a high esteem upon this grace to look upon it as the most glorious Stone in the Ring The rest have their luster this is both resplendent and medicinal heals broken souls It is no wonder if St. Jude give it the preheminence since it is both the leading grace and brings the first glad tidings of salvation and also the Mother grace whence all others have their birth and original Without this what are all our works and duties but as we say of the vertues of Heathens Splendida peccata Where faith is not layd as the foundation all our devotions acts of piety charity observance of Sabbaths Ordinances nay that great performance of Prayer are but like that structure built on the sand Mat. 7.26 Without this we can no more appear before the Tribunal of Gods justice then stubble before a consuming fire In the word it is faith that must make us profitable in obedience it is faith that must make us cheerful in prayer it is faith that makes us successfull and in all performances it is faith that makes us acceptable This is that wisedome Job 28.16 17 18 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.8 the price whereof is above Rubies the Topaze of Ethiopia cannot equal it it cannot be valued with pure Gold This will give comfort joy and peace under all distractions make the soul skip like a Lambe leap and dance for joy Other divine qualifications may make you confident but it is faith only that must give you your assurance There cannot be such an abasement where faith will not lift up the head and render you victorious Justice gives every man his own temperance will restrain lusts magnanimity will bear and go through any hardship prudence is an excellent guide to our actions but it is faith that overcometh the world in this Paul insults and triumphs over men and Angels Heaven and Earth Rom. 8.38 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am confident or perswaded That neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You will have a better heart both to the price and the esteem of it if you seriously advise with these considerations The Author The Offices and the Effects of it First Look upon it as Gods gift from whom every good and perfect gift cometh as a fruit of his Spirit Gal. 5.22 This will make it excellent and lovely Let us a little view it in that great interest of our souls the high act of justification we shall there finde it to justifie Infundendo creat creando infundit not as mans faith but as the work of God in in the soul It is an excellent place Eph. 2.8 By grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God faith may be in us but it is not of us that is not from any power of our own but it is a meer gift of God both in the habit and in the act of it Justification is is a free Act of and from eternity without any condition on our parts and that Evangelical righteousness by which we are justified is without us in Christ It is the finger of God that works faith in the soul and having wrought it puts it upon acting thereby to evidence justification to the soul As a father having layd up for his son a great Treasure in some secret place tells him of it and bestows it freely upon him but wanting the possession and enjoyment of it the son is no richer for it till the father lights a Torch guides his son to the hidden Treasure and puts him into the actual possession of it Thus is Faith Gods Instrument by which he discovers to our souls the unvaluable riches of Christ which in the minds and purpose of the Donor was ours from Eternity and evidenceth us to be freely justified lending us that light of faith whereby we apprehend enjoy and apply Christ to our souls It is called the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Whose evidence Gods evidence given us by which he declareth and manifesteth to our consciences those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the invisible things of our justification and salvation and when given it is our evidence also by which we possess Christ and pleads our actual justification against all the accusations of the Law sin and Satan then we have the witnesse in our selves 1 Joh. 5.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods witness so it is sometimes read witnessing to our spirits that we are the children of God we are justified freely by his grace Rom. 3.24 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there answering to the Hebrew Chinnam excluding all both hope of advantage on Gods part and preceding desert in man upon any account whether of faith or works excluding as well merit as rewards hereby intimating that all our works are the works of God in us yea faith it self in that great and high Act of justifying is Gods gift I have here made a little digression to acquaint you with the excellency of this grace that you may set a higher value upon it not only because it is Gods gift but so high and precious a gift of his right hand whereby he gives us an interest to Christ and all his promises and evidenceth eternal life to our souls 2. Consider the Offices of faith which besides union to and communion with Christ formerly named are these two First acceptance wherby we are made willing to receive Christ upon Christs own terms what his terms are he himself tells you Luke 9.23 If any man will come after me he must deny himself and take up his Crosse daily and follow me This is the receiving act of faith and is therfore called the hand of the Soul not for its working quality purifying the heart reviving the dead spirit working by love carrying the Soul through all discouragements these are indeed the works of faith but for its receiving and accepting quality accepting righteousnesse in Christ receiving him as a gift of his fathers love imbracing the promises afar off and laying hold on eternal life The working righteousnesse is Christs the Office or act of faith is accepting applying receiving yeelding consent to that righteousnesse The other Office or Act of Faith is resignation whereby we give our selves wholly up to Christ spirit soul and body to be guided and byassed by him this is that spiritual marriage Eph. 5.17 betwixt Christ and the Soul by which as the soul hath a propriety and right to the body name goods table possessions and purchase of Christ so she doth reciprocally become all his by an unconstrained resignation of her will ways and desires unto his guidance and government we become the servants of Christ to be ruled as well as to be aided and protected by him then doth Christ own us and he stands ingaged to watch over and care for us Then
must the Soul have all Christ and Christ the whole soul no sharing no competition with any lust but Jesus Christ becomes all in all to us and we are made willing to follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth 3. Consider the admirable vertues or effects of faith this also will help to put a high esteem upon it Faith dissolves the Plots of all our spiritual enemies it will give you a conquest over sin the Divel and the World it will quicken your souls Gal. 2.20 Sanctifie and Purifie your hearts Acts 15.9 hereby you shall obtain whatever you stand in need of and God hath promised it will bear you up in all dangers discouragements desertions deaths hereby you shall stand live walk be saved c. this will bring you to God to whom no man comes but by Christ nor to Christ but by faith I could be large in these things if I had not formerly made them out to you The Lord bring them home to the hearts of every one of you This is the first main remembrance To have a high and precious esteem of Faith Secondly I would advise you ever to have a right judgment of Faith Every fancy in these days is pretended for faith and light and the soul easily mistakes presumption or credulity for this great grace therefore it will much concern you to know and ever to remember that is not a bare acknowledgment or assent to divine truths and the promises of Christ as the Socinians would have it but an application or closing with Christ in those truths and promises for not the promises of Christ barely but the person of Christ is the object of faith It is a resting upon Jehovah a rolling a mans self upon God as one tired under his burthen casts both himself and his burthen upon something that sustains it Prov. 3.5 Isai 10.20 As Saul tired with fighting leaned upon his Spear 2 Sam. 1.6 I do not mean in this place that inferiour Act of faith the trusting God with our temporal well being though even this be a beleevers prerogative and makes all those dreams and wishes of the old Philosophers the Scepticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Epicures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to become the reality and acquisition of a Christian a holy Epicurism which faith and only faith furnisheth us with but I mean that faith which closes with the blood of Christ for eternal life and salvation There is an excellent place in Rom 10.10 where man is said to beleeve with the heart noting that it is not a bare closing with divine truths in our understandings Jews and Devils will do that but a consent or walking up to the goodness of God in Christ whereby he is loved above all things longed for and trusted to above all things becomes food rayment life all things to us And this you must look upon as Gods work too None can thus close with him but they whose hearts the Lord openeth Acts 16. Before I pass this Branch of divine fear there is one thing I would put you in mind of it will much help your judgment of faith and it is this That true faith is ever waited on with self denial where this is not there is no faith nor fear of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 9.23 Faith carries with it an Abdication not only of natural but spiritual self the soul findes vanity and nothingnesse not in reason only but in duty also without Christ In Josephs vision the Sun Moon Genesis 37 and Stars did obeysance to him and all the sheaves in the field bowed to his sheafe In the soul life way and work of a regenerate man all moral abilities and endowments all natural powers and faculties of the soul nay all supernatural gifts and graces prostrate themselves at the feet of Christ Then will the soul follow Christ in the knowledge of his will in the belief of his promises in the love of his truth in the obedience of his commands then wilt thou lay aside thine own wisdom as an empty Lamp thine own will as an evil commander thine own reason as a false rule thine own affections as corrupt Counsellors thine own ends as base and corrupt marks to be aimed at Not a hoof shall be left in Aegypt Exo. 10.26 thou wilt empty thy self that thou mayst be capable of Christ go out of thy self that thou mayst come to Christ Christ will reign as that Centurion Mat 8.8 9. come or go the poor heart is ready for him take away this your faith is no more then a pretence a self flattery you must go quite out of your selves before you can enjoy a Saviour The LXX have not cast Adam into a sleep as the Hebrew Text but into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2.21 a being hurried out of himself to make him capable of an helper if you shall not meet with this upon inquiry into your own spirits your faith is naught and all your service and worship of God and affront to your Redeemer or to give it the best language plain Pharisaism and Hypocrisie and God will one day cast all your duties as dung and dirt in your faces and say Who required these things at your hand The Lord give you self-denying hearts The Lord encrease faith in every one of you This is the first Jewel or Stone in the Ring He that fears God beleeves in him To fear God is to wait on him and for him an excellent and useful Lecture frequently inculcated by the Prophet in the Psalms as a fruit of the true fear of God he doubles his expression Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord wait I say on the Lord He joyns waiting upon God and keeping his way Psal 37.34 Observe what high promises the Scripture makes to this waiting Immunity from shame Psal 25.3 The inheritance of the earth Psal 37.9 Renewing of strength mounting up with wings as Eagles c. Is 40.31 New supplies of spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they seem to be quite spent and lost a change to be better conditioned flying over all difficulties they meet with Isa 40.31 deliverance from enemies Prov. 20.22 The fulfiling the desires of our hearts c. But how or wherein you should wait upon God and express your true fear of him is my task now to acquaint you Much of this I shall from my own experience commend to you and I hope you will not forget my words another day They will be of great use to you Wait upon God in his ways and wait upon him in his time I cannot commend any thing more advantagious to you whether you look at the present distempers and distractions of the world or the future comfort and settlement of your spirits upon all accounts First wait upon him in his own ways the ways of his Ordinances and the ways of his Dispensations First in the
mighty Herds of Cattel which himself possessed in abundance he tells us they are but Snares and Thorns either to entangle or torment us gotten with labour kept with fear and lost with sorrow All external forms of worship where Christ is not in the heart or not met with in the Ordinance is no more then a fools Sacrifice or as the word carrys it the service of hypocritical light and unconstant men These and many other gatherings he makes out from his own experience After these discoveries he prescribes many excellent rules for the settlement of the soul in reference both to its present and future good An humble acknowledgment under and dependance upon the providence of God in all events singleness and sincerity of heart in his worship and service The right use of wisedom in discerning times and judgments contentednesse and sweet reposedness of soul in every condition of life Obedience and Loyalty to Superiors Conscientious walking in our particular Callings Preparedness of spirit against all tryals and afflictions Moderation in the use of comforts in this life and preparation through the fear of God and obedience for death and judgment in the words of my Text Hence he may well be stiled a Gatherer and his Book a Book of gatherings The grand enquiry of the whole Book is that Summum Bonum that puzzled all our blind Philosophers The Preacher here discovers that Stone that turns all things into Gold which they have long tired themselves in seeking for and could never finde to this day Observe I pray you how he begins this Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how he ends it He begins it with Vanity of vanities All is vanity Idols light vile things of naught as the breath of ones mouth or the bubble in the water vapours soon vanishing Vanity of vanities vain vanity or extream superlative vanity This our first Parents saw and therefore called their second Son Hebel or vanity David confirms it Psal 144 4 Adam is as Abel or man is like to vanity there is an Allusion in the Original to both their names And herein he makes out the insufficiency and disability of the Creature to confer any true happinesse upon the Soul And secondly observe how he ends his book Fear God and keep his Commandments methinks it is not much unlike to that of Christ to Martha thou art troubled about many things Luke 10.41 42. but one thing is needfull Mary hath chosen the good part c. He begins you see with nothing he ends with all things he shews us what our first estate is an observance of lying vanities and forsaking our own mercies he shews us what our best estate is Fear God c. We begin at Idols and vanity and never know what our beginning was till we come to this end never know that we are vain till we arrive at the true fear of God My dear people whom I love and must ever love in the bowels of Christ Jesus and must ever call you so though now unhappily torn from you let not my words this day fall to the ground lay them up in your hearts let it suffice that you have spent your time past in vanities and Idols things of emptiness and torment let us not be like the people of those countries that whatsoever they chance to see first every morning they worship solemnly all the day after if sin have had the morning let the evening be Gods it is time we should come home to that only true happiness the Lord Jesus Christ Content not your selves with any outward blessings til you be sure you injoy him to the Salvation of your souls other excellencies may set you out in the eys of men generosity obligingnesse wisedom learning valour c. every one of these is sufficient to be a sober mans Idol render a man praise worthy but it is Christ only that makes us blessed other blessings you may injoy and perish with them but he that injoys Christ by true faith Ioh. 3.16 shall never perish but hath everlasting life The Text is Solomons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a solicitous inquiry or the treasure of true happinesse discovered it is in it self an exhortation or a duty you may call it whether you please the substance is the same There is not any thing remarkable in the Preface save that in the Original it begins with a Capital Letter as pointing out some high subject and stirring up the more serious attention to the matter in hand which indeed rightly weighed is an Epitome of the whole Gospel Would you know after my long observations what you are to trust to What is the sum and substance of the whole matter Where true and durable felicity may be found It is in this Fear God and keep his Commandments without this man is but as one calls him praestantissimum brutum which puts me in mind of that saying Job 28.28 where the holy man concludes his speech as the Preacher here doth his book Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding man then becomes wise when he fears God when Christ the wisedom of the fatheres dwels in him We shall not need neither did I ever love to name a Text the conclusion riseth plainly and naturally from it To fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man or as it is in the Hebrew the whole man and so the LXX render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the true fear of God is once planted it carries the whole man with it spirit soul and body guides and directs the whole man rectifies and reforms the whole man it is all in all and through all sets a price and worth upon the whole man in this life and crowns and glorifies the whole man in the life to come There is a natural fear arising from the sense of humane weaknesse which is not in it self sinfull we have examples of it in the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and in Christ himself Mat. 26.38 Heb. 5.7 he was heard in that he feared which though the Rhemists translate for his reverence and charge us with the corrupting of the Text contrary to the version and sense of Antiquity and the ordinary use of the Greek words yet I find it signifying as well a natural as a pious fear Acts 23.10 where a commotion being raised the chief Captain or Tribune is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afraid lest Paul should be torn in pieces which could not be a pious fear in him that was a Pagan but a natural civil fear lest a Roman a Prisoner and under his present charge should have been violently and tumultuously murthered between the Pharisees and the Sadduces 2. There is a carnal fear I may call it a fear of diffidence because arising from unbelief Apoc. 21.8 They are liable to the second death and joined with unbeleevers the Apostles are called 〈◊〉
experience having acquainted him with the vanity and his miseries with the vexation of it In another perhaps a contempt or wearinesse of his life like a discontented Jonah Take I beseech thee my life from me or Elias under the Juniper Tree it is enough c. and this is sometimes accounted a special piece of piety and mortification A third falls to his prayers oftner then usual and is importunate in the duty as the tempest in Jonah cast the Heathen Mariners upon their knees A fourth making some progress towards reformation wishings and wouldings that he were a better man but all these make not up this breach of divine fear this true waiting upon God and submission to his wisdom I shall now desire for your future good to commend these Instructions to you 1. Be sure to eye God in all his dispensations whether of mercy or judgement for all mercies spiritual and temporal return thanks to him from whom every good and perfect gift cometh as a Present both to humblenesse and thankfulnesse but that which I would now commend to you is the eying of God in the several dispensations of his judgements whosoever be the instrument look upon him as the author of the punishment there is the hand and counsel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 4.28 All the sin and furies guilt and damnation of Hell may be in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doing or executing Gods Will Satan alone having the Patent of persecution and every Persecutor intrenching upon Hell for his Commission but then all the mercy and all wisedom sometimes the redeeming of a World in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing being done Paul calls his suffering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brands or prints of Christ not only the transcripts of his suffering but the works of his hands also I dare commend this to you from my own experience I have found it a strong support to me under my sad persecutions and I have cause to blesse God this day that he made me a sufferer and punished me immediately for my sins a faire step to future Salvation and not a Persecutor whereby adding affliction to Gods anger my own hellish spirit had wrapped me up to eternal destruction Secondly That you may rightly wait on him you must not only look upon these dispensations as Gods hand but as his right hand the hand of love look upon your afflictions as caustick Plaisters preparatory to the incarnative the Knife and the Lance reckoned by Hypocrates among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mollifying Preparations which the Physitian must ever carry about with him as your new Artists tels us of a Feaver it is not properly a disease but an indeavour or strife of nature to cure her self ever look upon your afflictions as designed for your good for the humiliation of your untamed spirits to bring you to a neerer sight of your God a neerer sight of your selves a stricter inquiry into your own hearts to deal neer to God to make your Peace with him and the like Look not upon them as things from chance or malice those two heathen principles of Theology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as sent on purpose from love and pondering from judgement and bowels sent not as a curse to you for sin that is already satisfied to and for the elect in Christ but as tryals and fatherly chastizements to bring you to himself Secondly as we are to wait upon God in his ways so it is a part of his fear to wait upon him in his times It is recorded as an errour of Gods own people that they limited the holy one of Israel Psalm 78.41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would sign design circumscribe God write or determine for or instead of God bring him down and confine him to their own times and their own wayes a folly we are all naturally inclined to whether in case of judgement inflicted or mercies promised and expected we are all for the present time but Gods times are not our times My times are in thy hands says David Psal 31.15 as well the time of removing as aying on the burthen we have met with evil times God fit us for the worst and we are prone to murmur both at the weight and continuance of our Pressures and to expostulare with God and charge his ways as unequal and unreasonable let me therefore commend this to you wait Gods times in all events learn to stand still and you will see the salvation of the Lord you will reap in due season if you faint not Gal. 6.9 though it be troublesome you will find it comfortable and usefull to your spirits when your rebellious hearts shall put you on to murmuring and impatience remember this God hath his time to have mercy upon Sion and he will assuredly come when the sins of his enemies are come to maturity become impudent and incorrigible when our own spirits are throughly humbled and all hopes and helps in man so far removed that we have neither hope nor help but in God then may we look for him in the mean time I will wait Thus he that feareth the Lord waits contentedly and calmly for his return he beleeveth in the Lord and his feet stand fast This is that time I would intreat you to wait for and it is the second precious stone in the ring to wait God in his ways and in his times The third is to walk with him which is here in the Text called Keeping his Commandments The word Schamar signifies not only to Keep but to lay up and hide or treasure in the heart as Jacob is said to have observed or laid up in his heart the saying of Joseph It is translated to take heed 1 King 2.4 to observe or keep their ways Psal 105.45 A comparison taken from a Watchman in a City or the Garison in a Fortress all these expressing that care diligence and solicitude which all those that fear God have in and about their obedience This is that yoke of Christ I have often commended to you an easie yoke Matth. 11.30 all pleasure and profit made up in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yoke not like that of the Law a weight and burthen but fitted and smoothed by Christ to be an instrument of advantage and make the burthen more easie and supportable a yoke wherein Christ himself draws with and for us that we may the better undergo it I know this part of the fear of God will rellish harshly with such spirits as are unaccustomed to this yoke unacquainted with the sweetnesse of it To take leave of our old acquaintance to carry out the whole body of our lusts to their Funeral it goes heavie with a heart under the power of sin to spiritualize the flesh rack it fetch it from the lees to put on the yoke enter the traces and harnesse for the future race these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the child-birth pangs of dying