for ever And O thou the Blessed God of Love the Father of Mercy the Prince of Peace the Spirit of Consolation compose the Disquieted spirits of thy People and the tumultuous disjoynted state of thy Churches and pardon our Rashness Contentions and Blood-guiltiness and give us not up to the state of the wicked who are like the raging Sea and to whom there is no Peace Lay thy command on our winds and waves before thy shipwrackt vessel perish And Rebuke that evil spirit whose name is Legion which hath possessed so great a part of thine Inheritance Send forth the spirit of Judgement and Meekness into thy Churches and save us from our Pride and Ignorance with their effects And bring our feet into the way of Peace which hitherto we have not known O close all thy People speedily in loving consultations and earnest enquiries after Peace Let them Return from their Corruptions Contentions and Divisions and joyntly seek thee asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Blast all opposing Policies and Powers Say to these Dead and Dry bones Live And out of these Ruines do thou yet erect a City of Righteousness where thy People may dwell together in Peaceable habitations and in the midst thereof A Temple to thy Holiness Let the materials of it be Verity and Purity Let the Redeemer be its Foundation Let Love and Peace cement it into Vnity Let thy Laver and Covenant be the Dores and Holiness to the Lord be engraved thereon that buyers and sellers may be cast out and the common and unclean may know their Place and let no desolating Abomination be there set up But let thy People all in one name in one faith with one mind and one soul attend to thine Instructions and wait for thy Laws and submit unto thine Order and Rejoyce in thy Salvation that the troubled spirits may be there exhilerated the dark enlightned and all may offer thee the sacrifice of Praise without dis-affections discords or divisions that so thy People may be thy Delight and thou mayst be the chiefest Delight of thy People â—â—d they may Please thee through him that hath perfectly pleased thee Or if our expectations of this Happiness on earth be too high yet give us so much as may enlighten our eyes and heal those corruptions which estrange us from thee and may propagate thy Truth increase thy Church and honour thy Holiness and may quicken our desires and strengthen us in our way and be a fore-tast to us of the Everlasting Rest Luk. 2.14 Glory to God in the Highest on earth Peace Good will towards men Ecles 12.12 13 14. Of making many Books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of man c. FINIS