up in Types and shadows then much more is it in the New wherein the Covenant of Grace is clearly revealed and Gospel Truths unvayled Hence in the New Testament we have three times for Habbakkuks once that golden sentence The just shall live by faith as Rom. 1.17 Galat. 3.11 Heb. 10.38 And Paul whose example take for all the rest to shew what every one should do verifies this in his life and practice Gal. 2.20 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God In the carrying on of which I shall shew 1 What it is to live by faith 2 What are the principal differences betwixt the life of faith and the life of sense or a souls living by faith and by sense 3 Wherein this life of faith is to bee exercised 4 The preciousness and excellency of this life of faith Quest 1. What is it to live by faith Ans I shall only describe it to you and that with shunning of curiosity as much as may bee and so it is For a soul constantly quietly and orderly to rest upon the Promise and Power of God for the obtaining of all good expected or hoped for the removing or turning to good all evil present or feared In which description are these things considerable 1 Here is the act it self with the manner of acting which the soul that lives by faith puts forth it is an act of rest and reliance and that constantly quietly and orderly For the act it self the nature of it it is not an act of assurance but an act of reliance recumbence dependence or adherence the act of assurance is not so properly faith as sense for when my soul is assured I do see and behold the love of God and my own salvation and I do feel the same within me and this is sense Indeed I grant it that the soul which lives by faith hath oftentimes assurance and more constantly than another he puts forth more acts of assurance than a weaker beleever doth which lives by sense yet are not these the differencing acts which do discover him to live by faith rather than another Thomas put forth an act of assurance when Joh. 20.28 hee cryes out My Lord and my God yet by our Saviours own testimony vers 29. he lives by sense Because thou hast seen thou hast beleeved as if hee should say Thomas thou art such a beleever as dost live more by sense than by faith thou beleevest but it is because thou seest thy faith can go no further than thy sight but blessed are they that have not seen and yet have beleeved As to say A Christian life there is whereby a soul though hee see nothing feel nothing yet beleeves and this is the blessed life and those the most blessed which live this kinde of life Christ here puts beleevers into two ranks the first are those who though they beleeve yet live by sense grounding their faith upon something seen the second are those who beleeve and live by faith grounding faith upon things not seen Thomas is a beleever of the first rank who lived by sense and yet had assurance so that the act of assurance is not the distinguishing act betwixt that soul which lives by sense and hee which lives by faith Yea more a weak beleever or a beleever at first conversion may and it is usual for such to have acts of assurance God coming in sometimes in a word or an ordinance perswading and covincing their souls of it that hee is their Father and Heaven is theirs yet do not such live by faith for so soon as this fit or rapture is over though whilst it was upon them they would have affirmed it against all the Devils in Hell they call into question and begin to unsay whatsoever before they said Yea further as I said before these acts of assurance though it bee by beleeving I come up to them yet are they more properly sense than faith for when I have assurance I cannot so well bee said to hope for beleeve c. as I may in some sort to see injoy and possess and therefore though the soul oft puts forth such acts which lives by faith yet are not these they whereby it lives by faith nay more properly hee lives by faith when these are wanting for then and onely then I put forth pure acts of faith when I have no sense at all The act of assurance which goes along with that of adherence is not the act whereby the soul lives by faith but rather a fruit or consequence of its living by faith it lives by faith in adhering to the promise which is the first act of faith and then from this its adherence as a fruit thereof there is an assurance of Gods love maintained in the soul So that it is clear that the act it self which is put forth in our living by faith is not an act of assurance whereby I am assured of the love of God c. but an act of adherence or reliance whereby though I see or feel nothing at all in mee why I should conclude God loves mee yet finding that God hath made promises to sinners such as I am and knowing no just or sufficient ground why I should exclude my self I adhere to the word and promise of God Now for the manner of acting it is 1 Constantly The soul which lives by faith doth not for a fit and away rest and relye on the promise but constantly By constantly I do not mean that hee doth so rest upon the promise and adhere thereto as that hee never at no time or in no case starts aside Abraham himself did not so cleave to the promise but once or twice hee did a little step aside so a soul which hath attained the life of faith and lives the same may at some times and in some particular case step aside and act too much in a way of sense But by constantly I mean thus That in the general course of his life and actions he is carried on by faith and acts in a way of faith setting aside now and then some particular acts and the whole of his life and actions is guided by faith Or if you please you may restrain it to the morer part though sometimes and oft hee acts sense yet mostly hee is in beleeving and so takes this denomination of living by faith from the greater part because hee doth more live by faith than by sense So that by constantly I do not understand every particular individual act but the general course of a mans life when once hee comes to live this life or the morer part of his actings are in a way of faith Now hereby hee is distinguished from all such as rest and relye upon the promise for a fit onely and away Some there are who will adhere to the promise for a fit whilst they finde themselves so and so qualified or have such and such experiences
fear of falling away because God is able to keep from falling and Rom. 14.4 assured that they shall stand because God is able to make them stand and Rom. 11.23 The Apostle speaking of the conversion of the Jews layes down this as a ground for us to beleeve they shall bee grafted in again because God is able to graft them in again 3 Because I finde distrust of the ability of God is in Scripture branded for unbeleef and that of the highest nature Psal 78. v. 19 20 21 22. They said Can God furnish a table in the wilderness Can hee give bread also Can hee provide flesh for his people Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth vers 22. Because they beleeved not in God and trusted not in his salvation 4 Because the promise alone without a consideration of the power of God to perform the same is not a sufficient ground for faith If a man should promise me a thousand pound I must consider his ability as well as his promise before I can upon good ground beleeve that ever I shall have so much of him for if he be not able hee cannot give it and so his promise is nothing So though I have a promise for such and such a mercy yet if I do not consider Gods ability to perform this promise as well as the promise there will not bee a ground sufficient to make mee beleeve For what if the heart object as once Israel did True here is a promise but can God perform what he promiseth if the soul say Yea he is able then the power of God presently comes into consideration and I have that as well as the promise for the ground of my faith if the soul cannot beleeve this That God is able then the promise alone will not perswade it neither indeed can it and so it is not ground sufficient to cause it to beleeve for the mercy So that both these viz. the promise of God and Gods power to perform the same must go together to make up the ground of faith When I would act faith I must first go to the promise and there behold and consider what God hath freely promised to such a poor miserable creature as I am and work this upon my heart that this word of God is a truth when I have done so I am to endeavour to bring up my heart to beleeve the power of God viz. That God is able and All-sufficient to fulfill this promise whatsoever seems to bee in the way or to hinder the same Now although we are ready to think that this is a very casie thing to beleeve the power of God and that wee have no doubt at all thereabouts yet assuredly it is a most hard and difficult thing and I am perswaded that the greatest part of our unbeleef springs from hence a distrust or questioning of the power of God I have known one as confident as another that hee did beleeve the power of God and could not think otherwise who yet when hee came to follow up his doubts to the first head found it far otherwise that the greater part of them did arise hence I have many times thought the question hath been onely thus Will God do this for mee change this heart kill this corruption c and could I bee satisfied in this I have thought all my doubts would bee over but when I have endeavoured to search to the bottome I have found the state of the question to bee much altered and heard a secret whispering there Can God do such a thing Can this cursed heart of mine be changed Is it possible that such and such corruptions that I have been so long contending with and used all means against and are yet as strong and lively as ever should ever bee subdued Hence comes our unbeleef for a great part of it therefore would we live by faith as wee must keep to the true ground which is the promise of God and his power to perform it so likewise to the full ground i.e. we must act faith in both viz. the promise and power of God And me thinks when I ponder upon this that the power of God as well as the promise is the ground of our faith I do not at all wonder why there is so much unbeleef and so little of the life of faith in most of us because there is an opinion in all our hearts that it is a very easie thing to beleeve the power of God as if we had such abundance of faith that that which ever hath been and was from Abrahams time to Pauls the highest and most noble act of faith as if wee read Scripture wee shall finde this of beleeving the power of God ever was and hath been were easiest to us as if that which declared Abraham strong in faith were now a thing common and from taking it for granted wee do the thing wee take no pains with our hearts hereabouts And therefore it is no wonder wee lye in unbeleef so much as wee doe whilst wee sleightly pass over and carelesly neglect one of the principall grounds of faith 3 The third thing in our description of living by faith is the extent of this living by faith it extends it self to all good expected or hoped for to all evils present or feared whether relating to the life present or that which is to come The natural way for the obtaining of mercies preventing of judgements it s to run to our own righteousness our amending and doing but now the Christians way is the exercise of this life of faith I obtain all good by faith I prevent or remove all evill by faith Rom. 9.31 32. But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law The Jews found a want of righteousness the Law that the Lord gave them by Moses convinced them of much sin and unrighteousness they see themselves sinners the Law terrifies them conscience gripes them what now do they do Why see v. 32. presently they run to the Law that bids them amend their wayes do thus and thus this they do and yet as far from obtaining what they want or removing their fears as ever because they sought not in a way of faith The Gentiles likewise they have the same wants and ground of fear the Jews had What do they Why this they do They hear a message a glorious message of one Jesus Christ which was crucified at Jerusalem through whose death poor sinners beleeving in him should obtain righteousness and salvation hereupon they presently disclaiming any worthiness in themselves or any thing they could do flye to Jesus Christ by faith and so obtain righteousness vers 30. The Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith They get their great want supplied their conscience truly pacified
Six Severall TREATISES 1 The Promises made and fulfilled in Christ 2 Absolute Promises made to sinners as sinners 3 The Life of Faith and in particular In Justification Sanctification and Expectation 4 The Saints Anchor rightly cast 5 Christs New Command 6 Of Offences By the late worthy and faithful Servant of Jesus Christ John Tillinghast Published by his own Notes LONDON Printed by R. I. for Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head-Alley 1657. To the Reader IT is a matter of Lamentation to those who are left behinde that so many Sons of Sion are transplanted to eternity whose Counsels Praiers Experiences might have been very useful if the Lord had seen it good to continue them on earth towards the directing helping and comforting may weak doubting and despondent souls in their journey towards Heaven And amongst others in our day the death of that gracious and sweet-spirited man Mr. Tillinghast deserveth much to bee lamented But there it matter of rejoycing in the midst of our mourning for the Saints in that death bringeth them to the possession of those Promises which before they were but heirs under age unto As Christ said to his Disciples John 14.28 If yee loved mee yee would rejoyce because I said I go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I. So if wee rightly loved the Saints wee would rejoice when they go unto the Father for then they receive the End of their Faith and then they injoy the chiefest object of their hope even eternal life And it is our great mercy who still remain that although the Author of the ensuing Treatises was plucked away like a blossome in the prime yet hee hath left us so many useful Instructions about the Promises the life of Faith and hope c. that it may bee said of him by these hee being dead yet speaketh Wee forfeited all our mercies in the first Adam by sin and could never have attained unto grounded hopes of grace or glory if the Lord had not vouchsafed to enter into Covenant with us in and for the sake of Christ the second Adam But now there are given unto all that are in Christ 2 Pet. 1.4 exceeding great and precious promises that by these they might bee partakers of the Divine nature Promises are divine Engagements wherein as with reverence wee may speak it the Lord doth pawn his own faithfulnesse for a security to our saith and hope Oh what matter of admiration is here that the God of glory should condescend so far as to come under Engagements to poor sinful and unworthy creatures and still there is more matter of astonishment if it bee considered what glorious things are put under Promise to the Saints even God himself Heb. 8.10 This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minde and write them in their hearts and I will bee to them a God c. Christian what wouldest thou have more is not God thy all in all is there not enough in God to answer all thy desires to satisfy all thy longings to supply all thy wants behold thou hast him in the Promise hee hath made over himself to thee in the way of a Covenant hee hath engaged himself to bee thy God If the Lord had promised only earthly injoyments health wealth though it had been in great abundance and mountains of gold and heaps of Pearls c. yet it had been nothing in comparison of this to say I will bee thy God Thou art rich indeed who art in Christ all the Promises are thine and so God thine and therefore all thine Thou mayest in all straits exigencies and necessities go to God in the way of the Promise for the improvement of any of his Attributes that thou standest really in need of the use of for they are all engaged for thy advantage When Satan useth his policy against thee then thou mayest say Lord thou hast promised to bee my God and so thy Wisdome is engaged for mee O! let mee finde that improved for the defeating my subtil enemy in his enterprizes When thou art assaulted with strong temptations which thou art no way able to withstand or haste some great difficulty in the way to hinder thee in comming up to any duty or to obstruct thee in the exercise of any grace as faith patience humility c. Then thou mayest say Lord thou hast promised to bee my God and so thy Power is mine O now let it bee improved for my help and assistance against these difficulties which are too strong for mee to overcome and so for all other Attributes of God thou mayest in all times of need claim an interest in and by the Promise plead a laying of them out for thy good I am perswaded that many of the fears doubts disquiets c. of many Christians about their eternal conditions and their great distances from assurance take their rise hence because they do not clearly understand or are not throughly perswaded that the way of Gods making over himself unto souls is the way of a Promise that a Covenant is that whereby the Lord giveth us hold of himself in this life and whereby hee giveth us assurance of all the blessings which are to bee injoyed in another and a better life Were they heartily and explicitly convinced that the injoyments of God which they are to look for here must bee by Faith and so through the glasse of a Promise then they might finde that they have had many such injoyments of God which they have overlooked The great temptation of this age is to look more to a life of sense and feeling than to a life of Faith to look more to a Christ within than in the way of a Promise to a Christ without Many will own none as injoyments of God but inward feeling of supports quickenings enlargements consolations c. It is no longer than they injoy these that they think they injoy God whereas they ought to let out their hearts in the way of a Promise to God through Christ for such mercies when they are under the deepest sense of the want of them and there are as real injoyments of God in such out-goings of the heart to God as in those sensible incommings of joy and comfort c. For the life of Faith consisteth in such an out-going of the whole heart in the way of a Promise Christ-ward hence Faith is called a comming to Christ John 6.35 Hee that commeth to mee shall never hunger this is expressed by beleeving in the latter end of the verse hee that beleeveth on mee shall never thirst So that Faith is the motion of the whole heart Christ-ward Faith doth not consist so properly in beleeving that Christ is thine or that thy sin is pardoned as in the letting out thy heart to Christ in the way of the New Covenant for his righteousness and the remission of thy sin
to see these to day or in one duty and to have them out of sight to morrow or in another It may bee to day I have a sweet heavenly spiritual frame of heart but if I ground my faith upon this perhaps to morrow I shall bee as cold and carnal as now I am spiritual and where then will my faith bee to day my heart is humble to morrow as proud as now humble to day I can love my brother let him do what hee will with me or against me I can forget all and pass by all to morrow I cannot do thus but my heart will be full of wrath grudging and revenge against him if I ground my faith on these things where will it be when these are wanting yea when instead of finding them I finde the contrary These things may encourage faith whilst it is acting but I must make none of these neither Duties Affections or Graces nor any thing within me or done by mee the ground thereof Quest What is the ground of faith in living by faith Answ Two things are laid down in Scripture as the ground of our faith viz. The promise of God and Gods power to perform the same both which together make up a full and compleat ground for the faith of the beleeving soul 1 The promise of God the word of promise is the word of faith or that which our faith first pitcheth upon in living by faith Faith must have a word or it is not able to keep up Now the word or promise that faith pitcheth upon in inabling of the soul to live by faith is 1 The naked or bare promise or to speak better the Promise nakedly considered without any thing of ours joyned with it If I would live by faith I must do thus whensoever I would act faith set by all my duties affections graces and go to the naked Promise as though I had never performed duty in my life had not any affection to any thing good nor one dram of grace in mee As Abraham as Luther saith when he went up the Mount left the Servants and Asses at the foot and carried onely Isaac the Son of the Promise with him So when any would go up to God by faith we must leave all our righteousness beneath and carry onely the promise up with us for whilst I joyn any thing of my own with the promise making the promise as it hath this of my own joyned with it the ground of my faith so soon as ever I find a want of these things and have them not to carry I faulter in beleeving Therefore in living by faith it ought to bee the special care of every Christian to keep to the bare and naked promise looking to it that hee do not joyn any thing with the promise which to do as it is a great evill in it self so hath it this evill attending of it it throws down faith and hinders the soul from living by faith 2 The free or unconditional promise There are in the Book of God two sorts of Promises 1 Some Absolute and without condition made to the worst of sinners as such 2 Some Conditional made to the Saints duties and the graces of the Spirit in them Now in living by faith I am not to make these latter sort of promises the ground of faith because the conditions required in them being in mee but weak and imperfect and at sometimes only discernable faith cannot take hold of them at all times as it ought to do to the end I might live thereby The former sort of promises then viz. those which are Absolute and without condition such as are all the promises of the New Covenant to us are the promises which I must make the ground of faith in living by faith I mean those promises which are made to sinners as such these are they I must ground my faith upon for these faith may alwayes take hold of but of the other but sometimes only because onely sometimes the conditions and qualifications required in them are discernable in the soul though there be alwayes sufficient ground for my faith in the promise made to sinners yet not in that which is made to Saints I can see and acknowledge my selfe a sinner alwayes and under that notion come to the promise but so I cannot a Saint 2 The power of God to perform the same is another part of the ground of faith If any ask why I joyn this viz. The power or ability of God together with the promise in the ground of faith I answer 1 Because the Saints in former ages in acting faith and living by it have alwayes had a special eye unto and been much upheld by the power of God Wee have two notable acts of Abrahams faith mentioned by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament the first is that wee spake of before Rom. 4. which was an act of faith Abraham put forth in reference to a Son which God had promised him hee should have by his wife Sarah in his and Sarahs old age when now in reason they were past hope of having any his own body being dead and Sarahs womb dead and this was before or about the time of the conception of Isaac Gen. 17.15 16 17. The other was an act of faith Abraham put sorth in reference to Gods fulfilling of this his promise in Isaac at that time when the promise seemed to bee dying God commanding Abraham to offer up Isaac the Son of the promise which wee have recorded Gen. 22. and repeaâ—ed Heb. 11.17 18 19. Now in either of these wee finde Abrahams faith did ground not onely on the promise but power of God also Rom. 4.21 And being fully perswâ—ded that what he had promised hee was able also to perform Heb. 11.19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead So Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I am perswaded that hee is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day And the three Children Dan. 3.17 Our God whom wee serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace 2 Because I finde not onely Saints grounding their faith on the power of God but the Holy Ghost oftentimes laying down the power of God as a great ground of the faith and comfort of Gods people as Eph. 3.20 when the Apostle had put up many spiritual petitions in the behalf of the Ephesians he concludes Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Pitching their faith for the obtaining of these things on the ability of God So Heb. 7.25 Hee is able to save the ability of Christ to save is laid down as a ground for our faith in coming to him the last words of the verse Hee ever liveth to make intercession are but the reason of the ability Jude v. 24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling Saints are comforted against
and all this by faith Thus much of this third thing in the general in the particulars it falls to be handled in that question wherein the life of faith is to bee exercised Quest 2. What are the principal differences betwixt the life of Faith and the life of Sense There is a great deal of difference between these two lives though both of them bee found in the Saints And what differences wee speak of are not for the discovery of a mans condition whether he be gracious or ungracious but onely the thing in hand is to discover whether wee live by faith or sense Both these lives are incident to Saints therefore if thou findest thou dost not live by faith do not conclude thou art a reprobate a hypocrite thou mayest bee a gracious soule and yet live by sense Ans 1. The life of faith doth ever ground on something without the life of sense doth ever ground on something within either his own desires or affections or some other thing but the life of faith is begotten and nourished by something without as the word of God the promise of God Look what Jesus Christ saith to his Disciples that is the continual language of faith Jesus Christ said Joh. 14 19. Because I live yee shall live also Not because you have good desires good affections but because Christ liveth this is the language of faith because the word of God liveth the Covenant of God liveth therefore I shall live also Not because something in mee lives not because my affections lives not because my obedience lives but because Jesus Christ liveth the Word of God the Promises of God live therefore I shall live also Sense ever draweth conclusions from something within it looketh at these two things either the actings of the regenerate or unregenerate part from the acting of the one concludeth the condition good from the acting of the other concludeth the condition bad Faith observeth the acting of these as well as sense but draweth conclusions from neither The Apostle Rom. 7. setteth forth the acting of the regenerate and unregenerate part What I do I allow not what I hate that do I. Hee setteth before him the actings of both the old and new man the one willeth to do good and hateth to do evill the one delighteth in the Law of God consenteth to the Law of God that it is good yea serveth the Law of God the other serveth the Law of sin that carrieth captive makes him cry O wretched man that I am that is being captived by the body of death but Paul when he commeth to draw Conclusions of his condition doth not fixe his eye upon any of these doth not say Blessed be God though corruption be in mee I have a will to do good though sin be in me yet blessed bee God I hate it though I cannot obey the Law of God as I should yet my minde consents therefore there is no condemnation he doth not say so neither doth hee say though there bee some good desires in me That good I would I do not and that evil I would not that do I I am carnal sold under sin therefore I am a reprobate therefore there is condemnation No but the Aposte Paul when he cometh to make up the Conclusion hee taketh his eye off both and pitcht it upon something without i.e. Jesus Christ v. 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Pitching his eye upon Christ he can conclude Rom. 8.1 There is therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ He saw the actings of the Old and New man but taketh his eye off both and fixeth it upon Christ and then concludeth So faith ever groundeth upon something without 2 Cor. 12.17 Where he speaketh of his buffeting by the Messenger of Satan and his praying against it and a gracious answer hee received from God even in that thing here was good and bad here was bad a thorn in the flesh troubling Paul here was good Paul praying against it yea Paul receiving a special remarkable answer from God in prayer Observe Paul concludes neither from the one nor the other he doth not say I have a thorne in the flesh I am a wretched man there is no hope of such a one as I buffeted with such a corruption He doth not say though sin rage I have a praying heart yea I have received a gracious answer therefore I comfort my self I am the Childe of God No Paul when he cometh to conclude he doth not conclude from his praying hard nor the bare giving in of the answer but the substance of the answer given in that was that which carried Paul out of himself to lay hold upon the grace of God and strength of Christ most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me He doth not say I will glory that I have a praying heart an answer from God no in the power of God His faith pitcheth upon something without whereas those that live by sense go quite contrary Differ 2. The life of sense doth look much to means for the obtaining every Mercy the life of faith looketh above and beyond means When God told Moses that he would feed the people of Israel with flesh not for a day but for a whole moneth Moses though he lived by faith yet in that particular acting too much by sense said What Lord shall all the Flocks and Herds be slaine Numb 11.21 the people are six hundred thousand foot-men and thou hast said I will give them flesh Moses looks upon means how shall they be fed shall wee kill all the Flocks have all the Fishes of the Sea gathered together Moses eye was upon means Gods was not so So when Jesus Christ told his Disciples hee would feed the multitude they presently query Where shall we have bread what five thousand souls and we have but five Loaves where shall we have bread they look presently at means So a soul that is living by sense is looking at means if he hath means he can beleeve if not he cannot O had I my liberty as once I had opportunity as once I could beleeve if not hee cannot beleeve The life of sense grounds much upon means but the life of faith beleeveth above means Abraham it is said he beleeved when his body was dead and Sarahs wombe dead the means dead Habakkuk speaking of faith speaketh of beleeving when the vision is hidden when there is nothing to be seen of means nothing in the eye of sense Hab. 2. chap. 3.17 18. Although the Figtree blossome not yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. Here is the life of faith joy in God in the want of means yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. Differ 3. Thirdly the life of faith the more opposition it meeteth with the stronger it groweth but the life of sense the more opposition it meeteth with the weaker it groweth The VVoman of Canaan cometh to Christ and
certain ground to conclude thou art none of them why shouldest thou refuse Reason saith Why not thou But now a soul that liveth by faith that liveth above reason when it can see nothing in reason to beleeve What was there in reason for Abraham to ground his faith upon when hee was an hundred years old that hee should have a childe And the three Children when going to the fiery furnace to say Our God will deliver us Faith out-mounts Reason Faith will apprehend safety and deliverance where reason can apprehend nothing but ruine A soul that liveth by faith beleeveth himself to be a Son of God and justified when many times if one cometh to him and asketh why hee beleeveth He is able to give no other reason but this because hee doth beleeve because God hath inabled him to beleeve the promise is to him and saith the soul I finde in some measure through the grace of God I am able to beleeve to hang upon it Differen 7. The life of faith reasoneth it self in all its reasonings to God the life of sense reasoneth it self from God There is no greater difference between a man that liveth by faith and sense than in the reasonings Take a soul that liveth by faith lay what premises you will before him yet he will draw up arguments to draw himself to God Tell him his sins are great O then mercy will bee great in pardoning them Pardon my sins for they are great Psal 25.11 Tell him afflictions are upon him for his sins if so then God is a Father I do not say Every one that is afflicted God is a Father to but I tell you how one that liveth by faith will reason himself to God by it and turn the Devils weapons upon himself If corrected then a childe so the Apostle reasoneth If you endure chastisement God dealeth with you as with Sons Heb. 12.7 Hee maketh it an argument to reason himself to God Whatever you can set before him hee will reason himself to God by it Tell it that it hath no righteousness of its own O then I have the more need to go to Christ But a soul that liveth by sense lay never such comforts precious truths before him that anothers soul would reason himself Heaven-ward from yet hee will reason himself Hell-ward by them Lay never so much of the unsearchable riches of Christ before him yet hee will from all reason himself from God Differen 8. The life of sense maketh a man principally industrious in the matters of his own comfort and salvation but the life of faith principally in Gods glory Take a soul that liveth by sense the great Query is What shall I do to bee saved to attain Jesus Christ pardon of sin assurance of pardon They are good Questions I wish all had them But such a soul doth not finde much time for acting for God because all his time is taken up in acting for himself how shall I do for pardon to get the love of God This is usual in new beginners and others so long as they live by sense as Peters Converts and the Gaoler But a soul that liveth by faith is chiefly industrious for Gods glory this we may see in the Apostle Paul though hee was not careless of his salvation yet hee doth seem to overlook it set it by 2 Tim. 1 11 12. Whereunto I am appointed a Preacher and an Apostle and a Teacher of the Gentiles for the which cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have beleeved and I am perswaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day As if hee had said I am so taken up with the work of God of conversion and building up poor souls that I run all hazards suffer all things for the Elects sake O but will some say Paul what will you do for your self for your own soul Will you leave that at sixe and sevens O no I would no have you think so this I do I commit that to God I say Lord do thou take the care of the salvation of a poor creature Lord I commit that to thee and trust that with thee I desire to do thy work Rom. 9. v. 1 2 c. I say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing mee witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh How exceedingly is hee carried out after the conversion of the Jews it wil be a glorious time Paul was so desirous of it that God might have much glory that he seemeth to forget himself If the Jews be called the whole world shall bee filled with the glory of God and I did not care what became of me though I were accursed And that the Apostle meaneth as he said that hee did prefer the glory of God which hee saw should have much advantage by the conversion of the Jews before his own salvation the Apostle averreth it with many circumstances I say the truth and lye not my conscience bearing mee witness Surely hee cometh to utter some strange thing that few will credit therefore hee saith I speak the truth which clearly argueth that the Apostle was to speak some strange thing that they that should read or hear would hardly beleeve it was true So a soul that liveth by faith is principally industrious about the glory of God I do not speak it as that I have attained but that the Saints as Paul had attained I come now to the next Question Quest 3. Wherein is this life of Faith to bee exercised Answ In handling of this I shall shew 1 The things themselves whereabouts faith is to bee exercised 2 How faith in those persons that live by faith acts or what faith doth in either of these Quest 1. What are the things themselves whereabouts faith is to be exercised Ans Concerning this I told you in general that this living by faith extends it self as far and wide as our necessities wants fears or doubts stretch themselves to all good expected and hoped for to all evil present or feared for the procuring of the one and the averting or removing of the other in so large a field should I gather up all particulars I might tire my selfe and you I shall therefore draw things into as narrow a compass as conveniently I can This phrase of living by faith I do not finde in all the Scripture to bee used but five times once in the Old Testament as Han. 2.4 and four times in the New viz. Rom. 1.17 Gal. 2.20 Chap. 3.11 Heb. 10.38 Now in these five places it is taken as it seems to me four several wayes 1 As it relates to a Christians Justification Rom. 1.17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just
shall live by faith The great scope of the eleven first Chapters is to prove Justification by faith in Christ against those that did hold Justification by works of the Law he layeth down his position in this cause and bringeth in this The just shall live by faith And hee doth oppose Justification by Faith to Justification by the Law Gal. 3.11 But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident For the just shall live by faith 2. As it relates to a Christians Sanctification Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved mee and gave himself for mee Though the main argument here is Justification yet this living by faith is in respect of Sanctification chiefly at least which I think the scope of the place yeelds for Paul having vers 19. laid down this as an argument why a beleever cannot be justified by the Law because hee is dead to it that hee might give a reason of this likewise why a beleever is dead to the Law or must needs be so he glides off from the main argument of Justification into this of Sanctification as by the by that I might live to God What is that Why perform obedience now to God or bring forth fruit to God as Rom. 7. v. 4 5 6. Wherefore my Brethren yee also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ that yee should bee married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that wee should bring forth fruit unto God Which argument being now digressed into hee prosecutes in the next verse wherein as is clear hee goes on to speak of Sanctification for hee speaks of Christs living in him which is not our Justification that is by Christ without us and so his living by faith is to bee understood in respect of that viz. Sanctification which in the former verse and beginning of this hee was speaking of 3 As it relates to a Christians Expectation or waiting So Habak 2.4 For the Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speake and not lye Though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Behold his soule which is lifted up is not upright in him But the just shall live by his faith Speaking of the Vision delayed hee saith The just shall live by faith i.e. expect the coming thereof and wait for it in a way of beleeving 4 As it relates to a Christians perseverance So Heb. 10.38 Now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Which words if you compare them with the foregoing verse seem to bee of the same sense with them in Habakkuk to bee spoken of a life of expectation vers 37. For yet a little while and hee that shall come will come and will not tarry Now the just shall live by Faith But compared with the following words in this and the next verse they concern perseverance because in this verse drawing back is set in opposition to living by faith and again vers 39. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that beleeve to the saving of the soul Beleeving is set in opposition to drawing back In these places we have a four-fold life 1 Of Justification 2 Of Sanctification 3 Expectation 4 Perseverance In every of which we are to live by faith or we are to live by faith for these four things in an especial manner viz. Justification Sanctification Expectation and Perseverance Quest 2. How doth faith act or what is it that faith doth in those persons which live by faith as touching either of these things Answ In order to which I shall premise this word That I shall not go about to prescribe any one way or order that the Spirit of God while it enables a soul to live by faith in either of these walks in or works in so as to tye up all Saints to that way or manner of working which experience teacheth to be dangerous and to administer matter of stumbling to poore souls for as the Wisdome of God in his VVord is manifold so the workings of the Spirit of God in the hearts of the faithful through which they are enabled to live by faith are manifold and various though in the substance all agreeing As in our Justification so in all the rest one is enabled to live by faith herein from such a principle another from such a principle yea the same person looking upon himself at sundry times shall finde that one while his faith springs from one principle or consideration another while from another As for example perhaps to day I beleeve my Justification and go on beleeving it for a week or a moneth together from such a consideration as this viz. God hath made a Covenant with me in his Son and this is unchangeable as not made upon condition of my obedience so noâ— broken by my disobedience and hence I beleeve I am justified Another while perhaps this principle is not so lively and vigorous as to keep up my faith but then another doth it as this God justifies the ungodly now saith the soul though I cannot say I am a Saint yet this I can say I am an ungodly one well God justifies the ungodly this is a precious truth I own it I cleave to it I am an ungodly one a Sinner I beleeve God justifies me VVhen this hath kept up faith a while then it may be the life and vigour of this goes off the heart too and then come another as this The righteousness of Jesus Christ by which poor sinners are justified is a perfect compleat righteousness this righteousness is given to those that beleeve to such he becomes the Lord their righteousness I am a poore Sinner of my own I have no righteousness this I do I cleave to his righteousness which is persect and able fully to justifie my poor soul and I do in some measure beleeve that I have a share in this righteousness it is mine and that I am thereby justified in the sight of God These Principles with many others though diverse in themselves yet do they sweetly agree in the maine all leading the soul to something without for justification And truly this premisal is very necessary and material for how ordinary is it with poor souls if so be their faith hath been carried out from such a principle and they hear another in relating his experience hath been carried out from another to question the truth of their own at least to have some jealousies about it yea some poor souls are sometimes ready to stagger when they look upon themselves and consider the last moneth or the last year I had much strength and ability to beleeve from such a
c. And if this were duly considered souls would never in their lowest saddest and most deserted conditions bee shy of beleeving for who can question at any time whether they may thus let out their hearts to Christ or no and yet the doing this is beleeving yea the properest act of Faith consiseth therein and if at any time a soul bee inabled by grace to this then it hath a sweet injoyment of God and Christ in the Promise though sensible quickenings c. bee wanting for no act of Faith can bee without an injoyment of God If thou bee'st inabled with thy whole heart to take hold of Gods Wisdome and Power c. in a Promise thou dest as really injoy God so long as thy soul sticketh close to him there whilest the sensible improvements of those divine Artributes ars denyed thee as thou dost afterward when these are granted And the same may bee said for any promised Mercy if the heart bee throughly drawn out Christ-ward in the way of the Promise for it in its proper season as when that mercy is sutable to the present condition c. there is as real an injoyment of God in such a waiting for it as in the after fruition of it for there is the life of Faith before it is afforded and Faith cannot be without a fruition of God The Proper time of Abrahams acting Faith for Isaac was before Isaac was given Rom. 4.19 And being nor weak in Faith he considered not his own body now dead vers 20. Hee staggered not at the Promise of God through unbeleef but was strong in Faith So that injoyments of God by Faith may be as well before as when a promised mercy is afforded I do not speak against looking for sensible feelings of Christs presence within in enlargements and quickenings c. but against judging these the only injoyments of God and against looking more for these than for out-goings of heart to Christ by Faith whereas the best way to attain more of these is to act Faith on the Christ of God who is without us in the way of a Promise for them The Lord would take care of Christians comforts if they were more careful to own his faithfulnesse in his Promise And if you would bee successful in any of your dealings with the Promises then bee sure that your souls do clasp hold of Christ therewith for all the Promises in him are yea and in him Amen And seeing the faithfulnesse of God is ingaged for the accomplishment of all Promises Oh what sweet incouragement doth this afford to exercise hope on him for all those mercies which are promised and which wee are yet without Christians are exceedingly backward to the exercise of this grace of Hope which might bee of admirable use to them and most averse to exercise it about eternal life which is the highest and chiefest object of it Some hope not only for temporal but also for spiritual mercies necessary in some conditions they are exercised in as under deadness of heart they hope for quickenings under streightnings they hope for inlargements under witherings they hope for flourishings of grace but where is the soul that is hoping for the glory of God Rom. 5.2 A hoping for Heaven and the life to come it is the casting hope within the vail that rendreth it of use as a Soul-anchor that secureth against the storms of affliction and temptation which are met withall in this World A great reason of the sinking of many under these is because they cast away their anchor the hope of eternal life when the tempest riseth highest and when they have most need of it It is very sad to observe that carnal men are so high in their Hopes for heaven who have no grounds for hoping and on the other hand that Christians are so low in their hopes who have such firm grounds for them There is 1 A hope of desire 2 A hope of Assurance or Confidence Christians you may sometimes bee under such doubts and questionings about your conditions as you may not be able to conclude with a hope of confidence and Assurance that you shall injoy God to all eternity But a Hope of Desire after the injoyment of God as the chiefest good as reckoning nothing such a matter of Hope as a full fruition of him and Jesus Christ to all eternity this Hope of Desire under the saddest desertion you may keep up and sinne if you do not Cant 3. v. 1 2. Cant. 5.6 The Spouse sought her beloved when hee had withdrawn himself As under the hidings of Christs face the saints may have a Hope of Desire to see his face again on earth so as well may they then long to see him face to face in heaven The Saints should say when will the bridge-groom of our souls come when shall wee have full fellowship with him when shall wee have full imbraces in his armes when shall wee injoy the Promised everlasting rest when shall we have a full freedome from all sinne and suffering thus Paul had a Hope of Desire to bee dissolved that hee might be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and Rom. 8.23 wee groan within our selves that implyeth a weariness of the present Condition but the inducement was the hope of Glory waiting for the adoption the redemption of our body but where is the soul that is under a wearinesse of its present Condition not barely to be freed from burdens and afflictions but out of a want of heavenly glory and a full communion with Jesus Christ O Christians you can never want a ground thus to hope and therefore put on your Helmet the Hope of Salvation cast forth the Anchor and that within the Vail that your Lord may finde you looking for the blessed Hope of his coming We shall add no more but this that the Lord graciously granted us the priviledge to be ear witnesses that diverse of the Sermons in these Treatises for the substance of them giving allowance to such defects of the Emanuensis which cannot but bee expected ordinarily were Preached by that Servant of Christ Mr. Tillinghast and others are as they were found in his own hand-writing Some Sermons are wanting but could not be gained yet these being so useful we were unwilling the World should be without them so desiring that the blessing of Christ may accompany these labors We remain 10 Month 24th day 1656. Thy Servants for Jesus sake Samuel Petto John Manning The Contents The Promises made and fulfilled in Christ from 2 Cor. 1.20 The Text opened from page 1. to page 3. Doct. That all the Promises of God made to sinners in Jesus Christ shall most certainly bee fulfilled and accomplished ibid. That all the Promises of God run in Christ or are made to us in Christ ibid. The Promises distinguished into absolute and conditional 1 Absolute Promises p. 4 2 Conditional Promises ibid. Pro. 1 That all the Promises of God whether those that are absolute or such as are
words you shall see it clear that the promise is primarily made not to Adam but to the Seed of the woman i.e. Christ The Seed of the woman shall God doth not make a promise to Adam that hee shall break the Serpents head but the promise runs first to the Seed of the Woman that is Christ that hee should do it and to Adam through the Seed of the Woman i.e. Christ And further if wee come downward to Abrahams time and look to the renewal of the promise with him wee shall finde that it still runs to Christ and is made to him Gen. 22.18 The promise is made to Abrahams Seed now that is expresly meant of Christ as appears Gal. 3.16 Yea further this is clear from the Levitical types and shadows which as they were shadows so may I say they were promises of good things to come representing things to the spiritual eye as done already and injoyed already Now what did they all point out to us but onely Christ All the Sacrifices Oblation c. of the Law did point out Christ and did all center in him the great Sacrifice Onely there is this difference betwixt Types and Promises the Type is terminated and hath its end in the Antitype so soon as the thing typified or shadowed cometh the type or shadow ceaseth any longer to bee but not so the promise for although the good thing promised bee performed yet the promise remains still so that in case a poor creature have had such a mercy and lost it again yet hee may go to the Promise again and again for it I might further illustrate this from some Titles given to Christ in Scripture as of a Husband an Heir hee is the Heir of all things therefore made to him as the primary Heir therefore all come by a Mediator Christ is the Way therefore no coming down of promises but in Christ but I pass this over Quest Why is it so Answ Because God would hereby convince the creature that the is faln Whilst Adam stood al promises and mercies did immediately come from God to man without the intervening of a Mediator or middle person but now man being fallen God will not make him so much as one promise of a mercy nor bestow one mercy upon him but through another that so the creature may come to see that he is fallen from his first station and is not now in that station that once hee was 2 Because God would hereby convince the creature of that absolute necessity that he hath of Christ and closing with Christ Why Because all the promises are made in Christ and therefore without some close with Christ the creature cannot assure himself of any of those good things held forth in the promise to be his Thou canst not enjoy a promise without a Christ a promised mercy without a Christ no special spiritual priviledge but promised to Christ So that the necessity doth hereby appear though thou mightest attain much of morality yet thou canst not hence attain to interest in any peculiar promise without Christ So that if thou hast not Christ thou canst not call God Father nor canst not say thy sins are forgiven As many as received him to them hee gave power to bee called the Sons of God Job 1.12 In whom wee have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Eph. 1.7 3 Because God would have us to pitch our faith upon the person of his Son and not barely upon the promise and therefore hee hath so ordered things in his divine wisdome that the promises should all hold on Christ and bee Yea and Amen in him Had God made promises to souls and these promises not made to them in Christ wee should sit down and take up our rest short of Jesus Christ we should pitch upon the promise and rest there never looking any further nor so much as once eying Christ himself but now God hath linked all his Promises to his Son yea stored them up in him that so our faith might look further than to the bare Promise to the person of Christ in whom all these Promises are and so take up our rest in Christ himself not in the Promise Hence Christ himself is the great Promise God first promiseth him and all the other Promises are ours by vertue of our right to and interest in him first All good things are given first by giving Christ there is a Christ first and entertaining of that Christ how shall he not with him give us all things Rom. 8.32 As to instance in the Promises God hath made of pardon and forgiveness these Promises are not as one saith as the pardons of a Prince which meerly contain an expression of his Royal word for pardoning so as we in seeking of it doe rest upon and have to doe only with his Word and Seal which we have to shew for it but Gods promises of pardon are made in his Son and are as if a Prince should offer pardon to a Traytor upon Marriage with his Childe whom in and with that pardon he offers in such a relation so as all that would have pardon must first seek out for his Childe So we would we have pardon we must first look out to Gods Son whom hee freely offers in Marriage to us first and so then after solemnization of Marriage between Christ and our Souls the promises of forgiveness and all other promises are ours for having first a right to the Person of him who is sole Heir of the Promises we have a right to and an interest in all those Promises he is Heir of As when a man Marries a Woman his Marriage to her gives him a right and title to all her estate so our Marriage to Christ himself is that which gives us right and title to all those precious Promises that are in him and all the good things promised in them 4 Therefore hath God made all his Promises in Christ that so the Person of his Son might be in more esteeme with us Hence it follows that a soul married and united to Christ hath by vertue of this Marriage-union and the relation he stands in to Christ a right and title to every Promise in the Book of God and hee may boldly go and lay claime to the same as his own and proper right by vertue of the interest he hath in Christ as a Husband in whom are all the Promises If he meet with a promise of forgiveness of sin as that Isaiah 43. vers 25. he may go to it and lay claime to it and challenge it as his and say the Promise of forgiveness of sins it is mine it belongeth to me my sins are done away for it is in Christ and I have chosen him for my Husband If he meet with a promise of Sanctification as that Ezek. 36. vers 26 27. he may challenge it as his and say this is mine and I shall be Satisfied God will give me a new heart c. So if
is thine Look whatsoever it is which is the gift of promise it is thine for the promise it self is thine al the promises thine Christ being thine and therefore all it gives is thine The Cabinet being thine the Jewels are thine the Field being thine the Treasure is thine thou mayest feed upon all cloath thy self with all the rich and good things which the promise brings If a poor beggar-woman that hath not a penny or foot of land should marry a Nobleman that hath great coffers of gold and silver large possessions she may now go about from one coffer to another and say all this is mine all this silver is mine all this gold is mine and she may ride from one Mannor to another and say all this land is mine and all these trees are mine why they are all my Husbands and I have a propriety in him and so a propriety in them So a poor soul that is married to Christ hee may read over every promise and say this is mine hee may look heaven and earth over and say all is mine all that is good in either is mine for all is the estate and inheritance of my Husband Christ and I have a propriety in him and so in all There is never a poor Scullion nor a Drudge nor a Chimny-sweeper but if his or her soul be married to Christ hee may go about and look the world over and hee may read the Book of God and look heaven over and say all is mine for all these things are given by promise and the promise is mine Christ in whom all the promises are being mine Saints do too little think of this what they are as they are in Christ and married to him were our hearts ever full of such actual thoughts and considerations I am married to Christ I am united to him and therefore all the promises are mine all the good things promised here and hereafter are mine they would not go about as they do moping and mumping and dreaming all their dayes neither rejoycing in their inheritance nor acting for their heavenly Husband O Saints take a view of the blessedness of your condition look it over in the heighth and depth and length and breadth of it bee proud of it so as to vexe the Devil and shame and provoke the world Look upon your selves as you are and esteem your selves as you are Do not go about whining and whuling and say O I have nothing none is so poor as I you shame and disgrace your Husband hath Christ married you and hath hee such a great estate is hee so transcendently rich in promises and what hath hee given you nothing You would make Christ an ill husband Well may sinners bee shie and afraid to bee married to Christ when Saints by their carriage their whining and whuling and complaining speak so ill of him Yea whether you speak as you should do whether there bee any truth or reason in that you say let wise men judge If a man that hath many vast possessions of land and chests of mony and shops and warehouses full of rich commodities should say to his neighbour I have nothing I am afraid I shall starve or come to the Parish ere long would not they count him mad So when a Saint which hath a Magazine of promises multitudes of precious promises the meanest of which is of more worth and value than a kingdome shall whine and say I have nothing I know not what to do or how to live Obj. Aye but will some poor soul say Indeed were I sure that all these promises were mine I would not say so but al as that is my burden I fear there are none of them mine they indeed whos 's these promises are are rich and such may rejoyce and so could I were these mine but my affliction is I fear they are not mine Answ To thee poor soul I say Rowl thy self on Christ come to him and all are thine Coming to Christ as I said before is that which gives a man right and title to all the promises for by coming to Christ thou are married to Christ by marriage to Christ all the promises are thine Do not therefore stand querying Are they mine Are they mine and run to this grace and look to t'other qualification to make it out whether they are thine or no no but say to thy soul Coming is that which makes all mine Coming makes Christ mine and in him all the promises mine whether they are mine or no as yet I will not stand now upon that however I know suppose the worst that they are not mine what will make them so and that is coming I will therefore now venture upon Christ if I have never come to him yet I will now begin and then I know if Christ receive me a poor sinner as hee hath promised that hee will For him that cometh to me saith he I will in no wise cast out that all these shall streightway bee mine and I shall bee rich as rich as any being now by coming married to Christ made one with him and so inriched with the goods and substance of my husband Christ Use 4. Of Examination for the creature to look if it hath interest in Christ if thou hast then the promises are thine That soul that hath interest in Christ 1 Prizeth Christ as its head and looketh upon the absence of Christ as worst of all It hath enough if it hath seen the face of Christ all is nothing if his face bee hid O let it go through hell it self nothing goes so near to the soul as to loose the presence of Christ 2 It desireth to bee under the Government of Christ by the Spirit of Christ it desireth to follow the teachings of Christs Spirit 3 It longeth for the appearance of Christ Tit. 2.13 where as the world cannot indure it A poor creature may bee under temptation and not finde these things but at one time or other hee may finde these some longings when will Christ come Use 5. Of Exhortation to all that have Christ clear up your interest in Christ and the more comfort will you take in the promises Now for the clearing up the souls interest in Christ 1 Study the knowledge of the grace of God more The more inward feeling knowledge there is of the Grace of God the more thou shalt have thy interest in Christ cleared up 2 Labour for a beleeving frame Faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 After yee beleeved yee were sealed Eph. 1. v. 13. 3 Labour to distinguish between true and false evidences Quest How may a soul know that its evidence is true Answ 1. If thy evidence for life and salvation doth transform change and renew the soul The heart that before it had an evidence was exceedingly proud now is wonderfully humble now it findeth corruption dying The soul that before was dead to any duty now it acteth duty is pleasant a priviledge Now at that
Their backslidings were many Jer. 3.22 I will heal your backslidings 2 They were backsliders in divers and sundry wayes Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers 3 Their backslidings in world and deed were as foul and great as could bee Jor. 3.5 Thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest 4 They had been backsliders for a long time vers 25. Wee have sinned against the Lord our God wee and our fathers from our youth even unto this day and have not obeyed the voyce of the Lord our God 5 Backslidings open and publick vers 6. Hast thou not seen that which backsliding Israel hath done she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree and there hath played the harlot They had before them examples of others going in such paths with Gods anger against them yet took no warning vers 7 8. And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and played the harlot also 7 Against resolutions and promises Jer. 2.20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bands and thou saidest I will not transgresse when upon every high hill and under every greene tree thou wandrest playing the harlot 8 Against corrections Jer. 2.30 In vaine have I smitten your children they received no correction 9 Against Intreaties Chap. 3.7 And I said after she had done all these things turn thou unto me but she returned not 10 Wilfully Chap. 2. v. 31.25 But thou saidest there is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go 11 They justified themselves in their doings Chap. 2.35 Yet thou sayest because I am innocent surely this anger shall turn from me behold I will plead with thee because thou sayest I have not finned Yet these backsliders are wooed again and again to return Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet return again to me saith the Lord v. 4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me My Father thou art the guide of my youth And vers 7. I said after shee had done all these things turn thou unto mee vers 12. Go and proclaime these words towards the North and say Return thou backsliding Israel saith the Lord vers 14. Turn O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you vers 22. Return yee backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings Behold wee come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Object 12. But I fear I am but an hypocrite Answ Come that thou mayest bee sincere Christ calls at the door of Laodicea yet a formal hypocritical Church yea God spreadeth forth his hands to such Jsa 65.2 compared with 5. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts vers 5. Which say stand by thy self come not near to mee for I am holier than thou these are a smoak in my nose a fire that burneth all the day What now poot soul hast thou to object but that thou mayest come to Christ and cast thy self into his arms and bosome O Come Come Come behold everlasting arms open to receive thee Come prophane person formalist here 's heaven and salvation to bee had freely if you have hearts to take it all for a nothing-creature O Come Drunkard wilt thou lye and rowl like a Swine in thy drunkenness and not come to Christ and have a heaven Swearer wilt thou rend Gods name and reject a heaven Unclean person wilt thou prize thy lusts above a Christ a heaven O no no Fie for shame Come likewise poor doubting soul cast thy self into Christs arms hee will not cast thee out Take Hesters resolution If I perish I perish I will perish in doing my duty and going in to the King If I dye I dye however I will dye doing my duty and hanging upon Jesus Christ say to thine own soul as once the Lepers who sate in the gate of Samaria said one to another a King 7.4 If wee say wee will enter into the City then the famine is in the City and wee shall dye there and if we sit still here we dye also now therefore come and let us fall into the hoast of the Syrians if they save us alive wee shall live and if they kill us wee shall but dye So say If I stand where I am I dye if I return to old courses I dye likewise what then I will venture on Christ if hee save mee alive I live if hee kill mee I can but dye Amen Proposit 2 That all the promises of God made to sinners in Jesus Christ shall certainly and assuredly bee fufilled and accomplished It s cleared 1 King 8. v. 56. Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised there hath not failed one word of all his good promise which hee promised by the hand of Moses his servant God made a promise to Moses of giving rest c. to the people of Israel this promise God was punctual to a word in the fulfilling of it And this was a promise of the Law made to Moses the Law-giver on the behalf of that people Now if God were so punctual in fulfilling the promises of the Law which were made to Moses and given into his hand for that people that he would not fail in a tittle how much more punctual think you will hee bee in fulfill those promises which are made to Christ and given into his hand of the Saints such as all the promises of Law and Gospel now are to the people of God Now for the fuller clearing of this truth both that it is and must bee so I shall lay before you some Demonstrative grounds which may serve to strengthen and confirm our faith in this great point That all the promises made in Christ shall most certainly be fulfilled and accomplished Demonstrat 1. From the Text They are in Christ 2 From the great obligations lying upon God the Father and Jesus Christ to see to it that the promises be fulfilled Engagement 1. Promises cost Christ dear before he had them though they are a gift to us yet Christ paid for them The first Adam had the promises for nothing but he by his fall squandring away the promises none of his seed could ever have been partakers of any of them had not Christ the second Adam stepped in and by paying a price to his Father Justice redeemed the promises again Now the price was no less than his owne life and the promises having cost Christ so dear this obligeth him to look to it that they be fulfilled Engagem 2. Christ cannot put the promises to other use For for himself hee hath no need of them the evil Angels and good too God did in a manner
except them from having benefit by them when he willed his Son to take mans nature upon him rather than theirs Now adding this to the former that the promise cost Christ so dear and can be put to no other use than to bee fulfilled to his people this may give us good assurance both of the great engagement that lyeth upon Christ to do it and also that it shall bee done For if a man hath bought a thing deare and there is but one use it can bee put to hee will not fail of that Engage 3. The promises are now in Christs hand Christ takes it ill from men if they have a talent in their hands and do not improve it as in the Parable of the Sloathful servant Now Christ having so great a talent in his hand as the rich treasure of the promises which talent as it may bee improved much for the glory of God and the good of his people so can it not bee improved any way but by fulfilling them and in case Christ see them not fulfilled the talent lyes by in his hand useless which cannot but engage Christ to see to it that the promises bee fulfilled this the Apostle seemeth to hint at in the Text when hee saith All are in him i.e. they are in Christs hand in his keeping and therefore saith hee They are Yea and Amen i.e. true certain immutable shall most certainly bee fulfilled Christ will not suffer such a Talent to bee in his hand and not improve it Engage 4. The promises are not onely in the hand of Christ but Christ hath received them of his Father for this end that hee should give them forth to sinners God gave them into Christs hand upon this condition that hee should not keep them himself not let them lye by useless but give then forth to poor sinners as Act. 2.33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Engage 5. Christ by promise is engaged to see them fulfilled A mans promise lays an engagement and an obligation upon him Christ hath promised to see them accomplished Hee gives us his promise upon his Fathers promise that the promises shall be fulfilled Luke 24.49 And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you God the Father had promised to send the Spirit here Christ adds his promise to it as to say Hath my Father promised the Spirit why I do promise it shall be made good for I will send him Now poor soul dost thou doubt whether the Promises shall be fulfilled why consider a little what engagement lies upon Christ to see to the fulfilling of them 2 I may demonstrate the truth from those great ties and engagements that lye upon God the Father to see to it that the Promises bee fulfilled As there are great engagements lye upon Christ so upon the Father also Engage 1. The declaration God hath made of his own name engageth him to it Exod. 34.6 God hath declared this to be a part of his Name that the is abundant in goodness and truth and how can this bee should hee not fulfill his promise Engage 2. Gods faithfulness engageth him to it Heb. 10.23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised This was the ground of Sarahs beleeving God promised and though much might bee said in reason against the thing yet judging him faithful she beleeveth Heb. 11.11 Through faith Sarah her self received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a Childe when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised Hence Balaam reasons God is not as man therefore cannot lye or be unfaithful Engage 3. Gods promise it is a part of his Covenant what is the Covenant of Grace but a bundle of precious Promises now God wil not break his Covenant in any part of it See for this Isa 54.10 For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee God speaks high language Engage 4. God hath added his Oath to his Promise Heb. 6.17 wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath As an Oath confirmeth another in the certainty of the thing he swears to and therefore saith the Apostle An Oath is for confirmation vers 16. so doth it lay upon another an engagement to do what the hath sworn to and indeed the great engagement that an Oath lays upon the party swearing is that whereby the other is confirmed Now God hath for the strengthening of our faith added his Oath to his Promises God as with reverence I may say should break his Oath and forswear himself if he should not see to it that the Promises be fulfilled Engage 5. God hath pawned and morgaged Heaven and Earth upon it the Covenant of the day and night that hee will not break his promise Jerem. 31. vers 34 35 36 37. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward paris vers 35. Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light to the day and the courses of the Moon and of the Starres for a light to the night which breaketh the Sea when the waves thereof roar his name is the Lord of Hosts vers 36. If these Ordinances depart out of my sight saith the Lord then shall the seed of Israel cease from being a Nation before me for ever vers 37. Thus saith the Lord if the Heavens can bee measured or the foundations of the Earth be searched out beneath then will I cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done saith the Lord. God before had made many precious Promises to Israel now lest any should doubt of the fulfilling of them God here lays Heaven and Earth to pawn upon it so Chap. 33. ver 25 26. the same with the former Engage 6. God expects wee should fulfill our promises to him and therefore by the rule of equity he himself will do the same Deut. 23.23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform as thou hast vowed it willingly unto the Lord thy God for thou hast spoken it with thy mouth Engage 7. God takes breach of promise exceeding ill in man and therefore himself will not do it Nehem. 5.13 To all that hath been said let mee adde a word or two more 1 The Saints venture upon the Promises and so should be deceived in their hopes if they were not fulfilled 2 They are the Saints inheritance Saints are heirs of promise Heb. 4.1 6.17 God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of promise Saints should
or half that time Object 6. But I finde much unbeleef in my heart about it I cannot beleeve the fulfilling of the promise and therefore undoubtedly though God could fulfil it yet my unbeleef will hinder Ans 1. Can thy unbeleef hinder what God would do then is thy sin greater than the power of God 2 Hast thou such a promise made to thee then assure thy self thy unbeleef shall never hinder it 2 Tim. 2.12 13. If we beleeve not yet hee abideth faithful he cannot deny himself Rome 3.3 What if some did not beleeve shall their unbeleef make the faith of God without effect God forbid Was there not much unbeleef in David concerning the promise God had made to him touching the Kingdome when hee said I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 Yet God made it good So in Zacharias Luke 1. when hee said Whereby shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years v. 18 19. yet God fulfilled it 3 Put case thou canst not beleeve God will perform it beleeve but thus much God is able and it shall bee fulfilled So Abraham did in two as difficult cases as thine and by this faith in the power of God obtained the promise in both Rom. 4.21 And being fully perswaded that what hee had promised hee was able also to perform Heb. 11.19 Accounting that God was able to raise him i.e. Isaac up even from the dead Object 7. But God doth seem apparently to cast me off Answ God cast off the Jews and yet he calls them again upon this very account of his love and promise Rom. 11.27 For this is my Covenant unto them whâ—â— I shall take away their sins Object 8. But I have broken covenant and promise with God and therefore God hee will break his with me Answ The good things God hath promised do not come upon the account of our Covenant Ezek. 16.61 Then thou shalt remember thy wayes and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters thine elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for daughters but not by thy Covenant Object 9. But some soul will say I do not question whether God will fulfill his promise or no but here is my doubt I question whether hee will fulfill it to me such a one as I am Answ 1. Thou oughtest not to make such a question 1 Because such a question tends directly to keep thee off from beleeving which is that God commands 2 Because God hath no where said It doth not belong to thee and where God doth not exclude thou oughtest not to exclude thy self 3 Because such a question is first started in thee by the Devil whom thou oughtest not to hearken unto for it cannot bee of God because he every where calls souls to beleeving and therefore doth not put in questions to keep men from it 4 Because it is such a question as thou canst no way bee satisfied in but onely by ceasing to make it and closing with the promise 5 Because wee no where finde in Scripture that ever any of the Saints made such questions or if by reason of any distemper at any time did speak somewhat like it yet they are afterwards either blamed or do blame themselves for it Answ 2. Thy very beleeving of it makes it thine Gal. 3.22 That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve Hene Heb. 11.33 Saints are said by faith to have obtained promises Quest How may I come to know when the Promise is near fulfilling Answ 1. Extraordinary pressures lying upon thee is a sign the promise is near Exod. 2.24 And God heard their groaning and God remembred his Covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them When the pressures of Israel were so great that they sigh and groan under their burden then God remembers his Covenant So Chap. 6.5 2 Extraordinary deadness is also a sign the promise is near Then was the promise nearest fulfilling to Abraham when in a natural way his body was dead and Sarahs womb dead 3 Extraordinary growth Act. 7.17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt Quest what doth the consideration hereof afford us as matter of comfort Answ There is comfort in this That our beleeving the promâ—â—e shall not bee in vain Thou shall not be ashamed of thy faith thy hoping trusting staying upon God Acts 13.23.32 And we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children Q. What may we learn hence as our duty A. 1. Learn not to charge God foolishly my meaning is not to charge God with breaking of promise There is a proneness or aptness in the Saints themselves to charge God with breach of promise Psal 77.8 Doth his promise fail for evermore And to do it is a very great and provoking evil Numb 14.34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the Land even forty days each day for a year shall yee bear your iniquities even forty years and yee shall know my breach of promise Q. But when do we charge God with breach of promise Ans 1. When because the promise tarries a great while we therefore conclude it will never come Psal 77.8 Doth his promise fail for evermore 2 When consulting with carnal reason wee come to question whether the thing can be or how it can be Numb 11. vers 18. to 21. You have wept in the ears of the Lord saying who shall give us flesh to eat for it was well with us in Aegypt therefore the Lord will give you flesh and you shal eat even a whole moneth until it come out at your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you because that yee have despised the Lord which is among you and have wept before him saying why came we forth out of Aegypt 3 When the lying of great difficulties before us make us to fly back and run from the Promise Numb 14. vers 2 3 4. the Children of Israel had the Promise going with them to Canaan but hearing of the strength of the men and Cities of that Land c. they will back again into Aegypt and so indeed do run from the Promise and this vers 34. God calls a charging him with breach of Promise 2 Wait for the fulfilling of the promise Acts 1.4 Wait for the promise of the Father which saith Christ yee have heard of me and that with patience Heb. 6.15 After he had patiently endured he obtained the promise 3 Take notice of Gods fulfilling of his promises when he doth fulfill them So Solomon did 1 King 8. vers 15. And he said blessed be the Lord God of Israel which spake with his mouth unto David my Father and hath with his
call him Father yet I will come to him as a Sinner who may in time call him Father Object 11. But thou hast made many vows and promises and resolutions and broken them all Ans This O Satan is true yet but a sinner and promises are made to sinners Object 12. But thou hast had many motions from the Spirit of God to forsake thy sins and come to God which thou hast sleighted Ans Yet but a sinner and promises are made to such Object 13. But thou hast been an open opposer of the wayes and people of God thou hast been a and jâ—erer a scoffeâ— at goodness Ans Yet I am but a sinner though my opposings were never so great for which I ever desire to bee humbled and to lye low before God that I should be such a wretch yet can they made me but a sinner and the promises are made to such Object 14. But thou hast sinned presumptuously Ans Yet but a sinner still and the promises are made to sinners Indeed were I to come to God as the least of Saints I should not dare to come but however I can come to God as a sinner and though as the greatest yet but a sinner still Object 15. But thou hast been a great neglecter of good as well as a committer of evil Ans Yet but a sinner and promises are made to sinners Object 16. But thou art an Hypocrite Ans This Satan is worst of all if true yet however I am but a sinner for an hypocrite is but a sinner and the promises are made to such I will therefore come to the promise that now I may be sincere Thus by holding this principle thou shalt more easily speedily effectually anâ—wer Satan than any other way The Life of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 For wee walk by Faith not by Sight THe Text although included in a Parenthesis yet hath it relation to the foregoing verse being a reason of the latter part thereof Knowing this c. As if the Apostle should say This is the reason why we beleeve that whilst we are here at home in the body wee are absent from the Lord because the present life that now wee live is a life of Faith Now this wee know and are sure of that were wee present with the Lord wee should live by sight see him as hee is in the beauty and perfection of his glory but this being wanted here we conclude That whilst we are at home in the body wee are absent from the Lord. The words are a brief description of a Christians life here and hereafter here by Faith hereafter by Sight WE WALK the terme of walking in this Text is of equal extent with that of living Rom. 1.17 The just shall live by faith Gal. 2.20 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God I grant indeed in strict propriety of speech it is of larger extent because a man may live which doth not walk walking denotes not onely life but life in exercise but when these termes are applied to Faith as walking by faith living by faith they are of equal extent because the life of faith consists in exercise which is a mans walking by faith If a man do not walk by faith i.e. carry faith along with him throughout all that hee does or suffers doing and suffering by faith hee doth not live by faith for thus to do is properly to live by faith and take this away you take away the life of faith though a man may have the habit of faith in him yet doth hee not live by faith unless faith be active carrying him out either in doing or suffering for God which when it doth as he lives so likewise he walks by faith Doct. 1. The life of Faith is the proper life of Saints in this world 2 The proper life of Saints in the world to come is a life of Sight Of the first viz. Doctr. That the life of faith is the proper life of Saints in this world It was even in the times of the Old Testament Abraham lived by Faith See that notable place Rom. 4.17 to 22. who against hope beleeved in hope that hee might become the Father of many Nations vers 19. And being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when hee was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadness of Sarahs womb vers 20. Hee staggered not at the promise of God through unbeleef but was strong in faith giving glory to God vers 21. And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform Here the Holy Ghost makes a Divine Comment upon the famous story of Abrahams beleeving and sets forth that life of faith which was in that holy man who against hope when nothing was left for Abraham to build hope upon in a way of sense but all things were at that pass that they made against his hope and endeavoured to destroy it yet then Abraham beleeved God comes to Abraham when that he was now about a hundred years old and his Wife Sarah near as many and promiseth him a Son by his wife Sarah and that in his seed should all Nations be blessed well might Abraham now say God hath promised me a Son and that in my seed shall all Nations be blessed How shall this word ever be I am now a hundred years old my body is dead to the begetting of Children my wife Sarah near as many her wombe is dead to the conceiving of Children how shall this promise be brought about But saith the Text Abraham considered not these things here was the life of faith hee did not suffer his minde to run on these things hee did not ponder them in a way of reason and sense but against hope beleeved in hope kept up his hope in a way of pure beleeving when all things to sense seemed to destroy his hope and so was strong in faith giving glory to God Hebr. 11. the Apostle reckons up throughout the Chapter many of the Worthies of the Old Testament Abel Enoch Noah c. recording their good Works and attributing all to their faith by faith they did thus and thus Abel offered Enoch was translated c. the Old Testament mentions only the bare work in many of these the Spirit of God in the New looks further into the nature of them not only the matter done but the manner of doing it records they were Gospel work and done from faith though wrought in Old Testament times so that the Saints of the Old Testament did live by faith yea Habbakkuk Chap. 2.4 saith expresly that the life of Saints or justified persons it is a life of faith so that this was the proper life of Saints in Old Testament times Come to the New we shall see still it is if in the Old when the Covenant of Grace by which this life of faith is begotten cherished was more dark and lay wrapped
meeteth with one repulse after another yet her faith groweth is strengthened O woman great is thy faith A soul that liveth by faith hee beleeveth for certaine that hee shall have such a mercy when opposition cometh hee runs to the Promise the Lord hath promised here is a difficulty come in the way and this is like to be a mercy indeed the Lord will try me before I have it But now a soul that liveth by sense the more difficulty he meeteth with the weaker his faith groweth as a soul that lives by faith encounters difficulties and runs them down so a soul that lives by sense every difficulty encounters him and runs him down When Peter walked upon the water the VVinds arise and grows boysterous and his faith sinketh and hee sinketh too when there cometh some difficulty between the Promise and the Soul that the soul cannot get through it or look over it then it faileth it cannot go on Differ 4. The life of faith maketh a soul put his acceptance in the acceptance of Christ the life of sense maketh it put its acceptance much in affections if it cometh to a duty as prayer if the heart and affections be up the heart goes away cheerly and comforted but if they be down the heart goes away sadly dejected now it is not accepted A soul that lives by sense raises up his faith by his affections but a soul that lives by faith layeth his acceptance upon the Lord Jesus Christ He saith this I know Jesus Christ is accepted with the Father and this I know all the acceptance any Son or Daughter of Adam hath with God it is by Jesus Christ Now saith the soul I have no worthiness nothing at all this I do I close with this Jesus I beleeve on him I lay hold on his righteousness with this will I go into the Fathers presence from this I beleeve I am accepted If I have acceptance I beleeve I am accepted not because of these but for Christ when I have none I beleeve I am accepted because of Jesus Christ His acceptance is mine Eph. 1.6 Hee hath made us accepted in his beloved So for the acceptance of our duties Jesus Christ beleeved for mee hee had a faith for Justification though not a justification through faith So I beleeve my prayer is accepted because Christ prayeth for mee intercedeth for mee I beleeve my thankfulness is accepted because Jesus Christ hath been thankfull for mee I beleeve my obedience is accepted because Jesus Christ hath performed obedience for mee I beleeve my humiliation is accepted because the Lord Jesus Christ was humbled and broken for mee So hee putteth the acceptance of his person performance and all in the acceptance of Jesus Christ Differen 5. The life of faith keepeth up his obedience when his comfort goes down the life of sense throweth down a mans obedience together with his comforts though the soul wanteth comfort the manifestations of the love of God yet notwithstanding it doth not flag in its obedience there is still a sweet stream of love and obedience though the stream of his comforts doth not flow as once it did There is a stream of obedience though there is not that streame once there was of comfort This you may see in the holy man Job God frowns upon him fights against him as an enemy the Devil hee tempts him to cast off all his hopes in God his wife tempts him to cast off all hope Dost thou still retain thine integrity His friends might and main endeavour to prove him to be an hypocrite here was a sad condition yet the good man bears up his confidence against them all Job 13.15 Though he slay mee yet will I trust in him As if hee should say it is my duty to trust in God the Lord frowns upon mee fights against mee and indeed my comforts are gone time was I had much well it is my duty to trust in God let God do what hee please frown if hee will take away my comforts if hee will yea let him kill mee if hee please though he kill me yet will I trust in him So David Psal 119.82 83. My soul fainteth for thy salvation but I hope in thy word my eyes fail for thy word saying When wilt thou comfort mee for I am become like a bottle in the smoak yet do I not forget thy statutes David looked for comfort long so long that his soul even failed O when O when So long as a bottle in the smoak is parched and dryed I have been so long without comfort that my soul is dry and parched and yet for all this Lord that comfort do not come yet I minde my duty I keep to my duty I do not forget thy Statutes So a soul that lives by faith let former comforts bee gone former manifestations and injoyments bee gone yet the soul will minde his duty Let the Lord frown if he please nay let the Lord leave mee as a bottle in the smoak Yet saith the soul will I trust in him and not forget his Statutes yet will I minde my duty go on in duty But a soul that lives by sense if his comforts bee gone his obedience will bee gone too you shall finde it thus with them if they finde much comfort then they can pray and hear indeed that soul goeth cheerfully and merrily on O but let his comfort bee gone and then hee is like a sullen childe hee will do little or nothing for his Father the soul will stand still so it is with the soul that lives by sense Differen 6. The life of sense beleeveth onely so far as it hath reason to beleeve the life of faith beleeveth above reason If there bee some ground in reason to beleeve such a thing then it beleeveth if not it cannot When the Israelites were in the wilderness they could not beleeve because there was no ground to reasor to beleeve that they should have bread and flesh when in the Wilderness but they questioned the Power of God Can hee give bread also So that Noble man 2 King 7.1 2. because hee could see no ground or reason why there should bee such a great plenty saith hee If God would make windows in heaven could this bee A soul that liveth by sense will beleeve onely so far as hee hath reason nay he will not beleeve alwayes so far as hee hath reason to beleeve I am perswaded there would be a great deal of faith many times when there is a great deal of unbeleef if they would beleeve so far as they might have some reason for it As for example A poor soul casteth away the Promise and saith This Promise belongeth not to mee I have nothing to do with Jesus Christ and yet it can confess that Christ hath made it to poor sinners now reason saith Take it because it is made to poor sinners O but not to all O but so long as it is made to poor sinners and thou canst see no
consideration now do I not finde that at all inabling me but the faith I had is from another how comes this to pass VVhy am I so inconstant in my faith true or not for my brethren we are prone and ready to think when from any one principle or consideration our faith is kept up that that should do it ever which is our weakness and ignorance to shew us which may be one reason why God deals in this way with us as another to make us see his manifold workings in every of which hee is glorious and therefore in none to be despised and also to make us have a higher esteem of every truth not to slight any jot of the Gospel and lastly which is the thing premised to teach us that we should not tye up God to any one way or manner of working saying here he goes in this way he works and in no other This being premised I come to the question to shew how faith acts in such as live by faith or what it doth in either of these The life of Faith in Justification Quest 1. How doth Faith act in Justification or what doth faith in that business in those persons who live by it Ans 1. Faith in all those persons who live by it it gives the soul a clear and convincing sight of the emptiness and nothingness of all its own righteousness in this great business of our Justification faith whensoever it makes after Justification it presently sets up such a light in the soul that the poor soul is made to see that all its own righteousness whither inherent or of works contribute nothing at all to its Justification so that if it have not some other righteousness to justifie it must go for ever unjustified notwithstanding all this though whilst it did not live by faith for justification it was prone to eye much its own righteousness and attribute a great deal even in the matter of justification to it so much as that when it saw it it would straight-way conclude its justification and when not the contrary yet now having obtained to live by faith there is wrought in the soul such a wonderful convincement of the nothingness of this which once it made such an account of as that it sees though it could be as righteous as ever man in the world was yea as Adam in the state of innocency was though it should have all the righteousness of the old Adam yet would not this make it righteous as to justification unless also it hath another and better righteousness It sees that the righteousness of Abraham David Paul and Peter and all the righteous men that ever were in the world though all were its own would not make it one whit more righteous or just before God than the vilest sinner in the world but that it must perish and go to Hell for ever with all this righteousness if it hath no other so that whilst it makes after Justification it goes wholly upon another score saying Lord if there bee not some other way found out to make this poor miserable soul eternally blessed than the way of its own righteousness it is undone for ever and must unavoydably lye under Divine wrath and the stroke of Justice for ever Lord had I all the working righteousness of men and Angels yet were it not for another righteousness I should not dare with all this to come unto thee or to have a thought that because of this thou shouldest justifie me for though this in it self be good yet now I am clearly convinced that its all nothing as to the obtaining of my Justification thus wonderfully doth the life of faith unrobe a man of his own righteousness so as that he never dares go into the presence of God for Justification until he hath put this garment off but as the Priest when hee was to go into the Holy of Holies did lay aside those Garments which hee usually wore and put on other so this soul whensoever it comes into the presence of God it lays aside every garment of its own righteousness which it wears in this world and puts on the royal robe of Christs Righteousness This we may see in the holy man David Psal 16.2 O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodness extendeth not to thee No sooner doth hee act faith in God as his God but presently saith he My goodness extendeth not to thee as to say Lord thou art my God thou hast justified me and this my soul saith yea I beleeve it O but saith he this is not for my goodness it comes not at all into this business farre bee it from me that I should think so my goodness extendeth not to thee I see Lord saith David my goodness is nothing as to thee true it may bee useful to the Saints on earth O but it brings thee nothing neither is that it which hath brought this thing about that thou art my God So likewise Gods Church Isa 64.6 8. when she is going to put forth an act of faith in God as her God she lays by all her own righteousness looking on it as nothing worse than nothing vers 6. We are all an uncleane thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and vers 8. But now O Lord thou art our Father As to say Thou O Lord hast loved me justified me this I beleeve for thou art my Father but this my Justification or this love of thine towards me is not for my righteousness no that is all an uncleane thing and filthy raggs and instead of Justification I can expect nothing but Damnation from the same 2 Faith it ever presents the soul with a perfect compleat and all-sufficient righteousness which is to be had in anoâ—her for its Justification Faith unrobes the soul of its own righteousness and then it saith O thou poor naked soul which walkest without a Garment and hast no righteousness of thy own to cover thy nakedness come thou hither for I have glad tidings to tell thee behold a perfect and everlasting righteousness the Son of God Jesus Christ casting the spotless mantle of his righteousness over thee thou art naked but O my soul behold a robe an everlasting robe of perfect righteousness put it on go boldly to thy Father with it though thou art black yet this will make thee comely though thou art poor yet this will make thee rich though thou art deformed this will make thee beautiful all fair there shall be no spot in thee Now as faith unrobes the soul of its own righteousness so doth it bring down this to the soul of the poor Sinner which being brought down and the soul cloathed therewith it takes it in its hand and goes up to the Father with it and says the soul Lord a time there was that I was unrighteous and then I was affraid to come unto thee and good reason I had to fear but now I come
unto thee and though I am still as vile a Sinner as any man in the world yet am I as just before thee as any Saint in heaven though I have nothing of my own to boast of before thee except it bee my shame and nakedness yet have I that of anothers wherein I boast and glory and herein will I glory though of my self I will not glory but of mine infirmities This righteousness of Jesus Christ which is neither the righteousness of works nor our inherent righteousness but another distinct from and above all these a forreign righteousness â—or a righteousness without us is that alone which the soul which lives by faith for Justification bears all upon in this business It counts not it self one whit the more righteous or justified because it hath done much for God nor one whit the less because it hath done little but it bears all its Justification upon this that it is righteous in the righteousness of Jesus Christ it lays the whole weight of this great business upon the shoulders of Christ It sees and knows that God the Father hath laid the whole stress of the business there that he hath not appointed any other righteousness neither of men or Angels to the work and therefore saith the soul though I had all the righteousness of all the Saints on earth and Angels in Heaven to bring to God for my Justification yet would all this never justfie me because the Father hath not appointed that either the righteousness of men or Angels should do it and yet though I have in a manner nothing of these as little creature active righteousness as any yet do I in some measure beleeve that I am justified because I have another and better righteousness which through Grace I have been enabled by faith to lay hold of even that righteousness of God or that righteousness of Jesus Christ which God the Father hath ordained and appointed to bee my everlasting Righteousness and Justification The more you and I live by faith the more shall we daily come up to this to lay the whole strength of our Justification upon this righteousness without us not reckoning our selves to bee one whit the more righteous when we have done a great deal of good nor one whit the lesse when we have fallen into sin though my heart hath been more carried out for God in this duty then I was in a hundred before yet now to go to God and say for all this I am not one jot the more righteous as to my Justification that is wholly by another righteousness which this comes not at all into it meddles not with but is a stander by and when I have fallen foulely into sin then to go to God and say Lord I am as vile a sinner as any in the world I have walked as like a wretch as ever creature did and yet for all this I am not one jot less righteous as to my Justification that is still by another righteousness which my good reacheth not my evil hinders not This we may see in Paul 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified As to say O yee Corinthians I have preached the Gospel among you and I have whatsoever you judge or think of me the testimony of my Conscience that I have laboured to do it in all simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by manifestation of the truth making it my design to approve my self to every mans Conscience in the sight of God yet for all this though I have endeavoured and obtained mercy of the Lord in my work to bee faithful am I not thereby justified I do not put this upon the account of my Justification So Rom. 7. when the Apostle had at large discoursed as of the good so also of the great mass of iniquity that was in him whereby he was captivated and made to serve sin yet he presently triumphs Chap. 8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ as if he should say Though I finde an unregenerate part as lively and powerful in me as any other doth or I think can do yet am I not hereby condemned this doth not at all hinder my Justification no I thank God for Jesus Christ that is all in him the business of that lies upon his righteousness though I had ten times more sin then I have to contend with to mourn and be humbled for yet could it not prejudice my Justification that is only by the righteousness of Christ and blessed bee God Christ is mine his righteousness mine there is therefore now no condemnation 3 Faith leads the soul out unto and constantly keeps it to the word of promise where the righteousness of Christ is held forth to poore Sinners for the obta ning and holding of it Faith ever loves to have its hold-fast in its hand because it knows that the better the thing is which it holds if once it lets go its hold-fast the more eager and watchful the Devil is to snatch it from it Now this thing of the righteousness of Christ it is Faiths Jewel the promise as by it it first gets hold of this precious Jewel so is it its hold-fast by which it keeps this Jewel from being plucked away by Satan therefore doth faith lead the soul out unto Christ keep him close to the word of promise continually saith Faith as you love the comfort of your Justification through the righteousness of Christ so hold to the Promise keep to the Promise let go the Promise but a moment your adversary will snatch your Jewel out of your sight Faith it takes a poor soul by the hand and carries him out to the Promise saith â—olt behold here is a promise see what is in it why an everlasting righteousness for my Justification here an eternal Salvation hereafter take hold of it therefore O my soul take hold of it is there not a blessing in it yea is there not that in it which will make thee blessed for ever keep hold of it therefore O my soul keep hold of it Rom. 10. vers 6 7 8 9 10. The Apostle speaking of the righteousness of Christ which faith hath hold of saith thus Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead but what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thine heart that is the word of faith which we preach i.e. do not think you must go up to heaven to fetch it that there is no getting it except you climbe thither neither say Who shall descend i. e. that it is in the Grave I must go thither for it go hang or drown my self if I will have it but what saith it The Word is nigh thee What word why of Faith and the Promise i. e. the promise of faith
in Jesus Christ which is preached to poor sinners in this this righteousness is contained here you may lay hold of it by holding of this thou must keep it thou needest not poor Sinner if thou wouldest have all thy sins pardoned be a justified soul and blessed for ever climbe up to heaven by thy own good works and righteousness for it nor run down to hell in despair thinking thou mayest as soon finde it there as any where else no no poor soul what saith it The word is nâ—gh thee Heaven is nigh Justification Salvation is nigh thee it is in Gods word of faith which thou hearest preached that free promise which brings thee tidings of an everlasting righteousness lay hold of this thou art blessed for ever keep hold of this and thou shalt see thy self a justified person and an Heir of Heaven for ever And who mee thinks hearing this would not have thoughts of a Heaven thou poor soul sittest all the week long at thy Cups and with thy Queans and art scared from having any thoughts of Heaven or obtaining of Jesus Christ and life eternal through him because thou thinkest if ever thou doest it thou must make a Ladder of good works and climbe up to Heaven and thus thou knowest not how to do but it is a Hell to thee to have thoughts of it or if not so yet thou thinkest thou must run mad for a while at least the thoughts whereof terrifie thee as much on the other side whereas poor soul thou art mistaken the righteousness of Christ by which souls are righteousness of Christ by which souls are justified and saved needs neither of these for the obtaining of it thou needest not go up to Heaven nor down to Hel to get it thou needest not stand howling and crying and moping a moneth together to get a Heaven no but come to the Promise and all is thine but I tell thee not that when this is done thou shalt swagger and swear and be drunk and roar as before thou didst no but a new nature shall be put into thee and God whom now thou art affraid of as a Judge to hang thee thou shalt come running unto and throw thy self into his arms as into the arms of a loving Father and that work as prayer hearing which thou art now in prison whilst thou art about thou shalt account this glorious liberty 4 Faith it begets and keeps up a secret perswasion in that soul which lives thereby that either the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is declared in the promise already for certain is or if not may bee mine As faith leads the soul out unto and holds it close to the promise where Christs righteousnesse is held forth so there is something which faith in its acting doth to bring the soul unto and constantly to hold it to the promise for it is not an easie thing to bring a poor soul which sees nothingness and emptiness in it self and all its own righteousnesse to close with the promise of Christs righteousnesse and to hold the soul to the same in such sort as it shall not swerve or start aside stagger or reel from that promise in this great business of its Justification Now that which faith doth for the bringing of the soul unto and holding it close to the promise is the begetting and maintaining in the soul a certain secret and inward perswasion which is twofold Either 1 Such as hath an assuring act of faith joyned with it and may bee called Faith of assurance which though it bee not that wherein the life of faith doth properly consist yet it oftentimes accompanyeth living by faith and is more constantly found in that soul which lives by faith than it is in another which doth not live by faith which is a perswasion that that righteousnesse of Christ which is revealed in the promise for the justification of sinners is certainly mine applied to mee and that through the same I am already justified and shall never come into condemnation and therefore I come and take hold of the promise and keep to it as that which is my continual evidence against sin and Satan that I am justified and shall never come into condemnation so that the soul comes to the promise and saith This promise is mine the treasure in it is mine the Jewel of Christs righteousnesse that it brings is mine and in this confidence it triumphs over death hell sin the devil and all the enemies of its Justification and Salvation This perswasion wee finde in the Apostle Paul upon which hee grounds his glorious triumph Rom. 8. vers 33. to the end Daring all his enemies and all the enemies of the Elect of God Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth who is hee that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or peril or sword All comes from this perswasion vers 38. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And as I said before though this perswasion that I am certainly just and righteous before God in the righteousnesse of Christ bee not that proper act whereby I live by faith yet the more I attain to of this life of faith the greater and more constant will this perswasion bee for the stronger faith grows in any soul the more full assurance doth it bring though yet that assurance is not the act whereby it lives by faith but a fruit thereof yea in those souls who have attained to a higher degree of the life of faith as Paul and others in those times had the actings of faith do more appear in the act of Assurance and less in the acts of bare Adherence so that such doe not so much say the Righteousnesse of Christ it may bee mine and therefore I cleave to the promise which brings the same as thus it is certainly mine I am certainly justified and therefore I hold to the promise and that which is the ground of this my assurance and my evidence to prove the same against all the charges of the Law Sin Satan or any of the enemies of my Salvation Or 2 Such a perswasion as hath an adhering act of faith joyned with it and may be called faith of adherence which is a perswasion of this that the righteousnesse of Christ which the promise declares for the justificotion of sinners though I cannot for the present certainly say it is mine yet it may bee mine and I may bee justified and therefore I go to the promise and hold to the promise where this is to bee had this perswasion is properly the life of Faith considered in it self the other is the life of Faith
and its fruit both in the soul together and though every soul which lives by faith hath not the other i.e. a perswasion that Christs righteousnesse is certainly its own yet every soul which lives by faith so far as it lives by faith hath this that possibly it may bee mine so far at least as that it dares not conclude the contrary as the Ninevites Jona 3. v. 8 9. Repent from such a consideration Who can tell if God will turn and repent And as Job offered sacrifice for this children from an It may bee my Sons have sinned And the four Lepers ventured into the host of Assyria from an It may bee they will save us alive So a poor soul which lives by faith goes to the promise and takes hold thereof and though it cannot say this is certainly mine or shall certainly be mine yet it saith It may bee mine however I will not conclude the contrary 5 Faith in the point of Justification causeth the soul that lives by it to shun all disputes either with the Devil or a mans own carnal reason as to the question whether it bee justified or no Satan comes and layes heavy charges upon the soul thou art such a sinner hast so often been proud unbeleeving worldly minded so many sins thou hast committed against the love and free grace of God against thy own light and conscience so many duties thou hast neglected so many been formal hypocritical in and therefore thou art not justified Carnal reason that comes in and sayes its Amen to the Devils arguments saith Carnal reason the Promises are true I know them to bee so and therefore surely the conclusion must bee thus I am no childe of God I am an unjustified person Faith now that comes forth and encounters the furious charge of both these raging Lions who would at once swallow up the peace and happiness of the poor soul and saith Faith you enemies Satan and my own reason if from all your charges you had concluded against my Sanctification reason would that I should bear with you but if the question bee about my Justification I will bee no disputer in that matter because it is not for mee to meddle with that business or to take the work out of anothers hands who is intrusted with it I grant I am as vile as you have made mee and viler too yet were I ten times viler than I am yet would not all this touch my Justification because that is wholly without mee and in the hands of another so as that no good or evill within mee or done by mee comes at that Yea O yee my enemies saith the soule you are much beside the question which fain you would affirm and prove when from these charges you would assaile my Justification for Sanctification and Justification are two things and all you charge mee with in your premises is some defect in the matter of Sanctification and in the conclusion you run into Justification which is to raise another question and therefore saith the soul had you concluded thus thou art not sanctified I would freely without dispute have concluded with you for this I do acknowledge that I am a poor sinner a wretched man in my self often captivated with a body of death I am not indeed so sanctified as I should bee but I see something in my self which I desire to mourn for and to walk humbly underâ—â— and which I see daily need to go to my Father about which also I do beseeching him and waiting upon him for the healing this filthy puddle of my nature but because of this that I am not justified that I will not conclude neither are you my enemies untill you have proved that there is a defect or want of righteousnesse in Christ as in mee till you have proved that there is not righteousnesse enough in Christ upon whom my justification lyes as it is my duty I shall still desire notwithstanding all my weaknesses and imperfections to beleeve my Justification Sixtly and lastly Faith looks strictly and narrowly to the conscience Conscience is the strong hold and castle of the soul whilst that is quiet free from tumults the whole man is at peace let there be a tumult there and the whole man is at war and put into distraction therefore faith in the business of Justification makes the soul to use all diligence of secure that hold out of the hands of the enemy by securing which the whole man injoyes peace and truly this looking too and securing of conscience is a business of greatest concernment in living by faith for justification For the Devill and Sin do the soul more mischief when these get into conscience than they do or can do any where else Now there are three wayes by which Faith secures Conscience 1 By putting a strong garrison into Conscience and keeping it there This strong Garrison is the Righteousnesse of Christ which faith brings into conscience and keeps there Faith knows that nothing else can defend conscience when Sin and Satan storm it but Christ Righteousnesse Hence 1 Pet. 3.21 wee are said to have the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ for the Resurrection being the time wherein Christ did appear in all his Righteousnesse and shew forth himself as one that had now fulfilled all Righteousnesse and upon the very same account was now risen from the dead when hee had been acting the last part of that sad Tragedy as to himself but glorious work of Righteousnesse as to us is put for the whole Righteousnesse of Christ both active and passive and so it is as if the Apostle should say The Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ being put into our Consciences is that whereby they are secured and kept peaceable so that instead of tumults and insurrections in conscience our consciences are in peace instead of accusing us wee have the answer of a good conscience towards God 2 By clearing the conscience of all those enemies who formerly have done or do disturb the peace thereof As faith brings a strong garrison into conscience so it ejects all malignants or disturbers of consciences peace these are those dead works Heb 9.14 which creep into conscience i. e. the guilt of all sin whether of omission or commission which get into conscience and disturb its peace Now faith garrisoning conscience with Christs righteousnesse ejects all these the first thing this garrison doth being entred is the clensing of the place where it is from all such as are enemies to the peace of it Whatsoever guilt of sin past or present which lyes in the conscience and wrangles all is cast out the Righteousnesse of Christ being made governor of conscience and the conscience injoyes abundance of peace whereas before it had not quiet an hour in a day many times for a month together now it is full of peace Sin which before lay gnawing and tormenting it is now cast out and everlasting righteousnesse
comes in the room thereof whereby the soul possesseth abundance of inward peace passing all understanding O saith the soul I never knew what a calm was till now that I had the righteousnesse of Christ set up in my conscience I have been oftentimes tossed too and fro and my soul neer upon shipwrack but now thanks bee to God I injoy a blessed calme I never knew what a calme of conscience was till now Therefore my heart rejoyceth my tongue is glad c. 3 By keeping a constant guard at the gates of conscience that so these enemies being cast out may not re-enter Faith knowing of how great concernment it is keeps a guard day and night at the gate of conscience so as that when any of the ejected enemies would re-enter presently they are under examination Who is here Who are yee Who are you for Why I am such a one Then stand Stand off come not here this is the Garrison Christs righteousnesse and here is strict command no such must enter Act. 24.16 Paul makes it his exercise to keep conscience clear though hee could not but faile in his duty towards God and man both yet hee exerciseth himself to keep his conscience clear to keep it void of offence that though offences were committed yet that the guilt of them might not get in there And thus much for the first thing how Faith acts or what it doth in persons living thereby in our Justification Quest 2. Wherein doth lye the advantage of that soul that liveth by faith in Justification above another that concludeth his Justification from sense from what he seeth and feeleth Ans 1. He hath an advantage in respect of the ground upon which he holdeth his Justification when wee hold a thing upon good ground if of worth the greater advantage we have The soule that liveth by sense holdeth his Justification upon a ground within him it is experience sensible workings that is his ground But a soul that liveth by faith holdeth his Justification upon a ground without him the Promise and Covenant of God this is a better ground 1 In regard of the clearness of the ground it is such a ground as doth more clearly represent the thing than any other thing can I may more clearly see and behold my justification in the Promise than in any experience whatever That soule that grounds upon sense there is a veile many times upon his justification because there is a veile many times upon his experience upon Moses face there was a veile So when the ground of our justification runs in a legal way upon sense there will be a veile upon the Justification for the face of Moses is veiled A man that hath a veil upon his face you see his face but darkly if you see it at all you see it with a great deal of uncertain knowledge but now that soul that grounds his Justification upon the promise that man seeth his Justification as a man seeth another face to face i. e. hee seeth clearly and speedily Abraham rejoyced to see Christs day and saw it he saw it clearly now how did Abraham see the day of Christ He had many experiences he did not see the day of Christ through these but through the Promise for saith the Scripture Abraham beleeved God and it was counted to him for righteousness he saw through the promise 2 It is a sure ground it is good to be upon sure ground even in smaller things than this upon which a mans eternal Salvation doth hang. As a mans Justification is a thing of such moment therefore we had need to bee upon sure ground Now that soul which holds his Justification from any thing within doth not hold it upon a sure ground it may be hee hath experience to day and it s gone the next day sometimes it is present sometimes absent but the promise is a sure ground Why because that remaineth The soul that holdeth its Justification upon any thing within will at one time or other let go his hold of Justification but that soul that holds it upon the promise without will hold it when the other lets it go 3 It is a ground more easily come by our experiences it is hard to keep them when we have them so hard to regain them when lost Hard to get an humble frame of heart but harder to regain when lost but the promise is more easie though it have no experience for the present yet a poor soul may take his Bible and go to the promise of God and lay hold of that Obj. But you will say it is as hard to lay hold of the promise as to get up experiences Ans We grant it is so but the promise is the ground it is not our laying hold 4 It s a ground that hath a great deal less deceit in it when a man grounds upon any thing within there is a great deal of deceit as the Spirit of God hath his true Gold so the Devil hath his gilded Counters therefore possibly I may miss and take the Devils gilded Counters for the Spirits gold but in the promise there is not that deceit that is a ground that a soul shall not be deceived by So there is advantage in respect of the ground 2 That soul that liveth by faith in Justification hath an advantage in this respect in that the soul hath its justification more constantly in its sight than another hath another sees it now and then but he beholds it more constantly And 1 By having our justification more constantly in our sight we are free from abundance of those doubts and fears that other poor souls are continually hurried about withall about their justification take a poor soul that liveth by sense and hee is in continual fears about this Justification continually tossed too and fro one while hee thinketh surely I am not that justified person if I were there would not be so many sins stirring another thinks surely I am not justified for I have rejected Christ so many time before and had so many heart-warmings in his Word and all gone so that he is continually in a Labyrinth of fears and doubts that hee cannot wind himself out of about his Justification But a poor soul that hath his Justification in his sight is freed from abundance of these fears is not tossed too and fro but beholdeth his justification grounded on the rock without him Though hee findeth not that within that hee hath found and breathes after yet saith the poor soul my Justification is by a righteousness without though I prize the workings of the Spirit of God within above any thing this world can afford and though I finde a want of these yet I will not conclude I am not justified because justification is all without I may be justified yea I beleeve I am though I finde not these workings so lively and stirring as time hath been they have so he is free from fears in the business of his
justification 2 The constant holding our Justification in our sight maketh the soul take all the dealings of God in good part put a good construction upon all Gods dealings whereas another who is dark in justification he can take no dealing in good part at the hand of God A soul that beholdeth his justification can as long as that is clear behold the love of God in Christ towards it it can put a good construction upon all Let God give a mercy he will say that it is out of love let God take away a mercy he will say that is out of love Let God smile he seeth his love let God frown through his frown he beleeveth his love Let God put him into a prosperous condition he seeth love let him put him into an afflicted adverse condition he can beleeve God is his God But take a poor soul that is dark in that let him give a mercy he saith O I am affraid it is in Judgement let him take away a mercy this is in judgement I have abused it Let God smile he is affraid to own it lest hee be deceived let God put him into prosperity he thinks that will ruine him into affliction he thinketh that is to destroy him 3 The constant beholding our Justification doth carry out a soul with a sweet Son-like frame of Spirit in all its actings towards God Take a soul that is dark in its justification there will not bee childe-like actings but slavish actings a spirit of bondage servile actings But take a soul that hath his justification in his eye and there will bee sweet Son-like actings when hee goeth to duty hee goeth with the spirit of a Son I see Hell is gone Heaven is given and doth not perform duty to avoid the one or procure the other but doth all as to a Father because God hath taken Hell away and given Heaven and is my Father therefore I go about the work of God When it mourneth for sin it doth not mourn for fear it should bee Damned but because it hath sinned against a Father I do not say it is so with a Saint at all times but when a soul beholdeth its justification so it is 4 This constant beholding our justification doth dis-inamour and wean the heart from worldly things our hearts are never so weaned from the Creature as when wee see through justification our interest in the Creator When the poor soul cometh to see the great God of Heaven and Earth is my Father and I have a glorious inheritance provided above in Heaven for me then it saith Why should I dote upon Creatures As a Princes Son is estranged from the company of other Children why I am the Princes Son they are companions below me this maketh him leave other Boys and not play with them so a Princes Son wil not go and hoard up Counters why I am a Princes Son so a poor soul when it beholdeth its justification is estranged from the world upon this consideration I am a Son of God a Childe of God have an interest in Heaven a glorious inheritance there and this weaneth the heart from the world The beholding our actual justification begets such actuall considerations as these 5 It armeth us against all Satans temptations it puts the soul into such a condition as it can grapple with Satan when he cometh to assault it with his fiery darts let the Devil shoot never so many fiery darts yet so he hath his justification in his eye it will keep off all and therefore it is called a Shield They used a Shield to repel Arrows from the party Faith is our shield to repel the darts of Satan and beat them back again so this is another advantage 3 That soul that liveth by faith in justification is delivered from the great evil other souls run into of adding to or detracting from his justification it is a great evil incident to the Saints they look upon themselves as more or less justified accordingly as they are more or less holy and their works more or less spiritual I do not say but that we should endeavour after holiness and spirituality to the utmost but not to make our justification less or more as these things are lesse or more 1 Because it puts our justification as a stock into our own hands that by our care and diligence wee might augment or by carelesness and negligence might diminish it whereas our justification is a stock the Saints have but it is in the hands of their Suerty which though they are and ought to use all Christian care and diligence yet by all their care and diligence there is not one dram added to their justification Though they are to take heed of all carelesness and remisness and avoyd them yet though they should fail there is not one whit not one dram taken away from their justification by all Justification is as the Childes Portion in the Executors hands the Childe hath some spending-money but his Portion is in the hands of the Executor So is our justification that is a stock in the hands of our Executor the Saints have something in themselves and they spend much of that but they would spend their justification too if the stock were in their own hand but it is in the hands of their Suerty Executor and they cannot spend that he will not let them have that so that that cannot be spent Now when we look upon our justification as that which may be added to or detracted from we do not look upon it as in the hands of our Suerty but in our own hands and that is a great evil 2 It is a great evil because it maketh our Justification like our Sanctification in part for that which is perfect can have nothing added to it or taken from it if any thing could be added to it then it was not perfect before perfection doth neither admit of addition or diminution Now our Justification is perfect by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 them the Father hath set apart he hath perfected for ever Now if I should be more justified at one time than at another then Justification were not perfect 3 It maketh justifying grace to depend upon Creature actings for if I am more justified when I do more and less when I do less then my actings have influence into my justification and so justification depends upon Creature actings and so if of works then it is no more of grace 4 It is a great evil because it doth much dishonour Christ it speaketh the righteousness of Christ insufficient for our justification if the righteousness of Christ be sufficient to justification then all I can do cannot help it forward If it need any thing of ours then it is not sufficient of it self I speak this to shew the great evil of adding to or detracting from justification which how usual it is to look upon our selves more justified at one time
than another experience teacheth as if there were a flaw in our justification so soon as there is a flaw or slip in our conversation I shall come now to speak a few words to the third thing Quest 3. What is it that hindreth the soul from living by faith in justification Ans 1. Our being ignorant of the nature of that dispensation we are under through grace ignorance of the nature of Gospel Dispensations therefore it is wee live so little by faith The Gospel is an administration of Grace there is nothing in the Gospel but grace pure grace all in the Gospel is grace from first to last Now wee being ignorant of this Gospel Dispensation we are led by the Principles of old Adam within us to look upon the Gospel as a Covenant of works or at least as partly grace and partly works and when we look upon it so we think wee cannot have justification by the Gospel unless we bring something with us and this hinders living by faith beleeving for justification The principles of old Adam do so agree with the Covenant made on Sinai that we can seldome go out to God for justification but are ready to look upon God as standing upon Mount Sinai and standing upon that Covenant and then we see an angry God a terrible God a God cloathed with Thundrings and Lightnings and that makes us think wee must bring something to God to pacifie him and so wee are hindred from living by faith in justification Whereas a poor soul when it cometh to understand the nature of the Gospel that there is nothing in it but grace but pure grace then the soul can act faith for justification and go out to God for it as a poor nothing-Creature when it seeth all is received in a way of grace 2 Fear we should presume if we should go to God for Justification as poor nothing-creatures O thinks the soul If I should goe to God as having nothing I should presume this maketh him afraid to go to the Promise Whereas indeed wee do presume in not going If a great man promise a poor man a hundred pound and tell him he shall have it if hee come for it if this poor man should be so mannerly as to say I will not go if I had it I should bee glad but for such a poor man in my rags to go to such a great man I should presume would it not bee presumption for him not to go So it is a great presumption for a poor sinner not to go to God for justification by faith Is it not high presumption to pull down that God hath set up and set up that God hath pulled down When a superior Court sets up a Law for an inferior to repeal it When the High Court of Parliament hath repealed a Law for an inferior Court to go and enact that Law were it not presumption This is the Law God hath set up that all should have justification by grace that is repealed to have justification by works When I shall go seek to bee justified by something within mee or done by mee I doe goe and set up that Law that God hath abolished and is not this high presumption 3 The old Adam sticking close to us When wee speak of old Adam sticking close I do not so much mean the Evil old Adam as Good old Adam Moral righteousnesse which was in Adam That Liquor that is first put into a vessel the vessel will hold the sent of that longest Now man was righteous before sinful old Adam was made first righteous therefore it is more natural for a man to think to bee saved by his owne righteousnesse than to sin Though to sin be natural the other more natural for it is more rooted in nature than sin And it plainly appeareth that it is an easier thing to bring a man off from any sin than from the opinion of his own righteousnesse To bring a Drunkard from his drunkenness a Swearer from his swearing easier than from an opinion that his own righteousnesse should save him And it is clearly shewed many a man is brought off from his sin that is never brought off from his righteousnesse therefore that sticks closer And this wee may see if wee look on the Scribes and Pharisees and Publicans and Harlots The Scribes and Pharisees were those that stuck close to Good old Adam to walk exactly and righteously The Publicans and Harlots were those that minded neither good nor evill but swimmed in all the evill of old Adam Now when Christ came they imbraced and entred into Heaven but the Scribes and Pharisees the righteous men that were following the good of old Adam they reject Christ and run headlong to Hell And this likewise is clear if you look to the Jews and Gentiles in the Apostles time The Jews followed after good old Adam The Gentiles they went on in sinful old Adam The Jews they rejected Christ opposed Christ The Gentiles they come in and imbrace Christ So that the good of old Adam sticks more close than sin and there is many a man is come off from his sin that wil be damned for his righteousness trusting to that neglecting Christs Righteousness The Scribes and Pharisees were come off from sinne and the Jews did not live in that unrighteous way Publicans and Harlots did yet these goe headlong to Hell and the other imbrace Christ This is that which hinders from living by faith in Justification The life of Faith in Sanctification I Come now to the Second The life of Faith as it relates to a Christians Sanctification Justification and Sanctification are inseparable companions where there is the one there is the other in some measure either habitually or actually Whom hee justifieth hee also glorifieth Grace is Glory begun Now in this business of Sanctification wee are to live by faith and the Proposition shall bee this Propos That a Christians Sanctification is to bee carried on in a way of faith or beleeving Or A Christian is to exercise faith in his Sanctification I shall shew 1 Wherein faith is to bee exercised in our Sanctification 2 How Faith acteth 3 Why wee are to live by Faith in Sactification 4 What is the difference between that Sanctification which ariseth from natural conscience enlightened and that which ariseth from faith and beleeving Quest 1. Wherein is Faith to bee exercised in our Sanctification Answ Sanctification consists of two parts Mortification and Vivification Mortification is the destroying of the old man Vivification is the quickning of the new man By Mortification wee are transplanted from the stock of the old man by Vivification wee are transplanted into the new Adam 1 Mortification consists of two branches There is the mortification of the outward and inward man Of the outward man that is of all those things that please the carnal outward sense and appetite and of the inward man of all the faculties and powers of the soul will and affections Col.
3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness the mortification of the outward man And in vers 8. Put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy There is the mortification of the inward man 2 For Vivification that likewise lieth in two things There is the vivifying of our Graces and the quickning of our Duties or our hearts to obedience The last comes from the former Our Graces bring forth our Duties and our Duties are but the actings of our Graces So that the things wee are to live by faith in in our Sanctification are the mortification of all sin whether in the outward or inward man the vivification or quickning of all Graces and of our hearts to every duty Quest 2. How doth faith act or put forth it self in this business of Sanctification Answ Here according to the two parts wee shall proceed and shew how faith acts in the business of Mortification and Vivification Quest 1. How doth faith act in the business of Mortification Ans 1. Faith doth discover to the soul that the old man the unregenerate and unmortified part that is in every one of us was carried up by the Lord Jesus upon the Cross and there did receive a deadly wound And that Jesus Christ our Redeemer and second Adam did take upon him that nature in which the first Adam fell and so did give a mortall blow to the body of sin and death by suffering in that nature Therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin condemned sin in the flesh Christ took the likeness of sinfull flesh and by death condemned sin in the flesh that is did give a blow to sin in the flesh in the humane nature that hee took upon him therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 6.6 That our old man is crucified with him Christ took it up upon the Cross with him and gave it a mortall wound Now faith doth discover this to the soule when the soule findeth sin strugling and striving within then saith Faith this sin striving is a part of that body of death that is in the Saints now O my soul look up upon the Cross and see that body of death dying therefore O my soul go out against it and so faith encourageth the soul to go out against sin 2 As Faith shews the soule sin crucified with Christ so it shews the soul that the design of the Lord Jesus in giving a mortal blow to the old man and body of death upon the Cross it was this the weakning of the power of sin and the subduing of it in the Saints that sin might bee so dispowred that it might not reign nor rule in the Saints but bee continually in a declining languishing condition therefore it is said Rom. 6.6 Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might bee destroyed hee doth not say It is destroyed presently Christ took it up upon the Cross gave it a mortal wound that it might bee destroyed in order to the destruction that having the power broken the Saints might the more easily get power over it As an enemy that is already wounded though a Gyant is easily overcome So though sin bee strong as a Gyant Jesus Christ hath wounded sinne therefore his strength being taken away is the more easily subdued Faith shews the soul Christ saith Faith What did Christ give sin a mortal wound that it might bee destroyed O then let not sin live O then sin shall not live in mee 3 Faith shews the soule that there is a continual streaming forth of vertue and efficacy from the Lord Jesus Christ for the killing and subduing sin within Faith doth as it were set open the Fountaine of the Bloud of Jesus Christ streaming out towards and upon it for the healing of the Leprosie of Sin and this is that which faith layeth hold upon when it strugleth with sin Paul when hee was contending with this Old man when he cryeth out O wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 presently he casts his eye upon Jesus Christ and saith I thank God Faith sheweth the soul the efficacy and vertue that is in the Bloud of Jesus Christ for the killing sin 4 Faith is much in calling out the soul to the promises of mortification we have a promise of mortification Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under grace The soul that lives by faith when it findeth sin strong it taketh hold of the promise and goeth to Christ and saith Lord thou hast said sin shall not have dominion over me behold here is such and such a corruption too hard for me Lord behold here is thy promise look upon thy promise remember thy promise subdue my corruption it first goeth to the promise and armeth it self with strength in the promise and then cometh and fighteth against sin and that is the matter wee are so often foyled with sin because we try to combate with sin before we go to the promise When a soul lives by faith for the subduing of sin there is first a going to the promise and then it encounters with sin with success 5 Lastly Faith doth beget and maintaine in the soul a secret perswasion though for the present it is compassed about with a weight of infirmities yet God will support it under all and in Gods time it shall be a conquerour over all Though I be for the present molested with sin yet a day will be I shall be a Conquerour and all these my enemies shall be under my feet I shall set my feet upon the necks of all my sins one day and this carries the soul couragioussy out to fight against sin for the present Quest 2. How doth faith act in the business of vivification Ans 1. Faith eyeth much the Resurrection of Christ and maketh the soul labour much after knowing Jesus Christ in his Resurrection Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and Fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his death Here are the two great things we are speaking of for hee is pressing after perfection of Grace which consists in these two to have fellowship with Christ in his death for mortification and to know Christ in his Resurrection for vivification and quickning As mortification comes by a dying Christ so vivification cometh by a living Christ 2 Faith that sheweth the soul how that in the Resurrection of Christ he was raised up and quickned with Jesus Christ Faith sheweth the soul that in Jesus Christ it is quickned already as its common person therefore the Apostle Paul speaking of Jesus Christ as this common person saith Ephes 2.5 6. Yoâ— who were dead in trespasses and sins he hath quickned with Christ and made to sit together with him in heavenly places Faith shews the soul how that in
the Resurrection of Christ it did revive and hath quickning already Saith the soul though I am dead my graces lye as though dead affections dead heart in duty dead yet I have quickning in Christ I have a stock of life in Jesus Christ Coloss 3.3 Yee are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God though it do not for the present appear it is hid with Christ 3 Faith in this business of vivification sheweth the soul that there is a streame of vertue and efficacy comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ quickning of it and this is that Paul presseth after That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Phil. 3.10 That I may have the power of his Resurrection raising and quickning of mee The Resurrection of Christ though but one act yet hath a continual stream of vertue flowing from it for the quickning of souls 4 Faith taketh hold of any word of promise in the book of God that may bee any ground of encouragement to beleeve his quickning it as that word of Christ Joh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly See saith Faith Jesus Christ is come that I might have life And because I live yee shall live also Joh. 14.19 because there is life in Christ shall I live then I will go to him for life Quest 3. Why is a Christian to live by faith for Sanctification Answ 1. Because our sanctification is altogether of grace therefore the Spirit by which wee are sanctified is said to bee given of God and the blood of Jesus Christ which hath such an influence into Sanctification that is of Grace It was of Grace that Christ shed his blood of more grace that this blood of Christ should bee applied to thy soul for the washing away of thy sin So Faith which is a help in our Sanctification that is of Grace therefore Faith is said to bee the gift of God Eph. 2.8 And to you it is given to beleeve Now if Sanctification bee of Grace wee are to live by faith for it 2 Because our Sanctification as well as our Justification is primarily in the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is made Sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1.30 and so wee are to live by faith for it for whatsoever is in the Lord Christ I am to partake of it by faith 3 Because wee have promises of Sanctification What I have a promise for I am to live by faith for because the promise is the ground of faith but wee have promises of Sanctification of MORTIFICATION Sin shall not have dominion over yon Rom. 6.14 of VIVIFICATION because I live yee shall live also Joh. 14.19 therefore wee are to live by faith in it 4 Because we are to pray for Sanctification and therefore we are to beleeve for it What is my duty to pray for I am to beleeve for because Prayer must bee in faith Every Petition I put up to God in Prayer it is my duty whether I do it or no to act faith in the thing desired If I am to pray for it I am to beleeve for it But I am to pray for it Jesus Christ teacheth us to pray for it when hee himself prayed for our Sanctification Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth and Jesus Christ teaches it in that Prayer we call the Lords Prayer the three first Petitions respecting in a great part our Sanctification Hallowed be thy Name It is as much as that God would help us to honour and Sanctifie his great Name Thy Kingdome come It is as much as to pray that God would set up his Spiritual Kingdom in our hearts that we might bee ruled and guided by his Spirit having all corruption mortified and grace quickned Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven This is as much as to pray that wee poor creatures here on earth might do the will of God so freely fully and cheerfully as the Saints in Heaven So that wee are to pray for Sanctification and then wee are to beleeve for it because our Prayer must bee in faith Quest 4. What is the difference between that Sanctification which ariseth from an enlightned conscience and that Sanctification which ariseth from faith or beleeving There is a Sanctification which ariseth from the meer dictates of the Law of Nature and that Sanctification the Heathen Moralists attained to a great deal of And there is a Jewish Sanctification or Legal and that is such a Sanctification as is begotten by the terrors of the Law But there is another Sanctification and that is a Gospel-Sanctification that is such a Sanctification as is wrought in the soul from the beholding the love of God in Jesus Christ such a Sanctification as is wrought from beleeving his Justification Now there is a great difference between this Sanctification and the other which arises onely from an enlightned conscience for both arise from an enlightned conscience the one from conscience being enlightned by Natures law the other from the written Law but there is a great difference Answ 1. That which ariseth from natural conscience is something of the more gross part of Sanctification but a piece and doth not take in any thing of the finer part of Sanctification A forsaking some sins that are outward and gross his conscience cannot but flye in his face so that hee shall not rest quietly night nor day such as Drunkenness Adultery and the like It is in respect of those duties that are more apparent such as Prayer hearing the word such if a man should let alone hee should have no quiet nor peace in conscience But that Sanctification that cometh from faith that is in respect of the inward more secret evils of the soul the secret rising of pride unbeleef and passion and so for more inward duties that Sanctification teacheth a man to deny himself to submit himself to Gods will to be content with Gods disposal 2. That Sanctification which cometh from an inlightned conscience onely raiseth a man to bee more self conceited but that Sanctification that cometh from faith and beleeving throweth a man down in respect of all self-conceit it maketh a man more mean and low in his own eyes As the Scribes and Pharisees and Jews in our Saviours time they had a great deal of this outward holiness and Sanctification but see how it puffed them up how they stand upon tip-toes and crow over poor Harlots and Publicans as not fit to come in the company of such as they were But that which cometh from faith maketh the soul more humble What abundance of Sanctification Paul had hee did press after perfection did walk more like one in heaven than on earth yet hee could look upon himself as the least of Saints concerning acting for God labouring in the work of God hee preached the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illiricum laboured more abundantly than they all yet how humble Yet not I but
what those things are that a Christian expects by faith 2 How Faith acts the soul in this business of expectation 3 Why we must live by faith in this respect 4 What manner of waiting that is that comes in beleeving And so apply it First Those things that a Christian waits for and expects are many but a Christian doth by saith wait for something more especially that he doth expect and wait for in a special manner as 1 The fulfilling of Promises if the Lord hath made a promise to the soul or it the soul hath been made to wait upon a word of promise now he waits upon God beleevingly to see the accomplishment of this promise David had a word of promise from the Lord and waits upon the Lord for the accomplishment of it Psal 119.49 ver Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope hee had a word and grounds his hope upon it waits upon God for the fulfilling of it So we read of Simeon that just and holy man spoken of in the second of Luke vers 26. he had a word that he should not dye until he saw Jesus Christ in the Flesh and he waited for the consolation of Israel he had a word and waited for it at the 25. and 26. verses A word was given in to him and it was revealed to him by the Spirit that he should see Christ and hee waited for the accomplishment of it so a poor soul when it hath any promise given in by the Lord or is enabled to take hold on any promise and meets with a promise sutable to its condition a soul that lives by faith waits upon God for the fulfilling of this promise 2 Again another thing that a soul waits for is the return of his prayers Prayers are the great ventures of a Christian according as a soul speeds or not speeds in these so he is either rich or poor these being a Christians great ventures he is waiting for their return to see what comes home and who comes richly loaden or not this in Psalm 85.4 5. ver the Psalmist having been earnestly praying to God Turn us O God of our salvation wilt thou be angry with us for ever shew us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation the Psalmist having been praying hard he waits upon God for an answer at the eighth vers I will hear what God the Lord will speak he had been praying and looks up now for an answer I will attend now for an answer for he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints I am sure I shall have an answer of peace and I will hear I will stand waiting for an answer And so the Prophet Habbak 1.2 How long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save art thou not from everlasting O Lord my God mine holy one c. all the chapter is prayer now in the beginning of the second Chap. Habakkuk stands upon the Watch Tower to see if any answer cometh at the first vers I will stand upon my watch and will watch to see what hee will say unto me hee had been praying and now hee would stand upon his watch tower The watch towers are places in Cities where some stand to discry an enemies coming so in the Kings Jehu's coming was discryed by a Watchman in 2 King 9.17 And there stood a Watch man on the tower of Jezerel and he spied the company of Jehu as he came so Habakkuk here hee had been at prayer and hee went up to his Watch-tower to discry the coming of an answer and waits for the return of his prayer A poor soul that is another thing he waits for for the returns of prayer such a soul says I have prayed and I will wait for it as a wise Merchant sends out a Venture takes care of it and hearkens out for it and when it comes home hee looks for his gains c. So a Christian when he trafficks for Heaven he does not let it go and never mindes it but inquires after it and looks for his gaine and returns and thus he does wait for the return of his prayer that is the second thing 3 Again another thing a soul waits for is the return of Gods countenance it is not always Sun-shine here below sometimes Clouds doth interpose to hinder the Sun beams and cause darkness and obscurity so it is not always Sun-shine with a poor soul sometimes Clouds get in between the countenance of God and a poor soul and hinders the comfort of a poor soul and sometimes when it is so and it is not as it hath been formerly the soul waits then for the return of his countenance Psal 130.5 6. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope my soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning he waits and he waits and waits more for God than they that watch for the morning Where was he why hee was in the depths as in a dungeon and could not see the light of Gods countenance in a dark condition and there waits and O when shall I see God again and so likewise at another time when the countenance of God was hidden from him and much dejected in Psal 42.5 6 7. O my soul why art thou disquieted within me trust in God who is the help of thy countenance and thy God and he puts his soul in waiting upon God for I shall yet praise him and behold him who is the help of my countenance and my God 4 Again as for the return of Gods countenance so he waits likewâ—se for the Churches deliverance that is another thing when the Church is under any trial or affliction in captivity he waits for the deliverance of the Church thus in Habakkuk The just shall live by his faith when the people were in Babilonish Captivity they lived by saith for the return of their Captivity so Gods people are called Watchmen in Isaiah Isa 62.6 I have set Watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem What do they watch for for the deliverance of Zion they wait for the prosperity of Gods people and the deliverance of the Church of God 5 Another thing is The ruine of Gods enemies as they wait for the prosperity of the Church of God so for the ruine of Gods enemies Zeph. 3.8 Therefore wait yee upon me saith the Lord that I may assemble the Nations the Kingdomes to pour upon them my indignation anger jealousie God hath a design to gather together his enemies to their ruine and destruction Wait upon mee untill I gather them together and till they bee destroyed 6 Again one more The soul waits for the Lords second coming that 's a thing the soul may wait for Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith Now look in the former words and hee shall live by faith in the expectation of Christs second coming
vers 37. Hee that shall come will come and will not tarry So in Chap. 9. vers 28. To them that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation What a looking waiting and expectation for Christs second coming in the Spirit Rev. the last Chap. v. 17. The Spirit and the Bride saith come here is coming waiting longing the Spirit cries come and the Bride cryes come the Spirit in the hearts of the people of God cryes come waiting for Christs coming yea this is made a character of a Christian and a great work of the Gospel to wait for Christs coming 1 Thess 1.9 10. They themselves shew of us what manner of entring in we had unto you And to wait for his Son from heaven It is the character given of the Thessalonians a waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ and a great Gospel-work to wait for Christs coming Thus what it is that Christians wait and expect for Secondly How the life of faith acts or how faith is helpful to a soul in this business of a Christians Expectation and waiting First Faith or the life of faith it ever seeks out some promise upon which it may ground an Expectation of that mercy that it waits for I say the life of faith it ever looks out some Promise upon which it may ground an expectation of that mercy it waits for Faith it must have its word and therefore the soul that doth by faith expect and wait for any mercy it ever looks out for a word and promise goes ever to the word to see what ground it hath to stand upon and to wait for such a mercy the life of faith does turn over the Bible and looks out the promise findes out the promise of that mercy never rests till it have a promise and then it pitches its standard upon the promise and there it stands and looks up to heaven waiting for the accomplishment of that promise When Daniel did expect the Deliverance of the people of Israel out of the Babylonish Captivity he did ground it upon a promise The Prophet Jeremy had foretold it should continue seventy years now Daniel goes to the promise and when they were expired prayes unto God for the deliverance and upon this word of promise seeks God and beleeves it indeed and expects it from the promise Secondly As Faith doth cause a soul to seek out a promise so having found the promise does not limit God to any time or way for the fulfilling of this promise Another soul that doth not live by faith if so bee that hee doth wait upon God at all yet hee will limit God and tye up God to his own time and way Israel limited the holy One Psal 78.41 and hee that expects much in the way of faith that soul will not limit God to his time and way if I have it not to day I can wait no longer no that soul will wait upon God Gods time as David sayes Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hand So sayes a soul Times and seasons of mercy are in thy hands if I should have it now to day I should bee glad and rejoyce and bless the Lord for it if thou dost withhold it My times are in thy hands yet I desire to wait no reason that I should speak against the Lord and entertain hard thoughts of God if thou withhold the mercy yet I will wait for it Take thy own time O Lord. Then it doth not limit God to any way of performance A soul that expects mercy in way of faith it doth not limit God to any way so far as concerns Expectation it is not the way of faith to limit God to any way An ungodly man will many times tye God to wayes But a soul that doth by faith expect a mercy that soul leaves God to his own way We read of Moses once or twice tying God up to his own way When the people were in great streights Exod. 14 at the red Sea 14 15. vers The Lord shall sight for you and yet shall hold your peace And the Lord said unto Moses Wherefore cryest thou unto mee Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward Moses at the 13. verse goes and layes out a way and that was to stand still and God would destroy their enemies and that was not Gods way hee goes to God and cryes unto him that hee would come with some immediate hand and destroy them from heaven this was Moses way and now Gods way was that they should go forward and pass through the Sea at the 16 vers But lift up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the Sea and divide it and the Children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the Sea Now Moses bid them to stand still but God bids them to go for ward and so they did did not ty up God to his own way And so at another time wee finde Moses limiting of God Numb 11. for want of flesh the Children of Israel murmured well sayes the Lord Therefore the Lord will give you flesh and yee shall eat yee shall not eat one day nor two dayes nor five dayes neither ten dayes nor twenty dayes but even a whole month 18 19 20 vers And Moses said at the 21. vers The people amongst whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen and thou hast said I will give them flesh that they may eat an whole month shall the flicks and herds be slain for them to suffice them or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them Moses thought of no way unless their flocks were killed or the fish of the sea to bee gathered together and Moses thought this the way and so prescribes God a way So a soul so far as it is waiting upon God and not in faith it will prescribe God a way but a soul that doth expect in faith for a mercy it will not bee prescribing God a way So Abraham hee leaves God to his own way God bids him offer up his Son hee doth not say Why my Son why how will thy promise bee accomplished and made good art not thou faithfull Abraham leaves God to his own way and beleeved that God could finde a way for the fulfilling of the promise and did not limit God to any way a soul that lives by faith waits upon God for the fulfilling of the promise and doth not limit the Lord to any time or way of his own Thirdly The life of faith in our Expectation as it doth cause the soul to look out to the promise and having the promise doth not tye or limit the Lord to his own time or way for the accomplishment of it so it doth perswade the soul though it know not the time when yet a time there is wherein the promise shall be fulfilled and that mercy I wait for shal be given in It doth perswade the soul that there is a
expectation for him my soul waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning Psal 130.6 How doth a soul watch for the morning a poor soul that is tired out and hath felt the pains and afflictions of the night and could not get a wink of sleep now hee waits with great expectation for the morning so a soul waits with great expectation and earnestly waits for God Why now is it so that a Christian is to live by faith even in respect of his Expectation wee may see a necessity of this in our Justification not any comfort of that without it in our Sanctification and Expectation we must exercise faith in all That which I would speak is to put us on to wait upon God in faith let us in all our waitings wait in faith my poor soul hath been waiting for such a mercy and for such a mercy and it comes not O wait in faith Take some few considerations for this 1 It is better for a soul to be kept up by faith in a waiting frame for a mercy than it is for a soul or would be for a soul to enjoy that mercy waited for it is better and many times a greater mercy to be kept up in a waiting frame of heart for the mercy than to enjoy that mercy waited for if you did enjoy it you would rest upon the enjoyment and so our life is turned into a sensible life and is it not better to live by faith than by sense and better to wait upon the Lord for the mercy than to enjoy it 2 Again There is more of the Power of God put forth in your condition of waiting than in the other a great power pâ—t forth to support a poor soul to wait upon the Lord to wait upon him what great power is put forth to inable us to beleeve Ephes 1.10 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who beleeve according to the working of his mighty power power and great power and exceeding greatness of power and working of mighty power to inable a soul to beleeve that is that power that inables a soul to hang and wait upon God and hence it is that Paul does close with this when that mercy which he had been seeking of God for that the Thorne in the flesh and die messenger of Satan might depart from him was denied he said he should have more experience of the power of God though I would gladly bee out of it so long as God will bee with me in it and his strength made perfect in my weakness most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me 2 Cor. 12.8 9. so in Isa 40. ult They shall renew their strength there is a continual communication of power to inable a poor soul to wait to the soul that waits upon God and so it is better because it hath more experience of the power of God 3 Again it is better then there is in enjoying because there is more exercise of grace than in the condition of enjoyment the grace of enjoyment is chiefly joy but in waiting there is abundance of grace faith exercised and humility and patience and contentment and submission to the will of God and Self-denial exercised if the Lord will not give it it will deny it self there is a great deal of the exercise of grace in that condition therefore you cry out O I have not such a mercy and the exercise of such a grace as I would have I have not such strength against corruption and such parts and gifts and abilities now may not this very condition that by faith you wait upon God in be better to you than the condition that you would have that condition you wait upon God in than that condition that you wait for if you did enjoy it 2 Again consider if so be that by faith you do wait upon God for a mercy you shall assuredly in Gods time have the mercy you wait for Isa 44. those shall not be ashamed that wait upon the Lord vers 23. They shall not be ashamed that wait for me saith the Lord that wait for him the Apostle Paul grants this in Rom. 10.11 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not be ashamed teaching us that our waiting must bee in a way of faith now a soul that waits upon God in a way of faith shall not be ashamed what is that it is that hee shall not miss of what he waits for as one that trusts in another and makes a boast of him is ashamed of his trust if hee fail Now if a soul should trust in God and make a boast of God God hath promised and if it should fail and not bee given in the soul should bee ashamed now he that waits upon God shall not be ashamed they that trust in Aegypt and Ethiopia shall bee ashamed of it but God will not fail them that trust in him They that wait upon the Lord shall never be ashamed what though it do not come in in thy time it will come in in Gods time there is a waiting time and a fulfilling time a time to wait upon God for the fulfilling of the Promise and that waiting time goes before the fulfilling time in Habakkuk 2.3 For the vision in yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry a double tarrying it will not tarry it doth tarry and though it doth tarry it will not tarry all that time a soul is to live by faith waiting upon God waiting for it and in its time it will surely come and not tarry when the fulfilling time is come it will not tarry So have you been waiting upon God for such a mercy and a great time it is that you have waited for it and it is not come why this is the waiting time when the fulfilling time is come it will come you have been waiting for strength against corruption for the performance of such duties the exercise of this and the other grace why though it tarry it will not tarry As God will have thee to wait all the waiting time so hee will come in the fulfilling time God is very exact and punctual in observing the appointed time in fulfilling of his Promise God will not lose a minute when the time is come he will come in Exodus this is very clear Exod. 12.41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that all the Hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Aegypt now see how punctual God is in the self same day God takes notice of a day God will not lose a day in four hundred and thirty years he will not lose a day so exact is hee in observing his day and time it is twice noted therefore in the
them that curse thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed this promise I say was the great promise made to Abraham when hee was in his own Country now he was but seventy and five years old vers 4. how old was hee when the promise was fulfilled Chap. 21.5 And Abraham was an hundred years old when his Son Isaac was born unto him and he beleeved all that time and hast thou beleeved and waited twenty and five years for the mercy Abraham waited twenty and five years and yet beleeved all that time and have you waited long it may be not a year not three years not ten years and is that a great while Abraham waited as long and longer and yet had the mercy at the end so though you have been waiting a long while yet wait beleeving wait still there have been those that have waited as long as you and have had the mercy Consider further that there is a set time for the mercy wait for it Quest But when is the set time then I could wait for it if I knew but that Ans That is only known to God but sometimes some hints there are that wee may come to guesse when the set time of the mercy is come It shall he then when thy extremity is great and thou canst live no longer and wait no longer that is the set time Isa 33.10 Now will I arise faith the Lord now will I be exalted now will I lift up my self now when they were brought to great extremity utmost extremity vers 9. you have been waiting it may be you have not been in utmost extremity and it may be you can bear more and art not in such great extremities and darkness as God will give it in when the extremity is great then is Gods time Secondly again then is Gods time when God shall be mostly exalted in giving in the mercy Isa 33.10 Now will I be exalted then is the time wherein God wil be exalted in giving the mercy that is the time when God wil give the mercy and so in that place now will I arise and now will I be 〈…〉 that is the time when the soul shall exalt God and so poor soul for answer know the time of this extremity and when God should be most exalted is the time of the expected mercy Quest But how shall I come to wait upon God in way of faith Ans First Labour to work the promise much upon thy heart What ever mercy it is that you wait upon God for there is a promise for it in the word of God a promise Now labour to work the promise much upon thy heart Hast thou a hard heart and dost thou wait for a broken heart the Lord hath promised to give a broken and soft heart now labour that promise much upon your heart and beleeve it and this is that that will inable you to wait upon God and so is your sin great and you say I have been a great sinner and a notorious sinner why the Lord hath promised to pardon sin and that our iniquities hee will remember no more and so art thou blinde and ignorant of the truth of God why the promise is that Christ is a light to the Gentiles to open blinde eyes and hee promises to send the Comforter to teach and to guide you into all truth and they shall bee all taught of God Labour to get the Promise upon thy heart And art thou unfruitful Dost thou bring forth little or no fruit And would you bring forth fruit and bee fruitful Get the promise of fruitfulness Isa 41.18 I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water I will plant in the Wilderness the Cedar the Shittah tree and the Mirtle◠and the Oyl tree So in Chap. 35.6 7. For in the Wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the Desart and the parched ground shall become a Pool and the thirsty land springs of water In the habitation of Dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes Labour to work the promise home upon your heart Dost thou want strength to perform duty There is a promise that the Lords strength is made perfect in weakness Labour to work this promise home upon thy heart And hast thou lost strength in departing from God and art weakned and is strength gone There is a promise of renewing strength Isa 40.31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not bee weary they shall walk and not faint Now labour to work this upon thy heart They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and so go out in the promise and wait upon God and so what ever mercy it is there 's no mercy that thou canst wait for and expect but there 's a promise for it in the Word of God Secondly Do not advise too much with your own reason If you would wait upon God do not advise too much with your own reason Reason will beat you off from waiting upon God What you waiting upon God and hast so many sins and will God regard such as you So long you have waited and no mercy come and dost thou ever think to have any thing Thus Carnal reason will beat us off from waiting do not hearken therefore unto reason If you will wait upon God then beg the Spirit spiritual work must bee done by the Spirit and wee cannot wait upon God without die Spirit Wee through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith Gal. 5.5 6. Go and beg this Spirit of God that is the great Gospel-promise Now hath God promised the Spirit and cannot you wait upon God and live by faith without the Spirit Go home and say Lord Lord I Give mee thy Spirit and spirituallize this thy poor creature Have I been a stranger to the Spirit no wonder then that I cannot wait upon God no more therefore would you wait upon God in faith Beg his Spirit A Postscript REader Thou art desired to take notice That whereas here is wanting The life of Faith in Perseverance And The Excellency of the life of Faith That neither the Notes of the Author nor any person can yet bee found though much pains hath been taken herein that hath taken the remainder from his mouth to perfect this Subject Yet because the matters handled are so Excellent and Usefull wee were unwilling the World should bee without them The Saints Anchor Rightly cast OR The Saints sure Anchor-hold Heb. 6.19 Which hope we have as an Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail IN the twelfth Verse of this Chapter the Apostle exhorts Beleevers to bee followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the Promises This exhortation the Apostle inforceth in the 13 14 and 15 Verses from the example of Abraham to whom God having
made a promise that hee would bless and multiply him and confirmed the same by an oath Abraham without questioning patiently waited for the accomplishing of it and so after hee had patiently waited hee obtained the Promise in the 16 verse the Apostle urgeth the force of this oath from the nature of a Civil oath Men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife as if hee should say If it bee but a Civil oath between man and man yet after an oath is past there is no more striving and contending an oath confirmeth that party to whom it is made about the assurance of that for which it is made so that hee no longer striveth but patiently waits for the enjoyment of the thing then how much more as if hee should say should this oath of God confirm a beleevers faith and stir him up to patience in the 17 and 18 verses lest any should conclude that this oath of God was made onely to Abraham and therefore they had nothing at all to do with it therefore the Apostle shews this oath of God it was not made onely to Abraham but to all the heirs of promise as well as to Abraham yea every beleeving soul might have as great and strong consolation from the oath of God even as Abraham which heirs of promise who they are he layes them down by their proper character such as are fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them as if hee should say The heirs of promise they are such who seeing no hope in themselves nothing that they can ground hope upon but see a blessed glorious hope without them set before them in the promises they flye to the promises and lay hold of that blessed hope they see in the promises when they can see no hope in themselves and in the 19 vers the Apostle insists upon this hope comes to open it a little and to compare hope to an Anchor Which hope wee have as an Anchor that is as an Anchor it doth fixe the ship notwithstanding all storms and tempests yet it fixes the ship keeps it immoveable So this Christian hope notwithstanding all those trials storms and temptations a poor soul meets withall yet this Christian hope fixes the soul so that the soul is immoveable Which hope wee have as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail In the words three things are observable First The description or discrimination of a Christians Anchor that is hope Secondly The properties of it sure and stedfast Thirdly The place where a Christian casts his Anchor and that is within the vail First We have here a description of a Christians Anchor that is hope I shall shew what this hope is Then shew how it is resembled by an Anchor And shew the excellency of this Anchor above any other First What is hope It is a patient and an assured expectation of the accomplishment of the promises of God Hope the business of hope it is to expect it is an expectation the thing hoped for expected it is the accomplishment of promises not of some promises but of all promises For look how far faith goes in apprehending the promises so farre doth hope in expecting Now Faith in apprehending the Promises it lookes to all the promises it apprehends layes hold not of one but of all As faith goes out to all the promises so hope expects the fulfilling of all the promises that is the difference between faith and hope faith is exercised about things presenâ— about the promises of God as it hath them in his eye but hope looks to things future to the injoyment when shall it have that that is promised Faith looks upon the promise present layes hold but in comes hope and looks for the promises in future hope maintains the soul alive in an expectation of that that is held forth in the promise but then this hope is a patient and an assured expectation 1 It is a patient Expectation makes the soul lye down patiently and wait upon God for the accomplishing of his promise to wait Gods time not to tye up God to any time Rom. 8.25 If wee hope for that wee see not then do wee with patience wait for it So 1 Thess 1.3 Remembring without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope The poor Thessalonians now at this time under great and sore afflictions and persecutions under all those persecutions they had their eye upon a Kingdome a glorious Kingdome they one day should be made partaker of 2 Thess 1.4 5. So wee glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that yee endure that yee may bee counted worthy of the Kingdome of God they are under persecutions but they had their eye upon a Kingdome all this while the possession of this Kingdome is deferred and that they have for the present to bear up their heads above water to keep themselves from sinking it was onely this hope that one day they should come to injoy a Kingdome and yet notwithstanding this hope begets patience your patience of hope The Thessalonians do not murmure and say Oh when will this Kingdome come What shall wee suffer to the worlds end No but they hope and are patient So 1 Pet. 1.13 there we shall finde hope and sobriety joyned together Wherefore gird up the loyns of your minde be sober and hope to the end What sobriety is this There is a twofold sobriety There is a sobriety opposite to intemperance in outward things in meats drinks and apparrel But then there is a sobriety that is opposite to an immoderate desire of spiritual and heavenly things that is when I do so desire spiritual things as the presence of God fulfilling of promises even everlasting life that I cannot content my self with the will of God to want these things so long as God would have me that the soul is impatient murmures and repines because it is delayed this is an immoderate desire of spiritual and heavenly things and Christian sobriety stands in opposition to this immoderate desire as well as to intemperance and so it is meant in this place as if he should say You do expect great and glorious things to bee injoyed one day and you have been waiting and looking into the promises the things are delayed Well saith the Apostle Hope to the end but bee sober joyn sobriety to hope as if hee should say Do not let your desire be so impetuous as not to be content to take them in Gods time wee should desire the things themselves that wee should with as much vehemency as may bee but now the immoderation of desire it lyes in respect of the time when I desire so as not to content my self with Gods time Now saith the Apostle Be sober do not tye up God to your time
not cast Anchor within the Vail O bee more in the exercise of this Grace of hope It is one thing I have observed of all the three great Graces Faith Hope and Charity wee are least in the exercise of the grace of Hope wee look to exercise Faith to goe out to the Promises and to exercise Charity but Hope which is the middle grace wee are apt to neglect if hope bee not exercised in some measure faith will bee dead and charity dead Now the work of hope is to look to the glorious Inheritance to the reward which one day wee shall enjoy be much in the exercise of the grace of hope look upon the reward God would have us look to it hath left one grace to bee exercised about it look at the mark of the price of the high Calling I do not say you should work altogether for it but look on it for incouragement what a glorious Inheritance you shall possess one day after you have done the will of God here for you shall receive the Promise and what is this Promise the promise of an eternal Inheritance O how doth this incourage a poor soul it is but a little while and I shall receive the Promise that glorious Inheritance Exercise this Grace of Hope which lyes in Expectation let us not lay by our Hope and thinke it enough to exercise Faith and Love and let Hope lye by that should help on both It is the Anchor that holds us fast and makes us steady it grasps the Inheritance before hand and holds us to it Labour that this Hope may bee cast within the Vail take heed it bee not pitched upon this or the other thing upon any thing without the Vaile But let your Hope bee grounded upon the Covenant of God therefore hope because God hath made a Covenant therefore I lay hold upon this Covenant because Jesus Christ was given out to dye for poor sinners his Blood was powred out for ungodly ones I come to him as a poor ungodly one to him that justifieth the ungodly therefore hope O ground thy hope upon Jesus Christ therefore I hope because the Lord hath been pleased to make free Promises of Grace to mee to blot out my sinnes for his Names sake Doe not ground your hope upon any thing besides for that is to ground your hope upon something without the Vaile and then such hope as this cast within the Vaile will make you blessed for ever The Lord give you and I to pitch our Anchors of Hope there Christ's New Commandement Joh. 13.34 A New Commandement I give unto you That yee love one another THE words read unto you are a part of and indeed the very beginning of that sweet and heavenly Sermon which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ made to his Disciples when hee was taking his farewell of them to go to his Father Two things there are which Jesus Christ seems now upon his departure to have a deep sense of 1 Lest his Disciples in the time of his absence should bee bereaved of their inward peace and consolation to prevent which hee layes them in in this his last Sermon many sweet and precious soul-strengthning Cordials 2 Lest through their weakness they being as yet but little children as hee terms them in the foregoing verse amongst whom wrangling and jarring is not onely natural but a custome should in the time of his absence fall at oddes and variance within themselves For prevention of which he no sooner minds them of his departure but hee layes a streight charge upon them that as they did love him or regard his honour before men they would be especially carefull that there might be no division or want of affection among them when he should be gone Which charge of his that it might sinke deep into their memories he gives it over and over as in our Text and again Chap. 15.12 and again vers 17. Yea that they might see how exceedingly his minde did run upon this and how the fear of their failing herein did as it were stick in his heart considering they were as yet but little children and therefore very liable to fall together by the ears he layes down this as the first and great thing of all that he would have them to minde in his absence A New Commandement first Commands as in the Commands of the Moral Law are greatest as if he should say Little children a little while I am with you and then I am to leave you and O it fears mee exceedingly that no sooner shall I be gone but you will be together by the ears and therefore as the first thing of all and one main thing that I would have you alwaies to remember I beseech you yea I command you minde this to love one another I am extreamly afraid of the contrary and therefore I charge you Love one another Love one another A NEW The onely Query necessary for the explication of the words is this why the Command of Love is here called A New Commandement seeing it is ancient as ancient as the Law of God the whole Law being comprehended in this word LOVE To omit the various reasons which are given of the thing that which I conceive to bee most consonant to Truth and most agreeable to Scripture-language is this because This duty of love is more clearly revealed more fully discovered and more frequently pressed in the New Testament than ever it was in the Old Though it be certain the Law in the second Table thereof required love to the Brethren yet did it not so clearly and particularly reveal and presse the same as wee have it revealed and pressed under the Gospel And thus in respect of more clear revelation it may be called A New Commandement as the Covenant of Grace which from first to last is one and the same in respect of the more cleare administration thereof is in Scripture called A New Covenant Doct. It is the Command one of the great Commands of Jesus Christ that Saints should love one another None I suppose will question the truth of this if they doe let them read over the place fore-quoted together with Heb. 13.1 and the Epistles of John where this is plentifully urged One place for all may serve 1 Joh. 3 23. where the Apostle summes up the Gospel into two Great Commands whereof the first is faith in the Son God the second is love to the Brethren In prosecution of this I shall shew 1 What great ground and reason there is why Saints should love one another 2 How Saints may have their hearts brought up to the practice of this duty to love one another 3 Answer some Objections which lye in the way of many as obstacles and impediments whereby they are hindred from the exercise of this precious grace and so great and necessary a duty of love For the first I may say That there is all the reason in the world why Saints should love one another
world that is OFFENCES By offences here are not meant those Works of Darkness which the men of the world commit Drunkenness Swearing Sabbath-breaking Adultery c. which Sinners in the world roule in these bring a woe but not the woe here spoken of but by Offences here are understood those offences which others commit but men of the world take up to their hardning so that the offence here which hath the woe hanging upon it is offence taken not barely offence given Observe Doct. 1. Though just occasion may be given of offence yet an offence may be so taken as that a man may undoe himself bring a woe upon himself in the very taking of it Doct. 2. An offending person doth not only damage himself but doth also wonderfully damage others 1 He damageth Christs little ones as vers 6. and that principally by shaking their faith offences are a shaking thing they shake the faith of beleevers and therefore it is that Paul when he had declared the sad fall of Himaeneus and Philetus two that formerly had been of great note and eminency in the Church hee knowing what a shaking thing this would be to the poor to the faith of Gods people especially the weak he straightway adds this The foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2.18 19. as to say I know poor hearts this news that Himaeneus and Philetus men of such eminency are fallen so foulely will shake you make yon ready to question all and conclude you shall certainly perish one day it such fall O but be not discouraged for you though you are weak in your selves yet you are of Gods foundation and that stands sure c. 2 The offending person damageth the world and that with the greatest damage that can be what greater damage can a man do to another than to bring the Wrath of God yea a woe from God upon him this he doth Woe bee unto the world The observation that I have chosen out of these words to insist upon is this viz. Doct. Offences they are a real and a heavie judgment upon the world or the woe of offences it falls upon the world My intent here is not to handle the common place or scandal or offence my Text having narrowed me up into too small a roome for such a design but only to speak of offence as the same hath an influence upon the world and the men of the world and that for the drawing down of woe and judgement upon them and so in the carrying on my Doctrine I shall shew 1 What an offence is 2 That there is an aptness in the world to be offended 3 That offences are a judgement a real and heavie judgement upon the world 4 Why do offences fall as a judgement upon the world 5 When do Christians justly offend the work First What an offence is Ans An offence is that by which another is stumbled or which hath in it a tendency to stumble another as that which he ought not and it is sin in him to be stumbled at as at the ways works cause truths promise people of God when a thing or action doth really stumble or minister occasion of stumbling to another as touching these or any of these that may be called an offence Hence in Scripture a stumbling stone a rock of offence are joyned together as synonimous expressions whereof the one doth but open the other as Rom. 9.32 33. 1 Pet. 2.8 Christs poverty and meaneness was a stumbling-block to the Jews in the way of their receiving of him and their fall upon this is called a being offended Mat. 13.57 The preaching of a Crucified Christ and Salvation by such a one was a great stumbling-block to that people they could not beleeve that he that was Crucified and shamefully intreated at Jerusalem was their Messiah for they expected that their Messiah should bee some great Potentate and that it he did dye as is the opinion of some of the Jews he is to dye yet that he should dye a more glorious death neither could they beleeve that Salvation was attaineable by this Christ therefore saith the Apostle We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block Christ in this low and suffering condition was a stumbling block now it is observeable that as Christ crucified is called a stumbling block so the Cross is called an offence Gal. 5.11 the one explaining of the other and opening the nature of the other then it the offence of the Cross ceased Secondly That there is an aptness in the world to be offended appears 1 They lye in wait for them and therefore very apt so soon as ever offences arise to take them up 2 A small thing will offend them that man is apt to bee offended that a little thing offends who will be offended at that another easily passeth over now a little a very little thing will offend the world what poor petty offences did the Scribes and Pharisees take up against Christ one while they are offended because hee cureth diseased persons another while because Publicans and Sinners came to hear him preach another while because his Disciples passing through a Corn field plucked a few cars on the Sabbath another while because when they went to meat they did not wash their hands certainly there must bee an aptness to bee offended where such petty things offend 3 They will be offended at good that man is surely apt to take offence that will bee offended at good which all ought to love none to be offended at but the world will Christ preacheth the Gospel a good act the world are offended at that raiseth Lazarus out of his Grave a blessed and glorious act offended at that Paul preached Justification and Salvation by Grace alone a holy blessed doctrine yet the world are offended at that 4 If no offence be given they will make offences rather than not be offended the Pharisees and Priests are offended at Christ because he said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2.19 yet it is clear they made this offence for they knew his meaning well enough and so soon as he was dead they speake it out This deceiver said after three days I will rise again Mat. 27.63 5 They will take up what may offend them upon easie trust never searching the proofe of it Joh. 7.52 Search and look for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet only the report of the vulgar for this 3 That offences are a judgement a real and heavie judgement upon the world there is a woe the world because of these as appears in four or five things 1 The beauty and glory of the ways works truths people of God are thus vailed from the eyes of the world offences are as a scar upon the face though a face may have much beauty yet if there be a scar or scars upon it that obscures the beauty to the eyes of the beholder the ways and works of God have abundance of