the use of thy Talents exercise thy self unto Godliness that the Divine Life now latent in Principles may shew it self in acts blow up the holy fire in thy bosom that what was buried under ashes may revive into a flame Be still a putting forth one Grace or other melting in repenting tears or clasping thy Faith about Promises or kneeling down in obedience to Commands or inflaming thy Love at Gods or perfecting Patience under his hand or drawing out thy Soul in Charity As the season is let one Grace or other be still a-budding and bearing holy fruit Thy Graces thus exercised will become radiant and visible those which before lay hid like Saul among the stuff as if they had been upon the common level of nature will now come forth in their Supernatural statures and appear as the virtues of God Thou maist now dsscern in thy self that which is more than Humane a Divine Nature which sparkles out of thy flesh in holy Operarations Another an higher Spirit than thy own which follows God fully in holy walking Thou maist now sit down under Christs shadow and reckon thy self in the very borders of Assurance waiting the good hour when the irradiating Spirit shall take thee by the hand and lead thee into the full possession thereof Moreover unto the exercise of Grace add growth as a fruit thereof Grow in Grace and in the knowledg of Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 Abound more and more 1 Thes 4.1 Let thy Motto be Plus ultra and thy Christian Arms like Josephs a fruitful bough by a well Thou hast Faith but be strong in it that thou maist wrestle with God and not let him go till he bless thee with Assurance be great in it that he may condescend to thee and say Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Thou hast a being in Christ but be rooted in him by a more close adherence and intimate Union within him grow up into him in statures of Grace till thou come to the oylof gladness upon his head There is some holy Love in thee but be rooted and grounded in it that thou maist comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg and be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.17 18 19. Through radicated and well-grown Graces as the Apostles assures us in that place admirable and wonderful things may be attained In a sober sense we may take Infinity know Transcendencies and be filled with a Deity Labour to grow every way downward in Húmility and self-denial upward in holy desires and raptures inward in the vitals of Faith and Love and outward in all holy fruits and good works fill up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is lacking in Faith and other Graces let Patience and all other Graces have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perfect work that thy path may be as the shining light shining more and more to the perfect day As an Heavenly Pilgrim go from faith to faith and from strength to strength travelling to meet the day coming towards thee in the light of Gods Countenance In such a growth as this as in a clear glass thou maist discover that thy Graces are vital and true feeds of Immortality Statues and Pictures such as Hypocrites are grow not Essentials and Vitals are Vltra penicillum Sincerity and Divine Vitality cannot be painted Confider therefore with thy self how it hath been with thee there was but a little dawn in thy Heart and now a pure morning Thy Grace was but a little grain of Mustard-seed and now it is become a Tree Thou wast but a little Embrio a babe in Christ and now a man of strength and spiritual stature And what doth this argue but Life in thee Confider again thou hast an ocean of Corruption in thy Heart and yet thy little spark of Grace hath grown thou hast stood in the midst of Satans winds and withering blasts and yet thou growest thou hast had many a sharp frost from the World to nip thy fruit in the bud and yet thou growest And what doth this speak but a seed and life of God in thee such as will spring up into Life Eternal Take this as an Earnest from God that maugre Satan and all the power of Darkness thou shalt grow and grow on till thou art transplanted into the Heavenly Paradise Again If thou wouldst have Assurance be much in mortifying of Sin This is the great troubler If thou indulg it a cloud will come over thy Conscience darken thy Evidences thy Graces will all droop and like a Candle in the socket be ready to die the Law will arm it self against thee and from one threatning or other will flash Hell in thy face Satan will rake in thy old wounds of Guilt and put thee into fresh torments the holy Spirit will be gone and carry away all his Cordials with him the Promises will be as dry Breasts and let out never a drop of sweetness to thee thy Duties will hang the wing and become dead and spiritless and without comfort In the end thou wilt experimentally find That in crooked Paths Peace cannot be found Awake therefore O Believer to the work of Mortification Look upon sin as it is an evil an only evil an hellish abomination infinitely more loathsom than the Dogs Vomit or the Sow's Mire or the menstruous Cloth by which it is shadowed out in Scripture Arraign it as the greatest Malefactor that ever was Call in Death and Hell and a blasted World and groaning Creatures and the Ruins of Angels and Souls of Men and the bloody Passion of Christ and the horrible Injuries done to God himself To bear witness against it Each of these can tell sad stories about it and all of them cry out Crucifie it Crucifie it It is worthy to dye Pass therefore thy doom upon it that it may do to Strip it of all its veils and false covers and bewitching appearances pluck off its Golden Profit and Silken Pleasures and Purple of false Honour that it may look as it is in its own ugly nakedness sinful out of measure sinful Nail it to the Cross by holy Restraints if it start in a Thought or creep in at a Sense or hide it self under thy Lawful things have one holy Truth or other as a Nail ready to fasten it that it move no further in thee Pierce it let out its vital blood I mean the love and joy and delight of it Surrender up thy Affections to God and Christ and heavenly things that it may give up the ghost bury it out of thy sight never give it a look or glance more converse no more with it than thou wouldst do with the dead raise it not up again into any fresh embraces no not so much as the picture of it in a sinful thought or fancy After this manner mortifie sin and above all thy darling only one which thy Heart hath been tender of and could wish
cloud upon it and Guilt as a wound in it Make it as lightsome as thou canst from Scripture that as a pure glass it may be fit to reflect the Gospel-Comforts on thy Soul Get a through cure of thy old Wounds or else sooner or later it will cry out against thee Joseph started up in his Brethrens mind a good while after their unnatural sale of him John the Baptist rose again in Herods Conscience upon the fame of Christs Miracles Theodorick having cruelly murdred Boethius and Symmachus was affrighted at the great head of a Fish at his own Table as if it had been one of theirs whom he unjustly put to death Apply therefore Christs Blood by Faith that thy Wounds may be healed David after his great fall prays first to be purged with hysop and then for the joy of Gods salvation Psal 51. The Hysop which was used to sprinkle the Blood under the Law figured out the office of Faith in sprinkling Christs Blood on the Conscience that 's a soveraign Balm to heal thy Wounds and able to make Conscience give thee an answer of Peace I have read a notable story of a sick Man who when Satan appeared and shewed him a long scrole of his Sins in writing saying Behold thy Virtues replied True Satan but thou hast not set down all set down also The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Such a purifier is this that a Man may be able as is said of St. Austin to think of his former Evils without fear as having no spot of unpardoned Sin in him Thy Conscience being made pure walk after it A reciá Conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum said the Orator Leave it not lest thou fall and wound thy self afresh When Conscience summons thee to this or that Duty up be doing God calls thee to it by thine own Heart when it tells thee of such a snare in thy way avoid it pass by it as thou wouldst by Hell God warns thee against it by thy self Conscience will measure out Comforts or Terrors to thee according as thou behavest thy self well or ill towards it If like Saul thou force thy self and rebel against light and give stabs to Conscience what hast thou to do with Peace Thy Heart will reproach thee Conscience will strike again and give thee wound for wound thou shalt doom thy self and like the Devils carry thy Chains and Hell about with thee Tiberius professed to the Senate That he suffered death daily he meant in the torments of his accusing Conscience On the other hand if thou turn thine eyes inward and observe Conscience and walk by the line and level of it thy Heart shall be at rest Conscience shall be a thousand witnesses for thee thou shalt be thine own Comforter and like the Angels carry an Heaven and Paradise aboat with thee Pauls joy shall be thine the testimony of Conscience that thy conversation hath been in godly sincerity and what is this but Assurance That Conscience which faith That thou art sincere tells thee also That thy Sins are pardoned These two are inseparable companions and never part the one from the other Again If thou wouldst have Assurance thou must be much in self-examination Commune with thy own Heart dive into the abyss of it reckon with thy self summon thy self to the Tribunal in thy own bosom The Philosophers espied out this Rule Pythagoras would not have us sleep till we had reviewed the day asking our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What have I transgressed what done and what omitted This though done by the candle-light of Nature much promoted Virtue and the comfort of it Qualâ—s ille somnus post recognitionem sui sequitur quam tranquillus altus liber saith Sencea After a review of ones self Oh what manner of sleep is there how still deep and free is it Much more must such a search into ones own Heart conduce to the Christians Graces and Comforts if done by the pure Sun-light of Scripture Self-examination is a root which bears Self-knowledg and at the top of it grows Assurance which is the knowledg of gracious self Awake therefore O Believer down into thy own Heart rifle the labyrinths and break open the false bottoms there see what of Sin is in thee Is there any darling Sin such as cogs with thy complexion or falls in with thy calling or any way steals away thy Heart and Affections from God Be sure that this is an accursed thing a Deliah as the word imports an exhauster of thy peace and joy However fair it may look to sense it is virtually sorrow and wrath See again what of Grace is there in thee do thou repent of Sin and believe on the Lord Jesus and love God and his holy Ways Are thy Graces genuine such as act thee in the power of the Spirit and square thee to the holy Canon of the Word and level thy Thoughts and Intentions at the Glory of God If thou thus search into thy Heart and do it in truth and faithfulness to the holy Light I dare say thou art ready for the sealing of the Spirit and the very frame of thy Heart is a real prayer for it O how soon may the Spirit come and by a Divine irradiation on thy Soul tell thee That thy Repentance is a Repentance unto Life and thy Faith precious Faith and thy Love Love in Sincerity How soon may it apply and seal the Promises to thy Heart as if it should say to thee Thou repentest indeed and the Mercy in the Promise is thine Thou believest indeed and the Salvation in the Promise is thine Thou lovest indeed and thine are the supersensual superintellectual good things prepared for the lovers of God And now thou maist say much better than Seneca Qualis somnus O how sweet is the rest and repose which the self-searching Soul finds in the bosom of Christ and Grace He that comes to that sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper must prepare himself for the Sâ—ul by Self-examination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man examine himself faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 Examine as a man would do Gold or Silver by the fire or by the Touchstone in like manner must he do so that he may fit himself for the Seal of Assurance of which the Sacramental Elements are Symbols Again If thou wouldst be assured exercise thy Graces and grow therein It much conduces to Assurance to render thy Graces as visible as thou canst Grace however it always carry a Divine lustre in it is not so visible when dormant in an habit or principle as when it is put forth into act and exercise neither is it so visible in its Initials in the smoking flax or bruised reed as in its Progresses and statures in Christ In point of Comfort talents not used are as none Comforts lie dead in Believers as their Graces do the holy sire raked up affords no light to them Awake therefore O Believer to
reason with the Gospel before him arrive at so great a notion of Divinity as is before admitted I answer the key to open this is in the Text the natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned A man by reason and its furniture of learning may in the perusal of the holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions and so know the things of God notionally but he knows them not spiritually and by consequence not congruously to their spiritual nature For the opening of this we must consider that there is in the holy Scriptures something humane or which may be inventoried among the things of man as the letters and words made up of them and sentences made up of words not as if these were not dictated exactly by God himself but that they are common to humane and profane Authors I mean not for the divineness of the matter but for the phrases and forms of speech And there is in them something Divine or which must be computed among the things of God as the mysteries and spiritual things themselves which are represented by those words and phrases I may illustrate this distinction farther by that of our Saviour If I have told you earthly things and you believe them not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things Joh. 3.12 I pray what earthly things did our Saviour tell them was not he there preaching on that divine Theme of Regeneration Very true but Christ spake to them of Regeneration under the shadow of a birth and a wind and not according to the heavenly and spiritual nature thereof in it self Thus the words and phrases in Scripture being of common use are as it were humane types and shadows but the mysteries and spiritual things themselves are altogether divine Now to apply this distinction reason improved reaching to the things of man as its proper line may know the words and sentences in Scripture and so gather up a great notion of Divinity But unless inlightned by the holy Spirit which searcheth the things of God it goeth not beyond its own line it knows not spiritual things spiritually Reason without the light of faith Take it in a Jew at a Sacrifice and it saw the type only and not Christ in it Take it in a Christian at the holy Supper and it sees only the outward elements and discerns not the Lords body Take it in the greatest Rabbi sitting with the Scriptures before him and it sees them only in the shell or letter and not in the mystery And no wonder for even in common Sciences it may be so a man may construe and know the Grammar of a principle in Euclide and yet be ignorant of the Mathematical sense of it much more in divine truths may a man be spiritually ignorant who knows a great deal literally Therefore all Scholars may do well in their studies to do as Zuinglius did who having arrived at Arts and Tongues yet in the reading of the holy Scriptures looked up to heaven As for the great Doctor the holy Spirit when he comes in supernatural illumination then we know the things of God not by our own spirit but Gods the very same spirit which breaths in the Scriptures shines in the heart Hence spiritual things are discerned spiritually by a light congruous to their nature the spirit glorifies and shews forth Christ as the expression is John 16.14 Holy truths are as it were transfigured and shewn forth in glory which before were seen but in the flesh or weakness of the Letter the Deity sparkles out in the beauty and spiritual lustre of Scripture-mysteries which before only appeared in the humanity of words and phrases Now heaven opens and free-grace passes before us the secret of the Lord is with us and we are of his Privy Councel This is the first and fundadamental difference Reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light congruous to spiritual things but the light of Faith is Out of this all the other are derived Secondly Meer Reason digging in the Letter of Scripture arrives but at notions and shadows of knowledg and though these be as the sands on the sea shore they are but a form of knowledg Rom. 2.20 but when the light of faith comes there is sound wisdom Prov. 3.21 or as the original word is essence a thing which can no more be made up of meer notions then a body can of shadows Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Without it notions and literal knowledge have no hypostasis in the heart the spiritual world is as it were lost God and Christ and Heaven are but notions But as soon as faith comes and makes the day-break in the heart the spiritual world subsists afresh God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven to the soul all of them are reallized by faith there is a good treasure in the heart far more substantial then Arts and Tongues and School-notions can make Thirdly Reason with its notions arrives but at a knowledge falsly so called for it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known those things are proposed to be known not as meer notions but as practical things to be in the first place chosen loved embraced and practised but it knows them only notionally and not practically That knowledge whilest materially true hath a secret lye in it thus the Apostle He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.4 'T is not in him in a practical way so as to ballance the will and affections with the excellency of the things known but as soon as faith comes those things are known as they are proposed to be known as practical things to be improved in heart and life The supernatural light digests truths into blood and spirits and turns mysteries into godliness It knows Law and Gospel in their true tendency which is holiness not to be holy is to blast and prophane the meaning of both Fourthly The meer notional knowledge acquired by reason hath no spiritual life or sense in it it hath no life in it meer notions are but a dead faith but faith is a living notion In an unbeliever the notions are all dead affording no pulse of holy affections or motion of true obedience they are all buried in a grave of corruption and covered in the dust of earthly things But as soon as faith comes there is a resurrection in the soul the notions before dead now wake out of the dust and rise in life and power every truth lives in the heart and springs up into the new-creature This supernatural knowledge is a well-spring of life Prov. 16.22 and all the vital acts of grace stream from thence Nay as our Saviour tells us it is life eternal John 17.3 heaven doth dawn and appear in it Meer notional knowledg hath no spiritual sense in it
to which faith must proceed First This resignation is made to Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation I begin with this first because Faith cannot go to God immediately but to the Mediator first and so to God Thus the Scripture saith through him we have access to the Father Eph. 2.18 by him we come unto God Heb. 7.25 and which is more express by him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 If we will go to our heavenly Father we must first put on our elder brothers robes we must cloath our faith and resignation in the resignations of Christ and so appear before God we must put our faith into the hand of a Mediator and from thence it will ascend up before the divine Majesty Take away the Mediator and God is a consuming sire no saith no prayer can approach unto him If the cloud of incense do not cover the Mercy-seat Aaron will dye before it Lev. 16.13 unless the Mediators merits had been as a cloud of incense about God the sinner though in the lowest posture of resignation must have died before the Father of mercies First then there is a resignation unto Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation For the understanding whereof two things are considerable First That Jesus Christ is by Gods ordination sealed to be a Mediator There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 Christ as God-man stood up between an offended God and offending man and acts as a Mediator in all his offices As a Priest he acts with God to pacifie his wrath and purchase grace and glory for men and as a Prophet and a King he acts with men to declare unto them the Will of God and rule over them by his spirit and word Thus the livine days-man lays his hand upon both God above and man below to bring them together in a mutual reconciliation Secondly That this resignation to Christ as Mediator is in a way congruous to all his offices Look as God above sealed him to be a Mediator by his ordination so man below seals as it were the counter-part by his resignation The believer yields up himself to Christ as a Priest by a recumbency on his merits and sweet-smelling sacrifice This in Scripture is called saith in his blood Rom. 3.25 he yields up himself to Christ as a Prophet by an humble teachableness this is called a hearing of the Prophet Act. 3.22 and he yields up himself to Christ as a King by an holy subjection and this is called receiving Christ Jesus the Lord Col. 2.6 Thus this resignation as a key to the wards of the lock suits and hits Christ in every office What is merit in Christ is fiducialness in faith What is instruction in Christ is docibleness in faith What is royalty in Christ is obedientialness in faith Secondly This resignation is made unto God even the whole sacred Trinity as the center and ultimate object of faith I say the whole sacred Trinity For though Christ as God-man the Mediator be only the grand medium by and through which faith makes its approaches to God yet Christ as God is not the ultimate object of faith I say the whole sacred Trinity as the center and ultimate object of faith For nothing is or can be the formal reason or terminating object of faith but the Deity or divine nature only whose infinit excellency and perfection doth naturally merit the same whose infallible truth rich mercy matchless power and unsearchable wisdom calls for faith to come and repose in its bosom there and there only can it ultimately rest and keep Sabbath this the Scripture expresses emphatically by trusting in Jehovah the rock of ages and center of faith Thus then it is faith first goes to Christ the Mediator and then in and through him it advances unto God The Apostle is express in it who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 Faith in Christs blood is saith in the way the new and living way consecrated through the vail of his flesh but faith in God is faith in the ultimate end and center Moreover that faith may arrive at him he comes as it were out of his unapproachable light and manifests himself in Attributes he lets down his veracity grace wisdom power holiness and soveraignty as so many beams of his glory for our faith to lean upon and as it were to climb up by unto himself They that know thy name will trust in thee saith the Psalmist Psal 9.10 the knowledge of Attributes is a staff to our weak faith in its walk to him Thirdly This resignation is made unto the werd as the warrant rule and way in by and according to which faith doth proceed These things are written that you might believe Joh. 20.31 As for the choice blessings which faith waits for from God and Christ the promises are the warrant As for the obediential subjection to God and Christ the commands are the rule As for the teachings of the Spirit the whole word is the way in which believers looks for the same If faith look up the word is the perspective if it work the word is the line and plummet if it consult here 's the oracle if it weigh things here 's the ballance Faith is never warrantless There is transgressing without cause but never believing Faith resigns to the Mediator and through him to God but the commission for both is in the word Thus far of the first thing unto whom or what this resignation is made But to go on Secondly For what things or purposes is it made I answer It is made for very great things and ends In opening of which I shall to each of them accommodate the former distinction of resignation as to the Mediator as to God and as to the Word That the nature of this resignation may the more fully appear the precious things and ends for which it is made are as followeth First The soul is resigned to be instructed in all the ways of God And this resignation that I may keep to the prae-appointed method is made First To Jesus Christ the Mediator and as to him first faith Disciples the soul to him and then yields it up to him to be taught First It Disciples the soul to Christ before faith a man is as a Wolf or a Lion for brutish untractableness but after it a little child may lead him even the least truth in the word and he will not break from it his ear is opened and his mind in a readiness for instruction Now this Faith doth two ways First It doth it by revealing the excellency of Christ as a Prophet Oh! says faith this is the only Rabbie the Angel of Gods face the wonderful counseliar lying in his bosome and knowing all his secrets his mouth is most sweet he speaks hony-combs
Chron. 20.12 we know not but thou knowest how to deliver there is nothing but confusion below but all is clear and serene in thy wise counsels there is no one way or method of deliverance in our reason but there are insinite millions of ways and methods with thee Such a faith as this made Luther in the troubles of the Church cry out That it was far otherwise concluded in heaven then at Norimberg and in the blackest tempest inspirits the believer to do as the Mariners in the Acts cast anchor and wish for the day roll himself on the wise God and wait for the dawning of comfort from him Thirdly Faith yields up the soul for instruction unto the word And here are three things considerable First Faith resigns to the word as a warrant for both the former resignations If you ask a believer why he presumes so far as to go to Christ and God for the teachings of the spirit his answer will be this I find in the word divers promises that we shall be taught of God that the spirit shall lead us into all truth that there is an holy annointing dropping from Christ which teacheth all things And all these promises are very true the counterpanes of Gods heart and exactly congruous to the grace there God speaks in them and without complement he speaks as he means therefore I resign up my soul unto Christ and God for instruction teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy commandements saith David Psal 119.66 where by commandements some Divines understand all the word including in it Promises as well as Commands however the believer hath a warrant to pray teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy promises of instruction Secondly Faith resigns to the word as a rich mine and treasury of knowledge there are pretious ous mysteries such as have the divine wisdom flowing in them Them Hungarians have a tradition that their golden Crown dropt down from heaven to be sure the mysteries in Scripture did so they are pure Revelations come down from God to be as golden Crowns on the head of Faith The window of the Ark was as some Rabbins say a pretious stone which gave light to all the creatures and indeed the Original which we translate window Gen. 6.16 imports a splendor or clear light Understanding is our window but the Scripture mysteries make it a window of pearl Humane learning is but painted glass but these make windows of agates such as are in the taught of God Isa 54.12 13. These are riches of understanding pearls and intellectual rubies fit to be laid up in the very middle and Center of the heart There the holy precepts and precious promises beauties of holiness and glories of grace lye open to the embraces of Faith There the invisible God whose dwelling is in light unapproachable and whose pure glory our eyes cannot look on may be seen in the reflex in the Scripture image and condescension In a word so rich are the veins of knowledge there that faith as a day-labourer is ever digging therein to draw out a stock of holy understanding from it Thirdly Faith resigns to the word as the only way in which a man may be taught of God All men are ambitïous of so grand a priviledge The very Gentiles in the puddle of their filthy Idolatries thought themselves taught of God in their Oracles The Mahometans think themselves more sure of it in their Alcoran at which say they the devils themselves rejoyced and turned to God no question they rejoyed at such a bundle of lies and blasphemies but that they turned to God is a wild delusion The Jews boast themselves no less in their Oral Law which say they God delivered over to Moses and Moses to Joshua and Joshua to the Elders and they to the Prophets and they to the Sanhedrim and they at last to writing in the Talmud calling it lux illa magna that great light which yet is but a dark labyrinth of errors and horrible falsities The Papists run to their traditions and unwritten verities as Divine and so bring in a load of fopperies and vain superstitions The Enthusiasts cry up the spirit in an extra-scriptural way and so turn aside from the main principles of Religion In such false ways do men lose themselves and the Divine teaching whilest the believer knows where to sind it even in the Scriptures in reading them he sits at Christs feet and every where looks for Maschil instruction from God In them is the Oracle the Vrim and Thummim by which God answers him here he opens his heart and spreads abroad all his sails to take in the gales of the holy spirit and be filled in all the will of God Col. 4.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filled with it as the sails are with the wind Whilest the Eunuch was reading the Prophet Esaias the spirit joined Philip to his chariot Act. 8.29 Whilest the believer hath his being in the Scriptures the spirit joyns himself to his heart and by the infusion of holy light makes him go on rejoycing in the way of knowledge Here and only here doth he wait to be taught of God such is and since the sealing up of the Canon ever hath been the way of knowledge And what of extraordinary dispensation hath been since hath either directly turned men to their Bibles Confess l. 8. c. 12. Melch. Adam in vità Zuinglii as the voice to St. Austin tolle lege tolle lege pointing him to the Scripture or else hath quoted or ratified some Scripture-truth Thus when it was objected to Zuinglius that the word est in Scripture-parables may be taken for significat but not in verbis coenae in the Sacramental phrases and his thoughts were busie about it an answer was suggested to him in a dream a monitor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 telling him Quin ignare respondes ei quod in Exodo legitur est enim phase hoc est transitus Domini in which there is nothing extra-scriptural but a Scripture-instance given for that which before was a Scripture-truth the Scripture is the only place where we can look for Divine teaching To conclude that of the Father is remarkable qui sacrâ non utitur Scripturâ sed ascendit aliunde non concessâ viâ fur est he that goes not into knowledge by Scripture is a thief the believer keeps the divine road Thus far of the first thing resignation for instruction in the ways of God Secondly Faith resigns up the soul to be pardoned and justisied before God unto justification and pardon there are three things prae-required First An act of free grace in God All men are naturally sinners and as such Gods holiness cannot but hate them Gods justice cannot but punish them wherefore free-grace stepped in and found out a way how God who cannot justifie the ungodliness might yet justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 and that in a way of compliance both with his
whose origine is light such ignorant ones cannot resign sin to them because unknown is no burden holiness to them because unknown is no beauty Christ and grace to them because unknown are no attractives and how can they resign resign recumbentially they cannot for they know not the promises resign obedientially they cannot for they know not the precepts resign in an humble docibleness they cannot for they know not so much as their want of knowledge Again some sins though unknown carry in the matter of them a direct repugnancy to resignation and so to faith For instance every man hath some natural Popery in his heart he would be justified by a righteousness of his own The Jews being asked whether they believed to be saved by Christs righteousness made this answer every fox must pay his own skin to the flayer every man must stand upon his own righteousness he that doth thus need not cannot resign to Christs righteousness he need not for why should he go out of doors for a righteousness which he hath within in his own heart and he cannot for justification by our own righteousness and justification by Christs are contraries and so are a dependance on our own righteousness for justification and a dependance on Christs for it Hence the Jews when they went about though ignorantly to establish their own righteousness could not believe they submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God saith the Apostle Rom. 10.3 their own unresigned righteousness kept them from believing as being in the very matter of it contrary thereunto Moreover some sins which may not be known for fins in the matter of them may yet be darlings Delilahs and as the Hebrew word imports exhausters such as drain out the very marrow of the heart I mean the prime love choice desire and supream delight thereof These in respect of their intimate conjunction with the soul are barrs to resignation and so to faith How can ye believe which receive honour one of another saith our Saviour Job 5.44 their darling vain-glory made their believing impossible After the same manner all lawful things when once they are set up as Idols in the heart and the love and the joy dance before them are obstacles to faith thus we find They would not come to the marriage-supper of the Gospel and why their darling farms and merchandise kept them away Math. 22.5 Haec vincula hae catenae quae carnales constringunt these are the bonds and the chains which keep men from resignation and the more dangerously because they lie invisible and hid among the stust of our lawful things Christ and earthly things saith a Great Divine come often in competition in every unjust gain Christ and a bribe in every oath Christ and a blasphemy in every sinful fashion Christ and a rag or excrement in every piece of vain-glory Christ and a blast in every intemperance Christ and a vomit whatever the thing be in it self lawful or sinful as soon as it becomes the Idol of the heart it proves an obstacle to faith Thirdly All known actual sins are not absolute barrs to resignation and so not to faith there are peccata quotidianae incursionis sins of meer infirmity such as are not the proper formal issues of deliberation but the inevitable effluviums of humane frailty these may be in a man and may be known to be in him and yet through grace he may resign notwithstanding these black moats slying round about him his faith may look up to the mercy-seat on the other side known actual sin issuing out of deliberation if it be but in one single act doth whilest it is acting put a barr to resignation and so to faith for that single act is rebellion and how can a man whilest he is knowingly in arms against God resign it is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.25 and how can a man who is virtually in covenant with the devil enter into terms with God that faith is not truly recumbential which is not also obediential neither doth it can it indeed lean upon Gods grace whilest his holiness is rejected And if such known deliberate sin in one single act put a bar to faith much more will it do so when it is in a course and series of successive rebellions Thus St. John saith whosoever sinneth that is makes a trade and runs a course of known sin hath not seen him that is Jesus Christ who was manifested to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.6 such an one though never so full of Scriptural notions never yet saw a crucified Christ by faith never yet looked upon the right mercy-seat never yet set foot on the precious promises of the Gospel Christ and Belial cannot be in concord for Christ is a holy Christ a Christ upon his throne and the trader in sin is a man of Belial a man as the Hebrew word imports absque jugo who casts off the holy yoke from his heart and life Fifthly That faith stands in resignation may appear from the act of resignation made by faith Faith in Enoch resigned up his life and in a spiritual sense every believer is by faith translated Enoch-like he is not in the lower world but so far as he believes taken up by God and conversing in heaven Faith in Abraham resigned up his only one his Isaac and every believer every child of Abraham treads in the same steps of faith going up into Moriah into the vision of God and there offering up the only one of the heart the darling love and joy there Faith in Moses resigned up Egypt and in that resigned up all the world for in doing thereof his eye was not on some other part of the visible world but on the invisible God and in every believer faith takes the world and casts it behind his back as dung and dross for the excellency of Christ regard not your stuff saith faith all the Land of promise a heaven of glory is before you wonderful are the surrenders which faith makes in the believer it surrenders up his understanding to super-rational mysteries Meer reason goes no farther then its own sphear of natural notions but the line of faith runs as far as supernatural mysteries such as the lingua lutea the clay tongue of man cannot utter such as lippus oculus the weak eye of reason cannot see Again it surrenders up his will to super-moral self-denials The Moralists self-denial is but the artifice of his reason but the believers is a very great mystery The Moralist denies only the beast the brutish lusts in his sensitive affections but the believer denies the more fine and spiritual fins in the Will it self The Moralists design is only to advance the Empire of Reason over the lower faculties but the believers is to advance God and his holy Will over himself and all that is in him Moreover it surrenders up his affections to super-sensual joyes and pleasures The Sensualist is for the Paradise of sense
if thou sow unto the flesh thou must reap corruption He that hath but a notion of Gods power can despise Gods hand in small crosses just as the proud Greeks who when Callipolis was lost said the Turks had taken but a bottle of wine but he that hath the mystery of it dares not do so well knowing that the lightest afflictions come from Shaddai the Almighty and if need be he can strike harder he that hath but a notion of Gods All-sufficiency hath his affections scattered up and down the earth as the poor Israelites were over Egypt for straw to gather if it were possible a happiness from the flowers of the creature but he that hath the mystery of it knows how by a compendious wisdom to have all in God roll over all worlds the world of thoughts wishes and desires in the heart the world of riches honours and pleasures in nature the world of pardons graces and comforts in Saints the world of joy glory and beatitudes in heaven and after all this the believer can tell you all these are to be found in God habet omnia quihabet habentem omnid after this manner the secret of the Lord is with the believer As to Jesus Christ the believer hath the mystery of him in his heart A man may have a notion of God manifest in the flesh but unless he have an heart of flesh an yielding resigning heart for God to manifest his spirit and graces in that the heart may in some measure be made answerable to the spirit and graces in Christ he wants the mystery of it St. John speaking of love saith which thing is true in him and in you 1 John 2.8 Why so because saith he the darkness is past and the true light now shineth a man may tell the story of the meekness humility holiness obedience charity patience it Christ but if the true light do not shine in him by faith if these graces be not true in Christ and in him he hath not the mystery thereof the spyes coming back from Canaan brought not only a bare report of the good Land but clusters of grapes also he that hath the mystery of Christ hath not only a meer notion of the full treasures of grace in him but clusters of graces from thence as so many real proofs thereof the Apostle Paul doth notably decipher this sagacity that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil 3.10 If a man hath only a notion of Christ crucified and Christ risen we may character him as Erasmus did the Monastery he was in there is nihil Christi nothing of Christ crucisied where lusts are living and reigning nothing of Christ risen where the soul is dead in trespasses and sins he only knows the fellowship of Christs sufferings who hangs up his earthly members on the cross to dye and expire the only knows the power of Christs resurrection who hath felt the same Almighty power which raised up Christ quickning his soul to a heavenly life this is the mystery the so learning of Christ as the expression is Eph. 4.20 learning him so as to put off the old man with his corrupt lusts and to put on the new man in true holiness and so as to be found in him and count all dross and dung for him It deeply concerns all Christians nay the greatest Clerks to understand this so which without faith no man doth as being void of Christ and his spirit As to inherent grace the believer knows it to be an excellent thing an accident more worth then the substance of the soul it self and yet withall he knows it to be a creature and in it self defectible he knows it to be an excellent thing excellent in its supernatural parentage a thing not born of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God an holy thing formed by the overshadowing of the blessed spirit a beam of grace from the eternal grace in the heart of God excellent again as it is the souls lostre knowledge its glass humility its vail obedience its golden ear-ring love the chain of its neck righteousness its fine linnen every grace its inward glory and beauty elevating natural faculties above their own pitch into a state congruous for communion with God above all excellent as it represents God himself in every creature there is a print or footstep of God but in grace there is his very image and resemblance a believer can see more of God in an holy beam then in the great Sun in a little of heaven then in all the earth intal poor meek spirit then in all the Nimrods and mighty Potentates of the world and yet after all this the believer sees grace to be but a creature and in it self defectible without a spiritual concourse from heaven should God bid him stand alone he would be in an agony and pray as Annas Burgus did at his Martyrdome Deus mi ne me derelinquas ne ego te derelinquam my God forsake me not lest I forsake thee Should God offer him all the Angels in heaven to guard his little spark of grace in being he would tremble and say not so Lord let me be kept by thine Almighty power unto salvation that is the only keeper I desire he dares not say my mountain is strong now I am full now I am rich now I reign as a King by my self were he full of grace it would be but as a room is of light no sooner could he shut the windows and possess it in a self-subsistence but he would be in the dark and experiment every beam to hang upon the Sun of righteousness were he rich in grace it would be but as a Merchant is in his trade if the rich returns from heaven should fail he would soon spend all his stock and like a son of Adam turn bankrupt were he a spiritual King ruling over his lusts he would and must confess himself under the kingdom of Christ and to hold all his power from thence or else Mene Mene his kingdom is numbred and divided among lusts and devils St. Paul saith I live but immediately he calls it back again yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 well knowing that all his grace had its being from the true Immanuel Jesus Christ and its continuance from the continual influxes of his spirit which are in a sober sense a kind of Immanuel God with us strengthening graces where they are weak quickning where they are dead upholding where they are falling and by an incessant spiration influencing Being into them that they may not vanish into nothing As to the opposite sin the believer sees more of the sinfulness of sin and yet more of the holy God about it then others do He sees more of the sinfulness of sin then others Next to Christ who weighed sin upon the cross he of all men knows best how to