well to the Will as the Understanding It gives us as I may say a kind of Livery and Seisin of all we hope and pray for and even long to be united to though by the Help of a Dissolution In so much that the Plenitude of this One Grace in the sense I mention'd which Plenitude is expressed by a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boldly rendred a full Assurance I say the Plenitude or fulness of this one Grace which is attainable by Christians whilst here below is worthily reckon'd by St. Paul The Inchoation of our Glory This very Grace is once affirm'd to be a kind of beatifick although an antedated Vision of the Glory of God And for a man to leave This for a better world with such a cordial Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ as was here recommended by Paul and Silas which I have hitherto explain'd by several passages of Scripture is nothing else but to pass from a Paradise to a Heaven or to use St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Glory to another For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. § 10. But some may tacitly now object against Paul and Silas in the Text or at least against St. Luke the Relator of it That if by Faith we must be justified and also sanctified in part before we can expect it should ever save us they should have told the Jailour of it in Terms at large and have shew'd in the Retail how many Duties of a Christian are succinctly comprehended in that expression not have told him only in Gross as Dutchmen make their dishonest Reckonings He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. For how knew the Jailour he was to do any thing but to Believe or to believe in any other than the second Person in the Trinity God manifest in the Flesh for they seem to have made no mention to him of his being to believe in God the Father or in God the Holy Ghost much less did they add the other Articles of the Creed which are Ingredients in the object of Saving Faith § 11. To which I answer by two Degrees And first of all by a concession That if indeed Paul and Silas had said no more to their Catechumenist than that He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ not explaining what was meant by that Habit of Faith from which the Act of his Believing was to proceed nor yet explaining what was meant by the Lord Iesus Christ who is often put by a Synecdoche for the whole object of our Belief Faith in Christ being the Pandect of Christian Duties which are all shut up in Faith as Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell Then indeed they might have made him a Solifidian or a Fiduciary which had not been the way to his being sav'd But secondly I answer That the objection is made of a false Hypothesis For Paul and Silas dealt honestly and discreetly with the Jailour when having told him he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ for his being sav'd it presently follows after the Text they spake unto him the Word of God that is they expounded the Scriptures to him And in the doing of That they prov'd the object of his Faith to be the Trinity in Unity not solely and exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ but in conjunction with God the Father and with God the Holy Ghost too Again in expounding the Scriptures to him they could not but tell him what was meant by an effectual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ importing such a kind of Faith as is ever working and such a kind of working as is by Love and by such a kind of Love as is the fulfilling of the Law and of such a Law too as does consist of somewhat higher and more illustrious Injunctions than those of Moses and of such an obedience to those Injunctions as is attended and waited on by Perseverance unto the End There is no doubt but they acquainted him in their expounding of the Scriptures and speaking to him the Word of God how very highly it did concern him not only to escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust and also to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but besides This as St. Peter speaks to give all diligence for the adding to his Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity For that these were all needful and no redundant superadditions is very clear from St. Peter in the next verse but one He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins But if these Things be in you and abound Then indeed as St. Peter adds ye shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Now can we think that St. Peter did not teach the same Doctrin with Paul and Silas or can we think that Paul and Silas would withhold from the Jailour that Train of Duties for want of which he had been Blind and not in Case to see God no whatever might have been wanting in their succinct and pithy Answer whereby to give him a right Understanding of it was abundantly supply'd by their following Sermon And though the Heads of their Sermon are not put upon Record but only the Text upon which they made it yet St. Luke records This That such a Sermon there was preach'd in that he saith They spake to him the Word of God § 12. And truly This is such a Method as I could wish were well observ'd by all that are of their Function I mean the Stewards of the Mysteries of the Living God Unto whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation whose lips are made to be the Treasuries and Conservatories of Knowledge and which the People are appointed to seek at their Mouths For the Text we have in hand is often turned to advance either Truth or Falshood even according to the handle by which 't is held forth to the giddy People And is made to be eventually either venomous or wholsom just in proportion to the sense in which 't is taken and digested by them that hear it If to Believe is only taken for an Assent unto the Truth or a Relyance on the Merits of Jesus Christ or a confident Application of all his Promises to our selves And this in a kind of opposition to the Necessity of Good works which ought to be in conjunction with it Then 't is apt to cause a wreck in the waters of Life and through the Malignity of a Digestion a man may be kill'd by the Bread of Heaven But if 't is taken for obedience to the Commandments of Christ
is here imply'd Come we now from the double Object to observe in the Text a double Act too Whereof the first is Internal and that express'd the second External and that imply'd The Act Internal which is express'd is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe The Act External which is imply'd is to confess what is believ'd in spite of Temptations to conceal it And this did the Iailour of Philippi in the next Verses after my Text. For as inwardly with the Heart a man believeth unto righteousness so outwardly with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Indeed the Gnosticks were all for the Inward Act only for the better avoiding of Persecution But the Outward is by God as indispensably requir'd And the Inward Act without it is not sincere Thence it is that they are coupl'd as the condition of Salvation Rom. 10. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine Heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be sav'd Believing and speaking are from the same spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. It is written I believed and therefore have I spoken We also believe and therefore speak A double Act then there must be if the end be to be sav'd A True Believer must be a Confessor in time of Trial And when duly call'd to it a Martyr too Again As the Object and the Act so too the Subject of it is double For though begun in the Intellect yet 't is consummated in the Will as Aquinas and his Followers do rightly state it or else it would be meerly an human Faith Fides cui potest subesse Dubium a Faith whose very formal Reason is a radical Fear I do not mean an ingenuous but carnal Fear a Faith without Love and without Activity and so without the effect of Obedience too And therefore Cajetan argues well That an habit of Salvifick or saving Faith must be at once both a Speculative and a Practical habit And truly such is That Faith which is required in the Text as may appear by the Effects and Products of it in the Context For first the Iailour did assent unto the Things that were preached by Paul and Silas which infer's the Christian Faith to have got already into his Head And then immediately after we find it sunk into his Heart too witness the Sacrament of his Baptism which he received from Paul and Silas witness also his tender Charity in his washing of their stripes his entertaining them at his Table and his rejoycing even in That that might be temporally his Ruin v. 34 which are a proof of his abounding in those fruits of the Spirit Acts of Iustice and Gratitude and works of Mercy and spiritual Ioy in the Holy Ghost All Effects and Diagnosticks of saving Faith The overflowings of That Love which to use St. Paul's phrase is shed abroad in the Heart of a true Believer And thus we have the twofold Subject of Believing as we ought in the Lord Iesus Christ to wit the Intellect and the Will too Our full Assent must be seconded by our Love of the Truth and Obedience to it and that by a natural Production of the one out of the other For what at first is no more than The light of Knowledge in the Brain does by enkindling in the Bowels the Fire of Love of Love to God in the first place and to our Neighbour in the second produce Obedience to the first and the second Table of the Law After the Object and the Act and the Subject of this Belief each of which is twofold we are in order to reflect on the Nature of it Which is indeed very closely but significantly couch'd in the Praeposition For 't is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe the Essence or Existence of Jesus Christ nor is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe his Truth or Veracity But 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe and trust IN or UPON the Lord Jesus Believe at once his Propensity and Power to save thee Believe his Power for he is Dominus The Lord. And believe his Propensity for he is Iesus the Saviour Well therefore said the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Whosoever cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Now what is thus said of God is exactly true of the Lord Iesus Christ. For God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And whosoever cometh to Christ must believe as that he is so withal that he is a Rewarder too A Rewarder but of whom and on what Condition for he is not a Rewarder of all in general no nor of All that do believe him to have the Office of a Rewarder But of all such as seek him and that with diligence And of all who thus believe in Him as in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such an important monosyllable is the Praeposition in as 't is the English of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in conjunction with an Accusative that the Life of the Text would be lost without it For standing here as it does betwixt the Act and the Object it does imply the true nature of saving Faith Pass we on from the Nature to the Necessity of Believing Which here is visibly imply'd by the Retrospect of the Text as 't is an Answer to the Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what must I do that I may be sav'd for sure the sense of the Answer if it be adaequate to the Question must needs be This Thou must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of absolute Necessity and indispensably requir'd For as without our pleasing God it is impossible to be sav'd so we know without Faith it is impossible to please him Heb. 11. 6. Last of all we have here the Issue or the Conclusion of the whole Matter at once implyed in the Reflexion of the Answer upon the Question and expressed in the words of the Answer too Salvation is not the Effect but yet the necessary event of our Faith in Christ. Nor is it properly the wages but most certainly the Reward of a true Believer It comes to pass as unavoidably upon the Praemisses suppos'd as an Effect on a supposal of all things requisite to its Production For the Question having been This What must I do that I may be sav'd to which the Answer is Believe and thou shalt be sav'd An Answer given by Paul and Silas who spake as the Spirit gave them utterance here does arise a mutual Inference as of the Praecept and the Promise so of the Duty and the Reward Here is a necessary Tendency of the first towards the second and a necessary Dependence of the second upon the first For as Salvation cannot be had by such as live under the Gospel without a praevious Belief in the Lord Iesus Christ so wheresoever such Believing does go before 't is very plain that Salvation
Fortunes are our Conversation will be above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. we shall behave our selves as men who are free of God's City Our Hearts will evermore be There unless our Treasure is somewhere else If the Kingdom of Heaven is that Pearl of great Price to which our Lord in his Parable thought fit to liken it And if we are those Merchants that traffick for it we cannot choose but be busy in our Inquiries after the Price still resolving upon the Purchase at any Rate that can be ask't and ever asking what we shall give or as here what we shall do that we may any ways inherit Eternal Life So it follows again on the other side That if we are commonly looking downwards and behave our selves here as men at home as if we did not intend any farther Iourney If the Burden of our Inquiries is such as This What shall we do to live long upon the Earth and not see the Grave or what shall we do to escape going to Heaven 'till such time as we are pass't the pleasant Injoyments of the Earth how shall we put the evil Day afar off how shall we be saved without Repentance or repent without Amendment or amend no more than will serve our turn what shall we do to be good enough and yet no better than needs we must what shall we do to serve two Masters and reconcile the two Kingdoms of God and Mammon and so confute what is said by our blessed Saviour in the Sixteenth of St. Luke what for a Religion wherein to live with most pleasure and one to dye in with greatest safety what shall we do to live the Life of the sensual'st Epicure and yet at last dye the Death of the strictest Saint If I say our Affections are clinging thus unto the Earth It is an absolute Demonstration that all our Treasure is here below and that we are men of the present world in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds For our Saviour's famous Rule is at once of universal and endless Truth Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together wheresoever our Treasure is there our Hearts will be also And whither our Hearts are gone before the Case is evident and clear our Tongues and our Actions will follow after § 7. Now since these are the Inquiries of several Seekers to wit of Them who do affect to dwell here and of them that look out for a better Country that is an heavenly And since we may judge by their Inquiries to which kind of Master they do belong to God or Mammon 'T is plain the Lesson or the Use we are to take from it is This that when we find our selves beset with a twofold evil the one of Sin and the other of Affliction in so much as we know not which way to turn there being on the right hand a fear of Beggery or Disgrace and on the left hand a fear of Hell when I say we are reduced to such an hard pinch of our Affairs we must not carnally cast about and tacitly say within our selves what shall we do to keep our Livelyhoods or what shall we do to hold fast our Lives But what shall we do to keep a good Conscience and to hold fast our Integrity And since 't is nobler to be led by the hope of a Reward than to be frighted into our Duties by the fear of being punish't if we neglect them let us not ask like the Children of Hagar in the spirit of Bondage which is unto fear what shall we do that we may not inherit a Death Aeternal But as the Children of Sarah in the spirit of Adoption which is unto hope what shall we do that we may inherit Aeternal Life Which Life being hid with Christ in God as St. Paul speaks to the Colossians for God's sake whither should we go either to seek it when it is absent or to find it when it is hid or to secure it when it is found unless to Him who hath the words of Eternal Life that is the words which are the means by which alone we may attain to Eternal Life The words which teach us how to know it the words which tell us where to seek it the words which shew us how to find it the words which afford us those Rules and Precepts by our conformity unto which we cannot but take it into possession There is no other Name to make us Inheritors of Eternity but only the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 4. 12. And considering what is said by our blessed Saviour That This and this only is Life Eternal to know the only true God with a practical knowledge and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17. 2. we should religiously resolve not to know any thing else Not I mean in comparison of Iesus Christ and him crucified nor yet to any other end than to serve and assist us in that one knowledge Look what carking and caring any Covetous man useth to get his wealth look what industry and labour an Ambitious man useth to get his Honour look what vigilance and solicitude any Amorous man useth to get his Idol the same solicitude and diligence is each Religious man to use for the getting of an Interest in Iesus Christ. Which gives me a passage from the second to the third Observable I proposed from the Nature and Quality of the young man's Inquiry to the condition of the Oracle inquired of As he sought for nothing less than Eternal Life so did he seek it from Him alone who is the way to that Life and the Life it self He did not go to take Advice from the Witch of Endor for the madness of Saul had made him wiser or more at least in his wits than to knock at Hell-door for the way to Heaven Nor did he ask of Apollo Pythius or go to Iupiter Ammon to be inform'd about the way to Eternal Life for all the Oracles of the Heathen were put to silence by our Messias as Plutarch and others of their own great Writers have well observ'd and should they speak never so loudly he very well knew they could not teach him Nor did he go to Aaron's Ephod to ask the Urim and Thummim about the means of his Salvation for he knew that That Oracle was now grown Dimm and that in case it had been legible it could not help him Nor did he betake himself to Moses the Iewish Law-giver much less to the Scribes the learned Interpreters of the Law for he found Mysterious Moses had still a Veil upon his Face which the Scribes and Pharisees were not able to Remove much less durst he go to the Law it self for a Relief there being nothing more plain than that the Law worketh wrath Those Tables of Stone are as the Hones or the Grindstones at which the Sting of Death is whetted and made more sharp For as the sting of Death is Sin so