ye of doutful minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not your Minds hang as Meteors in the Air ful of suspense about future supplies be not of an anxious thoughtful Mind Let not your thoughts be distracted and as it were racked with carking cares The word signifies such an Anxietie as fluctuates 'twixt hope and fear Such is the suspicious anxious temper of Unbelief as to Providential maters of the Covenant 3. The last branch of the Covenant concernes maters of coming Glorie wherein also Unbelief may be said Not to know the things that belong unto our peace The chief concernes of our peace are those invisible Glories of the other world Al our present spiritual Suavities and Delices are but dreams in comparison of that formal Beatitude in the Beatifiâ— Vision of God face to face Alas how far short is our present vision of God in Evangelic Shadows and Reports of that immediate Intuition of God as he is 1 Joh. 3. 2 3 Whence the main worke of a Believer here is to live by faith in the daily contemplation and expectation of that approching Glorie For the more we eye our home the more industrious lively and pressing wil we be in our journey thither Faith maketh things absent present So Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which gives a substantial Essence an actual Existence a solid Basis or Foundation the First-fruits yea a real presence to those Good things hoped for of the other world So much is wrapped up in that Notion Then it follows The Evidence of things not seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Argument the Demonstration the Meridian Light the legal conviction the spiritual eye whereby invisible Glories are made Visible Such is the miraculous efficace of faith as to approching Glorie such a clear real fixed sight of Heaven has it here on earth Ay but now Unbelief draws a veil on al these invisible Glories and makes them to disappear what fantastic dreams what carnal and grosse Notions what base and unworthy thoughts has it of future rest How studious is Unbelief to obliterate and rase out the Idea of Eternitie fixed in the heart How apt is it yea industrious to remove far from conscience the second coming of Christ and ensuing Jugement How fain would it build Maâ—sions here and take up with something short of God Oh! how little doth Unbelief regard those Mansions of Glorie which Christ is preparing John 14. 1 2 How seldome or never doth it take a view with Moses on mount Pisgah of the celestial Canaan the new Jerusalem where is the Lambs Throne Yea what low cheap undervaluing thoughts hath Unbelief of that promissed Land Thus it is said of the unbelieving Jews Psal 106. 24. Yea they despised the pleasant Land or the Land of desire and believed not his word This pleasant land Canaan was a type of Heaven and in despising it they despised Heaven and al this lay wrapt up in the bowels of their Unbelief They did not yield a real supernatural firme certain practic Assent to the word of promisse touching Canaan and therefore they despised it and not only that but also the celestial Canaan which made God swear in his wrath against them that they should not enter in Heb. 3. 11. So much for the Material Notions both general and particular which Unbelief is ignorant of 2. I shal treat a little of the formal Object of Faith and how far Unbelief is defective therein The formal Object of Faith as it comes under the Notion of Assent is the Divine Veracitie or Autoriâ—ie of God appendent to his Word For look as in the Workes of God there are certain Divine Characters Ideas Impresses or Notices of Gods Wisdome Power and Goodnesse which a spiritual heart contemplates and admires so likewise in the Words of God there are certain Stampes and Ideas of the Veracitie and Autoriâ—ie of God which the Believer contemplates and assents unto as the formal object of his faith Thus 1 Thes 2. 13. Because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God Not as the word of men As here notes a Reduplication i. e the formal reason proper motive or principal ground of their assent to Gods Word was not any Human Autoritie but the Divine Autoritie or Veracitie of God And here lies the main specific essential Difference betwixt divine and human faith Divine faith receives the Word of God as the Word of God under that Reduplication i. e as it is clothed with Divine Autoritie but human faith receives the Word of God as the word of men i e as clothed with some human Autoritie Church-Tradition or the like commun Motives Now this human faith as to the Word of God is no other than real unbelief For he that believeth the Word of God only as commended to him by the Church doth really disbelieve the same It is not the Objects believed but the formal Reason of our belief that distinguisheth a Divine from a human faith He that assents to divine Truths merely on human Grounds or Reasons can have but an human faith which is real unbelief as he that assents to natural Truths reveled in the Word of God as reveled and clothed with Divine Autoritie has a Divine faith So that albeit the mind assentes to the whole Word of God yet if the principal ground or formal reason of its assent be not Divine Autoritie its Faith is but real Unbelief And here lies a main plague of Unbelievers its possible they do assent to the whole Word of God ay but yet they see not those sacred Characters those Divine stampes of Gods Autoritie and Truth which are appendent to his Word the chief ground of their belief is only some human Tradition or Autoritie Such was the Faith of those Samaritans John 4. 40. who believed merely for the saying of the woman c. whereas afterward ver 41. Many more believed because of his own word This is a Divine faith there was a sound of Heaven in Christs own voice a little Image or Stampe of Divine Majestie which the believing Samaritans could discerne O! Remember this If the Autoritie of God be not the chief bottome of your Assent your faith is but Vnbelief So much for the Notional object both Material and Formal of Unbelief CHAP. IV. An Explication of Unbelief as it opposeth or is defective in the first Act of faith namely Assent to the good things that belong to our peace WE now procede to the Act of Unbelief comprised in that Notion If thou hadst known This knowlege must be commensurate to or as large as its Object which as we have shewn is either Notional or Real As it refers to its Notional object so its termed Assent as to its Real object so Consent We shal begin with the first namely What
it is not to Assent to the Notional maters or things that belong to our peace Now this dissent from the things that belong unto our peace implies sundrie Gradations or Ascents which tend much to the Explication of Vnbelief 1. Not to know or assent to the sacred Notions of our peace is to reject them This was the case of Jerusalem she rejects al Christs gracious offers of peace she wil not so much as lend an ear to them Thus also it was with those obstinate Unbelievers mentioned Prov. 1. 30. They would none of my Counsel they dâ—spised al my Reproof To reject the counsel of Christ and to despise his Reproof is the height of Dissent and Disbelief So Jerem. 8. 9. Lo they have rejected the Word of the Lord and what wisdome is in them The Rejection of Gods Word is the highest degree of Ignorance and Unbelief The like Hos 4. 6. Because thou hast rejected knowlege I wil also reject thee This Rejection of the Word of God is a kind of total Infidelitie yea such a Dissent as implies an aversion in the mind from the sacred Notions of its peace Wherefore it denotes the dregs of Unbelief and a mind principled with enmitie against divine Truths For Truth is the most beautiful thing that is and of al Truths Divine are the fairest Now then to reject such argues a mind very much debauched and distempered by sin 2. Not to know the sacred Notions of our peace is not to give diligent Attention to them Many Evangelic Unbelievers dare not openly reject the things that belong to their peace but yet they do not attend with diligence unto them The first step of saving Faith is diligently to attend to the Reports of the Gospel to bow the ear to divine Truths as Pro. 5. 1. My Son attend unto my wisdome and bow thine ear to my understanding This Attention and bowing the ear to Divine Truths is the first step to the obedience of Faith Whence by Consequence not to attend or listen with diligence to the Reports of the Gospel takes in much of Unbelief This also was the case of many unbelieving Jews they did not attend to Christs Evangelic offers of peace Thus Psal 81. 13. O that my people had hearkened unto me c. i. e given diligent Attention to my Word Attention is the Contention of the soul to understand and that which drawes it forth is the admirable Greatnes Sweetnes and Suitablenes of Reports Unbelievers want an inward sense of the wonderful greatnesse suavitie and fitnesse of Evangelic gladtidings and therefore no wonder that they attend not to them 3. Men know not the things that belong to their peace when they yield not a discrete explicite Assent thereto True saving Faith implies an expresse judicious Assent it carries with it the highest and purest Reason yea the flour and Elixir of Reason What more rational than to assent to the First supreme Truth Truth it self Surely Believers are no fools they know who it is they believe and for what So Paul 2. Tim. 1. 12. I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him Paul was not ashamed of his sufferings because he knew whom he had believed he did not content himself with a Popish implicite faith but understood wel the object and reasons of his Faith Alas what is implicite Faith but implicite Unbelief Can he that understands not the Propositions he assents to rationally believe the same Is this to believe to understand nothing of what we believe Doth not this implicite faith destroy the very formal Nature of true faith What! may we suppose that Divine faith consists in ignorance If we pin our Faith only on the Churches sleeve without ever understanding what we believe is not our faith worse than that of Devils who know what they believe and therefore tremble Yea doth not this Implicite faith strip us not only of our Christianitie but also of our Humanitie For is not every rational Being so far a Debtor to truth as to examine wel the reasons and grounds of his Assent Yea doth not this implicite Popish faith carrie in it much of Atheisme and Blasphemie For to believe only as the Church believes without examining the Articles or Motives of our faith what is it but to make the Church our infallible God and our selves but mere Brutes divested of reason So that can there be any thing more destructive to the Notion and Nature of true faith than such an Implicite faith And yet alas how commun is it among a great number of Christians How many are there who pretend to be Believers and yet understand little or nothing of the main Articles or grounds of their faith It stands on sacred Record as a noble character of the Bereans Act. 17. 11. That they searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so Hence surely we may conclude that an implicite faith is no better than virtual Unbelief 4. Not to know the things that belong unto our peace is not to give a supernatural Divine Assent to them The things that belong unto our peace are supernatural and divine and therefore they cannot be truely apprehended by a Natural Human Assent To yield a natural human Assent to things Supernatural and Divine is no better than real Dissent Now men yield not a supernatural Divine Assent to the things that belong to their peace 1. When the principal Grounds Formal Reasons and proper Motives of their Assent are only natural and human i e when mens assent is grounded only on some human Autoritie or Argument Al faith is by so much the more firme by how much the more firme and infallible the Autoritie of him that reports the mater is If the Autoritie be only human the Assent can be but human and so fallible the Assent to the Conclusion being founded on the strength of the Premisses as the edifice is on the foundation Now the strength of a Testimonie consists in the Autoritie of him that testifies For such as the principal ground and Foundation of the Assent is such wil the Assent be and if there be any defect or imperfection in the Foundation of our Assent the same wil diffuse it self throughout the whole If Church-tradition or human Argument be the only or main ground of our Assent it can never be supernatural and divine as before 2. Men yield not a supernatural Divine Assent to the Gospel when the productive Principle or Efficient of their Assent is not Supernatural and Divine i. e when their Assent is not infused by the Spirit of God A natural Facultie can never of itself produce a supernatural Assent And the reason is most evident even from the commun nature of al Assent which requires some Adequation or Agreament betwixt the Object and the Facultie Now what proportion is there betwixt a natural mind and supernatural Truths Are
and Lusts This seems to be the case of the unbelieving Jews John 1. 11. He came unto his own and his own received him not What Not receive their Messias Do they not oft flock after him and sing Hosanna's to him as a little before our Text Luke 19. 37 Yes they were content to receive him as a Savior so Hosanna imports Save us now ay but they would not receive him as King and Lord So long as he preacheth glad tidings of Salvation oh how welcome is he what chearful treatment do they give him who but Christ ay but when he comes to king and lord it over their lusts to rip open their hypocritic rotten hearts to pinch and wring their lusts oh then how do they kick and throw at him Again how do others divide between Christ and his yoke The wages of Christ is sweet and pleasing but oh how cumbersome and irksome is his worke This was Israels temper Hos 4. 16. But Israel slideth back as a back-sliding beifer i. e â—n heifer impatient of the Yoke Israel loved to tread out the corne Hos 10. 11. because that was pleasing work there was wages in the work but O! how averse is Israel from plowing worke What a burden is the yoke to her effeminate tender neck Further do not many seeming Christians divide betwixt the Crown and Crosse of Christ The Crown is very beautiful in their eye but oh what a black ugly thing is the Crosse of Christ How pleasing is it to reigne with Christ but how displeasing is it to suffer with him Lastly do not the most of Professors divide betwixt those good things that are in Christ and those good things that flow from him Al would gladly share in the Benefits of Christ but how few desire to have share in his Person How forward are awakened sinners to catch at the Righteousnes and Merits of Christ thereby to screen off the scorching heat of Divine wrath But how backward are they to close with the Person of Christ as the object of their fruition Thus Unbelievers pick and choose take so much of Christ as as wil serve their turne and no more There is some one thing in Christ they like wel but some other thing they as much dislike They like the Bloud that came forth of his heart to wash their guiltie Consciencâ—s but oh how do they dislike the Water that came forth also to wash their filthy hearts His smiling countenance and gracious Pardons are very grateful to them but oh how ungrateful is his royal Sceptre of Righteousnes his Soverain Autoritie and Laws Thus Unbelievers diminish and take from Christ in their seeming reception of him which indeed is but to turne Christ into an Idol For a divided Christ as wel as a compound Christ is but a false Christ no true Christ 2. Another branch of Vnbelief as to its defective reception of Christ is when men receive the true Christ in a false manner or under false Considerations and Respects There are many who seem willing to take Christ only and completely without Composition or Division but yet there remains stil some essential defect or flaw in the manner of their receiving or in the formal Reasons proper grounds and fundamental considerations on which they receive Christ Though this may in something agree with the former yet we may conceive this difference in what precedes Christ is considered Materially but now we are to consider him as the Formal Object of Faith and Vnbelief and so the first thing we are to consider herein is the Motives and Grounds on which Christ is received Vnbelievers are defective in their manner of receiving Christ when the principal Grounds and Motives of their receiving him are only false or at best but commun To receive Christ only on false or commun Motives is in truth not to receive but refuse him And O! what a world of Professors are greatly defective herein Are there not a vast number of seeming Christians who receive Christ only on carnal Motives and Grounds How many are there who receive Christ as the way to a terrestial or earthly not to a celestial or heavenly life Do not some receive him as the most compendious way to Riches Others as the way to Honors c. Was not this the case of many carnal Jews who followed Christ only for the Loaves and Miracles he wrought for them Thus Joh. 6. 15. They were al in hast to make him King and why The reason you have ver 26. Because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled O! how sweet was it to be fed by Miracles Again how many are there who receive Christ merely out of Noveltie to please their Phantasies and satisfie their Curiositie And do not such soon grow weary of Christ Thus it was with Herod Luke 23. 8. he longs to see Christ and why to gratifie his curious eye with the sight of some Miracle and therefore when Christ would not humor his curiositie how doth Herod deride and set him at nought v. 11 Yea further do not many receive Christ on Hellish grounds merely to concele a rotten heart or some base practices Lastly are there not amany convinced terrified sinners who seem to receive Christ in good earnest but t is only to quiet conscience to allay the scorching heats of Divine wrath which torment conscience Surely this albeit it be good in its kind yet 't is but a commun Motive and therefore no firme Foundation for the reception of Christ He that wil receive Christ as he ought must take him not only to ease conscience of the burden of guilt but also to ease his heart of the Burden of lust So much for the false or commun Motives which render some mens reception of Christ no better than real Unbelief Vnbelievers are defective in their manner of receiving Christ when they receive him not in his Grandeur or in that State and Greatnes which is due unto him A Prince is then received aright when he is received according to his Dignitie Should a subject receive his Prince and entertain him no better than he would entertain a Peasant or Countrey-neighbor would not this be interpreted a contemt rather than a kind Reception of his Prince So Christ if he be not received in some degree according to his Grandeur Dignitie and State he counts it a contemt rather than a good Reception of him Christ must be received as Christ i. e as Supreme Lord and alone Mediator or he is not truely received at al He wil be a King or nothing This was the great sin of the Jews they could be coutent to receive Christ as a great Prophet as the Mahumedans do but they did not receive him according to his Grandeur or that Greatnes and Glorie which he was invested with and therefore they are said not to receive him John 1. 11. whereas John saies of the believing Jews those who received him indeed ver 14. That
hide strengthen and foment secret invisible lusts as spiritual pride carnal confidence Hos 7. 16 Or at best doth he not make use of al his covenants against sin only as a balsame to heal the wounds of his conscience not as poison to kil the lusts of his heart Such is the curse and plague of commun faith 6. Saving faith transformes the heart into the Image of Christ and thence makes the Believer conforme to his Life and Laws but commun faith workes neither Saving Faith brings the heart near to Christ and so stampes the Image of Christ upon the heart It cannot make men Christ but yet it makes them like unto him and that not only in one particular excellence but in al It changeth the last end and disposition of the wil and thence the whole soul and life It infuseth a divine plenitude or fulnesse of Grace into the soul answerable to that fulnesse of sin that was there before And as Christ is one with his Father by personal union so Believers are one with Christ by faith Hence much of the life of Christ appears in their lives The love and spirit of Christ prevails with them to live the life of Christ and conforme to his Laws And oh what a sweet harmonie and conformitie so far as Faith and Grace prevails is there between the Spirit and Life of Christ and their spirits and life How much do their hearts and lives answer to the primitive Patterne of puritie in the heart and life of Christ But can the Unbelievers commun faith worke such rare effects It s true sometimes his Actions are changed but are not his vital Principles and Dispositions unchanged He may sometimes conforme to the Laws of Christ in appearance but doth he not stil hate them at heart Whereas the Believer whiles he breakes the law of Christ in Action he conformes to it in Affection and desire as Roman 7. 22. The Unbelievers commun faith may lead him to please Christ in shew but is it not al to please himself in truth Doth he not wholly live on self as his spring and to self as his last end Oh! how impossible is it for him to live by faith on Christ and to Christ which is the Believers life 7. Saving faith makes Believers diligent in the use of means and yet keeps them from trusting in them commun faith makes Vnbelievers negligent in the use of means and yet to trust in them Oh! how industrious is Faith in the use of means as if there were no Christ to trust unto And yet doth not faith trust wholly in Christ as if there were no means to be used Yea doth it not trust Christ as much in the fulnesse of means as in the want of them But oh how much doth unbelief trust in means though it be very negligent in the use of them 8. Saving Faith is alwaies bottomed on a Promisse and by it workes up the heart to God But commun faith is alwaies bottomed either on false persuasions or self-sufficiences and by them turnes the heart from God 9. Saving Faith walkes in Gods ways by a strait rule to a strait end But commun faith is always stepping out of Gods way its rule and end both are crooked True Faith looks both to its end and rule it wil not do good that evil or evil that good may follow But commun faith wil do both 10. Lastly Saving Faith values an half-promisse yea a mere peradventure from God more than the best promisse the creature can make but commun faith depends more on the rotten and false promisse of its own heart or of the creature than on al the promisses of God 3. Hence we may further infer That there is no medium or middle between true Faith and Infidelitie Commun faith is but real Unbelief He that is not a sound Believer is a real Infidel He that receives not Christ on his own termes rejects him Not to trust in Christ with al the heart is not to trust him at al in truth A forced election of Christ is a real reprobation of him A mere human or notional or general or confused or instable or inefficacious Assent to Christ is real Dissent Not to rest in Christ alone as our Mediator is not at al to confide in him He that cannot part with al for Christ wil soon part with Christ for any thing If faith purifies not the heart from sin and fortifies it against tentation it deserves not the name of faith Acts 15. 9. If Faith gives not a substantial being to things not in being it doth nothing Heb. 11. 1. If you can believe nothing but what you have reason and evidence for from the things themselves you believe nothing as you ought for though reason may assist faith as an instrument yet it destroyes faith as a principal ground or argument because faith is of things inevident Heb. 11. 1. Faith takes nothing for its formal reason or principal ground but increated Autoritie and therefore it is not the mere evidence of reason but the testimonie of God that makes men believers And if so then oh what a world of that which passeth for faith among men wil one day appear to be real Unbelief What may we judge of those who hang up Christ in their phantasies as pictures in an house but yet never really adhere to or recumb on him Is not this mere fancie rather than faith What shal we conclude of the presumtuous believer who presumes God wil shape his mercie according to his humor Is not his faith mere Unbelief Yea can there be a more cursed piece of Unbelief than a fond groundlesse presumtion that we do believe Again what shal we say of the dead-borne sleepy faith of secure Sinners who lay their head in Satans bosome and sleep securely on the pillow of his rotten peace Is not this a piece of Unbelief which Devils and damned Spirits are not guiltie of For they believe and tremble at the apprehensions of their approching jugement And oh how soon wil these their sweet sleeps end in dreadful hellish awakenings Again may we not judge the same of legal faith which sets up the Law in the room of Christ or at least yokes the Law and Christ together Do not such by joining the Law with Christ disjoin their hearts from Christ Rom. 7. 1-4 Is it not as bad a piece of Unbelief to set up the Law instead of Christ as to set up lust instead of the law Yea is there not much of Idolatrie in such a legal faith for do not such as depend on their own legal performances for life make themselves their God and Christ Oh! how oft doth such a legal faith or carnal confidence end in black despair Were it not easie to shew if opportunitie served how al the false or commun faiths in the world are indeed but real Infidelitie colored over with a tincture of faith O then what a world of Infidels
righteous God comes and claps a seal of judicial occecation or spiritual blindnesse on his eyes that so he never see them more Joh. 9. 39. For jugement am I come into this world that they which see might be made blind There is ost an exact conformitie betwixt mans sin and Gods jugement What a visible character and stampe of Jerusalem's sin is here impressed on her jugement What is it that she suffers from the righteous mouth and hand of Christ but what she voluntarily inflicts on herself She wil not see the things that belong unto her peace and therefore saith Christ she shal not see them they shal be hid from her eyes She wil not open the Gates of her Soul that the King of Glorie her Messias may enter in and therefore saith Christ let her heart be shut under the curse of judicial obduration This was Gods usual method in punishing Israel even from her Infant-state And oh how much doth this illustrate the justice of God when visible Ideas and stampes of mens sins are to be seen in the face of their jugements How must this needs cut and wound the heart of an awakened penitent sinner to see his guilt in the face of his punishment This Analogie and Affinitie betwixt the unbelievers sin and jugement leaves him also without the least shadow of excuse Alas who but the Unbeliever himself may be blamed if the good things of the Gospel be hid from his eyes seing he himself first shut his eyes against the dazling glorie of those bright beams which shone so long on his eyes What cause have Unbelievers to complain that the Gospel is a veiled or sealed book unto them seing their hearts are veiled and sealed with unbelief against it Oh! what a vindication wil this be of the righteous jugement of God but confusion to wilful unbelievers to consider the exact paritie and Analogie which there is between their sin and their punishment How wil this confound them to al eternitie CHAP. III. The Notional Object of Unbelief or What are those Notional things that belong unto our peace which unbelief assents not unto THe precedent Observations furnish us with singular mater of Discourse each Observation deserves a particular examen and Remarque But we shal cast al into the mould or forme of this one general Proposition or Doctrine That Vnbelief or the not knowing the things that belong unto our peace is a sin of the deepest tincture or most hainous Aggravations and that which exposeth the sinner to the most severe wrath and jugements of God This Proposition contains the spirit and mind of the Text as also the sum and substance of al the former Observations which in the explication hereof wil have their particular consideration And for our more regular and methodic procedure herein we shal resolve the Proposition into these four grand Questions 1. What it is not to know the things that bâ—long unto our peace Or Wherein the genuine Idea or Nature of Vnbelief doth consist 2. Whence this Vnbelief springs or What are the seminal Roots the original Causes of this siâ— 3. What are the Aggravations of this Vnbelief 4. What severe wrath and jugements from God attend this sin of Vnbelief The Examen and Resolution of these Questions wil give us the ful Explication of our Proposition as also of the Text. Q. 1. What it is Not to know the things that belong unto our peace or Wherein the Nature of Vnbelief doth consist For the more ful Resolution of this Question we shal consider Unbelief 1. with relation to its Object 2. In regard to its Act. 1. The Object of Unbelief is here expressed under this comprehensive notion The things that belong unto thy peace These are as we before intimated either 1. Complexe and Notional or 2. Simple and Real The Complexe or Notional Things that belong unto our peace are al those divine Axiomes Maximes Canons or Notions loged in the sacred Scriptures which any way conduce to our peace The simple or real things that belong unto our peace are the good things themselves which lie wrapt up in those Divine Axiomes or Notions of sacred Scripture namely God in Christ Heaven c. The former are the Object of Faiths Assent the later of its Consent Election and Choice Again the Notional things that belong to our peace which are the complexe Object of Faiths Assent may be considered by us 1. Materially 2. Formally The Material complexe objects of Faiths Assent are the Scriptural Notions which Faith assents unto The Formal Object of Faith's Assent is the Formal Reason Proper Motives or principal Grounds of its Assent that which induceth or draws our minds to assent unto sacred Scriptural Notions as also constitutes specifies and distinguisheth Divine saving Assent Lastly The Notional Material Object of our Assent is either General or Particular The General Object is the whole Word of God The Particular is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace which gives us a more particular and expresse Idea of the things that belong to our peace The things that belong unto our peace being thus distributed according to their several Constitutions and Regards to Faith we may with more Facilitie and Perspicuitie determine and resolve our Question What it is not to know the things that belong unto our peace But before we enter on the explication of Unbelief we must premise that our Intendment is to treat of it in its general and abstract Nature and not as it relates to this or that subject For albeit our Text speaks of the Unbelief of persons irregenerate yet inasmuch as the unbelief of persons regenerate differs not totally from that in persons irregenerate we may very wel and properly treat of both under one general Idea though with different Reflexions on and Applications to this or that subject Thus much being premised we procede to the explication of our Question First we shal begin with the Notional Material General things that belong unto our peace which are the sacred Scriptures or Word of God in the General which not to know or truely assent unto is the original and no smal part of Unbelief Oh! here lay the the bitter Root and Spawn of al Jerusalems sin and miserie she did not understand at least not practicly assent unto the sacred Scriptures in which al the things that belonged to her peace lay wrapt up Moses and the Prophets were a sacred Map wherein Jerusalem might have viewed the celestial Canaan her Messias his glorious Names and Titles of Honor his Person and Offices with al other things that did belong to her peace But alas Jerusalem wanted spiritual eyes to contemplate such glorious objects This our blesâ—ed Lord upbraids the carnal Jews with Joh. 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to search signifies here by a sacred sagacitie and unwearied studie to
not Divine Mysteries above the reach of a human Understanding unlesse the Spirit of God come and clothe it with a divine Light Is not the natural mind shut against supernatural objects until Christ by his Spirit open the same Thence it is said Luke 24. 45. Then opened he their Vnderstanding that they might understand the Scriptures They had some habitual Light before but Christ now extendes and stretcheth their minds to a more ful comprehension of the promisses To every degree of saving light there is required a fresh Influence and Assistance of the Spirit It s said He opened their Vnderstandings Men may open supernatural Truths and Promisses to our minds but none can open our minds to take in supernatural Truths save the Spirit of Christ such therefore as are not illuminated by the Spirit cannot know the things that belong to their peace The Believer hath a Divine light a supernatural instinct whereby he understands and assents to the voice of Christ in the Gospel John 10. 27. My sheep hear my voice just as the simple Lamb by a natural instinct discerneth the voice of her Dam from the rest in the flock 5. Men know not the things that belong to their Peace when the Truths and Promisses of the Gospel take not deep root in their hearts Our Assent ought to be commensurate or proportionable to its Object great and weighty Truths must have a rooted and deep Assent A superficial indeliberate Assent to the great things of the Gospel is but interpretative Dissent This was the great defect of the High-way and stonie ground Mat. 13. 19 20 21. The seed sowen by the way-side was lost assoon as received But the word sowen in stonie hearts was received with some joy i. e the Novitie and greatnesse of the things offered made some superficial Impression on their hearts but yet there wanting a depth of earth an hot day of persecution soon blasted al. There is no Assent stable and firme but what is deep and rooted Thus much our blessed Lord assures us in his Parable of the sandy foundation Mat. 7. 26. whereas the sound Believer who digs deep into the heart and builds his assent on rooted welgrounded Principles though windy stormy tentations beat against it yea albeit he hath a thousand objections against what he believes yet his assent is firme and stedfast because the bottome-Principles on which it is grounded remain firme A superficial precipitated and rash assent is very staggering and mutable when men judge according to the apparences of things without solid deliberation and deep inquisition into the grounds and reasons they never arrive to a fixed Assent Thence saith Christ Joh. 7. 24. Judge not according to the apparence but judge righteous jugement A superficial assent is soon turned into dissent 6. Such as yield not a Real but only Notional Assent to evangelic Truths and Promisses know not the things that belong to their peace For things may then only be said to be truely known when they are received as offered Now the things offered in the Gospel are practic or things referring to practice Thence to yield only a notional assent to them is really to dissent Many of these unbelieving Jews whom Christ condemnes in our text had a very great Forme of knowlege or Notional assent to the things that belonged to their peace as 't is evident from Rom. 2. 17 18 19 20. Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his wil and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law c. i e Thou art an accurate Critic in the law thou canst exactly distinguish between things clean and unclean and then he sums up al in one expression ver 20. Which hast the forme of knowlege and of the truth in the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies an Artificial Image Scheme Figure or Picture of knowlege and its opposed to a substantial solid real knowledge which is stiled Prov. 2. 7. Sound wisdome or Essential knowlege These unbelieving Jews had a notional Idea an artificial Scheme a curious picture of knowlege but they wanted the real substantial essential contemplation of those things that belonged to their peace Now as there is a vast difference between the contemplation of things in pictures or shadowes and the contemplation of them in their own proper substances So here the Unbeliever that views the things of his peace only in Pictures Systemes or Notions comes far short of the Believer who views the same Intuitively as they lie wrapt up in Evangelic promisses Faith is described Hebr. 11. 1. The substance of things hoped for i. e it hath a real substantial contemplation of things hoped for as if they were actually present before the eyes and then it follows The evidence of things not seen The invisible things of celestial Canaan become visible to an eye of faith whence it is apparent that he who has only a notional knowlege of the things that belong to his peace is really ignorant of them Mere Speculative Assent to things practic is no better than real dissent For our Assent is then only true when it is agreable to its object formally considered The things of our peace are most substantial and real but the Unbeliever assents not to them as such he sees them only in Words Notions and Imaginations and therefore counts them but mere conceits fine-spun Notions and curious Pictures His forme of knowlege is but real Ignorance 7. Men know not the things that belong to their peace when their Assent to them is Carnal not Spiritual The things that belong to our peace are most spiritual they admit not the least commixture of what is carnal and therefore a carnal mind never truely assents to them Things Spiritual cannot be apprehended by any but a spiritual facultie Carnal assent to things spiritual is real dissent How can he assent truely to any sacred Truth who understands nothing truely of that he assents unto Thus the Apostle argues strongly 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnes to him neither can he know them because they are spirtually discerned 1. By this Natural or Animal man we must understand every irregenerate man who has not his mind imbued with saving Faith 2. Of this man its said he receiveth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s a Metaphor assumed from narrow-mouth'd vessels which cannot take in things too big for them The things of the Spirit of God which are the same with the things of our peace are too big for Animal Natural Minds Yea 3. He addes Neither can he know them there is a moral Impossibilitie that he should know them and why that followes 4. because they are spiritually discerned As if he had said Alas how is it possible that he should know them What proportion is there betwixt