thing without which no love no approaching no comming to God possible Oportet accedentent credere He that comes must beleeve Which brings us on to the next gradation namely beleeving He that comes must beleeve saith St. Paul and it is no weake conclusion for no small necessity lyes in the connection of these two Hee must indeed whosoever intends to come to God unlesse hee will stand stock still and not put forward one foot in the way beleeve and submit his judgement to God before he can begin to come For faith is the first step of all possible motion to Godward faith Aquinas If our comming to God be a mentall comming not a corporall why beleefe is the very first act of the minds approaching the very first thing that the mind can doe about God is to beleeve For impossible the will or any other faculty should make towards God till the understanding have done his part And impossible the understanding should comprehend any thing concerning God unlesse beleeving leade the way Oportet discentem credere is the Philosophers Rule He that learnes any humane Science must take diverse things upon trust at first entrance and beleeve some principles before he sees reason for them And shall not God expect as much obedience at our hands in learning his divine Mysteries which so farre surpasse our Reason yes sure if the perfection of all our learning bee to know God good reason this great perfection should begin in in perfection that we should first beleeve what wee know not I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me saith David Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes O learne me true understanding and knowledge for I have believed thy Commandements Mark that there is the way to learn namely by beleeving Everyone therefore that hath heard and learned of my Father commeth unto me saith Christ How learned ye but by beleeving his Teacher Yea but Christ himselfe he learned without beleeving Yee will say And if beleeving were not necessary for Christ how is it for us yea but Christ was head of the body in which is the perfection of all Senses In Christ were bid all the treasures of wisâ—dome and knowledge In him dwelled the fulnesse of the God-head bodily He was the true light that lightens all men else no need therefore of his beleeving for beleeving is necessary for them that walke in darknesse but in Christ was no darknesse at all We wa'ke as in an obscure must we see through a Glasse darkely saith Saint Paul but so did not Christ He saw face to face And therefore he had more then beleefe of divine things hee had perfect knowledge and San light Nay he himselfe was the Sun light the Sonne of Righteousnesse which lightens every man that commeth into the World And when we shall come where Christ is and be united to the beames of his glory we shall then have Sun-light too But as yet wee have but Candle-light or Star-light as Saint Peter calls it The Word of Prophecy whereto you doe well to give heede saith he as to a light shining in a darke place till the day dawne and the day starre arise in your hearts Till that day dawne and the morning breake of eternity in the next life shine forth upon us well are we if we nay injoy this Candle light if we may be directed by the beames of divine Revelation and walke by faith not by sight Meane while let us not grudge that we have not so cleare a Vision of God and heavenly things as we would wish at first It is necessary wee should grow by degrees that the knowledge of divine things may grow the more pleasant with us the more wee are still inlightned Happy are we that we enjoy the least perception of God in any degree that wee have the smallest spark of his knowledge in the dimmest way For as the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men so the very darkenesse if I may so call it of Gods waâ—es is brighter then men Better is it to have an obscure beleefe of his Mysteries then the clearest knowledge the most perfect science of other matters and let us content our selves so to know our Maker as hee pleaseth to bee knowne not goe about to square his deepe Counsells to our shallow judgements sufficient to us to know that hee hath said without saith it is impossible to please God Whatsoever is not of faith is sin By saith we are justified and not by the workes of the Law Rom. 3. It is God that justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith The life that I now live is by faith in the Sonne of God He that beleeveth and is Baptized shall bee saved but hee that beleeveth not shall be damned Yea but yet a reason though may be rendred one would thinke for Gods Counsell in this why he would tie all nâ—en that desire to bee saved to this one meanes of beleeving Reasons indeed may be rendred for this oportet many a one but still the best reason of all is Gods Will because he pleases to have it so oportet it is expedient that hee who comes to God should beleeve Why first for Huâ—â—lities sake such Estius because as by pride of our reason and thirst of knowledge we tooke then our fall so by submitting our knowledge to God and by denying our owne reason in the obedience of faith we night rise againe Expedient thus to make good our Saviours Doctrine Except yee become as lâ—le Children yee cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Expedient for Gods glory that we might owe all our knowledge of God to Gods own teaching by his Word revealing it to us according to that of the Prophet Every one shall be taught of God Expedient that thus the obedience of our faâ—th might be more glorious in the eyes of Infidels for what praise were it to doe any thing for Gods sake if wee were led to it by perfect knowledge There is no honour of faith saith Gregory where we have manifest reason to induce our good working And therefore that our love may be more apparant let our knowledge bee obscure Let us love what we see not Let us sustet and die for Gods Truth before wee have the perfect vision of it Herein is the miracle of faith that wee can forgoe things temporall before our eyes for the desire of things eternall as yet not knowne Thus the strength of God is perfected in weaknesse and thus the foolishnesse of our preaching goes beyond all the wiâ—edome of Philosophers that whereas they by all the shength of their reason could never perswade an unlearned man for vertues sake to part with his goods Divine faith as weake as it is will teach the simplest Christian for his beleefe â—ake to part with his life Thus also men are trained up to obedience before they know and attaine still to know more by their progresâ—e in obedience according to that
Charity be better then Faith yet for this particular use of Justification Faith may bee better then Charity Upon this comes in Salmeron very much deriding Calvin and tells us the comparison is quite out of square for every thing is to bee taken in his owne kind A Mariner and a King be cleane of diverse kinds And though a King be never so excellent a King yet a Mariner shall still be a better Mariner that is fitter to rule a Ship though not to rule a Kingdome but the comparison is to hold in eodem genere Peter is a better footman then Iohn therefore Peter runs better Iohn a better Scribe then Peter therefore Iohn writes better So Faith is a better vertue then Charity therefore it justifies better it is a proper argument saith Salmeron for justifying is the proper work of vertue But here Heshusins very well unites the knot and states the matter beyond all further controversie replying againe upon Salmeron singularly well that he is deceived to say justification is the proper work of vertue True indeed if justification were by any merit of ours if it were possible to be justified by any workes of the Law then Charity might challenge the first place because Charity is the fulfilling of the Law But because no man is able to keepe the Law therefore in very truth no vertue justifies neither a small vertue nor a great vertue nor the greatest of all For by the worke of the Law no flesh shall be justified Rom. 3. But it is by applying the righteousnesse of another which hath fulfilled the Law for us that is our way of justifying now Being justified freely by his grace saith the Apostle through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3 24. This kind of justification depends not upon any vertue or any merit of man but onely upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ Nor doth Faith justifie by any worth or efficacy of its owne but meerely as an instrument which God hath ordained for us to lay hold of his promises in Christ Jesus by as it were the hand stretched out whereby we draw to us the promises of the Gospell and the benefits of the Mediator like some Cord to keepe us from sinking It is not the length of our arme to reach to the banke nor the strength of this hand to lay hold but the mercy of God casting the Cord to us by which wee are saved but unlesse we take hold by this hand we sinke notwithstanding So Faith is the hand whereby we apprehend the meanes of our salvation and therefore it is the instrument of our justifying onely and not Charity But in the meane time Charity though it be not the hand may be as the necke or a nobler member that joynes the whole body together which though it cannot lay hold as the hand doth yet must of necessity partake of the salvation of the whole body Well then in this respect grant Charity inferiour to Faith because Faith rather justifies But then there follow other respects againe that set Faith as much behind Charity in which regard the Apostle preferres Charity As first that Faith benefits none but him that hath it but Charity extends to the whole Church and to the benefit of others Faith is like Seed hid in the ground it appeares not outwardly it is locked up in the heart But Charity shines ad extra it is appâ—ant it is beautifull in the eyes of men Faith is but an imperfect thing it is a beleeving of things which we doe not know so is Hope it is an expectation of things we doe not yet injoy But Charity is a kind of present injoying of what we love and so implyes perfection Adde to this that Faith distinguisheth and disjoynes us from Infidels So doth Hope likewise but Charity combines and unites us with all men In fine Charity and Hope though they doe abide yet is it but nunc for this present life and no further but Charity never faileth that abides for ever In the next World it shall accompany us no lesse then in this and bee far more perfect and more delightfull In this point Charity passeth all other vertues that can be named none that can abide for evermore as Charity doth therefore charity is doubtlesse the greatest Faith and Hope how great how comfortable soever here they have their period Beyond this life they cannot goe for they both imply absence of that thing they fixe upon when therefore wee shall come in presence of what we beleeve and hope for Faith and Hope shall vanish The Husbandman while hee ploweth ploweth in hope saith Musculus and by Hope he is sustained and held up till his fruiâ—es bee gathered into his Barne but when the Harvest is in his hands what should he further hope for The like it is of Faith He that hath heard of a gracious Prince but never seene him beleeves well but when hee comes to see and know perfectly his beleefe ceaseth Vision then takes up all in all And so it shall be hereafter when we shall come to see the great King of Heaven and earth in his glory which now onely wee beleeve and to injoy that happinesse in his presence which now wee hope for Faith and Hope shall then have an end and Vision and Fruition shall take up all in all In stead of beleeving and expecting we shall then see and injoy But even when we see and injoy we shall love never the lesse The lesse nay the more a great deale saith Catharinus if we loved so dearely that good we knew not how strong shall our affection be when we shall come to know and see what we love Never can the soule be wearied with that blessed sight never enough filled with that sweetest love For things eternall are much dearer belooved when we injoy them then while wee desire them saith he It is not so with temporall things These wee love dearely while we long after them but when we have once got them we grow quickly weary of them So shal it not be in heaven Those Celestiall joyes shall prove much sweeter in the injoying then now we can fancy in the desiring In them shall be the fulnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore such a fulnesse as shall never cloy us and yet such a one as shall alwaies content us such pleasures as shall ever more delight us and yet never weary us nor decay in the delighting The longer we enjoy them the more we shall be ravished with them the fuller wee are filled the more we shall still desire to be filled and yet feele no emptinesse at all O blessed and unspeakable happinesse to which that we may aspire beseech we him who is himselfe the way the truth and the life to direct our steps aright that following him in the paths of Faith of Hope and Charity while we abide here we may at length attaine that fulnesse of vision and fruition and
be for impossible we should seeke God without his grace impossible we should offer to come to him unlesse he give us the will For we are not able to thinke any thing as of our selves saith Saint Paul As God therefore gives reward to them but seeke him so hee had need give power likewise to seeke that he may have whom to reward for except he given us we cannot seeke It is well observed therefore by one that the words are not God is a Rewarder of men propter quarendum for their seeking but God is a Rewarder quarentium of them that seeke Seeke we may and by his grace only and his help seek why not and so God be a Rewarder not of our deserts but of his owne girts in our seeking This for admonition For reprehension many kind of offenders we may take good occasion to taxe To let goe those incredulous wretches that dare call these great principles in question and doubt whether there be a God or no or whether he bee Rewarder of those that seeke him I suppose many others that professe these points with their mouths may be justly blamed as disagreeing from them in their lives And if it bee the lives of men must prove their faith I pray how doe they prove their faith of Gods being that yeeld him no manner of reverence in his House nor any where else That set light by his Word by his Ministers by his Sabbaths by his Service If they did beleeve there were no God at all could they doe more to confirme it to the World could they bee more prophane then many now adaies are If I be a Father saith God where is my honour If I be a Master where is my feare If there be a God where is our outward acknowledgement of this God in our Worship in our Reverence in our respect to his Ministers in our Tithes and Ofterings and the like To let goe these What say yee to those men that come to Church sometimes and yet live worse then Insidels lye defraud steale forsweare privily consume and devoure their Brethren Doe these beleeve that God is think yee They doe not live as if they did sure In the third place set your presumptuous insolent young Gallant that scornes all Lawes despises all government makes a mock of all wholsome order and triumphs in the contempt of all as if hee knew none above him How neare is this man in his life to saying there is no God In the fourth place yee may set the curious disputer he that will measure all grounds of faith by his reason and beleeve no more then can be proved by demonstration Let him remember that St. Paul here requires this evident principle so often proved among Philosophers by reason viz. that God is to be imbraced of us Christians by faith and not by science he that comes to God must beleeve this It is not expected he should prove it And this for oftenders against the first point touching Gods essence Against the second touching his Providence That God is a Rewarder how many more seeme delinquents and in their example appeare too much to forget this First murmurers and repiners so much blamed Psal 37. that grieve at the prosperity of the wicked that fret to see the unequall distributions of things Temporall as if God had no better blessings then these doe not these seeme to charge the Justice and Providence of God as if he had forgotten to reward them that seeke him Next unto whom yee may joyne the backslider he that begins to doe well and then gives over as if his labour were not enough considered As if he should say What prosit is there in serving God Sure I have cleansed my heart in vaine c. Nor may wee omit the politick worldling he that thinkes to contrive all events whatsoever and bring things to passe by his owne wits as if there were no providence to be acknowledged And the miserable niggard hee that will not part with any thing to the poore that is will not trust God with a halfe penny Is it likely these beleeve God a Rewarder of them that seeke him Nay sure if they did they would be more liberall and more pious In the last place set the lazy Christian that seekes after nothing at all but loyters and lyes abed trisles out his time and takes his case Doth this man thinke you perswade himselfe there is a Reward belonging to seekers that will not take the paines to seeke any thing for his soules health nor his bodies neither That seldome or never praies never reads nor meditates nor thinks on God Nay sure if this man beleeve any reward from God it is a doubt but it is certaine he doth not greatly desire it Last of all for consolation very fruitfull both Doctrines are First that God is it ministers aboundant comfort to us in all the chances and changes in all the distresses and troubles of our life that however other things vary and change God varies not How ever other helps other friends decay and perish yet God abides still Not so any comforts besides him Riches are now but shortly they will not be Health is here to day but happily gone to morrow Thy Father and thy Mother thy Husband thy Patron are but for a time shortly there will bee a time when thou maist say of these things they are â—ot But God though all other things vanish and perish yet he is still Hee is a sure friend an everlasting comfort There is our joy that though all other helpes bee taken away God can never bâ— taken away He is still where hee was Nay though ourselves be taken away yet he is our hope even in the midst of death In him we lâ—ve we move 〈◊〉 are stâ—ll even when we are not Secondly from his providence aboundanâ— comforts more That though none else regard our godly living our patient and painefull working yet God will not forget it we have a sinâ— rewarder of him God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love c. And yet though we be not by and by rewarded or reconâ—sed in these temporall things let us not grieve as if we were unrespected For it is Estius his note the word here signifies rather future then present not so much that God is as that he will be a Rewarder Though he tarry therfore wait for him For certainely God will not forget his promise And though he recompence not in temporall good things yet remember he hath better Rewards in store for us and such as are worthy our faith indeed such as he hath chiesly taught us to expect from him That Reward is his owne selfe which how ever other things may faile us shall be sure in the last place not to faile us but to make us blessed for ever in the vision and fruition of him who is for ever To which blessed vision and fruition c. FINIS