our hearts we onely looke to bring in this or that for our comfort and releefe as for instance that every man may take his portion in the time of poverty how doth the soule behave it selfe and unfit it selfe for the promise When a man sees that his estate is low and he is like to come to misery he saith I have some good friends that will not see mee want and I have so much means yet left and I have my health and strength and I hope I shall get a poore living and there is not one word of the promise all this while but haply death takes away all friends and sicknesse takes away thy health and strength and the fire or theeves takes away all thy goods whither wilt thou goe now then at a dead lift he is faine to goe to that mercy which endureth for ever hee might have gone thither first Therefore now reason thus I am like to be poore and my friends may die and the theeves may rob me of all my goods but the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever Againe the Minister that is faithfull desires to preach fruitfully and to benefit the congregation and then wee catch at the helps that are neere at hand and goe to our books and studies our wit and pains and thinke that these will doe the deed we doe well in thus doing but the fault is in the order of them haply God knocks off mans wheeles and a man is not able to come to the bottome of the point and if he be able to compasse the truth in some measure yet God blasts all that hee doth and there is no good comes to the soules of his people at last he is faine to goe to the promise and then the poore Minister saith Lord thou hast said thou wilt bee with thy faithfull Ministers to the end of the world little strength is in us but be thou with us Lord now the worke goes on againe the tradesman is honest and painfull and he hopes to compasse a good estate by his calling his stocke is good and great and his skill is sufficient and his penny worth shall be as reasonable as any others and his acquaintance are many then God blasteth all these and at last hee comes home to the promise and saith as it is in Psal 1.3 Whatsoever the righteous doth it shall prosper hold here and say I expect all from the promise goe first to the promise and expect mercy and succour from the promise This was the course that Iacob tooke Gen. 32.9 First hee wrestled with God and overcame him and then he wrestled with his brother Esau and saith O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isacke Lord which saidst unto me returne unto thy Countrie and I will doe thee good I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies Lord deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau for I feare him Thus he wrestled with the Lord and by vertue of a promise overcame him and then overcame Esau Heb. 13.45 Marriage is honourable among all men and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge let your conversation be without covetousnesse be content with those things you have But how will you have helpe against this covetousnesse a man would have said thus you have gotten a good portion and but little charge and many friends but this course God takes for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee He doth not say thou hast much means and many friends but I say I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Now faith is fitted for the worke when I have chased away doubting then faith is ready and the shield is scoured Secondly when my heart is calme and quiet then faith may goe on there is a free passage Particular 3 Thirdly when the soule lookes out first to the promise and then to the means this is the right way that faith should goe now you may set on your journey faith is cleered and that is the right and best way to everlasting happinesse Now I come to shew how wee must come to order faith in the worke How to order faith in the worke and here two things are to be attended unto First how the soule should get to the promises Secondly how the soule should take receive and improve this sufficiency and excellency of God that is in the promise For the first how to get the soule to the promise you see all is ready and the way open and faith is fitted Now there are three rules to bee observed to shew how the soule may get to the promise or there are acts of the soule wherein this truth may bee discovered that the soule which doth beleeve may have the ready way to goe to the promise Rule 1 Renounce all power and ability in thy selfe for to beleeve and goe unto God it is a point of marvellous use though a man would not imagine it thou maist not expect faith in thy selfe or of thy selfe or from thy selfe any ability to goe to the promise though thou hast faith as it is Gal. 2.20 Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me It is not I that lives by any power of my selfe but Christ liveth in me It was Christ quickning and reviving and inabling him though he had faith Ier. 10.23 O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himselfe neither is it in a man to direct his owne steps so doe thou say if ever thou wouldst have thy heart fitted to goe to the promise it is not here Lord it is not in this vaine minde it is not in the power of this dead heart or any passage that ever I received whereby I am able to beleeve in thee I meane the principall of life is not here the root of faith is in the promise and from thence it comes into the soule As it is with a mariner when the ship is upon the ground in the ebbe and low water hee doth not expect to tugge his ship to the shore by any power of himselfe it is not in my wisedome that can direct mee and it is not in my weapon that can defend mee it is not this humility that can bring my soule downe it is not here it is not I Lord that can rest or goe to a promise even all our abillities are at an ebbe all that we have or can doe is to empty our selves and fit our selves and to get up the maine mast that is let the soule bee ready for the promise by vertue of that to be carried heaven ward and Christ ward take notice of this in your owne soules that the heart would begin at home if a temptation come the heart of it selfe would overcome it and if a duty to be done the heart of it selfe would performe it and if opposition come the heart of it selfe would resist it O remember that it is I a man offers an injury
redemption or redemption encreasing if misery sorrow and anguish be multiplyed there is multiplyed redemption also Then know it if you know your owne soules you see it if you see your owne lives that it is new sinnes new corruptions prevailing with you But here is the comfort of the soule as sinne increaseth so mercy increaseth as corruption multiplyes so redemption multiplyes therefore he is called the Father of mercy as who should say he begets mercy even a generation of mercies from day to day and it is a large generation of new mercies framed and made to incourage poore soules therefore it is said with the Lord there is a fountaine of life Looke as it is with a fountaine there is not onely water in it for the present but it feeds severall cocks and conduits and though it runnes out daily it enlargeth it selfe daily So with the Lord there is a fountaine of life If there be a fountaine of death in thy soule in regard of thy sinnes to kill thee so a fountaine in God to quicken thee Hence it comes to passe that the Lord speaking of his mercy calls it the exceeding riches of his mercy Ephes 2.7 I say the Lord hath not onely fulnesse of mercy but he is rich in all his fulnesse nay he exceeds in all the riches of the fulnesse of his mercy So that be we never so poore and beggerly these sins increase and those miseries increase why yet though thou bee a bankrupt in grace yet the Lord is full of goodnesse full of mercy yea he exceeds in his fulnesse to succour thy heart in all necessities nay our miseries and wants bee great yet haply thy feare is greater than all the rest thy soule is troubled many times more with the feare of what will be than with the feeling of what is already befalne thee But now how ever thy miseries be great and thy feare exceeds all misery that can betide yet mercy will remove and prevent those feares and Christ will doe more for thee than thou canst feare will fall upon thee Nay a man doth not feare what misery can befall upon him but his heart may imagine more than he doth feare But here is the fulnesse of mercy mercy full to the brim and running over mercy is able to doe more for thee than thou canst feare or conceive shall come upon thee Ephes 3.20 then saith the Lord exceeding excesse abundantly above that we can aske or thinke So then the words runne thus then winde up the point Thou seest thou findest thou feelest many sorrowes now assailing thee thou expectest more trouble to befall thee and thou dost conceive more than thou dost feare thy sorrowes out-bid thy heart thy feares out-bid thy sorrowes and thy thoughts goe beyond thy feares and yet here is the comfort of a poore soule in all his misery and wretchednesse the mercy of the Lord out-bids all these whatsoever may can or shall befall thee Gather then up briefly and shut up this first passage Many are the sorrowes of the righteous guilt of sinne perplexing the sinner and filthinesse of sinnes tyrannizing and domineering over the soule nay many feares and cares for future times for a sinner saith Sometimes my condition is marvellous poore my estate marvellous miserable what if small temptations what if small corruptions what if such a fall should betide me what then shall become of my soule Nay a mans imagination exceeds all feares The soule that thinks with it self Should the Lord deale in justice and should my sinnes get the victory over me which I hope will never be for what shall I then do for succour yet this is the comfort of a poore soule let it read this lesson The Lord is able and mercy can doe excessive exceeding abundantly above all thy sorrowes are abundant thy feares are very abundant thy imaginations are excessive exceeding abundant exceeding above all present sorrowes above all future feare and above the course of all imaginations This discourse shall serve for the first passage We will now adde the second The soule is not yet fully satisfied but replyes It is true there is bread enough in my Fathers house that I yeeld and that I confesse there is abundance of mercy in God a world of mercy that pardoned Manasses and saved Saul but what is that to me if there be bread enough in my Fathers house and I starve for hunger and get no benefit by this mercy of God But how shall a man starve in this mercy if a way can be conceived and a meanes can be propounded for another supply to the soule to fill up the necessity of it this will be seene in the next particular I say herein appeares more fulnesse of mercy It is not onely sufficient to releeve a man in all the miseries that can befall him but this is another thing considered mercy is able to make thee partake in the same mercy God doth not leave thee to thy selfe that thou shouldest buy it and purchase it and buy it and procure it but mercy is able to suffice thy soule that thou maist be refreshed thereby This is the tenor of mercy God requires of a man that he should beleeve now mercy doth helpe to performe the duty commanded The Lord as he requires the condition of thee so he worketh the condition in thee hee makes thee beleeve that thou shalt be saved as there is fulnesse of grace in himselfe to doe thee good if thou dost receive the same this is the difference betweene the two Covenants the Covenant of workes and the Covenant of grace The first covenant runnes Adam shall doe and live now it stood upon the use and abuse of his free will either to doe the will of God and be blessed or to breake the law and be cursed it was in his power to receive the life and thus either by breach or not doing the condition required Adam must performe But it is not so here the Lord in deed requires a condition no man can be saved but he must beleeve but here is the privilege that the Lord as he makes this condition with the soule so also he keepeth us in performing the condition for the Lord he requires that the soule should rest upon him and he make him also to doe it he requires the soule to cleave unto him Ezek. 36.26 27. There is the tenor of this covenant A new heart will I give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Or if they will walke in my wayes out of thine owne power then I will vouchsafe this mercy and favour Now the Lord requires this condition and workes it also in his children he requires this of them and he workes this in them for their everlasting good as Heb. 8.9 the Lord saith This is the covenant I
will make with the house of Israel I write my lawes in their hearts and they shall not need to be taught Men must know God and beleeve in the Lord. Now as the Lord requires this as the condition of the covenant so the Lord will work this in them as he requires this of them Iohn 1.12 the text saith To them that beleeve he gave them power to be the sonnes of God Now if a man will beleeve he shall be saved Now then hee makes a man beleeve that he may be a sonne This is the second passage whereby the soule of a sinner comes to be cheered or that there is not onely abundance of sufficiency in the Lord Jesus Christ but that mercy as it is able to doe him good so it will make him partaker of the good The third particular is this That as mercy hath all good and will make us partakers of what it hath so also it will dispose of us and of that it bestoweth upon us Mercy will not onely have a sinner but it will rule and order that grace it hath bestowed upon the soule For if mercy purchase a soule at so high a rate as the blood of the Lord Jesus it is right that the soule purchased by grace and supplyed with grace that mercy should dispose it for the honour of God You are not your owne saith the Apostle but bought with a price therefore you must glorifie the Lord in body and soule Nay it is not onely right that mercy should doe it but reason and beneficiall to the soule that mercy should doe thus Nay I say unlesse that mercy should rule a man he had not beene able to give full content to the soule If the Lord should leave any poore soule to the destiny of his owne heart and the malice of Satan hee would runne to ruine presently he is not able to supply his owne wants and to dispose of his owne spirit and employ aright his owne soule For if Adam in his innocency had a stocke in his owne hands fell and perished then if mercy should put a man into the same estate that Adam was a man should bring himselfe into the same misery that Adam was brought into but there is that fulnesse of that mercy that is in Christ that it wil bestow all good needfull for me so also it will dispose of that good in me so that Satan shall never prevaile the world shall never overcome nor my corruptions beare sway in me but the Lord shall rule me for ever and this is the fulnesse of Gods mercy Gather up the point then that we may see what wee must learne There is sufficiency in mercy to supply all wants nay there is ability in mercy to communicate that it hath and we stand in need of Nay mercy will preserve us and that it giveth to us against all oppositions that can befall thee This is the lesson that the soule must learne that it may be able in some measure to see the way and learne the path that leadeth to everlasting happinesse This is the first lesson that the soule must learne of God the Father Vset For the use of this Is this the lesson the soule must learne then looke wisely upon it and when this comes upon thee and sorrow assailes thee heavily doe not looke into the blacke booke of conscience and thinke there to finde supply neither looke into the booke of the privileges and performances and thinke to finde power out of thy owne sufficiency Looke not on thy sinnes to pore upon them whereby thou shalt be discouraged neither look into thy owne sufficiency thinking thereby to procure any thing to thy selfe These are but lessons of the lower forme It is true thou must see thy sinnes and sorrow for them but this is for the lower forme and thou must get this lesson beforehand and when thou hast gotten this lesson of contrition and humiliation looke onely to Gods mercy and the riches of his grace and be sure as you take out this lesson take it not out by halves for then you wrong mercy and your selves too if you thinke that bare workes will serve and that is all No no mercy will rule you therefore take all the lesson out and then the heart will be cheered and thy soule in some measure enabled to come on to the Lord and will see some glimpses of consolation from the Spirit Quest 2 We see the lesson what must be learned now we must see the reason why the Lord must teach this lesson Answ I answer It is not appropriated to the Father alone for the Father teaches not alone but the Sonne and the holy Ghost teach too But why then doth the Text give it to the Father Here I answer directly because the Father was directly offended with the sinne of man 1 Iohn 1.7 If wee sinne wee have an advocate with the Father namely the Lord Jesus Christ to plead for us with the Father He doth not say wee take an advocate with an advocate that doth not plead with himselfe the reason is God the Father was directly offended though all the persons in the Trinity were offended yet the Father more directly Now he that is directly offended favour and mercy must come from him to the party that doth offend and that is the reason why Christ especially cast this upon the Father Take a creditor that hath money or creditors that are bankrupts now this is no meanes to helpe and succour these men but it lyeth upon the creditor that oweth the debt for he onely it is must come to forgive the debts for it is here God the Father being directly offended by the sonne of man therefore from him in the first place must proceed the pardon and mercy to the sonne of man Hence it comes to passe that the text saith the Father must teach this lesson Quest 3 The third question is this After what manner doth the Lord teach the soule Christ speakes now of the worke of the Spirit and that you may not be mistaken know this that the worke of the Spirit doth alwayes goe with and is communicated by the word therefore if the question be After what manner doth God teach the soule to spell out this lecture of mercy and pardon Answ I answer brieflâ— The Lord teacheth the soule by his Spirit I told you that before that not only the Father but the Sonne and holy Ghost also teacheth the Father from himselfe the Son from the Father and the holy Ghost from both Therefore understand what I say the Spirit of the Lord doth not onely in the generall make known Gods mercy but doth in particular with strength of evidence present to the broken hearted sinner the right of the freenesse of Gods grace to the soule nay it holds those speciall considerations to the heart and prefenâ—eth the heart with them not onely so but in the second place the Spirit doth forcibly soke in the reâ—â—ish of that grace
into the heart and by the over-piercing worke doth leave some dint of supernaturall and spirituall vertue on the heart The Spirit doth not onely with truth bring home the evidence to the heart but it iâ— stâ—ll whispering and calling and making knowne the same and forcibly soketh in the rellish of the freenesse of Gods grace and leaveth a dint of supernaturall vertue upon the soule We will expresse the points because it is somewhat difficult and is the scope of that place 2 Tim. 1.7 The Lord hath not given you the spirit of feare but of a sound minde The spirit of feare is the spirit of bondage in humiliation contrition When the Spirit sheweth a man his sinnes and sheweth him that he is in bondage and in fetters le ts him get out how he can this is the spirit of feare and of bondage In the second place there is the spirit of power But what is this spirit of power You must imagine this spirit of power doth not intimate any particular grace but as it were the sinewes and strength of the worke of the Spirit conveying it selfe through the frame of the heart and this I terme to bee the effectuall worke of the Spirit of God When the soule is humbled the Lord sweetly communicates into the soule a supernaturall and spirituall vertue Lastly as it is in nature take a knife if it be rubbed on a Loadstone it will draw iron unto it now it cannot doe that because it is a knife but because it is rubbed on a stone and receives vertue there from So it is with a heart humbled it is a fit subject for the grace of God to worke upon the love of God is like the loadstone and if the heart he rubbed thereupon and affected with the sweetnesse thereof it will bee able to close with that mercy and come to that mercy and goe to God from whence that mercy comes Quest 4 What is the behaviour of the soule when it hath learned this lesson from the Lord Answ I answer When these two things meet together in the soule then it hath learned this lesson The first is this when the soule having heard of that plentifull redemption that is in Christ as also having apprehended the revelation thereof it commeth to close with the worke of the Spirit revealing presenting and offering grace to the heart nay it comes to give entertainment to he riches of that mercy revealed to the soule There is in the mercy of God and in the blessed truth of the promises a great excellency Now when this is so plentifully brought home to the heart that it breakes through all oppositions which may hinder the worke of the Spirit upon the soule when it is brought home by the spirit of God and the heart gives way and closes with it so that there is nothing betweene that and the soule this I take to be the first frame of the soule that beginnes to learne this lesson it beginnes to close to the truth to give way to the sweetnesse that is in it and bids adieu to all delight and sinnes and whatsoever may be a hindrance unto it from receiving of this grace into the soule This is the first passage The second with which I will conclude is this that as the soule closeth with that mercy and welcommeth it and the heart is content to take up mercy upon those termes so in the second place there is an impression and disposition left upon the soule that it is framed and disposed there is a kinde of print which the soule hath with it so that as the mercy of God is revealed to the soule and communicated to the soule so there is a kind of impression frame and print which the heart retaineth and hath wrought upon it by this grace and free favour of God made knowne therefore that phrase Rom. 6.17 is a marvellous patterne to our purpose the Text saith they were delivered to this forme of doctrine Looke as it is with a seale if the seale be set to the wax and leave an impression just so many letters upon the wax as in the seale then it is wholly sealed So the Spirit of God through Christ in the promises doth reveale al the freenesse and grace of mercy in Christ Now when the Spirit doth leave an impression on the soule that man is delivered into the truth I conclude all in Acts 26.18 when Saul was sent to preach to the Gentiles the Text saith he was but to bring them out of darknesse into light mark when the Lord doth come to worke effectually upon the soule he brings men from under the power of darknesse whereas the understanding was darke and blinded when the Spirit comes it turnes it from the darknesse and power of sinne unto the power of light and grace Lastly the power of the heart doth these two things for not onely some of the heart must bee brought to God but the whole heart therefore in the precious promises of grace and savation there is fulnesse of all good to draw all the faculties of the soule unto the Lord and therefore the faithfulnesse and the truth of God is mainly revealed in the promises now that fits the understanding and makes it looke to God for pardon for power and mercy As the promise is a true word so it is a good word this answers all the will and affections there is a possibility in mercy to save a man hope expects it but then the soule must looke onely to Christ for mercy desire long for it for that there is a certainty that a man shall have mercy if he can desire it love doth welcome and delight in it nay the soule doth say The Lord hath said thou must be saved nay thou must looke to Christ for mercy it is no where else to be had nay if thou dost desire it thou shalt have it and then the Lord determines the point it is done mercy is thine and then the will addes full consent and sayes Amen Lord let it be as thou hast said Gather them up briefly When the Spirit of God doth so cleerly present mercy to the soule and doth leave by the over-powring worke thereof a supernaturall worke upon the soule that the spirit closeth therewith and receives the print and impression thereof now the lesson is fully learned this may suffice for the opening of the severall things now therefore we will addresse our selves to gather the doctrines out of the Text. And first for the generall in that the Father is said to teach Doct. That the teaching of the heart effectually is the proper taske and worke of God It is not you that can teach your selves neither can all the meanes and friends under heaven doe it no it is the work onely of the Father All these meanes and ministers are usefull but God is the chiefe master and all these are but underling ushers to convey the minde of God unto us but the master is God himselfe
honourable let him be what he will be and let his parts be what they will if he hath not the Spirit hee is none of Christs his you are to whom you obey but pride and covetousnesse you obey and malice and spleene you obey you are therefore none of Christs Pride will say This heart is mine Lord I have domineered over it and I will torment it Corruptions will say Wee have owned this soule and wee will damne it You that heretofore have made a tush at the word this wind shakes no corne and these words breake no bones thinke what you have done little do you think you have opposed the Spirit Acts 7.5 what resist the Spirit Oh thinke of this Why what shall I say by what spirit wilt thou be sanctified by what spirit wilt thou be saved Can thy owne spirit save thee no the Spirit of God must save thee and have you resisted that Spirit me thinks it is enough to sinke any soule under heaven Hereafter therefore thinke this with thy selfe were hee but a man that speakes yet I ought not to despise him but that is not all there goeth Gods Spirit with the word and shall I despise it the Lord keepe me from this there is but one step betweene this and that unpardonable sinne against the holy Ghost onely adding malice to thy rage thou opposest thy Father haply the Son mediates for thee thou despisest the Sonne haply the holy Ghost pleads for the but if thou opposest the Spirit none can succour thee therefore looke to it Vse 3 Direction Hence we may observe the ground why many of Gods faithfull people understand not that they have the Spirit of God nor yet the increase of it they looke not to the promise by which it is conveyed but to corruption by which it is hindred you listen not to the verdict of the Gospell Let every one ask this great question How may I know when the Spirit is in me That you know it not the fault is your owne look into the word It is with a poore soule as with little children the childe in the night being hungry seekes for the dug but if he doth not lay hold of it he gets no good bâ— it so thou hast been a long time musling about a dry chip and hast got no comfort Be sure therefore to lay hold upon the promise hold it and thy spirit shall be filled with marrow and fatnesse If there be marrow in a bone thou must breake it before thou canst get any out So it is with the promises they are full of sweetnesse but you must chew them breake them and bestow thy heart on them An Alchimist that distils oyle doth draw out the spirit of metalls but it is by distillation so it is with the promises they are excellent metall there is a great deale of comfort in them but if you will have benefit by them you must distill them by meditation Obt. I but some soules may say We have done thus often but yet returne as emptie as before Answ I answer You should have staid longer upon the promise it must not bee at your carving and disposing in reason a man must swallow his pills and eat his cordials but wee should doe the contrarie we should chew the promises and that is done by meditating on them but we swallow the precious promises of Christ that should comfort us therefore chew them if you desire comfort over and over againe eat these daily and you shall finde much comfort and consolation therein and benefit thereby Vse 4 Terrour we may see the hopelesse condition of those men that live under the Gospell and their hearts are not wrought upon them If the Spirit of God and the Gospell of God will not worke upon thee if thou hast the eye of a man about thee thou maist see thy wofull and lamentable condition If a bungling servant cannot tell how to hew a peece of wood for a building it is no marvell but if it be such a peece that the master Carpenter cannot make it fit for the building then it is good for nothing but to be burned So it is here with the soule if the Spirit of God can doe thee no good who can if we a companie of bunglers cannot doe it no marvell but if our master Christ if he takes a stubborne sturdie heart in hand and cannot doe it it is fit to bee damned Is not that man miserably ignorant that wisedome it selfe cannot make wise is not he sicke of sinne whom the Gospell cannot cure 1 Cor. 4.3 I desire those whose conscience to this day accuse them that yet they are blinde and those that brave it out and say Shall I feare the face of a man no no I scorne it I beseech you let me deale with you doe not brave it out so for it is the greatest miserie under the Sunne for thou dost as good as to say thou wilt not have the word of God to worke upon thee Iames 1.21 The word of God is able to save thee and to sanctifie thee and art thou yet polluted and defiled Oh take heed of it goe and be moue thy soule to the Lord and say Good Lord such a drunkard thou hast met with such a proud heart thou hast humbled and such a stubborne heart thou hast pluckt upon his knees and if drunkards be humbled if the ignorant be instructed then what a cursed heart have I that was loose and vile and base and profane before and so I am now I tell thee what can you thinke of your selves if the Spirit goe with the word and thou mocke at it thy condition is lamentable Vse 5 Exhortation Then you are to be intreated in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ when ever you heare the word of the Lord and the Gospell of God you must come trembling and submit to that good word Exod. 23. When ever the word of the Lord is revealed the Spirit of God blessed for ever is there accompanying of it therefore good reason the creature should submit to the Creator Wee speake not a word for our selves we preach the good word of the Lord and how ever our selves have spoken this if you oppose it know it that it is the Lords word therefore when you heare the word doe what you will with us onely submit to the word of the Lord doe what you please with us as Ieremy saith onely embrace the word of the Lord. It is Gods word therefore take heed of opposing and gainsaying it labour to awe your soules to settle all distempers wipe out all carping and cavilling at the word as they presse in upon thee Obt. But how shall we bring our soules to doe this Answ By considering these two or three meanes Labour not onely to have thy soule convicted that the holy Ghost is there accompanying the word as it doth or else how could it reveale thy sinnes but also perswade thy heart that it is so apprehend the power
much sustained What is there yet hope that my offence may bee pardoned will the King receive mee to mercy So when the Lord humbleth the soule discovereth his sinnes maketh knowne his judgements these are thy sinnes that thou hast committed and for them thou shalt be plagued the great judgement of the great God shall come upon thee and the great God whom thou hast dishonoured will come against thee and to hell thou must Now the poore soule seeth no hope no helpe no means of supply now the poore soule heareth a voyce from heaven there is no hope in thy selfe nor in meanes yet in the Lord Jesus Christ thy sinnes are pardonable thy soule may be saved thy heart may be quickned that place in the Psalmist Let Israel hope in the Lord for with him is plenteous redemption this upholdeth and sustaineth the heart of Gods servant yet there is plentifull redemption and this may discover it selfe in three particulars The infinitenesse of Gods power though thy sinnes are many though the guilt of sinne is mighty and powerfull to condemne the soule yet when the soule apprehendeth an infinitenesse in the power of the Lord to over-power all his sins all the guilt of corruption this lifteth up the heart in some expectation that the Lord will shew favour unto a man though it is a hard thing to hope when the soule is thus troubled can this hard heart be broken can these sinnes bee pardoned can this soule bee saved now commeth in the power of God God can pardon them never measure the power of God to that shallow conceit of thine as Christ when he had told his Disciples it is hard for a rich man to be saved they said how can any man be saved the Lord Christ saith all things are possible to God though not to men and it is said of Abraham hee hoped above hope he looked to the Lord that was able to doe what he promised to supply what he wanted he considered not that he had a dead body but he considered he had a living God not Sarahs barren wombe but the gracious goodnesse of God able to make it fruitfull nay hee beleeved in the God that can make things that are not thy soule is not humbled the Lord can humble it thy sinnes are not pardoned the Lord can pardon them thy soule is not converted the Lord can convert it though I cannot see it though man cannot imagine it yet the Lord can doe it As the infinitenesse of Gods power so the freenesse of his grace and promise that is a thing that marvellously taketh up the heart and maketh it hope for wee are ready naturally to expect no kindnesse from God the Lord is able to doe it that is true but I am unworthy the Lord will not bee wanting to them that can desire it but I am wanting now here is comfort the Lord will not sell his mercy his mercy is not to be merited it is not to bee discovered it is to bee given and to bee bestowed Malach. 7.18 Who is a god like unto our God we say Oh if I could please God if I could walke with God nay but God saith mercy pleaseth him and that place in Esay I for my owne Name sake will doe this not for thy workes sake I for my owne sake not for thy obedience sake this is certaine as there is no worke in any poore creature can discover any mercy from God so there is no wickednesse in the heart of a sinner that can hinder the Lord when hee will bestow grace and mercy in Jesus Christ Object But the world will say Then a man may live as he list and doe what he will if grace be free Answ No no the Lord will pull downe thy proud heart and lay thee in the dust the Lord will abase thee and humble thee before thou shalt receive any mercy from him hee can as well sit thee for mercy as bestow it upon thee The abundance of the riches of Gods goodnesse that exceedeth all the basenesse and vilenesse of man though thou hast sinned against heaven and the Lord in heaven yet there is mercy above the heaven bee thy sinnes and rebellions for the nature of them for the number of them for the continuance of them never so hainous yet they may bee pardoned Here the soule saith My sins are so many so great of such a nature what shall I beg mercy and oppose it shall I desire grace and resist it as that place clearly sheweth Rom. 5.20 Where sinne abounded grace superabounded hee is the Father of mercy and the God of all consolation Iam. 2.13 there the holy Ghost saith mercy triumph above justice justice cannot bee so severe to revenge thee as mercy is gratious to doe good unto thee if thy sinnes be never so many Gods justice never so great yet mercy is above all thy sinnes above all thy rebellions this may support the soule So then you have the first ground to stirre up hope thy sinnes are pardonable this is possible what thy sinnes be it skilleth not what thy iniquities be it mattereth not there is more mercy in God than sin in thee to pardon more power in God to shew mercy to thee than power in sin to destroy thee The Lord doth sweetly perswade the soule that all his sinnes shall be pardoned the Lord maketh this appeare and perswadeth the heart of his that he intendeth mercy that Christ hath procured pardon for the soule of a broken hearted sinner in speciall and that it cannot but come unto it So that hope commeth to bee assured and certainly perswaded to looke out knowing it shall bee accomplished the former only sustained the heart and provoked it to looke for mercy but this comforteth the soule that undoubtedly it shall have mercy The Lord Jesus Christ came to seeke and to save that which was lost he came for this purpose it was the scope of his comming now saith the broken and humble sinner I am lost did Christ come to save sinners Christ must faile of his end or I of my comfort God saith Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden I am weary unlesse the Lord intended good unto me why should he invite me and bid me for to come surely he meaneth to shew mercy to me nay hee promiseth to releeve me when I come therefore he will doe good unto me The Lord letteth in some rellish and taste of the sweetnesse of his love some sent and savour of it so that the soule is deeply affected with it marke this there is yet a further dint a setling and an assured kinde of fastning of the good unto the soule so that the heart is deeply affected with it and carried mightily unto it that it cannot bee severed It is the letting in the riches of his love that turneth the expectation of the soule another way it overshadoweth all outward good Looke as the covetous man is up early to contrive his riches
he that now is accused condemned shall now be hanged so here Others beare their hopes and sustaine their hearts upon the privileges that God bestoweth upon them and the meanes they have and in regard of the duties they doe discharge and though they thinke they have faire hopes and great hopes of heaven why say they God will powre downe his wrath upon those that know not God and that call not upon his name but what doe you make of us are we heathen are not we Christians have not wee beene baptized and the Lord hath inabled us to doe something wee call upon his name and seeke him by fasting and prayer and therefore he that hath done so much for us and hath done so much to us sure hee will give us heaven I answer that this bottome is not sufficient to beare up this hope all the privileges thou hast all the meanes ordinances thou enjoyest unlesse thy heart be humbled and thy soule brought to Christ all these will fall under thee and thou wilt goe to hell Rom. 2.28 He is not a Jew that is a Jew outwardly the Jewes they bragged of this they were circumcised and the Heathen were not circumcised they were the seed of Abraham but the Heathen were not Paul vilifieth all this he is not a Jew that is a Jew outwardly thy baptisme thy praying and thy hearing there is no profit by them no comfort in them if thou maintaine a wicked life and a naughty heart therefore this will not serve the turne you know it and the Scripture speaketh it Iudas an Apostle Iudas called by Christ he sat with our Saviour and dipped his hand in the dish he was a Devill then and is with the Devils now the foolish virgins had a trim profession as well as the others thou professest and hearest and prayest thou wilt lye too and cousen too and sweare too thou art naught and this bottome will never beare thee up When they see all this will come to nothing then they make a shift to plead mercy and they hope that will stand then in stead and doe them good when nothing else will and therefore you shall heare carnall wicked men confesse themselves naught their sinnes many and they vile but there is mercie enough in God to releeve them and they hope that will save them Brethren I confesse mercie is able to save thee and if thy hope can lay hold upon it it will save thee if thou be so within the reach of mercie mercie is able to save thee and will save many other besides but thou art not capable of this mercie thou art not within the roome and compasse of mercie what availeth it to talke and speake and hope for mercie and to see a great deale of mercie in Christ a great deale of merit in Christ a great deale of vertue in Christ able to save thee and a thousand more and yet thou not in the compasse of mercie not capable of mercie but sinkest in thy owne sinnes before thou gettest any mercie from God Isa 27.11 hee that made them will have no mercie upon them as who should say it is true here is abundance of mercie mercie enough mercie that saved a poore company of poore Jewes that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ mercie that saved Paul a persecutour Manasses an Idolater but I will shew no mercie unto thee he that confesseth and forsaketh his sinnes shall finde mercie mercie owneth those mercie doth good unto those but unto thee that lovest thy sinnes that embracest thy sinnes that hidâ—st thy sinnes the text saith it thou shalt never finde mercie delude thy selfe thou mayst but thou never shalt have mercie Luke 14.24 there was a marriage made and a rich marriage feast enough to have fed many thousands but those that were bidden did not come they shall not so much as taste of them they shall have none of them so there are sweet comforts strong consolations admirable refreshings able to sustaine a thousand soules but you that would keepe your sinnes and have the pride of your hearts but you that stand it out with the world and will not yeeld to the authoritie of the truth heare what the Lord saith from heaven he that is the God of comfort thou shalt never be comforted he that is the Authour of salvation saith it thou shalt never be saved thou shalt never have a crum of these dainties nor a drop of these sweet wines of spirituall consolation what a world now of men are shut out by these trials that are found guilty of these particulars you poore ignorant creatures doe not many of you lift up your heads full high and many a poore presumptuous hypocrite beare up themselves upon rotten hopes Object but I tell you when you come to the day of judgement all this will faile you but you will say in the former use you laboured us from despaire and incouraged us to hope and yet now you take away all our hopes why if neither creation may comfort us nor the experience of Gods kinde dealing with us may incourage us nor the afflictions that wee have endured in this world nor the privileges that we have enjoyed nor the mercie of themselves may give us any hope to receive mercie why then it seemeth you would have us despaire and cast away all hope of any good Answer The truth is as I must not make the way broader than it is so I must not make it narrower than I ought therefore know these two things As long as thou retainest and keepest a proud stubborne unconverted heart there is no hope in heaven or earth that God should ever shew mercy unto thee and save that hard stonie impenitent unbeleeving heart of thine unlesse thou thinkest that God will bring all thy pride all thy loosenesse and sinfull delights unto heaven God cannot shew thee mercie unlesse he will deny himselfe and crosse his holinesse follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see God God taketh a corporall oath of it an unbeleeving man that liveth under grace despising it and contemning it God taketh an oath he shall never be saved now the oath of God shall ever stand there be two immutable things namely himselfe and his oath himselfe cannot be changed his oath cannot be broken now the Lord sweareth such a man shall not enter into his rest a man may be saved that cannot keepe the law fully of himselfe but a man cannot be saved that will not humble his soule before the Lord and receive mercy from him and hence Ephes 2.12 Without God without Christ without hope the Lord hath said the Lord hath sworne it that an unbeleeving an unrepenting sinner shall never come unto heaven he cannot save thy soule untill he hath humbled thy soule hee cannot save thy soule as long as thou retainest an unbeleeving soule This is that which you must take notice of that I may let in a little crevise of comfort to every naturall man that I
finde my selfe I hope the Lord will save me though I cannot save my selfe But the hopes of the wicked hang like a cloud they are not grounded upon the evidence of the Scripture they crowd all in the generall I hope to fare as well as others and other had mercy and why not I And hence the hopes of the wicked are unstedfast and wavering but a man might here demand are not the hopes of the Saints so too Doe they not waver and stagger many a time Answer It is true but with this difference the hopes of Gods servants are like an anchor which though sometimes it is shaken yet it holdeth the faster but the hopes of the hypocrites are like the waves of the seas and they come to nothing Prov. 8.28 The hope of the righteous shall be glad but the expectation of the wicked shall perish as who should say though the waves be great and the stormes violent yet the anchor shall bee fast and the ship shall come safe to haven but it is otherwise with the wicked their hopes doe perish What is become of your hopes now you thought you should bee saved and that you should doe as well as others but when the day of judgement commeth and the last great day of account shall be what then shall become of all your hopes You shall see it is as if a man should plead for a mans inheritance because he did dwell in the same towne and were of the same name But now the Saints of God when they come to lay claime to mercy they bring a hold a word Isay 61.3 He appointeth them that mourne in Sion will you have a legacy of joy mercy and pitty here it is the Lord Christ left it you I bequeath this and leave it to all you broken hearted sinners to all you humble mourning sinners in Sion this is your legacy sue for it in the Court and you shall have it for ever Hence David ventureth all for this hope hee taketh this as a childs part Psal 33. the last verse Let thy mercy come unto us as our hope is in thee not according to our sense and assurance but according to our hope thy desires may faile and endevours faile and the means faile yet let thy mercy come unto me according to my hope The second is this a grounded hope is ever of great power and strength to hold the soule to the truth of the promise the Spirit you know wee shewed stirreth the heart to hope now hee turneth hope so to God that the eye of the soule goeth that way and cannot bee taken from it but it will goe promise-ward and God-ward Hence take a poore sinner when hee is at the weakest under water when all temptations oppositions corruptions grow strong against them the Lord letteth them loose against the soule nay letteth the poore soule come to joyne side with Satan against himselfe and the goodnesse of the Lord and hee saith the truth of it is I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul this proud foolish filthy heart of mine it will be my bane it had better for me never to have beene I shall never get power strength and grace against these sinnes here is the lowest under of a poore soule If a man should now reply why then cast off all hope and confidence reject the meanes and turne to your sins Marke how hope steppeth in and saith it is true what ever I am and doe what ever my condition is I will use the means I am sure all my helpe is in Christ all my hope is in the Lord Jesus and if I must perish I will perish seeking him and waiting upon him Why this is hope now and I warrant that soule shall never goe to hell Psal 119.81 My heart fainted and my hope was in thy salvation Isay 8.7 I will wait for the Lord who hath hid himselfe from the house of Iacob the Lord hideth himselfe he doth not shew himselfe he hath not manifested himselfe yet I will hope in the Lord that hideth his face Psal 69.3 But the hope of the wicked is not so 2 King 6. and the last verse this evill commeth of the Lord and why should I wait any longer Prov. 14.32 The hope of the wicked is driven away that though a man stood upon his bottome and all the world could not perswade him to the contrary but that he should be saved and hee should goe to heaven though proud still though vaine still but his hope shall bee driven away but the righteous shall have hope in his death friends faile life faile and wealth faile but yet he hath hope in his death Signe 3 As the strength of this hope is great in regard of all opposition that commeth to the contrary so also the excellency and surpassing worth of this hope which overshadoweth all the hopes in the world that can be offered propounded desired all seeme nothing to this hope which the soule hath to God that when the soule commeth to be drawne to God and to hope in him all other hopes hold no weight hopeth not for honour for profit nor liberty nor delight it discovereth the basenesse of these so that the soule careth not for any thing else in comparison It is in this case with the soule as with the hound the hound haply followeth the game untill hee bee spent and tyred yet if there come a fresh hare yet the very sent of a fresh one will make him leave all so it is here though heretofore hee hath had many games in the world he hoped for honour and profit and his soule run all amaine upon them but when the soule hath beene brought to know the riches of Gods mercy in Christ it leaveth the old profits the old contents the old delights that he had Heb. 11.13 All these died in the faith when they had saluted the promises And observe here a carnall hearted Hypocrite his hopes be vaine idle and uncertaine the truth is if the world giveth other hopes of honour and profits and delights he leaveth his hope and with Demas he embraceth the present world but the Saints of God are not so Heb. 11.25 Moses might have had great honour but he forsooke his honour and had an eye to the recompence of reward Signe 4 The last is taken from the vertue of hope and the speciall fruit and effect that it worketh in the soule A grounded hope it alwayes lendeth supply and succour when all the rest of a mans abilities faile and are not able to sustaine and support his soule when desire faileth and love faileth I meane in his owne sense and apprehension I say then hope supporteth the soule Psal 16.9 My flesh shall rest in hope that is hope will give a man rest in the most miserable forlorne condition that may be that when the heart is ready to say where is the meanes that I have had and the good dayes that I have seene this dead heart cannot
he might still continue but if his head-peece be gone all is gone a Christian may want many inlargements many comforts many abilities but if his head-peece be gone if his hope be cut off alas he hath nothing to support and sustaine himselfe in the time of trouble Motive 3 This hope is that whereby our hearts are kept both in the love of God and provoked unto obedience unto God Iude 21. Keepe your selves in the love of God expecting the mercie of God now this is nothing but the worke of hope and brethren this is a rule unlesse we expect some mercie from God we will never looke after him we will never obey him never walke with him but when wee expect some good thing comming unto us then wee love him and follow after him but some might here say it is true we doubt not of the comfort and benefit that commeth by it but what meanes are there that might helpe a man to hope in the goodnesse of God how shall a man uphold his soule in some measure in expecting mercie from the Lord Answ The meanes are three Meanes 1 Labour above all to cast out all carnall sensualitie that commonly creepeth upon us and would prevaile over us I meane this that wee would faine live by sense our carnall hearts be sensuall creatures we would faine live by our sense what we see with our eyes and feele with our fingers and have in our hands that we can be sure of but wee can have nothing in hope now when the soule is taken up with and bestoweth it selfe upon the present things then you put hope out of office Rom. 8.24 You are saved through hope and hope that is seene is no hope a man doth not hope for a thing that he hath but hope alwayes expects a good that is to come this is the marvellous sottish distemper of our wretched hearts that wee will trust God no further than wee see him Acts 1.9 wilt thou now restore the kingdome to Israel just now so here saith the soule may I now have grace may I now have assurance may I now have the evidence of Gods love but I would have it now where now is hope all this while you take away the worke of hope when you would have things present wee know the childe must wait for his portion before hee hath it so you must stay your time and be contented with the dealing of the Lord toward you in this kinde Meanes 2 You must daily attend and labour to bee much acquainted with the precious promises of God to have them at hand and upon all occasions for those are thy consorts those are they that support thy soule that looke as the body is without comfort unfit for any thing nature groweth feeble and weake a pale face a faint heart a feeble hand and the like so it is here unlesse a man hath that provision of Gods promises and have them at hand daily and have them dished out and fitted for him his heart will faile Rom. 15.4 What ever was written was for our comfort that through the Scripture we might hope Verse 13. That we might abound in hope through the Gospell as who should say it is not in your power to support your hope it is not in any power here below but through the Scripture yee might have hope and through the power of the holy Ghost brethren I beseech you observe it while wee looke upon our owne infirmities on one side and the feeblenesse of the meanes on the other side this is the next way to dampe our hope to dead our hearts and to take away all our comfort and assurance this is not the way to abound in hope through the power of the holy Ghost I beseech you observe it all these things here below cannot give any comfort a man may as soone wring oile or water out of a flint as wring comfort out of these meanes In all these outward things there is no sound comfort or hope there be these three things either wee shall not finde comfort or contentment in them or else not sufficient content or else no constant no continuall content It is with the hope of a poore Christian as with Noahs dove she found no rest upon the earth for the sole of her foot so it is with our wretched hearts wee send out our hope to our abilities to the meanes we doe enjoy to our prayers and performances wee doe discharge and thus all our hopes breake and faile us for in all these things there is no foot-hold for hope we must ancker our foot-hold in Christ what I want Christ can supply what I need Christ can give what is good for me Christ can bestow what I have done amisse Christ can pardon though I barren he is full though I dull he hath enough grace and enlargement for me it is said of Naamans leprosie Let him come and hee shall know there is a God in Israel though the King cannot heale yet a God can though the meanes cannot yet the Lord can so it is here the hope that a man hath in these things here below and the hope in the Gospell A man sendeth out his hope having a wounded conscience hee now goeth to his gifts that they should pacifie him he sendeth out his hope to his prayers that they should ease him marke what they say are wee God we cannot helpe but heare what the promise saith though prayers cannot though parts cannot though outward helpe cannot yet there is a God in Israel there is a promise that is able here is mercie enough here is power and comfort enough Meanes 3 Maintaine in thy heart a deepe and serious acknowledgement of that supreme authoritie of the Lord to doe what he will and how he will according to his owne pleasure brethren I beseech you to observe it this I take to be the ground why the heart of a poore sinner is marvellous taken up with passion and distemper and a kinde of teachy shortnesse wee thinke to bring God to our bow we have hoped thus long and God not answered wee have stood so long and no comfort and shall we wait still wait I wait and blesse God that you may wait if you may lye at Gods feet and put your mouth in the dust and at the end of your dayes have one crum of mercie it is enough therefore checke those distempers what if God will when a wretched sinner wrangleth with God for his dealing with him Paul cutteth him short what if God will so when thou thinkest the time long when Lord and how long Lord what if God will he oweth thee nothing thou deservest nothing what if God will damne thee and will send thee to hell it is a most admirable strange thing that a poore worme worthie of hell should take up state and stand upon tearmes with God and he will not wait upon God who must wait then must God wait or man wait must the Creatour wait
or the creature wait Acts 1.9 wilt thou now restore the kingdome to Israel it is not for you to know the times and the seasons as who should say hands off meddle with that you have to doe withall it is for you to wait it is for you to expect mercie it is not for you to know so I would have you to doe when you begin to wrangle and to say how long Lord when Lord and why not now Lord and why not I Lord why checke thy owne heart and say it is not for me to know it is for me to be humble and to be abased and to wait for mercy but it is not for me to know the time Thus much concerning Hope Now followeth next Desire JOHN 6.45 Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto me c. IN this great worke of vocation there are two things considerable First the call on Gods part by the preaching of the Gospell Secondly the gracious answer to Gods call Now as all the soule departed from God so it must bee all brought backe againe to God Therefore first the understanding is enlightned and that gives notice to the soule that mercy is intended towards it then hope expects that mercy and then desire wanders about from ordinance to ordinance and longs for that mercy Doctrine The Doctrine then which ariseth hence is this that The Spirit of the Lord quickens the desire of an humble and inlightned sinner to long for the riches of his mercy in Christ For the right conceiving of this Doctrine three passages are to be understood First that this desire is in the heart humbled and inlightned if either of these two be wanting this desire cannot grow there Secondly this desire is quickned by the Spirit for though the soule bee humbled and made nothing and be content to be at Gods disposall yet it is not able through any principle of life which it hath of it selfe to bee carried to any such supernaturall worke as this desire is therefore the Spirit must quicken and move the heart thus humbled and inlightned to long for the riches of Gods mercy and this desire is called the lifting up of the heart after the good it wants As the Infant cannot go without the hand of the Father so a poore sinner in himselfe considered is as an Infant and not able to lift up himselfe to this desire any further than the Lord inables him by his grace and spirit The bowle is fit to runne yet it can runne no longer than the strength of the hand sticks upon it So the humble in lightned soule is fit to come to Christ yet it will not nay it cannot stir further than the hand of the Spirit moves it Note Let every poore broken hearted sinner take notice of it for this will informe you of a strange kinde of truth remember this you must not thinke to bring desire with you to the promise but receive desire from the promise It is a vaine thing to thinke that if the oares be in the boat the boat must needs goe indeed the oare will move the boat but the hand of the Ferri-man must first move the oare The soule is like the oare and unlesse the hand of the Spirit moves our desire it cannot move towards the Lord. Lastly the Doctrine saith the spirit quickens up the heart to long for the riches of Gods mercy the desires of the wicked are flashy lazy and feeble and come to nothing But even as the longing desire of a woman with childe will not leave her till her life doth leave her so the desires which the promise workes will never leave the soule till it be possessed of the thing it desires Our Saviour saith Matth. 12.20 A bruised reed shall he not breake and that smoaking flax shall hee not quench Now wee all know that flax will not smoake unlesse the sparkles come to it but when the sparkles have taken the flax then it doth smoake and will not leave till it come to a flame The soule is like the flax and it will never smoake in desire towards the Lord till the Lord by his Spirit in the promise doth strike fire upon it the Lord must first strike fire by the promise upon the soule before it can ever flame in a desire towards the Lord and when it doth once smoake in a holy desire the Lord will not let it faile before he brings it to a perfect flame and before it bee possessed of Christ and mercy which it longs for Reason The reason of this order of Gods worke why desire comes next after hope is this because desire is that other affection which serves the great commandresse of the soule the will for these affections are as hand-maids to serve the will The will saith I will have this or that good and therefore hope wait you for it and desire long you after it Hope is the furthest and greatest reach of the soule for when the soule is doubting and quarrelling and saith will the Lord doe good to such an unworthy wretch as I am yes saith the mind inlightned mercy is intended towards thee then hope goeth out to wait and looke for this mercy Now when the soule hath waited a long time and yet this mercy comes not and he marvels at it and saith the Lord hath said the weary soule shall bee refreshed Oh where are all those precious promises then the will sends out desire to meet with that good which will not yet come and so desire goeth wandring from one ordinance to another till it bring Christ home to the soule As a gentleman doth when he expects some noble personage hee sends out a man to wait in such a place and bring him word whether he seeth him or no afterwards when he returnes and saith he seeth him not the gentleman sends out another messenger to meet him afarre off and so likewise to bring him and give him entertainment So it is with the soule of a poore sinner in this case Quest. Now how doth the Lord by that promise quicken up this desire Ans I answer the cordials that God lets in and the motives that make the soule wander towards God are three or thus There are three speciall considerations of good in the promise that doe effectually worke upon the heart to bring desires after Motive 1 First there is a peculiar good in the promise that is sutable to all the wants of the soule there is a salve for every sore Esay 61.1.2 Art thou a dead soule goe to the promise there is quickning for thee Art thou a weake soule goe to the promise there is grace to make thee strong Art thou a damned lost soule goe to the promise there is salvation to save thee Art thou a polluted soule goe to the promise there is grace to purge thee Doe you see your sinnes and feele the burthen of them Oh away to the promise there is abundance of comfort in
inlarged to bestow his heart thereupon nor carry himselfe with that pleasure and delight which otherwise he would this is the first passage I know there is a wilde kinde of love and joy in the world counterfeit coyne but this is not the love and joy we meane we will have garden love and joy of the Lords owne setting and planting those carnall hypocriticall joyes we will not meddle withall Passage 2 The second passage is this this love and joy is kindled by the Spirit of the Father he it is from whence come all the sparkes that must kindle grace in us So that all other love and joy which is not spirituall and from him cannot be acceptable to his Majesty It is that in generall which the Apostle Paul inferres Rom. 8.8 They which are in the flesh cannot please God So all the joy and love as well as any other action that proceeds out of nature and flesh cannot please God But it must be heavenly love and joy proceeding from the Spirit Suffer me to expresse my selfe after this manner Looke as it is with a gentleman in the countrey he will bee content to leave his habitation for a while and give up his house to the King for a while because hee is but a meane man and not able to entertaine so great a retinue therefore the King sends his owne provision before hand observe it So it is with a poore humble broken hearted sinner the poore soule is marvellous well content the Lord should come to him and dwell in him and dispose of him but he is such a poore beggerly wretch Simile he is not able to make God a fire he cannot love God hee hath not that holy heat of love and joy to entertain and welcome the Lord as becommeth his Majesty therefore the Lord sends provision before hand and kindleth love and joy in the soule that by that love and joy he may be welcomed to the heart of an humble sinner or thus to expresse my selfe more clearly Take a burning glasse that will receive the beames of the Sunne and heat and burne other things the glasse of it selfe hath no such heat in it but when it hath received the beames of the Sunne it heats and burnes other things as flax and such combustible matter but it is by the heat of the beames of the Sunne received otherwise it could doe nothing So it is with an humble sinner hee lieth fit to receive the beames of Gods mercy and waits when the Sun of righteousnesse will shine from heaven comfortably upon his heart and being warmed with the beames of Gods love and favour effectually hee is able to reflect the heat of love and joy backe againe this is the second thing Passage 3 Thirdly the Doctrine saith that love and joy are kindled that they may entertaine and rejoyce in the riches of Gods mercy This last clause is added to discover the difference and to make knowne the distinct nature of this love and joy here from all the fained and false love and joy which hypocrites pretend to have and seeme to expresse to the Lord Jesus Christ Therefore I say this love and joy is kindled not onely to entertaine him and rejoyce in him for there is a kinde of entertaining and rejoycing in Hypocrites Iudas had a haile Master and the common people spread their garments and welcomed Christ crying Hosanna blessed is hee that commeth in the Name of the most High and the young man pretended a deare affection to Christ Master I will follow thee whither soever thou goest And the stony ground received the word with joy Matth. 13. and with love too for they goe both together for he that joyes in a thing cannot but love that he rejoyceth in So that wee see all these had a kinde of joy but it is not that kinde of joy that comes from the Father neither will it carry it selfe beseeming the riches of Gods mercy for hee that saluted his Master All haile in conclusion betrayed him is this your joy and love you entertaine Christ withall So that young man that would follow him whithersoever he went presently forsooke him And they that even now cried Hosanna Hosanna blessed be hee that commeth in the Name of the Highest anon crye as fast crucifie him crucifie him and they that received the Word with joy when temptation and persecution came rejected it This joy is a foolish imagination hammered out of their Anvill for base ends and by aimes but they carry not themselves beseeming the riches of Gods mercy revealed to them For Hee that loveth father or mother or brother or sister more than me is not worthy of me saith our Saviour that is hee that priseth any thing more and delights in any thing more than Christ is not worthy of him Therefore whosoever he be that bestowes his love and joy more upon any thing in this world than upon Christ it is not a love and joy beseeming him nor brought from heaven but proceeds from a base rotten heart and will faile us and bring no profit nor comfort in the end This then sufficeth for the sense and proofe of the point we come now to open it a little wherein for explication and confirmation thereof wee will handle these two things First wee will shew you the reason of the order why after hope and desire there comes this love and ioy Secondly we will discover the motives and grounds what it is in the promise that will kindle and strike fire and inflame these two affections and bring them to the Lord. First Reasons you will say how comes love and joy next after hope and desire I answer you must know there is no more but two affections in the soule God infinitely wise having so framed it and these two are hope and desire The understanding saith such a thing is profitable and comfortable if I had it then hope is sent out to wait for that goodnesse and if it comes not then desire the second affection is sent out to meet the good hope stands and waits for it but desire wanders up and downe seeking and enquiring after a Lord Jesus and goeth from coast to coast from East to West Oh that I could and oh that I might and when shall I and how may I come to the speech of a Lord Jesus Christ As it was with the Spouse in the Canticles when her beloved was gone she wandred up and downe seeking of him and enquiring of the watchmen if they did not see him so desire wanders from this thing to that thing from this place to that place and never ceaseth to see if it can gaine notice of Christ It goeth to prayer to see if that will intreat a Christ It goeth to the Word to see if that will reveale him It goeth to conference to see if he can heare of a Christ there then it commeth to the congregation and to the Sacrament to see if it can heare any
nor receive it from any creature under Heaven further than the Father sends downe some beames of his love to kindle this in us further than the blessed Spirit of God is pleased to blow these sparkes when they are kindled further than the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased by the power of his merits to feed these sparkes of love thus blowne in our soules It is almost impossible that any man in his naturall estate should be so deluded as to thinke hee can love the Lord or delight in him 1 Tim. 1.13 14. opened The Apostle Paul tels us plainly hee was a persecutor and a blasphemer and injurious Paul could doe this and thou haply canst doe this thou canst be a blasphemer against Jesus Christ and thou canst be a persecutor of Jesus Christ but Paul cannot beleeve in Christ nor love the Lord Iesus how comes hee to this Why the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Iesus marke that As if hee should say it was Gods abundant grace that over-powerd my unfaithfull heart and made it faithfull It was Gods abundant grace that over-powerd my stubborne injurious heart and made it a loving heart But how comes this that the grace of the Lord was abundant in faith and love Why it is in Christ saith the text from Christ this faith was rooted from Christ this love was kindled As if he had said I could persecute and blaspheme and despise and cast off God and his grace I was a wretch a villaine that I could doe But that I should love the Lord being injurious and that I should beleeve the Lord being unfaithfull this was from Christ alone In experience we finde it the ball must first fall upon the ground before it can bound up againe and returne from the ground So the Lord Jesus must dart in and fling in this love of his into the soule before the soule can rebound in love and joy backe to him againe We must receive the Spirit of love from God 2 Tim. 1.7 before the Lord can receive any spirituall and holy love from us In a word what the Lord spake in some case to the Jewes is true of every man naturally I know that you have not the love of God in you Iohn 5.42 As if he should say you know not your selves you thinke you have hearts inlarged to God and you pretend great kindnesse to God but you are deceived in your soules and cozened in your corrupt natures for I know full well that the love of God is not in you I pursue the point the rather for these two ends First it discovers and confutes the carnall conceits of a company of carnall Gospellers that pretend they doe not delight to set out themselves in shew so much and they doe not heare and pray and fast so much as these and these doe But say they as for the soundnesse of our love to the Lord Jesus wee defie any man in the world that speakes against us they finde no difficulty in the matter to love the Lord they are certainly perswaded they doe that Therefore if the Minister shall presse upon them and challenge them of want of love to God and his grace they flie in a mans face presently What not love the Lord Jesus Christ why then it is pitie a man should live upon the face of the earth they doe love him and they will love him all the world shall not perswade them from the loving of Christ Oh poore silly creature it is a great argument that thou never hadst this love to God because thou sawest no hardnesse to get it It is an argument thou never didst expresse any delight in Christ because thou thinkest it an easie matter to delight in him Most men thinke it a matter of nothing what not love the Lord Jesus Christ why who cannot love Christ Who cannot I say neither thou nor I nor any man under heaven can love Christ by any power in himselfe Nay let me speake peremptorily thou art as able to save thy owne soule nay thou art as able to redeeme thy soule without Christ as thou art able unlesse the Lord by the Almightie helpe of his Spirit-inable thee to love the Lord Jesus Christ Nay marke what I say you that love Christ and yet doe nothing for him but pretend great kindnesse inwardly how ever you expresse not your selves in outward appearance I tell thee if a man might have happinesse by it if he might have heaven laid downe upon the naile as wee say if he could love Christ I say upon these conditions if thou hast but nature in thee thou wouldst never goe to heaven thou wouldst never be happie No no it will cost thee more than that comes to it will cost thee much paines it will cost thee many prayers and many teares before that day come It is not an easie matter to love the Lord Jesus the Father from heaven must learne you that you must goe to another manner of schoole than ever you have beene at yet if ever you learne this lecture thou mayst pray till thy eyes sinke in thy head and till thy heart failes and yet thou canst not love Christ unlesse the Spirit inable thee thereunto Thinke of this you that thinke it is nothing to love the Lord Jesus Christ If it were nothing but to talke of love and to complement with the Lord Jesus to make a cursie to Christ and to make a leg to the Lord and yet hate him inwardly then it were an easie matter indeed it is nothing to buckle to him in this fashion and in the meane time oppose him and the power of his grace but to entertaine and welcome a Saviour sutable and agreeable to the worth of him this nature will not cannot doe it is the worke of the Lord. Observe it I beseech you I say as nature cannot doe this so nature will not doe it first nature cannot doe it 1 Iohn 1.5 God is light and in him is no darknesse Ephes 5.8 saith the text at all and Ye were darknesse but now are light in the Lord A man naturally is nothing but darknesse and God is nothing but light a man by nature is nothing but unholy and God is nothing but holy Now darknesse will resist light and not give way to it and wickednesse will oppose holinesse and not give way to the same this is thy condition thou hast an ignorant carnall blinde heart and God is light pure and holy and thou canst resist a Saviour but not entertaine him doe what thou canst Nay further as a man cannot naturally doe this so in the second place I say he will not doe it The Apostle affirmes of the Thessalonians That they would not receive the love of the truth 2 Thess 2.10 opened that they might be saved he doth not say They would not receive the truth but they would not receive the love of the truth It is
than God doth convey this and communicate to the soule a man naturally is as well able to keepe the law which is doe and live as hee is of himselfe in himselfe so considered to beleeve in the Gospell and to keepe the second covenant of grace which is beleeve and live but the difference is here the Gospell requires abilitie and gives it the Lord cals us to come and inables us to come whereas the law reveales a mans corruptions but never gives him power against them but as the Lord called Lazarus so the Lord gave Lazarus power to rise so when the Lord cals a poore sinner he gives strength and spirituall ability to come according to the call which the Lord reveales that he may come by that saving and precious faith as S. Peter cals it therefore it is of necessity required that as the soule beleeves the Lord must give strength that it may beleeve and therefore it is effectually perswaded Now that I might meet with that erronious opinion of Pelagians consider what I say they say it is of necessity required that a poore sinner have his minde inlightened but the will of man is unaltered and left free to refuse or chuse grace if it please so that they put a kinde of ability in the will to take or refuse Christ and grace when it is offered but here is a deepe mistake because the will of man is as farre averse from God as the minde is blinde nay it is more averse from God than the minde is blinde and it is more hard to be framed therefore there must be this effectuall perswading as the understanding must have the truth cleered to see a Christ so the will must be perswaded that it may receive power from him as it is with the sea and the thames there is ebbing and flowing now the natutall Philosophers observe that the ebbing and flowing comes not from any inward proper principle of it selfe but the light and heat of the moone leaves its beames upon the water and drawes the water after it this makes it to flow and when the moone is gone the water returnes backe againe and this is ebbing just so it is with the soule of a man humbled and enlightened there is no power in the soule to goe any further than it selfe to flow unto a Christ and to goe towards the promises further than the Lord lets in by the power of his Spirit the beames of his mercie upon the soule and sheds in the freenesse of his grace into the heart and that makes the soule flow againe so that as it ebbed and went away from God by sinne so it now flowes and comes to God againe but it is by the power and Spirit of God Quest. Now if you aske mee what it is to have the heart thus perswaded of Gods goodnesse in Christ Answ It is nothing else but this first as it is undeniably inlightened to see this mercie of God so there comes in a streame of the freenesse and riches of Gods grace and doth affect the heart with the sweetnesse and rellish of Gods grace that it findes a marvellous sweetnesse in it Quest Secondly what is it to be effectually perswaded Ans It is thus much not a touch and away and a little sip and begone nor a hourly kinde of tasting but take notice of these two things in it First when the prevailing sweetnesse in the promise and that goodnesse in the promise is let in by the Spirit of the Lord that it sinkes into the heart roots and it comes to take possession of the soule of an humble sinner and is next the soule there is nothing next the soule but that the world and pleasure c. are without the heart but the goodnesse of the promise and the freenesse of Gods grace hath its privie chamber in the heart of a man this I take to be the meaning of that phrase of rooting the promise in the heart and this was the fault of the stony ground-hearers Matth. 13.21 The seed grew up suddenly and perished suddenly why because it had not depth of earth the seed of the promise had not the depth of his heart but there was a stone in the heart and the world lay next the heart and a stone of lust and pride was betweene the word of the Lord and the heart so that the promise had not root and hence it was slightly affected with the truth but never thus powerfully to have it goe downe to the roots of the heart the good word of the Lord in this case comes to the heart not as an owner but as a travellour this is the meaning of that place Hosea 2.14 I will allure her and draw her into the wildernesse that is by preparation and then I will speake comfortably to her that is I will speake to her heart so it is in the originall there is a kinde of prevailing sweetnesse of the grace of God in Christ that will be at the roots of the heart that it may give allowance unto it now marke what followes from hence and this is the first part of the effectuall perswading of the heart when the heart saith away with profit and the world and all let me have the Lord and his grace Oh that goes to the bottome of the heart hence it is that the soule thus prevailingly is sweetned with the goodnesse of the promise can taste nothing in the world without this it is now out of love with all other things it had loved and doted on before most immoderatly the sweetnesse of the promise hath stolne away the heart of a poore sinner and gotten the good will of the soule to be only for Christ and to have his heart to close with Christ and to be nothing in the world without him this effectuall perswading it is the meaning of that place Act. 3.19 Amend your lives repent and turne that your sinnes may be done away repent and be converted that is be truly prepared in the worke of humiliation and be converted that is have a through heat of the heart for grace in vocation that your sinnes may be done away in justification so then when the soule is first humbled in preparation and the heart now all for the Lord Jesus Christ and can taste nothing but Christ and nothing in regard of him and God hath gotten his good will then followes justification that your sinnes may be blotted out this was the practice of the repenting Church when the Lord had hedged her way and built a wall that she could not finde her old lovers Hos 2.7 at last the Church saith I will returne to my first husband for then it was better with me than now as if the Church had said Oh the mercies of God and the consolation of Christ are better than all my delights in sinne the soule comes now to see a bettering in Christ Oh to have my heart purged and my sinnes remitted it were better than to wallow
what shall I doe What shall I doe unto thee Oh thou preserver of men and the broken hearted and terrified sinner craves that he may yet live in the sight of the Lord. And at last when the soule hath beene sufficiently humbled the Lord lets in his sweet voice of mercy and saith Thou art my sonne and thy sinnes are pardoned with that the soule catcheth at that mercy and saith mercy Lord and a sonne Lord pardon Lord and love Lord the soule is marvellous willing to heare of that consideration But it will not away from the Lord againe as they catched at the words of Ahab and said thy brother liveth so the soule saith beleevingly and â—eccho-like pardoned Lord accepted Lord love and mercy in Christ Lord the heart holds it selfe there It is the fashion of a drowning man when hee seeth himselfe going and sinking if any man come to helpe him when he hath taken hold hee will rather die than leave him hee holds for his life Just so it is with a drowning sinner that is tossed up and downe with the floods of Gods indignation He that formerly made nothing of all and a mock of Christ and thought hee might goe to heaven with all his lusts now the Lord opens his eyes and sets upon him and tosses him up and downe that the heart smites with it and hee seeth himselfe lost and going downe to the pit â—nd hee expects nothing but damnation and at â—ast the Lord lets in a record of mercie and the promise of grace and salvation when the soule â—eares hereof hee catcheth it greedily and knowes if that faile his soule must needs faile â—nd therefore he will never let it goe Act 3 The third act of resting is this it flings the waight of all its occasions and troubles upon Christ as the porter that is weary of his waight and hath no way to helpe himselfe but to be eased of his burden so when the soule hath fastned upon Christ it layes all the waight of all its guilt and power of corruptions upon the Lord Jesus Christ Christ hath promised to give ease and power to pardon and the soule now layes all upon him as Psal 35.7 Commit thy way to the Lord and trust in him commit thy way that is the waight of all thy occasions roule thy way upon the Lord as it is with a barrell that is tumbled up and downe the earth beares the waight of the barrell but some body moves it so the soule casts the waight of all its disgrace dishonour temptation and all upon Christ Esay 50 10. Hee that walkes in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon hiâ— God that is if any man be in extremes hopelesse in misery and seeth no helpe for himselfe neither in himselfe nor the creature and walkes in desperate discouragement and hath no light of comfort let him trust upon the name of the Lord and stay upon his God as when a man cannot goe of himselfe hee layes the waight of all his body on another so the soule goes to a Christ and layes all the waight of it selfe upon Christ and saith I have no comfort all my discomforts I lay upon Christ and I relie upon the Lord for comfort and consolation and when the soule hath thus leaned upon Christ it leaves it selfe there and sucks and drawes all the good that it needs from Christ Cant. 8.5 Who is this that commeth up from the wildernesse leaning upon her beloved the party comming is the Church the wildernesse is the troubles and vexations the Church meets withall and the beloved is the Lord Jesus Christ now the Church comes out of trouble and out of her selfe and leanes her selfe all upon her husband the Lord Jesus Christ she only walked with him but he bare all the burden for her and as the Jewes after their Passeover had their feet shod with sandals and staves in their hands the promise to the soule is like that staffe which did testifie the promise when we are going to the land of Canaan the promise of grace and mercy is the staffe which wee leane upon and it is not a broken staffe that will faile us but a strong staffe which a man may trust to and lay all the waight of life and happinesse upon it and the subduing of his sinnes also 1 Pet. â— 7 Cast all your care on him for he careth for you the originall is hurle your care upon the Lord as â—f a man should say suffer not your care to rebound backe againe but hurle it upon the Lord as a man doth with a ball when it rebounds hee beats it backe againe the Lord will not thanke you for carrying your cares and troubles about you but he requires you should hurle it upon the Lord for he careth for you All that faith would have the soule doe is this First that the soule should labour to finde out the meanes of grace Secondly that it should practice what it knowes Thirdly that it improve all meanes when it hath gotten them now that it may bee able to doe this faith layes all the weight of the worke and burden of the day upon the Lord Jesus Christ so that I shall know what I should doe or the Lord will pardon what I doe not know and either I shall be able to doe what I know or else God will accept of my poore endevours and either I shall finde successe in that I doe or else God will make me contented so that all the burden is gone therefore what if thou doest not know what thou shouldst doe seeing God will pardon thy ignorance and what if thou dost not that which thou knowest if God will pardon thee in it and what if thou hast not that successe thou desirest if God will accept of thee without it and therefore David chides his owne heart and rocks his owne soule asleepe where it was golling Psal 42. Why art thou cast downe O my soule c. I am banished from my house and from my friends and especially from the house of my God and have not I cause to be disquieted no hee had not but how shall I amend my selfe in all these troubles still trust in God for he is yet the helpe of my countenance and my God and I will yet give him praise as if he had said thou shalt not need to be distracted discouraged nor vexed inordinately still trust in God and cast all thy care upon him the faithfull soule viewes all his sinnes that he hath committed and all the miseries that are intended and inflicted and when it hath done all it conclude thus with it selfe and saith It is not in my power nay it is not my duty to determine of all these troubles I lay all the weight of my sinnes upon Christ to pardon them and all the weight of my corruptions to subdue them and then I know he will care for me that hath undertaken mercifully for
haste hee makes haste to use the means but he is content to stay till the Lord please because he knowes the Lord onely must doe it and if the heart bee given to murmure and repine saying I pray and the Lord doth not answer I have grapled with my sinne and the Lord subdues it not now faith saith we must goe to God for mercy that hee may order all our occasions and wee must not order Gods grace according to our humours but the Lord seemes to frowne upon the soule and to reject the prayers of a poore sinner and to beat him away from the doore as the Lord Christ did when hee called the woman a dog yet faith will bring on the heart still and it will be sure to lye at the gate and it keepes the soule with the promise what ever befals it as Psal 119. Mine eyes failed for looking up for thy word Oh when wilt thou comfort me his heart and all failed him and yet he would looke towards heaven Oh saith he when will this sinfull soule be humbled and this distressed conscience pacified hee would looke towards heaven till hee had no heart and therefore excellent is that passage Genes 32.36 when the Lord and Iacob were wrestling and the Lord would have beene gone Iacob said I will not let thee goe untill thou hast blessed mee so the faithfull soule layes hold upon the Lord for mercy pardon power and grace and though the Lord seeme to give him up to the torment of sinne and corruption yet the soule saith though my soule goe downe to hell yet I will hold here for mercy till the Lord comfort and pardon and subdue graciously these cursed corruptions which I am not able to master my selfe As it is with a sun-diall the nature of the direction is this the needle is ever moving and a man may jog it another way yet it will never stand still till it come to the north-point so when the Lord leaves off a beleeving heart with frownes and with the expression of displeasure yet the soule turnes to the Lord Christ and will never leave till it goe God-ward and Christ-ward and grace-ward and saith let the Lord doe what he please I will goe no further till hee bee pleased to shew mercy then the issue is this faith goes out to Christ it layes hold upon Christ and layes the weight of all upon Christ and drawes vertue from Christ and it leaves the soule with the promise and this is in every faithfull soule under heaven howsoever the sense is taken away if the soule once come to Christ it will never away but ever cleaves to the promise and is towards God and Christ whatsoever befall it Part of the doctr 4 The fourth and last part of the doctrine is this First as the soule must be humbled and enlightened Secondly as it is effectually perswaded by the Spirit of the Father And thirdly as by the power of this perswasion it casts it selfe upon the freenesse of Gods grace so in the last place the soule comes to bee furnished with all spirituall wants and the supply thereof and this containes the finall cause and that discovers the good and benefit which comes from faith First to open it in generall and then to come to some particulars In the generall observe thus much a poore sinner having fallen from God and departed from him he goes away from God and all goodnesse at that one stroake he that goes away from God the God of all strength must needs be weake and he that goes from the God of wisdome folly must needs possesse him because God is the God of all wisdome and all wisdome must be from him and hee that goes from God goes from life and happinesse therefore death and cursednesse must needs seize upon â—im now hee that hath gone from God hath gone from all these and therefore he is full of nothing but wants miseries and troubles and vexaâ—ions that are come in upon him and overwhelme him Now faith is appointed as that only meanes whereby the soule may bee succoured and the heart furnished anew and it is faith that doth all these and this is the excellencie of faith and the good of it and the benefit that belongeth to faith in a peculiar manner above all other graces in the world now that yee may see how faith suits a man with all graces take notice that there are three wayes whereby the heart went away from God and the spirituall wants which by this meanes befell the soule 3. Sorts of spir wants are three all which faith supplies to the soule answerably The first and great want of the soule is this it is gone away from God and the Lord is a stranger to it it was made for God and to have communication with God but now it is gone from God and God from it there are now many controversies betweene the Lord and the soule this is the great want and this brings in all the rest now faith supplies succour and answers to these necessities faith bringeth the soule againe to God and the soule to have a nearer union and more inward fellowship with God than ever it had thus the soule being an enemy to God and God an enemy to it and God being a stranger to the soule and the soule being a stranger to the Lord now faith doth this it pitcheth the soule and makes the soule of a poore sinner to fall upon the very Deity and essence of God firstly and upon all the three whole persons as some Divines that are now with the Lord leaving a remembrance behinde them have interpreted it which phrase the Septuagints never used as they are observed for it is one thing to beleeve that there is a God and another thing to beleeve into God faith fasteâ—â— upon the Godhead firstly as 2 Corin. 6.11 where the Apostle saith Hee that joyneth himselfe to an harlot is one body but hee that joyneth himselfe to the Lord is one spirit the Spirit of God sets a frame of soule upon the poore sinner that it flings it selfe upon God that which firstly must be the object of faith that faith must firstly rest upon as that which is able to give that succour which it wants now because God only is infinite he alone is able to succour a man according to his wants therefore faith must first goe to him we need pardon and therefore faith goes to God who only is able to pardon and we need power and faith goes to God who is able to succour us thus it is an infinite God only that must create this power in us and therefore nothing but God must firstly be beleeved in we beleeve in the promise because God is there and because â—n the promise only wee finde a fulnesse of sufficiencie to supply what ever wee want or need therefore why should faith goe to any thing else now nothing can save a man but God infinit and therefore faith goes to
may say on which faith stands and whereby it is able to rest it selfe upon the promise Thirdly the nature and forme of faith is this the reposing of the soule upon the Lord and his speciall favour so reported for the ground why any man goes to God is because he was effectually perswaded of and also affected with the goodnesse of God as it is with some outlawed traitour he dares not goe to the court unlesse he will goe to his ruine because hee knowes there is nothing expected but cruell execution but if once he come to see his pardon sealed under the broad seale and that there is some hope of mercy then hee willingly goes to the court what was the ground of his going home even this because hee was effectually perswaded that the King had a favour to him so it is with an humbled sinner humbled in the fight of his sinne and broken because of his Lords displeasure against him and when the soule hath this certification from tâ—e hand of the Spirit that the Lord intends good to him then the soule goeth and saith Lord I durst not have beene here but that I have heard thou art a mercifull God And lastly the finall cause of faith is this the soule comes to be fitted with all good according to is necessity Object But some may say I heare nothing of the beleevâ—r all this while it seemes he doth nothing if the Spirit bee the efficient cause and if the Spirit workes it and makes the soule able to worke upon Gods free grace and if the Spirit be the finall cause of all then the beleever doth nothing c. Answ This worke of beleeving is a worke of the Spirit upon the soule rather than any worke wrought by the soule or issuing from any principle which the soule hath in it selfe as it is with an eccho when God saith thy sinnes are pardoned thy person accepted faith sounds againe my sinnes pardoned my person accepted good Lord let it be so then this perswades the heart and that marvellously to rest it selfe there for all good but it is done upon the soule rather than by the soule as Phil. 3.12 we are said To be comprehended of God and not to comprehend God so we know God because we are knowne of him now give mee leave in a word to describe the cause of it what it is in the promise that thus effectually perswades the heart that it may beleeve and herein I will goe no further than the promise and therein shew the motives in the promise and how the heart comes to beleeve and these will discover the reason of the point There are three things in a promise 3. Things in a promise whereby the will of man is drawne to beleeve First the all-sufficiency of the freenesse of Gods favour that is an admirable cause to perswade the heart to come on cheerefully it is the speciall prerogative of the promise to answer the soule wholly in all the desires of it nothing under heaven doth or can doe this but the promise haply a man desires wealth and when hee hath it this cannot make him honourable and the ambitious man desires honours and when hee hath them they cannot make him rich so each thing of it selfe hath but a particular helpe but the promise hath all-sufficiency to answer all the heart would have the will of a man naturally desires good and so consequently all good now the promise hath all good in it as in that place open thy mouth wide and I will fill it there is a fulnesse in the promise to answer all the pantings and desires of the soule thou saist thou art a poore dead sluggish creature and the promise calls upon thee as the Angel did and saith come hither and here is life that will quicken thee and thou art a weake creature come hither saith the promise and I have grace to make thee strong and thou art a damned creature come hither then saith the promise here is mercy to pardon all sinnes of all kindes the consideration of the rich provision in his fathers house carried the prodigall home so there is mercy grace pardon comfort enough in the promise you poore hungerbitten sinner away away away for shame to that enough of the promise and there refresh your selves for ever it is that which Elisha said to Naaman 2 King 5.8 Let him come hither and he shall know that there is a God in Israel and that there is a healing God though not a helping King so the promise saith to every fainting languishing and leprous soule if thou art a truly humbled heart and art sick of thy sinnes and even drawing on to despaire and all thy prayers and dayes cannot prevaile nor doe thee good but still thy sinnes thy sorrowes thy corruptions prevaile and thy condemnation sleepes not but is drawing on apace upon thy soule now see what the promise saith let him come hither and he shall know that there is a God in Israel that is able to cure all and to loose him from all his corruptions Object Oh but saith one I confesse there is enough in the promise to be had but what is that to me if the Lord intend it not to my good Ans 2 Thou being humbled and broken hearted God doth seriously intend it for thy good and on Gods part there is nothing to hinder thee from it it is not more cleare that the promise is all sufficient then it is certaine the Lord intends it for thee if thou beest humbled God sent his Sonne to save thee Esa 61.1 Christ came to binde up the broken hearted and to comfort all that mourne Iohn 12.47 God sent not his Sonne to condemne the world c. Nay Christ being sent of his Father freely came to this end 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners that is humbled and broken and meeke hearted sinners and not some of them neither but all that are broken hearted and all that are lost sinners but never a proud stout-hearted and sturddy sinner under heaven hee came not to call the righteous that is those that trust to their owne righteousnesse but sinners to repentance Nay God doth earnestly desire thee to come and take this mercy ho every one that will let him come to the waters of life c. and behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any will open c. and the Lord intreateth you to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5.20 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and be that commeth I will in no wise cast away Ioh. 6.37 the originall saith cast away no no thou poore distressed soule though thou art never so meane in parts or gâ—fts or never so much distressed in the world though thou weare a leatherne pelt and though haply great men may despise thy society yet the Lord Jesus Christ will not cast thee away thou mayst cast away thine owne comfort if thou wilt through thy pride
and peevishnesse but the Lord Christ will not cast thee away if thou come to him he will never doe it Object 4 Let me adde a fourth motive I confesse saith the soule there is no want of willingnesse on Gods part but I have a heart which cannot beleeve what is that to me to see provision of mercy and have no heart to receive it Oh this unwilling and distrustfull heart it cannot beleeve Answ If I finde a cure in the promise for this then I hope you will yeeld therefore know that the Lord hath provided in the promise a meanes whereby thou mayst bee made to beleeve and thou shalt be able to beleeve first that sufficiencie which is in the promise and which God intends for thee Now the Lord strikes up the match 2. Things and that the Lord doth this it shall appeare if you consider the manner of Gods worke in two things First God the Father in the promise gives an humble broken hearted sinner into the hands of â—esus Christ that hee may make him able to beâ—eeve Secondly he gives Jesus Christ into the hands of a poore sinner that hee may take him and receive mercy from him Now though thou canst not beleeve yet if Jesus Christ take that heart of thine in hand he can and will make thee beleeve This was the end of his office and comming Iohn 6.44 No man commeth unto me except the Father draw him and I will raise him up at the last day I will make him beleeve and in the grave I will love his poore body and not lose so much as his â—shes but will preserve them there and raise him up from thence and at last I will bring both body and soule to honour and make both happy in Heaven for ever for Christ his sake thinke on this earnestly that every broken hearted sinner is given to Christ as if God the Father had said Oh my Sonne looke well to such a man he lives in a base world and hath many corruptions in his heart but looke thou to him Iohn 10.16 Other sheâ—pe I have which are not of this fold and these I must bring home saith Christ there are many of Gods people called and converted but there are many yet which are in the gall of bitternesse and I know such a drunkard and though hee bee a woolfe now yet he is one of my sheepe and him I must bring home It doth my heart good to thinke that there is many an enemy of Jesus Christ and many that hates grace and goodnesse many a wretched drunkard many a covetous and uncleane wretch that shall bee brought home One goes up and downe this way and another that way as a company of poore sheepe that wander up and downe one falls into this ditch another into that and another in such a grove so there is many a poore sheepe that goes away from God and all goodnesse the Lord give us hearts to pitty them howsoever God hath opened your eyes and brought your hearts and my heart home to himselfe yet there are many other sheepe that as yet goe from God Oh what a blessed mercy is this If Christ hath once undertaken for you hee will seeke you out wheresoever you are The Lord seekes you out many times in the congregation you might come home then if you would well the Lord will make the fire of hell to flash upon the conscience of a man and drag him home but it is no matter which way the Lord brings him home so he come to heaven at last Iohn 17. Thou gavest them to me and I have given them eternall life There is no more difference than this the Father gives the sheep to Christ and saith looke to him and Christ saith you are given to me take you everlasting life betweene you and take eternall glory I give it to you as freely as ever God the Father gave your soules to me Secondly God the Father gives Jesus Christ to the poore soule and saith I give thee him freely with his bloud and all his merits his grace and goodnesse Oh saith the poore sinner blessed be God that Jesus Christ hath undertaken for me and that God the Father hath given mee Christ but alas I cannot pay the price I am notable to purchase the pearle as in a marriage when the parties are both agreed if there bee a quarrell about the feffment all breakes off so it is in this case the soule is now inabled to rest upon Christ but what will the Lord require for I am base and poore well saith God the Father I will not sell my Sonne but I give him to thee and thou must not thinke to purchase him Ioh. 19.26 27. when Christ would commend Marie to the care of Iohn hee saith Woman behold thy sonne and to Iohn he saith Behold thy mother so God the Father saith to Jesus Christ My blessed Sonne behold that poore broken humbled sighing sinner behold thy sonne take him for thy owne and thou poore sinner behold thy Saviour take him to thy selfe and the soule receives that gift at the hand of God the Father Ioh. 10. So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sonne c. that is God so set his heart upon those whom he would save that hee gave Jesus Christ to bee received from him and to doe all good for them according to all their necessities thus I hope the heart hath no starting holes the promise is sufficient saith the soule if I had it and God sadly intended it therefore I may take him and God hath given Christ the care of me to make me to beleeve now the will is fully perswaded and saith to hope and desire and all the other affections here is good enough and come hope expect it for ever and come desire here is mercy enough that thou hast desired and come love and joy here is that mercy whereof you have felt the sweetnesse nay saith the will let us rest here and settle our selves upon the freenesse and favour of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ as our Saviour said to the Disciples Ioh. 6.27.28 Will you also goe away oh saith Peter whither shall we goe thou hast then words of eternall life the world cals and our lusts call and pleasures call and the more they call for our hearts the more wee cry after thee out Christ whither shall we goe if not to thee for there is none so gracious none so mercifull to sinners none so ready to doe all good for us and as there is sufficient in the promise and as here is sufficient in thee and enough for sinners so upon thy mercie we will hang upon thee our Saviour wee will live and dye and upon the promises will we put our selves to receive all the comfort and good they will affoord and upon this will we feed for ever Thus much for the opening of the point Vse 1 The first use is for information to rectifie our
judgements for the right understanding of the nature of faith and the frame of this blessed grace in the soule and that which wee collect is this saving faith is no part of that holinesse which Adam had nor no part of that image to which we are restored by sanctification in a word faith is a worke of effectuall vocation and no part of sanctification neither of the image in which Adam was created or to which wee are renewed and this followes from the Doctrine thus If it bee so that faith is the maine especiall â—nstrument whereby the soule goes to God to fetch a principle of grace and the Image of grace whereby wee may live then it is not the image which formerly wee had in Adam nor to which we are renewed againe in sanctification But the first is true namely that it is faith that goes to fetch that spirituall power from God which wee â—ost in Adam therefore it is not that spirituall power this is the point of information Beloved â—n our Saviour Christ I am not ignorant that many learned godly judicious Divines whose parts I reverence are of another opinion yet I remember their different opinions and therefore I hope â—o man will be offended with mee though I difâ—er from some for I must needs differ from some â—nd it hath ever beene my care not to trouble a â—opular congregation with any matter of disâ—ute and I hold that it rather should bee the care of Ministers to winne men to faith than to trouble them with matters of this kinde and I hold it the greatest part of zeale to get them to holy hearts and to exact lives and conversations Therefore I am marvellous hardly drawne on to the least dispute in this kinde and yet at the earnest request of some and also because this is the proper place where this question falls and to cleare some doubts according to my promise and because haply some good mâ—n may stumble at some things therefore let mee deliver those thoughts which I have many times heretofore intended to impart and I should bee very willing to heare of better arguments if any shall be suggested these are spirituall passages and hard and difficult therefore this I would tell you First what the controversie is and wherein it lies Secondly the reasons of it Thirdly shew the order of Gods proceedings in this worke of grace in the soule and when these are done the point will be very plaine First for the first namely wherein this controversie lies It is confessed of all hands that Adam in his innocency did not beleeve in a Saviour he needed it not onely here lies the maine point of controversie that though Adam did not beleeve in a Saviour and God did not require it yet men conceive and some judicious Divines too that Adam had ability that if Christ had beene revealed he could have beleeved for they say thus a man is able having a cleere eye to see but one world because there is no more but if there were five worlds the same eye that seeth one the same eye would see them all if they were visibly made So Adam did not beleeve a Saviour because the Lord Christ was not revealed and administred to him but Adam had that spirituall power of faith if the Lord Jesus Christ had been revealed hee was able to beleeve in him and so to rest upon him as men doe now in the time of the Gospell this is the controversie which we flatly deny Secondly the reasons to confirme this point that Adam had not this grace of faith The reason is this this beleeving in the Lord Jesus Christ â—is that which doth directly crosse the estate of Adam in his innocency and the innocency of Adam wherein he was created and therefore cannot by no means agree to him and that appeares thus for a man to have a principle of life in himselfe which Adam had and to fetch a principle of life from another which wee doe by faith these are contrary the one to the other hee lives well and to bee saved by living well and to bee saved by another and to live well by the power of another these are contraries one to the other to have all in himselfe as Adam had and to have all from another and not in himselfe these are contradictions the one to the other and therefore cannot stand together and therefore observe it the manner and phrase of Scripture is this and it is very strange Phil. 3.9 That I may bee found in him not having mine owne righteousnesse as if he should say Adam in his estate of innocency was in himselfe and had his owne righteousnesse he had a power to please God and to save himselfe by it but now in the time of the Lord Christ the case is cleare wee are not nor cannot â—he found in our owne righteousnesse or in the workes of the Law but in the righteousnesse of God by faith imputed to us and of his grace bestowed on us so that these two cannot stand together So then I reason thus that which is crosse to the innocencie of Adam and contradicts the estate of Adam in his innocency that can never agree to the estate of Adam but for a man to beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ and to have all from him if it had beene revealed this had beene crosse to the nature of Adam and therefore it is not possible that he should have this faith in him now I come to answer some objections Object .1 First if Adam had not this faith and if the Lord did not require it at his hands then it seems that not beleeving in Christ is not a sinne against the Law of God for God commanded it not iâ— the Law Answ 1 To this I answer that not beleeving in the Lord Christ is not a sinne against the morall law but it is a sinne against the Law of the Gospell 1 Iohn 3.23 This is his Commandement that wee should beleeve in the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ the want of this faith is a sinne not so much against the ten Commandements as against the Gospell properly as Rom. 3.28 By what Laws boasting excluded by the Law of faith so that there is a Law even of faith not onely a law morall but a law of faith Object 2 Againe they object did not Adam then trust in God and put his confidence in God Answ 2 I answer there is a kinde of confidence which Adam had but it is not that which is of faith and which we now speake of in vocation and Divines do truly say that we are bound to trust in God by the first Commandement but that trust is not this faith but it is of a marvellous farre different nature Know therefore that to trust and beâ—eeve in Christ savingly is thus much when the soule is wholly pluckt off from it selfe and goes wholly to another for that which it hath not of it selfe this Adam had not for
your selves the Lord Jesus came into the world in an acceptable time and hee had this covenant made with him that he should draw poore soules out of darknesse and say to the prisoners come forth God the Father hath sent him for this end and hath promised to heare him when he calls for mercy in the behalfe of poore sinners you poore creatures remember this for I doubt not but here are some that have faith though no question there are many of you in this place that are yet unbeleevers and marke this if you were never yet sensible of your unbeleefe in some measure I say you never tooke one step towards grace nor Christ wee cannot helpe our selves wee cannot goe to Christ and Christ cannot come to us so long as this iron barre is betweene us therefore intreat him for his covenants sake to accomplish that he hath said and tell him that thou art a poore prisoner and that Christ came for this very end plead hard with him and say Blessed Redeemer it is but one word of thy mouth say to a poore prisoner and an unbeleeving heart rest thy selfe upon the promise plead thus with the Lord and this is the only way to obtaine this mercy of the Lord it is a sinne that undermines all our comforts and makes all meanes unprofitable whatsoever we have and yet we never looke after it nor care for it Oh hate all sinnes but hate this infidelitie above all other sinnes Vse 3 In the next place is it so that the Spirit of the Father must perswade the heart before it can rest upon the free riches of Gods mercie in Christ then here we collect the difficulty of the worke of faith the conclusion not onely followes apparantly but undeniably that the worke of faith is of marvellous difficulty and beyond the reach of all created power and beyond all the power of man to have power of himselfe to beleeve the promises of God the point followes thus if we cannot come to God further than God carrieâ— as and if we have not legs to goe to the Lord Jesus Christ no further than the Lord gives us legs I meane spirituall power then let us all know it and conclude it that it is not only hard and difficult but also impossible for man from any power of his owne to rest upon Gods promises by the worke of faith it is true indeed we can doe thus much wee can settle our selves upon our owne bottomes and rest our selves upon our owne sufficiencie and if a man have parts and gifts wee can wee doe naturally stay our selves upon these broken props and our soules goe that way naturally as heavie things naturally goe downward this we can doe out of the power of corrupt nature thus we are our selves and we rest upon our selves in a word when a man findes parts and gifts and meanes and then to rest upon God and to cast away all carnall confidence and to cast our selves upon the free grace of God it will cost us much worke to doe it nay it is beyond all our power it is the worke of God to doe it I speake this the rather for these two ends First to crush that vaine conceit of a company of poore ignorant creatures that make it a matter of nothing to beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ and thinke it is all one to beleeve as to say they beleeve Oh they beleeve in their sweet Saviour and man nor Devils shall not perswade them to the contrarie hence is that speech of a poore creature standing by a man ready to dye when a Minister of God who was there did exhort him to rest upon the promise and urging him to many things that way and the poore creature complaining much that hee could not beleeve here upon his carnall friend standing by said Beleeve thou foole canst thou not beleeve A man would not imagine it almost but that experience hath made it good and others have informed us of it that many wise judicious men are not ashamed to speake it that if people knew the current of the Scriptures and were able to understand the texts of Scripture it were not so hard a matter to beleeve as men would make it but men are not able to dive into the nature of Scriptures and to conceive of the mysteries thereof which if they did it were an easie matter to beleeve this is the conceit of a company of poore deluded creatures though otherwise learned and judicious follow these men home and you shall finde this true that either they are carelesse in their families or else they have some tang of some strong corruption now to overthrow these two let mee doe it upon these two grounds First see the difficulty of the worke of faith in regard of the feeblenesse of all that a man hath or doth to make him beleeve Secondly in regard of the extraordinary greatnesse of the worke that may hinder a man from doing what he may for the first that which may dis-inable all those things that a man expects comfort from there are but foure things that a man can put any confidence in first the excellencie of his parts or secondly the height of his privileges or thirdly the performance of his duties or fourthly the powerfulnesse of those meanes that he hath to summe up these briefly and to overthrow them first hadst thou that strength of judgement sharpnesse of wit and quicknesse of memorie and all naturall abilities none of all these can make thee able to worke faith in thy selfe Matth. 11.25 26 27. when Christ had considered the hardnesse and difficultie of the worke of faith and had upbraided the Pharisees because they beleeved not at last hee saith I thanke thee heavenly Father Lord because thou hast hid these things from the great and wise of the world and hast revealed them unto the babes it is so Oh Father because it seemed good in thy sight if wisedome and prudence and skill in arts and sciences would have carried men to Jesus Christ the Scribes and Pharisees would then have gone to him but God hath hid these things from the wise and prudent so it will be in every man bee his parts and abilities never so great for the worke of faith it is not in thy parts and gifts but in the Lords revealing it is not thy selfe but the Lord that must worke it babes themselves shall have these things revealed and shall be made able to beleeve when thou with all thy parts and gifts and wisdome shalt be cashiered and thrown downe to hell and then he shewes the reason of it All things are delivered to me of my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father and he to whom the Sonne will reveale him so then it is not what we have or doe but what the Lord Christ can and will doe for us all the wit in thy head and all thy skill and parts will never make thee able to know the Father
unlesse the Lord Christ will make thee able to know him if Christ make thee know him then be must chuse thee and this we know that hee chuseth the weake and meane things of the world nay all these excellencies are so farre from interesting a man in the Lord Jesus Christ that it is a great suspition I doe not say in alwayes certaine but I say it is a great suspition that the Lord Jesus Christ will never reveale himselfe to thee because be reveales himselfe to the poore and weake therefore thy parts cannot make thee beleeve if thou hadst all that ever any scholer under heaven had because it is the worke of grace Secondly all thy privileges are weake and cannot reach the worke as Saint Paul by experience proves it Philip. 3.7.4 verses The things that I accounted gaine they were losse unto me If any man might be confident in the flesh much more I what soule could say any thing for any outward excellencie but Paul could say much more were they circumcised so he was were they Hebrewes so was he were they zealous so was he did they live unblamably so did he now were not all these able to carry him to heaven no saith he I thought my selfe to be upon a good bottome but I found them all to be losse that is they were all causes and hinderances why he did come unto Christ so farre were they from being an incouragement to come to Christ that they were barres to keepe him from resting upon a Saviour if this could not profit Paul no more will they profit thee thou mayst heare and fast and pray and read and come to the supper of the Lord which are appointed as a meanes to nourish the soule and yet have an unfaithfull soule and goe downe to hell Thirdly all thy duties though they were never so glorious in the eye of another and never so great in thine owne apprehension yet they are all too weake to worke this grace of faith in thy soule Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gaâ—e for many shall seeke to enter in and shall not be able There are foure or five passages or aggravations to helpe on this point hee doth not say that idle and lazy people shall not enter in but those that seeke and take paines and thinke they are at great cost too and not a few of them neither but many shall seeke and he doth not say they shall not bee able to run on in the wayes of godlinesse but they shall not be able to enter into that gate it is beyond all their power and ability to make them enter in So that were a man able to attend with never so much care and heare with never so much reverence and judgement to reforme with never such conversation and were a man able to doe much in the profession of the truth yet hee might goe to hell and never get faith nor Christ It is possible to goe thus farre and to doe all these services gloriously in mans fight and yet never come at Christ and so perish ever If ever man might have thought it to have done it of himselfe then Paul might have done it as Acts 23.2 I am verily a man which am a Iew borne in Tarsus a famous City in Gilicia but brought up in this City at the feet of Gamaliel and instructed according to the perfect manner of the Law of our fathers and Gal. 1.14 Hee profited in the Iewish religion exceedingly and yet all this while he confesseth that hee was an unbeleever 1 Tim. 1.13 Lastly the power of means are not able to frame the soule to this blessed gift of beleeving a man would thinke that if a mans paines were great and the means powerfull that this would undoubtedly worke faith but yet this will not doe it neither for then Ierusalem that had all the Prophets to foretell a Christ and all the proclamations of Iohn Baptist and Christ himselfe preaching that spake as never man did and besides all these shee had miracles expressing the power of God to confirme that doctrine yet she fals short of the work as Iohn 12.37 Though they saw many miracles yet they beleeved not in Christ they had all the Prophets and Apostles and all the sacrifices and services and thither the Tribes went up and all the helpe that ever any had and yet they beleeved not and therefore it is that Christ upbraids them heavily for their fearfull scandalous hardnesse of heart Matthew 11.16 He compareth them to little children sitting in the market place and calling unto their fellowes saying We have piped to you and ye have not danced wee have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented that is no means in the world would worke upon them Iohn Baptist came in the way of humiliation and Christ came in the way of comfort but all would not prevaile with their hearts no Law nor Gospell Quest. But you will say if this bee so that neither a mans endevours nor the means will make a man able to beleeve then what will it availe a man to doe any duties or to use any means Answ I answer it is very profitable and usefull as the Apostle saith because though wee cannot worke faith in the use of the means yet God by the use of the means can doe what he will the begger must come to the doore though the man in his love and bounty provides to give the doale yet the begger must come to the doore to wait till it be given him Acts 18.27 The Apostle confirmed those which had beleeved through grace So that the Word of God the meane of grace and all the duties that we doe these are but as Conduit pipes to convey what God is pleased to bestow he may stay the Conduit when he will hee may worke with means and without means but let us wait upon God in the use of them The Lord in them may and haply will work upon thee So that if the best meanes and the chiefest privileges and the best duties cannot worke faith then I presume it is not onely difficult but in regard of parts and privileges and all duties and means of themselves it is impossible ever to have this faith wrought and therefore it is not easie to get this faith into the soule Secondly as the weaknesse of the means that should doe this worke shewes that it is difficult so also the greatnesse of the worke hinders us that we are not able to compasse it by all the means we doe enjoy Now the greatnesse of the worke of faith will discover it selfe in three particulars First because there must be severall hinderances removed before there can be any room for faith and these hinder the power of Satan that takes possession of the soule naturally and the supreme soveraignty of sin it carries the whole man according to the lusts thereof and the soule must bee brought from under both these before it can be brought to Jesus
there is none equall to his to bee compared with this worke of beleeving I say of faith as Iacob did of Reuben Gen. 49.3 Reuben thou art my first borne my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignities c. So I say of faith it is the first borne of all other graces it is the might of God and the beginning and the excellency of the might and power of God for as the first borne hath a double portion appointed by God so this is the first borne and hath a double portion of that Almighty Spirit of his So then if it be so that all the parts that ever a man had and all the highest privileges and meanes and duties cannot reach this worke and are not able to worke faith but are too feeble to worke faith and if it bee so that this worke is extraordinary great and so are the hindrances to be removed and none but Christ can doe it and if faith bee supernaturall the opposition against this worke of God bee so fierce let then every man that heares the word of God this day yeeld that it is unconceivable how it is done and therefore much more out of our power to worke it in our owne soules therefore you that have heard and understand the minde of God that out of ignorance have beene deceived to you I now speake you are to be intreated in the name of the Lord to goe home and say and take shame to your selves and confesse your owne folly thou that hast made it a easie worke to beleeve saying if people were but judicious to understand the Scriptures it were easie to beleeve now take shame to your selves and say thus Lord the truth is I condemned such and such a poore soule I heard such a man a mourning and saying hee could not beleeve in the meane time I thought it was easie or else they wanted wit but I thought that by my parts and abilities and because I was able to see the depth of Scriptures that therefore I could beleeve and that it was an easie matter to doe it but poore deluded creature that I was I see now that I am no more able to beleeve out of my owne power than to pull the sunne from the heavens consider it sadly and know that he that beleeves must beleeve through grace therefore parly with the promise and say Lord I must beleeve through grace it is not parts nor privileges meanes nor duties I must beleeve through grace if I could meditate till my eyes sunke into my head yet Lord it is through that grace that I must beleeve through that grace of thine inable thy servant and strengthen him in hearing prayer and all meanes that I may receive the good and benefit of faith to my comfort and brethren whensoever yee appeare before the Lord in the use of the meanes doe not sticke upon the meanes and say now I shall beleeve but looke to him that by all these can doe more than thou canst doe and say Good Lord thou hast appointed the ordinances to worke faith and the messengers have knockt at the doore of my heart and would faine have had me come home to the Lord Jesus but alas this heart would not yeeld I will not beleeve nor rest upon the promises nor goe to Jesus Christ nor denie all carnall confidence in parts and gifts and the like therefore good Lord thou that hast the keyes of hell and death doe not onely stand and knock but Lord shake off these iron gates of unbeleefe from the hinges it is thy owne worke doe it Lord for the good and comfort of thy servant this we must doe or else it will never be done it is the Lord that must doe it you know a little before my text the Scribes and Pharisees said How did he come downe from heaven Let no man saith Christ be offended with this for no man can come to mee except the Father draw him and in the 28 29. verses they said How shall we worke the worke of God This is the worke of God saith Christ that ye beleeve in the Sonne of God this is the Master peece and the first-borne of God and the exceeding greatnesse of his mightie power and in the text Hee that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth to me and Christ saith I have called you out of world the Disciples were setled upon the world and Christ calls them now if all the Angels in heaven had called they would not have heard but Christ saith I have called you from the world and from that evill and sinne in which ye were c. when you heare of there workes treasure them up in your heart and plead thus with the Lord and say Lord thou hast bidden us come unto thee and it is our dutie but no man can come unto thee though he have never so many parts and gifts except thou draw him Lord draw this heart of mine to beleeving no man can know the way to thee except thou teach him Oh therefore teach thou this blinde minde of mine it is not our worke can make us beleeve it is not in our power to frame our hearts to this blessed worke Lord doe thou it and let that excessive greatnesse of thy mighty power be manifested in making mee beleeve and draw home this soule by the greatnesse of thy power Lord here are great hinderances and great sinnes and mightie great basenesse and loosnesse of heart Lord thou hast that exceeding great power to doe it Lord worke mightily upon my heart and over-power this greatnesse of sinne with the greatnesse of thy power and over-power this mightinesse of corruption by that mightinesse of thy power you must goe to God for this power or else it will never bee for though you had all the meanes and helpes that ever any had yet this carnall confidence will never out before the almighty power of God come downe from heaven seeke for that power and never be in quiet till you have it that you may have this worke of faith to your comcomforts for ever Vse 4 Hence in the next place wee collect the exceeding great benefit that will come by beleeving to the soule the difficultie in getting of it cannot be so great but the benefit of it when it is gotten will bee as great every way and that is thus faith makes the life of every man that hath it most easie and brings full content to the soule of him that hath it these are the two heads to which I will referre the benefit of faith First it makes the life of a Christian most easie Secondly it gives full content to the heart of a poore Christian these follow from the former truth in this manner if this be the nature of faith to cause the soule to rest upon the free grace of God in Christ and to furnish the soule with a supply of spirituall wants from hence then this must needs make the life
how David makes the conclusion David was almost disquieted and his heart disquieted with the prosperitie of the wicked therefore hee said if this bee so then have I cleansed my hands in innocencie and washed my hands in vaine yet marke how hee recovers himselfe againe saying Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee therefore it is good for me to draw neere to God Let the wicked take the world and their profits and their pleasures yet there is nothing in the world that I desire in comparison of the Lord Jesus Christ and his grace and goodnesse Consider it sadly the wicked have much wealth and friends and means Oh thou beloved faithfull soule thou hast the rich treasury of grace and mercy to inrich thee all this whole world is nothing to that rich treasury of mercy which faith brings in as Salomon saith in Ecclesiastes Money answers all if a man have money he may buy meat to feed him and cloth to apparell him and cover him If money will doe so much what will mercy doe then thou hast not wealth nor friends nor meanes but thou hast mercy from God in Christ and this will answer all it is better than friends and meanes and all therefore if thou hast this let thy heart be contented and know that thou hast a childs part and thy lot is fallen into a marvellous faire ground Secondly as faith takes off all miseries and supplies the want of them so in the second place faith takes away all feares for the time to come alas saith the soule friends and means and wealth are good but they continue not ever What if sicknesse come and if povertie come what shall I doe then and so the heart shakes at the feare of evill Now pray marke how faith cures all feares and takes off the edge of all those inconveniences that may bee brought upon a man as in the 112. Psalme 7. He shall not bee afraid of any evill tidings why for his heart is fixed and he beleeveth in the Lord for although heaven and earth may shake yet God and Christ and the promise will never faile and hee casting his heart there by faith he must needs hold What is it that a man may feare we feare the power and policy and malice of the devill and his wicked instruments now faith outbids these and faith rests upon the precious promises of God in Jesus Christ and faith perswades the heart that they have no power but from God and they cannot use that power further than God gives leave and they cannot have successe further than God goes with them they can goe no further than God gives a Commission Now sayes faith that God which orders the power of all these he is my God hee is the God of Hosts and none of all the armies can either command peace neither can they hinder peace therefore I adde a little more faith levies new forces from heaven against all the sorces of earth are the wicked politique then sayes faith the Lord is much more wise and is able to dash all their enterprises and are the wicked fierce and violent then faith lookes to God where there is more power to defend him than they can have to hurt him doe wee see the wicked maliciously bent and full of spleene to wrong the people of God faith sees mercy and goodnesse in the Lord that is more able to releeve us than all the wicked can bee to hurt us faith sayes if hell gates were open and all the devills were about thy eares they can doe nothing further than God gives them power and gives a Commission to them therefore I may bee quieted because God is more able to keepe me than they are to hurt me Thirdly faith it is that inables a man to all duties for imagine a man had all the power in his owne hands and had no wants present nor feared no wants nor troubles to come if yet hee were not able to doe what God required this would disquiet his heart therefore by faith the Lord inables a man to doe every duty that the Lord commends to him or expects from him It is the ground that Paul contents his heart withall Phil. 4.13 I can doe all things through the power of Christ which strengtheneth me I can bee poore and beare it and I can be rich and yet not surfet of the world I can doe all but how through the power of Christ inabling me therefore famous is that of Abraham Rom. 4.18 God had promised Abraham a childe and yet his body was dead and his wife barren and it was even against nature for him to beget a childe or for her to beare any Now how doth God provide for this Abraham under hope beleeved above hope and in the 21. verse because he was fully perswaded that he that had promised it was able to make it good there was no hope in nature that Abraham should beget a child his body being dead and no hope that she should beare any therefore faith goes to God that was able to quicken them hast thou a barren a dead heart as theirs was and therefore thy soule complaines and thou saist I shall never be able to goe through the worke required I know it is the complaint of many poore soules Oh send faith up to Heaven and beleeve in him that is able to succour you and to quicken you to whatsoever he requires content thy heart in this manner and say when thou findest thy heart dead I am ignorant but the Lord is able to inlighten my blinde minde and I have a dead barren heart but the Lord who is the God of power hee is able to quicken me and to releeve a poore dead blockish sinner Hee beleeved in him saith the Text which calleth things that are not as if they were Abraham is not lively and Sarah is not fruitfull but the Lord can make them so and therefore faith goes to God so thou shalt be wise and have thy heart quickned to whatsoever duty concernes Gods prayse and thy owne comfort so then hee that hath what hee will or can desire or stand in need of and he that hath all his feares removed and is inabled to doe all duties commanded nothing more can bee added to this man therefore why should not hee be contented what would you have you poore beleevers Quest Then the question here growes namely if it be so that faith makes a mans life easie and gives him full contentment in every condition then why is it thus as Gedeon said so if faith thus contents the soule then how comes it to passe that those poore silly creatures are so troubled with discouragements and discontentments and none so cast downe with their owne basenesse and vilenesse as they they hang downe their heads and goe drooping all the day long either saith one I have not faith or else if I have faith then why
great and marvellous are thy workes and in the 107. Psalme 8. when the Prophet had shewed the great workes that God had done for his people Israel he saith Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare his wonderfull workes before the sonnes of men This was also a type of our spirituall comming home to Christ wee are all slaves to the Devill and in spirituall bondage under sinne hell and death but faith sets a man upon the shore and brings him home unto Christ as Iohn 5.24 He that doth beleeve is passed from death to life Lord saith the poore soule I confesse I was in the mouth of hell but now I am passed from death to life faith sets a man beyond sinne and death and all therefore the soule should be thankfull and sing a song of praise unto the Lord his God Now there are two bottomes from the former Doctrine which give foot-hold to your comfort First by beleeving all the goodnesse and mercie of God is thine and he cannot nay he will not deny thee therefore thou mayst with boldnesse challenge the good of all that mercie and goodnesse of his When God hath engaged himselfe to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee he cannot take away his mercy from a faithfull soule because hee cannot deny himselfe hee will not denie his truth and his promise therefore the Saints of God cannot but be partakers of all this mercie and goodnesse the Apostle saith Ephes 3.17 Christ dwels in our hearts by faith so Coloss 2.3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge now gather up all and the summe is thus much and there you may see how the comfort comes by faith I lay hold upon a Saviour in whom dwell all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge and so I lay hold upon these what would you have and what is it that may comfort you thou art beggerly in wisdome and in consolation and in all the graces of Gods Spirit but if thou hast faith thou hast a Christ and in him are all the treasures of wisdome and mercie take your treasure and be inriched for evermore you may doe it it is your owne Secondly all the sinnes that thou standest guilty of and all the temptations of Sathan cannot hinder thee from injoying that light and receiving that good which thou hast need of there is no sinne that hath beene committed can stand betweene thee and eternall life be thy corruptions never so many for number never so vile and strong for nature never so long for continuance in them and all those old bruises and old lusts of youth which make thee say can the Lord pardon me and is it possible for such a wretch as I am to have mercie that have all these corruptions I answer it skils not what thy sinnes be see thy faith and repentance bee sound it matters not what thou hast beene a rebell even against God if now thou canst beleeve and rest upon God and repent thee of thy sinnes Quest But now the point growes on the soule is in some reasonable manner satisfied that if it had faith then it could be satisfied but many seeme to have faith and have it not if my faith were true I could gaine some sound comfort to my selfe that all would goe well with mee but how shall I know that Answ I answer I confesse that the faith of the most men in the world is but a meere delusion as I shall discover in the next use of reproofe but that thou maist be undoubtedly perswaded of the truth of this grace that though thy faith be never so little yet it is saving justifying faith I will therefore lay downe some trials I will not now intrench upon any of the particulars that come afterward but onely lay open such particulars for triall as are in the doctrine I know faith purifies the heart and workes by love c. and faith makes a new creature but these come too farre off I will onely gather somwhat from the point in hand Triall 1 First observe the root and rise of thy faith the cause by which thy faith was wrought and from whence it came and this will be an undoubted evidence whether thy faith be good or not therefore when thou dost begin to brag and say I doe beleeve then aske thy heart this question and say how came I by it prove it have I faith make it good then it is not enough to say so but let mee see that it is so didst thou bring it into the world with thee did thy wits contrive it did thy parts and abilities worke it and because thou hast more wit and learning than others and thou thinkest it as easie a matter to beleeve as to understand a hard writing if it bee thus thy faith is a delusion and no faith at all it is true here of faith which Iob speakes of wisdome nature saith it is not in me and eloquence saith it is not in me I know not the way to it all these say I have heard the newes of faith but I am not acquainted with it God onely knowes the way thereof and is the worker of it the text saith Every man than hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto me the Father must first teach this lesson or else no man can understand it except the Father give thee a heart to know Jesus Christ there is no power in thee that is able to give this grace to the soule hast thou thy faith from heaven then it is like to bee of the right kinde but it must bee from thence it ariseth not from the earth it comes not from parts and gifts and learning it must come from heaven or else it is not of the right kinde all the coine that is currant is minted in the tower by authoritie of the King if not it is not currant in 1 Pet. 1.7 the Apostle cals it precious faith it must bee stamped by the Lord Jesus Christ by the hand of the Spirit it must come from the tower of Zion or else it is copper faith and not saving justifying faith nor that which will stand in steed in the day of triall here or in the day of judgement hereafter as wee say in nature the Alcumists are growne to that skill that they will make Alcumie appeare to be perfect silver and gold and much of it will beare the touchstone insomuch that a man can hardly discover some of it it is so cunningly made but when the fire and the hammer comes it will beare neither of them but the true gold comes from the gold oare and will endure the fire and hammer the alcumie gold comes not from the right place where the gold is it comes not from the minerals from the golden mines so there is a great deale of this alcumie faith for the world is come to this passe that they have a faith of their owne faining
Matth. 2.1 2. verses the Scribes and Pharisees could tell you where Christ was to bee borne and bid the wise men goe to Bethlem but they would not goe themselves so these men have wisedome enough to say here is the way to Heaven but their owne hearts are not humbled nor framed to walke in that way and to goe home to Christ nor to receive mercy from him Know therefore you that are weake that beleeving carries two things with it in the phrase of Scripture First the assent of a mans judgement to the truth when a man is so farre convinced that hee sits downe and acknowledgeth that whatsoever the Word hath revealed his judgement saith it is all true and yeelds fully with the whole streame of his minde this is that which the Scripture sometimes calls beleeving and it is nothing but the bare assent to the truth saying it is so Secondly when the will embraceth that good in the promise formerly revealed when the will of a man claimes Gods Statutes and casts his heart and hope upon the goodnesse of the promise Now the judicious professour hath faith in the first sense hee assents to all the truths of the Scriptures and acknowledgeth that they are true the devills in hell have this faith too and all that have no more than this faith shall goe to the devill too as Iames 2.19 in the 14. verse the Apostle saith if a man say hee hath faith and hath not workes will that profit him and in the 19. verse thou beleevest there is one God thou dost well the devils also beleeve and tremble that is they assent to all the truths of Scripture that God reveals and this is the beleeving of this great man which wee have discovered in his fashion when a man can dive deepe into the Scriptures and understand all the texts and unty every knot and dispute all questions and is able to judge of the reasons of them is this thy faith the devill himselfe will outbid this faith If cunning and judgement and knowledge be thy faith the devils have this faith they know the Lord Jesus Christ is the Sonne of the most high God they know that the mercy of the Lord Christ is great and that they shall never taste of it they know that the Lord Jesus shall bee the Judge of all the world and that hee shall condemne them they assent to it and tremble at it Marke 5.8 when our Saviour came amongst the devils they said We know thee who thou art even the holy one of God and Acts 16.17 there was a Devill in a woman which was a Diviner and a Witch and she said These men are the servants of the living God which shew unto us the way of salvation it was the Devill in the woman therefore the Apostle bad him goe out of her because he hindered their worke I wish that the Devils in hell might not rise up in judgement against many of our unbeleevers which will not yeeld to the truth of God this is the bottome which beares up that kinde of boldnesse which many carnall creatures have upon their death-beds which never had the power of grace in their soules Come to a carnall man that knowes nothing savingly and sanctifyingly and he will say I beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart I have admired at it and sought to know the bottome of it and it is this they thinke this is beleeving to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is come into the world and that they are not infidels they assent unto the truth and yeeld unto it in their judgements they thinke this is faith and that it is sufficient too Oh you poore creatures that have your friends or parents or husbands that thus lay hold upon Christ and are perswaded that this is faith understand what the meaning is they only assent to the truth but never make application to their owne soules What 's that to thee that thou knowest the way to life and salvation and never walkest in it and what 's that to thee to heare that the Lord Christ came to save sinners and to know that there is mercie enough in him and yet never partake of it Thirdly I come to the evidences which make it cleare to us that he hath no more than this and those evidences are two First you shall finde this man past feare and almost carelesse but he is without doubt of the difficultie either of getting or maintaining his faith hee never comes to question whether hee hath faith or no and he accounts them silly Christians that are so daily troubled and disquieted for their estates whereas he carries the matter very confidently and scarcely lookes after it but beares it out with marvellous boldnesse and confidence which in truth is an undoubted argument that this man never knew what this faith was our Saviour saith Strive to enter in at the straight gate for the gate is narrow that leadeth to life and few there are that finde it and so the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.5 Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure yet this man makes it a matter of nothing nay when many seeke and labour and take much paines and never attaine it by reason of their former strength of it as Prov. 1.28 They shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seeke mee early but they shall not finde mee yet this man thinks to have it with a wet finger that faith which is wrought by the Spirit of God in the soule and is thereby kept it hath daily opposition in the soule so that every godly man that hath faith he must fight against the Devill and all enemies and oppositions yet this man never comes to blowes the Lord Christ found it thus by experience and thus the Apostles and the Saints of God found it yet this man hath found out a shorter cut and an easier way to heaven and he is not ashamed to confesse it and say If a man were exercised in the word and if men had but his skill and were but trained up in his schoole it were not such a hard matter to get faith and so it is true for they may easily get that faith which thou hast Secondly follow this man home and close with him in his private chamber and attend upon him in his other occasions and there he hath no power of godlinesse in his life he hath practice without any pith and a course without any kernell and hee performes superficiall duties without any strength all his duties are as dry as a chip only he carries all out with this he is wise and learned and judicious and this answers all if hee doe omit or neglect duties and doe them carelesly this comforts him that hee is a judicious man it is certaine this man wants that grace which he seemes to have hee that hath so much faith without wavering must needs have his conversation answerable he that hath so much faith in
I have heard of much comfort and peace and that the Lord would be good to his and would save and deliver those that trust in him you told me so did you not Had you told me of shame and disgrace and miseries which I now finde I could have told how to answer you and how to order all my occasions when the Sunne riseth hot upon him and troubles and afflictions befall him then hee leaves Christ Jesus and all rather than hee will part with his comforts and ease and the like thus it is in Matthew 8.19 A certaine Scribe seeing Christ like to prove a great man and thinking to have a good booty out of him he said I will follow thee whither soever thou goest he thought Christ would bee preferred and if I can but get under his wings I shall be a made man for ever Take heed what thou dost saith our Saviour if thou wilt follow mee thou must take all miseries that come I have not a bed for my selfe and therefore if thou want one thou must be content The Foxes have holes and the Fowles of the aire have nests but the Sonne of man hath not whereon to lay his head so hee was gone and wee heare no more of him The second ground upon which he commonly departs is this when the good Word of the Lord comes home close to his heart and reads the blacke side as well as the white side when the Word of God pursues him home to his conscience and shewes his sinnes and discovers his base practices and tells him thus it is true there is mercy and salvation enough to be had in Christ but there is none for such as will not part with all for Christ nor for those that will not lose all to finde and entertaine Christ Now when the Minister comes to shake this mans hold and to tell him you follow after Christ for the loaves your profession is faire but your heart is naught there is no sound worke nor saving grace wrought all that you have done is lost and come to nothing then hee is profesly at daggers drawing with the truth of Christ and saith what is it all come to this This man doth not preach as hee was wont to doe what mercy was he wont to discover and what consolations would hee reveale to all the poore servants of God he preacheth now as if he would vex men and not comfort them as Iohn 6.34 The Disciples were very desirous to have their meat drest for them and Christ saith to them I will doe it for you the bread of God is he which commeth downe from Heaven and giveth life unto the world Oh said they Lord evermore give us of this bread well saith Christ you shall have enough of it I am that bread of life hee that commeth to me shall never hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall never thirst he that eateth my flesh shall never hunger the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake they are Spirit and they are Life this must be done by faith spiritually now marke these men in the 60. verse they fall to open quarrelling and opposing this is an hard saying who can beare it as if hee had said you desired evermore to have of this bread but you must bee humble and feed upon me by faith and lay downe all confidence in parts and gifts Oh then they loathed this bread and care not for it it will not downe this is bread that no man can digest what thus holy and thus heavenly minded to man can endure it So from that day forward they went away So Gal. 4.15 16. the Galathians there did entertaine the Word of the Lord marvellous contentedly and their hearts were ravished therewith insomuch that they could have beene even content to pluck out their eyes to doe the Apostle good and yet presently after they would have pluckt the soule from his body and all this was because hee would not dally with them nor nourish them in their sinnes but spoke the truth which would have pluckt away their corruptions from them When the Prophet came to the widowes house and bade her take meale out of the barrell and draw oyle out of the cruise all the while that this lasted he was welcome but when the childe died she saith Oh thou man of God art thou come to call my sinnes to remembrance by slaying my sonne when shee conceived that he had seene her sinnes shee falls out with him so it is with this temporary beleever all the while the meale and the oyle continue and while a Minister will tell them of ease and liberty and prosperity and preach smooth things and fawne upon them in their base distempers and daube them up all this while the Ministers are welcome but if a man come to shake their hypocrisie and when they begin to say what a dissembler and a cheater and yet a professor then they say Oh thou man of God art thou come to shake the hold of all the hope we have wee are not able to endure it it is knowne by experience that commonly such persons turne the most bitter enemies against that truth which formerly they have professed and seemed to love Thirdly how comes it to passe that hee falls short and what wanted he you see he had something like unto faith the Saints of God were affected so was he the Saints of God had some taste of the sweetnesse of the Word so had hee where is the fault then I answer the failing was in three particulars and they are very faire and open First this was the wound of the temporary in his course he received the Word suddenly and with joy and so hee came not to the promise aright but came to just nothing for in Gods ordinary course of proceeding this is the course whereas he did receive the Word suddenly with joy he should have received it leasurely and with sorrow as Ier. 50.4 at that time saith the Lord The Chilren of Israel shall come they and the children of Iudah together going and weeping shall they goe and seeke the Lord their God and they shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward If ever you would seeke the Lord and have your faces towards him you must goe weeping and mourning and this was the way that God led them and that wisely too as Ier. 31.9 They shall come weeping and mourning and with mercy will I bring them Againe I will lead them by the rivers of waters c. There are even rivers of supplications in their mouthes they powred out their hearts there and what came afterwards their hearts were filled with comfort and consolation it is that which you shall observe the Lord appoints this and it is the portion which God the great Housholder of heaven and earth prepares for his hee prepares it for them and therefore all you proud and stubborne wretches and unbroken hearts meddle not you with comfort first he discomforted
doe this though they can doe nothing else they cannot pray they cannot understand they cannot remember they cannot subdue their corruptions but they shall be taken away with company and fall into that sinne but they can beleeve in Christ with all their hearts thus we see that every man thinkes it in his power and within the compasse of his abilitie naturally to rest upon Christ Now marke what followeth why should a man desire that hee hath why should he seeke for that he hath attained why should he labour to be possessed of that which is in his owne power and he is possessed of already if I can beleeve naturally if it be in my power to goe to Christ when I list why shall I use all meanes and receive abilitie to doe that which I can doe by my owne power and this I take to be one maine ground why the endevours of men are taken off from attending and why the labours of Christians are taken off from seeking often this blessed precious grace of faith there are many grounds why men are driven to this kinde of conceit there are many reasons that make way for this conceit As first to beleeve is a spirituall thing betweene God and thy owne soule to pray and reforme belongs to the outward practice but to beleeve is a closure of the heart with an entertaining of the Lord and his truth and the giving way of our soules thereunto now because men cannot see their faith therefore no man will yeeld but he doth beleeve Secondly men conceive that it is an easie matter to take of mercie from Christ and say they is there any man that will not have mercie is it such a hard matter to receive favour offered or to take a gift when it is tendered unto us Thirdly these doe apprehend that the assenting to the Gospell of Christ wherein is revealed the riches of Gods mercie is all that is required in faith when the Lord saith He hath sent his Sonne into the world that he hath prepared salvation in him and wrougt redemption through him they acknowledge and assent to the truth and conceive this is whole to beleeve upon this ground poore creatures thinke it is in their power to beleeve and take grace and helpe from Christ though they cannot helpe themselves therefore they labour not to get grace from God to doe this worke because they thinke they can performe this worke by their owne abilitie and power The cure of this hindrance is this and it lieth specially in these three meditations First see thy selfe and convince thy owne heart how thou art cozened and thy conscience how thou art deceived in common sense when such thoughts creepe into thy minde and reason thus were it in my power alone to beleeve or in any mans power else would any man goe to hell for want of beleeving if it were in my power or any mans power else to get faith would any man perish for want of faith Take a little experience from those that lie on their death beds A riotous wretch that hath run headlong against the Lord and his truth a man that hath lived stubbornly and stoutly under the means of grace and hath taken up armes against God and his grace he lieth gasping and then hee lookes to Heaven and considers what shall become of him The Minister saith he must renounce himselfe and apply Christ and his promises to his soule Oh saith he I cannot beleeve the Lord will save mee and pardon me and comfort me I cannot rest upon the promises of God What I such a sinner and saved what I such a sinner and comforted I cannot beleeve it if all the Angels in Heaven tell it me is it in this mans power to beleeve now when he sees Hell open before him and the devils ready to receive him doe you thinke hee would rush into Hell if hee could beleeve and escape it Secondly looke into the depth of thine owne heart and weigh seriously thine owne weaknesse by the ballance of the Sanctuary and thine owne infirmities by the blessed Word of the Lord and see that thou must not onely have a gift from God to take it God must not onely give a man a gift but power to receive it Ioh. 3.27 No man can receive any thing unlesse it be given him from above therefore judge your owne abilities not according to your owne conceits and overweening imaginations but judge by the Word and judge righteous judgement that a man can receive no good thing unlesse God give him power The gift must come from above and the power must come from above whereby hee must receive it Thirdly consider and settle thine owne heart in this same determination and resolution that there must be a supernaturall power put forth to make thee beleeve or else all the power under Heaven cannot furnish thee with sufficiency thereunto a man is able to doe the condition of the first covenant as to observe the condition of the second covenant he is as well able to keepe the Law as to beleeve the Gospell unlesse there be a power to inable him Iames 1.18 Her hath begotten us according to his owne will by the Word of truth a childe cannot beget himselfe So it is here spiritually as there naturally the Lord doth beget us according to his owne will it is not in our owne will to beget our selves as the Pelagians dreamed it is not in our will to dispose of our hearts to take Christ when we will to let him stand at doore so long as we see fit and take him in when we see fit but it is the Will of the Lord that must beget us and not our will that can beget our selves Therefore that faith that groweth upon the ground of thy owne naturall abilitie it is a fancy it is no sound faith God must come down from heaven to thy soule before thou canst goe up to heaven againe faith must be first wrought in thy soule before thou canst be carried to God by faith there must bee a power in all means above all means there must be a spirit in all endevours above all endevours to helpe us to beleeve or else wee shall never beleeve while the world standeth therefore avoid those proud imaginations of heart when men thinke they may refuse grace take grace when they list shut Christ out of doores over night and take him in the morning it is against sense and there is nothing more crosse and contrary to the power of grace No goe secretly betweene God and thine owne soule and confute it what I Lord and my parts Lord what in my will Lord to beleeve and in my power and so forth no if all men and Angels should conspire together and all the Ministers under Heaven joyne together to work faith in my soule it will never bee the power of Angell Men or Word will never worke it but it must bee the power of the Lord that must worke it
he saith Though he kill me yet will I trust in him his faith was strong though his feeling were nothing trust to the goodnesse of the Lord and not to those shadowes and brittle bottomes that will breake under you Thirdly the Saints of God are deprived of comfort not because God will withhold it but because they will not take it Gods owne servants want the assurance of the freenesse of Gods love not because God will take it away from them but they will not take it when hee would give it them it is not because they may not have it but because they will not receive it Psal 77. My soule refused comfort like a little childe that will not eat his meat because it is not in a golden dish he doth not say God did not offer mee consolation but I refused consolation out of a discontented spirit because you cannot have comfort upon your owne termes and please your owne pallats because you cannot have a dish for your tooth you will have none at all you want comfort not because God will not give it but because you will not take it upon Gods termes these and many more are the hinderances One saith God hath followed mee with crosses in my life and estate another the wrath of the Lord lies heavy upon me I am still doubting and perplexed and I cannot beleeve The upshot of all these is upon one and the same ground these are hinderances which we out of our owne folly and the subtilty of Satan make to hinder us from comming so freely to Christ and beleeving in him as otherwise we might and yet in truth these are no hinderances we onely make them so Therefore we will now come to the cure of all these and shew how wee may take off these hinderances if it bee possible as in truth it is possible and not onely to remove these hinderances but all other of this kinde quality and condition if you will attend to the means that shall be propounded it is possible to cure them and the cures are these whereby the soule may bee fortified against these or passe by and leap over all these hinderances and notwithstanding all goe to Christ in the promise Cure 1 The first cure and helpe that I desire to propound is this namely we must not look too long the soule distressed and troubled should not sticke too long and looke too much and dwell unwarrantably and continually upon the sight and consideration of his owne sinnes upon his weaknesses and distempers so farre as to bee skared and altogether discouraged from comming to and depending upon the riches of Gods free grace The devill keeps us in our sinnes by poring continually upon our sinnes when we thinke to have our hearts carried against our corruptions we are more intangled in our corruptions by dwelling continually upon them This was the course that Abraham tooke that was the Father of all the faithfull Rom. 4.19 when God had promised him a sonne and not onely a naturall sonne but a sonne that should be a Type of Christ whereby he and all the faithfull should be saved Now this promise was made unto him when hee had a dead body and Sarah a barren wombe he unable to get and Sarah unable to beare now what course tooke he to heale this why the text saith He being not weake in faith considered not his owne body which was now dead nor Sarahs wombe which was now barren he knew his deadnesse and Sarahs barrennesse but he considered it not that is hee did not dayly pore thereupon and quarrell with himselfe and say how can Sarah beare a childe her wombe is barren and unable to beare my body is dead and unable to beget there is no ground here to beare up his confidence if hee considers Sarahs barrennesse there is no childe to be looked for if hee looke upon his owne deadnesse there is no childe to bee expected now therefore what doth hee doe hee lookes to the promise only and there rests and stayes himselfe though he had a dead body the promise was living and though Sarahs wombe was barren the promise was fruitfull and though he were weake the Lord was strong and able to performe whatsoever he had promised so we must see our sins and know our infirmities and consider our weaknesses but we must never settle our selves and sit downe in the consideration of our owne distempers and thereby be hindred from comming to the Lord and from receiving that mercy the Lord offers unto us in the Lord Jesus Christ and we may freely take for when a man is continually poring upon his sinnes and dayly meditating upon his corruptions two things follow First wee stop the streame and current of the promise that it cannot run into the soule wee turne the frame of the soule downward and the frame of the heart inward shut down the sluce whereas by beleeving wee open the flood-gates of the promise that the streames of mercy may flow a main in upon our soules when we returne inward and doe settle our hearts upon our owne distempers we shut downe the sluce of the promise and secondly set open the flood and stream of corruptions that they may run violently upon us to the overwhelming of us in conclusion and our distempers will take advantages against us by reason of our dayly consideration and attendance thereupon Meditation in this case I compare to distillation when a woman distils a kind of herbe or flower and when the Alchymist distils some kinde of metall there is an admirable water drawne out by distillation and an excellent oyle by Alchymie and this water and oyle were in the creatures before but they were not seene to be there before but they are of wonderfull force and strength when they are distilled so it is with the dayly poring setling and attending upon a mans distempers a man thereby distils a distemper and a discouragement and an infirmitie and drawes out the very life and sap and spirit of it and drawes out the very quintessence of a corruption and makes it dangerous nay he makes it deadly many times so that after a mans dayly poring upon and attending wholly to his sinnes he multiplies inconveniencies more than else would be so that the soule which before was troubled comes now to bee overwhelmed with the dayly poring and looking and attending to his owne wickednesse Therefore the wisedome of the woman of Canaan is to bee observed and her humiliation is to bee regarded by us observe the humiliation of her heart and the wisedome of her minde Matthew 15.27 she came to him to beseech him to heale her daughter that was possessed with a devill at the first hee would not listen unto her but shee would not be put off so but cried after him then hee answered I am not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel not to you that are Gentiles yet for all this shee would not leave him but
that walkes in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the Lord and stay upon his God there is a comparison made betweene the Saints of God that will listen to the voice of the Lord and the direction of his servants and those that will follow their owne humours and carnall reasonings and stay thereupon he that walketh in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord that is though a sinner bee never so perplexed with sorrow of heart though there be nothing but miserie without and horrour of heart within yet if hee will heare the voice of Gods servants you broken hearts that have not stopped your eares to the comfort that God hath revealed let them trust in the Lord but now marke what is said in the last verse Behold all that kindle a fire and are compassed about with sparkes walke you in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that you have kindled this shall you have at my hands you shall lye downe in sorrow I will first open the place and then apply it what is meant by fire and sparkes here in a word in the old law there was alwayes fire kept in the sanctuarie heavenly fire that came downe from heaven and this did shew the wisdome and direction of God in his word but now there was strange fire which Nadab and Abihu offered that is they did not take of the fire of sanctuarie which God sent from heaven but they tooke fire of their owne that is their owne devices and imaginations and disputes the sparkles and pleas of your owne thoughts they are your owne fire every poore creature carries his tinder box about him and is anvilling and forging his owne conceits I thinke it not I conceive it not I am not perswaded of it this is your owne fire that is the first thing then marke what followeth walke in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that you have kindled you shall lie down in sorrow walke in the light of your fire Hee doth not allow this but he takes it as a thing forlorne as who should say You will follow your owne conceits and imaginations you have hammered out sparkes and you will strike fire out of your owne carnall reasonings and you will bee taken aside by them there is no reproving of you there is no removing of you from it so that two things are cleare First the heart will coyne carnall reasons and forge sinfull conceits and then it will persist in them and marke what followeth this is that which you shall have at my hands you shall lie downe in sorrow this will bring sorrow to thy soule when the fire of the sanctuary burnes cleere when comforts are plain and Scriptures are pregnant and reasons undeniable you will kindle your owne fire and compasse your selves about with your owne sparkes and you will attend to them and bee ruled by them well doe so but this I tell you there is no hand shall succour you and bring comfort unto you you shall have this at the hand of the Lord you shall lie downe in sorrow and then you shall repent you happily and fling away your tinder box and your carnall reasonings and imaginations this is the second cure Cure 3 The third cure is this be marvellous wary and exceeding watchfull that you enter not into contention with Satan upon these termes whereupon you cannot determine a controversie I cannot tell how to expresse my selfe better Enter not I say into the lists of dispute with Satan concerning those things which belong not unto you as for example If I bee elected then I shall bee saved but I am not elected I have injoyed Gods ordinances and lived under the precious means of grace and salvation and they have not wrought upon my heart I perceive that God intends to doe no good unto my soule therefore all my labor is in vain when I have done what I can I shall perish Sometimes againe the soule saith the day is past and the time is gone Oh the times of grace and dayes of mercy that I have seene the Lord came kindly to my soule and was pleased gratiously to reveale my sinnes to my soule but then hard hearted I and stubborne wretch I I shut the doore against the Lord Jesus Christ and now mercy is gone the day is over the time is past and the sunne is set there is now no hope of mercy If the devill catch a man upon these lists there is no determination of the point for upon this ground a man shall never gaine answer to himselfe hee shall never gaine ease to his conscience for if I know not the things of this nature and if no man else knowes them how shall any man administer comfort or how shall I be able to receive comfort therefore take heed of it It is in this case with a sinner as it is with a traveller theeves overtake him and pretend to lead him a faire way at last they carry him into a wildernesse and lead him into a desert where no man comes by where no mans voyce can bee heard and there they doe what they list because there is no helpe to bee expected no passenger comes neere So it is with the soule when Satan gets him into these straits and wilders him in the desarts of Gods secret counsels of election and the like there is no passenger comes by this way no man can apprehend these secret things of Gods counsell and therefore no man can administer succour or comfort therefore for your caution and direction in this case I will suggest these three rules Rule 1 The first rule is this let thy soule in this perplexity stay it selfe and its owne staggering upon the power of God Ephes 3.20 the text saith that God is able to doe exceeding abundantly above all that we can aske or thinke Gen. 17.1 I am God All-sufficient attend to Gods sufficiency and rest upon the Almightinesse of his power and support thy heart thereby Object But the soule may say what is this to me I know the Lord is able enough and all-sufficient but how doe I know that God will shew mercy and doe good to my soule Answ I answer and marke what I say if thou beest throughly perswaded indeed of Gods all-sufficiency it will helpe thee this way for if God can doe exceeding abundantly above all that wee can aske or thinke then God can will for ought thou knowest above all that wee can thinke or ask thou canst not know or conceive of Gods power thou canst not desire so much as God is able to doe nor conceive so much as he is able to performe therefore God may be willing to doe thee good though thou conceivest it not for this I take to bee a truth that generally the soule doth never sadly doubt of Gods Will but in some measure it doubts of Gods Power for if God be able to doe more than I can apprehend
and more than I am able to desire then God hath as well power to will to doe me good as hee is able to doe me good he hath power to will to doe mee good above all that I can thinke or desire and hee that doubts of the one doubts of the other Rule 2 The second rule is this checke thy owne soule for prying into Gods secrets blame thy selfe and that deeply for thy curiosity in that thou lookest beyond thy last as it is in the proverbe and soarest too high and medlest with those things thou hast nothing to doe withall you meddle with Gods Election and with Gods Will and secret Counsell I charge you meddle with your owne businesse meddle with that you have to doe withall meddle with your owne duties and occasions and keepe your owne station checke your owne hearts therefore and when Satan would lead you out into a wildernesse and suggest these things unto you How doe you know God hath elected you doe you pray and what if you doe pray doe you heare and what if you doe heare When it is thus with thee checke thine owne heart for prying into Gods secrets and meddle with that thou hast to doe withall Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong to God revealed things belong to us and our children What have you to doe with Gods secrets what hath that proud heart and curious minde of yours with Gods secrets Election belongs to God it is his prerogative 1 Corin. 2.16 Who hath knowne the minde of the Lord You that will be aloft in the skie and mounting up to heaven who ever knew the minde of the Lord Satan and your thoughts tell you so that you were never elected why Satan is a lyar he knowes it not nor thou knowest it not neither who ever knew the minde of the Lord minde you your owne matters doe you what God commands performe those duties God injoynes you keepe your owne station all the Angels in Heaven and all the men upon Earth never knew the minde of the Lord therefore never prie into Gods secrets Ionah 3.9 When God had threatned Ninivie to destroy it and had sent Ionah to speake fire and powder Oh all you drunkards of Ninivie and all you blasphemers of Ninivie and all you prophane wretches of Ninivie vengeance shall come upon you and fire from Heaven shall destroy you they were now at a maze and driven to a stand now marke what the King saith Hee caused a fast to bee proclaimed both for man and beast and commanded all to cry mightily unto the Lord and to turne from their evill wayes for who can tell saith he whether the Lord will turne away his fierce wrath from us that wee perish not who can tell but that the Lord may yet shew mercy and favour in the pardoning of us so say thou when Satan tempts thee and temptation suggests unto thee You seeke to God for pardon in the use of the means that God hath appointed and you injoy the precious means of grace and salvation But it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy but God will never shew any favour to you God will never vouchsafe any mercy to you God will never bestow any grace upon you if you pray till your tongue falters and your eyes sinke in your heads and your heart failes it will doe you no good God will never give you grace why how can Satan tell this all the devils in hell know not this all the Angels in Heaven know it not therefore walke thou in thy owne wayes follow thine owne talke doe that thou oughtst to do and performe what God requires and let God doe what hee please and say let me doe what I should who can tell what God may doe who knowes but God may break my hard heart who knowes but God may pardon my sinnes who knowes but God may give me power over my corruptions nay who knowes but God will too Satan himselfe cannot tell that is the second rule Rule 3 The third rule is this measure not the riches of God nor the freenesse of his mercy according to the scantling of your owne imaginations and according to the fadome of your owne conceits doe not thinke because you cannot doe it therefore God cannot doe it because you cannot conceive it therefore God cannot worke it stint not limit not the Holy one of Israel so as hee must stand at your tribunall in this matter and be within your lists and compasse It is a sweet passage Esay 55.7 Marke there the exhortation of the Prophet Let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his owne thoughts and returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon As if he had said all you unrighteous you that have couzened and detained and dealt falsely and unjustly you that have lived wickedly and prophanely let them all forsake their wicked wayes and turne from their vaine imaginations and returne unto the Lord and returne not to themselves and their owne conceits but let them come unto the Lord and hee will abundantly pardon but the soule replies Object Will the Lord pardon all these sinnes Answ Why I he is abundantly able to pardon Object But can he pardon the abundance of my pride will the Lord forgive the abundance of my base distempers of my heart will the Lord remit all my stubbornnesse and rebellion against the Gospell I cannot thinke it I cannot conceive it Answ You cannot conceive it you cannot thinke it but marke what the Prophet ads My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord as if hee had said a poore sinner thinkes his sinne unpardonable and conceives that it is impossible to get his sinnes subdued and his soule comforted indeed it is true you are sinfull men you have foolish thoughts But as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts higher than your thoughts therefore I can give you mercy though you cannot conceive it I can doe you good though you cannot thinke it but the poore soule will still bee ready to object and say Object There was never any in that case that I am in received to mercy and therefore why should I expect it Answ Why Matthew 9.33 when Christ had there done a miracle the text saith the like was never seene in Israel all the people stood gazing and were taken up in admiration at the power of the Lord and said Never was any such thing done in Israel therefore God can doe things that were never done before Imagine the Lord did pardon never any as bad as thee which is false yet God can doe that which was never yet done nay the place is incomparable Iob 9.10 Hee doth great things past finding out yea marvellous things without number the Lord doth great things which are unsearchable and workes
thou have honour and glory why here is an exceeding weight of glory hee that hath the promise shall bee made a king and shall have glory that will never vanish doth thy heart hanker after earthly joy and mirth thou shalt finde a greater mirth in the promise than in the crackling of these thorns In the promise there iâ— joy unspeakable and indurable my joy I give unto you and none shall take it away here are rivers of pleasures and so I may say of any thing else doth thy heart hanker after riches tell thy heart that there be unsearchable riches in Christ and through him we have title to all the promises of this life and a better we know he that offers most for the bargaine carries it away therefore wee should observe the goings out of our hearts and what offers it selfe to give us most content and present our soules with a greater good in God in Christ in the promise than in all things else looke as it is in marrying if parts give content then the wisest prevaile if they would have riches then the wealthy obtaine why now wooe thy soule and looke what will please it best and make it appeare to thy soule there is a greater good in the promise honours and riches have spokes-masters and seeke commendations had I but such honour oh it were admirable had I but so much wealth oh it were excellent all this while the promise is shut out and it cannot come to the speech of the soule labour therefore to have accesse to the promise with thy soule and speake a good word for it and say stand by world stand by riches profits and pleasures and preferments roome for the Lord Jesus Christ and put a wonderfull price upon the promise whatsoever the soule doth account as best that it will chuse and leave all others for it doe as Dalilah did shee besieged the heart of Sampson and would not leave him till he powred out his heart to her so let the promise have ingresse and regresse let the promises besiege thy heart that thy heart may give up it selfe to it Hosea 2.7 I will returne to my first husband for then it was better with mee than now so when the heart comes to see and know that there is better riches ease pleasures profits preferments in Christ in the promise than in all the world then it will returne thither I would have the soule outbid the world and labour to out-shoot the Devill in his owne bow and those things which the Devill casts in thy way for hindering thy soule from comming to the promise let those things bee as meanes to usher in the promise as thus when thou seest thy heart looke after friends let those friends usher the way to thinke on the infinite love and favour of God in Christ and when thy heart would faine hunt after wealth let this usher a way to the promise and say if the heart finde such content in riches what would it finde in the riches of Gods grace in Christ thus present a greater good in the promise than in any thing else Rule 2 The second rule is labour to convince thy heart of this that all the things in the world without the promise are not good and hadst thou all that the earth can afford without a promise they were rather a curse to thee than a blessing Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for it gives a kinde of being and substance to all there is no substance in honour and riches if they bee not in faith they are clogs and snares to a man except faith give a blessing therewith all our prayers have no substance in them but are poore and empty words without faith in the promise to have what we pray for the most broken and meane prayer if it bee mingled with faith it is a very powerfull prayer and the substance of all your hearing and my preaching lyes chiefly in faith otherwise they are but lost labour for faith is it that gives a kinde of being to whatsoever we speake or doe Rule 3 The third rule in this second meanes is this labour to acquaint thy heart with the goodnesse of the promise before carnall reason comes and possesses thy heart how that the promise is most sure and will come when it is most seasonable and is best for thee and when God sees it most fit we shall certainly have it David saith Thy Word is sure in heaven and Heb. 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may receive comfort and mercie in time of need not when I see it sit but when God sees it fit this is it which carries away many poore sinfull hearts from resting upon the promise of God sometimes the heart is a little affected with the excellencie of the riches of Gods grace and seeth what great things the Lord hath done for his soule and saith Oh that I were such a one and let mee dye the death of the righteous but when it comes to passe that hee hath not present ease and comfort then hee casts away the good promise of the Lord and the Devill prevailes wonderfully with those poore creatures therefore saith the Prophet Heb. 3.17 When the fig tree shall not blossome neither shall the fruit be on the vines when the labour of the olive shall faile and yeeld no fruit then will I rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation let the promise so surpriâ—e thy heart that it may be possessed with the all-sufficiencie of it and therefore perswade thy heart the good of the promise will come when it is most seasonable let riches satisfie when death comes then call for your cordiall I tell you the promise will help when all faile Meanes 3 In the third place see that thou expectest all the good which thou needest and canst desire from that sufficiencie of the promise goe to the promise for all good there are all the cords of mercie that must draw thee and there is the all-sufficiencie that can supply all thy wants looke for all from thence and expect power from the promise to inable thee to doe whatsoever thou wouldest in the promise is authority to rule thee expect power from the promise to make thee able to beleeve the promise Object It is a weake plea for a man to say I dare not looke to the promise I cannot beleeve if I could beleeve then I might expect some good Answ Thou shalt never beleeve upon these termes thou must not first have faith and then goe to the promise but thou must first goe to the promise and from thence receive power to make thee able to beleeve the promise Psal 119.49 O Lord remember thy word to thy servant wherein thou hast caused me to trust when men are inlarged in love to a man and make faire promises this perswades the heart to trust to them and to rely upon them for good therefore a
good man desperately poore but his heart was desperately proud therefore the Lord will make him good and make his proud heart yeeld and then bestow these things looke for that first and not for the other againe another Christian labours much for the assurance of Gods love and cannot attaine it and seekes to God in the use of the promises and yet he cannot finde it setled God will give thee comfort and consolation but in his owne order and know this that commonly the Lord never debars the soule of comfort but he sees that the heart is not fit for it thy heart would bee proud and carelesse and God should heare no more of thee and thy saile would overturne the boat therefore when God hath abased thy heart and made thee content to want what he shall deny then hee will give thee assurance but it must be in his order and this is the reason why the most smoak out their dayes in discontent the reason is there is a proud heart and a sturdy disposition of spirit that will not come unto Gods termes as it is with a Physitian he will not give a cordiall to his patient when hee will for if he were in a burning fever it were the next way to send him going first he purgeth and makes him fit and then gives him a cordiall so it is in these things which thou cravest the Lord will then give thee thē when thou shalt not surfet of comfort and assurance and prosperity when thy heart is emptied and purged and able to digest these things then the Lord will give them Rule 2 Secondly the Lord will give temporall blessings and that measure of spirituall in his owne due time not when thou and I would but when he sees most fit As Iohn 2.3 4. The mother of Iesus comes to our Saviour they have no wine saith shee she thought shee had Christ at command but hee answers her Woman what have I to doe with thee my houre is not yet come So it is with our soules wee want comfort and strength against corruptions and assurance and assistance What have I to doe with that proud heart of thine saith our Saviour My time is not yet come you would have it now as they said Wilt thou now restore the Kingdome to Israel God will doe it in his owne time and wee must wait his leisure This is one thing that doth necessarily accompany the covenant of grace as I have shewed before that the Lord should dispence of his Kingdome when he pleaseth and not when we will when the Lord seeth these blessings of spirituall mercies and temporall favours are ripe and most seasonable to thy necessities then thou shalt have them but the time is in Gods hand Rule 3 The Lord doth not promise in such a manner and measure and such a peculiar thing to give that temporall blessing and that spirituall assistance that we desire but the Lord will doe that which he knoweth is most fit And the text saith Feed me with food convenient for me there was faith he refers himselfe to God When a man comes to the taylers to have a garment made hee doth not cut out the garment himselfe but refers it to the judgement of the workman so we must doe refer our selves to God and know God promiseth nothing but as he seeth it fit for thy good It may bee thou shalt not have this blessing or that grace As it is with a Potter hee is minded to make so many vessels of honour but it is reserved in the minde of the Potter how big he will make every vessell of honour so if the Lord make thee a vessell of honour goe away contented whether thou hast so much prosperity and so much good and grace or no it skils not it is enough that thou art elected to eternall happinesse Now you see how to mannage and improve the promise aright for your best advantage and to expect from the promise that which it will yeeld The second particular in this third rule of living by faith is this how to take and how to enjoy the sap and sweet of the promise and to live by it when the Husbandman hath sowen his ground and his fruit is ripe and he hath reaped it then he must gather in his come that hee may live upon it So let us gather in the promises when we see the best advantage now let us take the gaine and live by it and that comfortably too in the proofe of Gods goodnesse therein For this end let me suggest these five rules or directions Direction 1 First thou seest what God is in the promise and thou expectest no more than God is there then eye that particular good in the promise which thou standest in most need of eye that good in Christ and in the promise and then set Gods power and faithfulnesse aworke to bring that good and his wisedome to contrive it As for instance I am in persecution and either I would have deliverance and safety that I might not be imprisoned or else comfort and refreshment if the Lord carry me thither therefore I would see all this in the promise still reserving the conditions before mentioned If thou art in prison eye liberty and preservation in Christ he that is the great deliverer of his people and carrieth his people in his hands and then set Gods power and faithfulnesse aworke that can doe it and his wisedome that can contrive it for thy good that which thou seest and needest in the promise that the power wisedome of God may comunicate to thy soule this is the meaning of that place Psalme 37.5 Commit thy wayes unto the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to passe root thy selfe and lay all thy weight of all thy occasions upon the Lord. Therefore the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 5.7 Hurle your care upon the Lord for hee careth for you It is Gods proper office and worke He careth for thy soule therefore lay it all upon him and put over all thy care into his hands and set his power and faithfulnesse a worke only this is here a little to be scanned I speake not this that we should take no care at all but I say hang all thy weight and burthen of thy care upon the Lord. The Brewer he tumbles the barrell of beere and roules it but the earth that bears it so whatsoever trouble is in thy eare roule it upon the Lord That is thus the weight of a mans occasions lies especially in three things which a man must hurle off himselfe and lay upon the Lord either a man shall not bee able to know what hee shall doe or what hee is commanded or else secondly he shall not be able to doe what God commands and he knowes or else thirdly he shall not finde successe in what he doth It is not a trouble to doe what we can or to imploy our selves as we are able but this is the trouble when the
heart saith I shall not know what Gods minde is or I shall not doe what I know or it will not succeed or no it is not in my power Now we leave all these with God and meddle not with them but put them over to the Lord and meddle with thy owne duty and worke and let God alone with his and say thou unto the Lord In truth Lord it is not in my power it is not in my parts or worke either to compasse that wisedome that is able to direct my selfe or to have any power to doe all that is commanded much lesse to give good successe Lord I will not meddle with that but leave it to thy Majestie if thou in thy power canst not nor in thy faithfulnesse and goodnesse carest not for thy poore helplesse creature then I am content and if thou wilt not be faithfull then I am content to bee miserable and so thou maist suppose a man that hath promised to undertake some businesse for a friend and then in the end it proves somewhat troublesome and therefore he wisheth his friend to take it againe into his owne hands for it is very troublesome but a man will leave it unto him and say he hath ingaged himselfe to doe it and hee will not looke after it I will not meddle with it any more so what end it is that is in Gods royall prerogative leave it with God and doe not meddle with it let God looke to it leave it to Gods faithfulnesse and power to accomplish it So did Abraham Rom. 14.18 19 20 21. verses Abraham above hope beleeved under hope that he should be the Father of many Nations Sarahs wombe was barren and his body dead and yet he must have a sonne and therefore he sets Gods power on worke and saith in the 21. verse Lord this body is dead and Sarah is barren there is no helpe here but thou art able and thou hast ingaged thy selfe to doe it he sets Gods power to worke and puts over all the right and burthen of the care upon the Lord. Hester 4.14 Therefore Mordecay saith If thou hold thy peace at this time comfort and deliverance shall come from some other place hee was resolved that God had deliverance for his Church and would not deny his owne truth salvation will come saith the text he knowes not the place or by what means but he knowes that salvation will come So set thou Gods power and faithfulnesse to worke and not thy owne care commit it to the Lord and hurle thy care upon him so far as concernes the burthen of it Direction 2 Secondly by faith goe to the promise againe for helpe and power to wait upon God in that way and to looke towards God in the use of those means that hee hath appointed for the attaining of that good which his power will work for thee God will worke it and so thou must meet God in the course of his providence in the improvement of the means he hath appointed for thy good Observe thou his providence and doe thou what God requires for otherwise we live not by faith but tempt God and throw away the promise and all and deprive our selves of that good which God would bestow unlesse wee walke in that way which he hath appointed Luke 24.49 When our Saviour was to goe to Heaven he said Behold I send the promise of my Father amongst you but tarry you in the cittie of Ierusalem untill you bee indued with power from above Christ would endue them with the Spirit but they must tarry at Jerusalem and wait for it So I say wouldst thou have grace and the spirit from above and the wealth of the world then walke in that way which God hath appointed stay at Jerusalem and bee in the way and meet God in his providence and then receive from his power and faithfulnesse what thou needest Thou wouldst have God blesse thee in thy estate and yet thou wouldst bee idle and carelesse but this will not doe the deed God would give thee a blessing but thou art not there to take it this is the excellency of the promises of God as they require conditions before they bestow mercies so they make us able to be partakers of the conditions and give the conditions as for example Ezech. 36. The Lord in the former part of the Chapter promiseth to give many things to them but how It must bee by prayer and humbling themselves before him hee will give a blessing in thy family by prayer in it and a blessing in private by praying in private and strength against sinne and power against corruption but I will bee sought unto for all these saith the Lord and the text saith Blessed is the man that walketh in his integritie and his children after him therefore walke thou in the integrity that is the condition of a Christian in generall or as a husband or as a wife or as a servant in the particular this the promise requires but marke this now the same promise that requires the condition will help us to performe the conditions and the same Lord that saith I will bee intreated and sought to for all these the same Lord saith Psal 10.17 Hee prepareth their hearts to pray goe thou therefore to God to help thee to pray that he may bestow his blessing upon thee which he hath promised Ezech. 26.27 He will first give them a new heart and then teach them to walke in his wayes so if thou wilt walk in Gods wayes thou shalt have his blessings therefore go thou by the power of faith to the promise of God for strength and grace and that thou must use the means appointed and then expect a blessing from it in the course of his providence now is Gods power and faithfulnesse set a worke Direct 3 Thirdly we must set it downe and conclude it that God will doe and wee shall receive in the wayes of his providence whatsoever he hath promised to give that 's the worke of faith and that is to draw sap and vertue from the promise Iohn 3.33 There by leaning is called sealing to the promise this is the nature of sealing when a man hath drawen the articles of agreement and when they have sealed all is done so faith must make the promise authenticall and put a seale to it that is true and saith it is done in heaven and I am fully resolved and setledly perswaded thereof that I shall have whatsoever I have beleeved and thou hast promised and I have used meanes for in the way of thy providence famous is that of Abraham Gen. 22.5 the Lord had bidden him sacrifice his sonne and yet hee said that hee should live and therefore when hee came to the place he said to his servants Abide you herewith the asses for I and the childe will goe yonder and sacrifice and will come againe to you he thought to sacrifice him and yet by faith he beleeved that he should bring
bravely upon halfe of that means which he had So there is never a poore Christian Note this which trades in a Christian course but hee hath a faire estate and may live like a man One promise is enough to make a man live comfortably all his dayes though hee were in never so much want but if hee bee cast behinde hand and goes downe the winde with comfort and joy and sinks because of his pride and distempers and vexation the fault is not in the estate for the Lord left him very well he had a childes portion hee had an heart to feare God and love God as David saith O be mercifull unto me as thou usest to 〈◊〉 to those that love and feare thy Name the fault was not in the promises that they could not nor in his faith that it would not helpe him but he let the promises lie by they came into the table but he never cast them up neither did hee husband then aright hee had a world of comforts and consolations that would have given a man liberty in prison and honour in shame and disgrace and comfort in the time of distresse but hee did not husband them Therefore be advised to doe as the trades-man doth hee will not spend of his stocke but live of his trading So I would have every Christian to make a living of his faith whatever strength thou needst fetch it from grace in Christ and what ever comfort thou wantest fetch it from Christ but live by faith and make a good living of it too and then thou dost improve the promise aright bring but an empty beleeving heart with thee and the oyle will never faile and the meale in the barrell will never decay but continually supply thee as it did that poore widow So goe with an humble heart to the promises and husband it well and thou maist draw life and grace from the promises till doomes day And thus in generall Quest But how shall a man be trained up that he may get this skill of living by faith Answ Every man hath his owne shifts and trickes and lives by his owne devices and the devill hath enough of them in the world that lives this life but the best life of all is little looked after Note Now for the answer know thus much that there are three particulars necessary for the training up of the heart to learne this skill of living by faith How to live by faith First wee must labour to get matter for our faith to worke upon Secondly wee must labour to fit faith for the worke Thirdly wee must labour to order our faith aright in the worke Particul 1 First we must provide matter for our faith to worke upon for this wee see ordinarily if a workman want matter to worke upon either a Carpenter or the like hee must needs cease his worke and he can goe no further and if a mans worke failes how can hee provide for his family This is the complaint of poore people now adayes that they have no worke So it is in a Christian course many poore Christians that are newly set up and are not afore-hand in the world they want even matter for their faith I meane some are ignorant and cannot read and some have not meanes and a preaching Minister and others have but small parts and cannot heare and little doe they retaine of what they doe heare Now because they want the promises of God understood and remembred and rightly applied therefore they live marvellously poore though they might live marvellously comfortable in the world and now they have a word of comfort and sometimes the advice of a friend and they have faith but they want matter for their faith to worke upon and therefore they are scarcely able to uphold their soules in trouble Now the matter of our faith is in the whole Word of God Where the matter of faith is as it is with the Bee in gathering hony as the spider gathers poison out of every flower so the Bee gathers hony out of the same flower and out of the sweetest flower there shee suckes most hony and the Word of God the sharpest course and the fearfullest plagues denounced a gracious heart will gather some good by it and a man hath need of these but above all the sweet of the promises of the Gospell and the sap and sweet therein and the bloud of the Lord Jesus Christ that is communicated thereby Oh the faithfull soule sucks most there Now that wee may provide matter for our faith three rules are to bee observed which are commonly observed in all provisions Rule 1 First they provide and lay in in season timely as soone as they can When to provide matter for our faith this is the practice of him that would husband his estate wisely his care is to buy at the best hand So I would have a good Christian to store up all the good promises of God Remember this first in all the good Word of God seasonably I meane when all thy parts and abilities are strong and nature is able to fight it out while the Faire day of Gods favour lasteth and while the Word and Sacraments are dispensed this is the best time to lay in the promises of God that we may not want them when wee have use of them it is a marvellous weake nay a preposterous course when a man is weake his eyes dim and his heart and strength faileth and he is ready to give up the ghost then to lay in grace and provision of mercy and then for him that hath hated a Minister and loathed the meanes of grace and abused the patience and long suffering of God Oh then to have a Minister come to him and have a promise in the day of persecution then for a man to bethink himselfe of the comforts and promises of the Gospell and when a man should spend on the promises then to get it this is but ill husbandry the better way is this now to be buying at every turne and this is the reason why our Saviour saith Oh if thou hadst knowne in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace while the Word and thy life and the Sabbaths and the ordinances last this is thy day we know not how soone God may take all from us Oh the estate of the poore Palatinates if it be true that we heare of them they have lost all the meanes of grace and they have idolatry now amongst them and there the enemies force them to goe to masse against their consciences and they cannot see a good Minister nor a good Christian but they weepe to consider the times that once they had therefore let us labour to be wise in the Lord now while the Faire is and consider how God deales with his children Psal 48.9 Wee have thought of thy name O Lord in the midst of the table It is spoken there of the goodnesse of God
towards Zion a cup of poison and a stone of stumbling when he had spoken of all the bulwarks that God had made and all the goodnesse and mercy that he had shewed to his people and the malice and wrath of his enemies he saith This God is our God even for ever as if he had said The Lord did provide for his people in Egypt and overthrew proud Pharaoh that set himselfe up against God and this God is our God when thou art in the wildernesse this God is thy God when thou art in persecution this God is thy God and the God of all thus he stores up while the season lasts And as thou must observe what God doth to others Note this so labour to treasure up thine owne experiences 2 Tim. 4.18 He hath delivered us and hee doth and will deliver us saith the Apostle and the Prophet David saith I remember thy judgements of old O well fare a good old store I remember saith he how thou didst rebuke Abimelech and overthrow Nimrod and Nebuchadnezar and Achitophel Oh it is admirable to consider these things I received comfort saith he God will overthrow every enemy and this is store for thy faith to worke upon Psal 89.49 Where are thy former mercies David is afore hand with God now he is not come to buy food just at the time of famine but it is laid up before hand Rule 2 We must lay it in abundantly lay in promises of all kindes you had better leave than lack How to lay in matter for our faith and it is the wisdome of a man to have somewhat to spare and to have an overplus aforehand that a man may not live feebly and poorely and be at his wits end at every turne and knowes not which way to shift for himselfe and have no bread in his house I meane no provision of promises by him Isay 42.23 Whose is wise let him heare for after times as if hee had said You must not only lay in promises just for the present but store them for afterwards as the chapman saith I shall want this at such a time and so the husbandman saith I shall have occasion for this or that at such a time and therefore they get aforehand O that God would give us these hearts it is good as we may so say to keepe promises in pickle that wee may spend them at leasure 1 Kings 17.6 7 8 9. Iezebel had threatned to kill Eliah but shee mist of her worke for shee was slaine her selfe and he went to heaven and never died at all the text saith Hee went and hid himselfe by the brooke Kerith and when all victuals failed the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and when all that failed too the Lord said unto him Arise get thee to Sareptha I have commanded a widow there to sustaine thee 1 King 18.4 Obadiah hid a hundred of the Prophets of the Lord by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water and in another place the text saith In the dayes of famine thou shalt have enough these precious promises will be good meat in Lent when haply thou shall sit under an hollow tree and creep among the bushes then three or foure of these promises will give a man a good meale of comfort therefore store them up for they will doe you no harme and when you are driven from house and friends and all and God takes away the Gospell from us which God of his mercy prevent Amen and give us hearts to speake to him that he may prevent it onely your wisdome will be this to get all promises for this and a better life for the getting of grace and the preserving in grace and not only to pray by a promise but to live by a promise and trade by it and to enjoy all that you have by a promise if you will have comfort in it therefore be sure that you sort the promises aright every promise is not for every purpose but each promise suits for each occasion and therefore suit them all imagine a man wants comfort and strength against sinne why then that promise will not fit them wherein the Lord saith Hee will be with them in six troubles and deliver them in seven that for a temporall deliverance he doth not want that but power against his corruptions Againe if a man feare that he shall not hold out in perseverance now that promise doth not sit wherein the Lord saith Hee will pardon all his sinnes and cast them all as a milstone into the bottome of the sea this is not for perseverance in grace if thou seekest for succour there thy hand is in the wrong box but that promise is for this purpose wherein God saith I will knit them to mee with an everlasting love and I will write my lawes in their inward parts that they shall never depart from me any more So there are promises for deliverances in trouble and for comfort in affliction and in a word Gods infinite free grace is scattered in so many promises according to so many necessities and severall occasions that is all healing and saving vertue is in God so he dispenseth it to so many drops and severall promises therefore we must doe with the promises as the Apothecarie doth with his drugs he puts Bezar stone into one and Studdine that if the body be weake and low then your Bezar stone is good for him and so for the rest so that as the Apothecary hath all drugs so he hath sorted them all so deale you with the promise and word have the command of God to owne thee and the promise of God to comfort thee and that thou maist sit thine owne soule let it be a suitable promise suppose thou findest thy heart proud and stubborne then thou maist not looke upon mercy and pardon but looke upon the justice of God and how hee lookes upon the proud afarre off hee gives grace to the humble but resisteth the proud here is studdy for thee to pull downe thy proud heart and when thou findest thy heart full of venome and malice against the Ministers of God now that Bezars stone doth not fit thee therefore apply this Hee that hates his brother in his heart is a man-slayer and no man-slayer shall enter into the kingdome of God and he that hates his brother is a childe of the Devill these are vomits that fit thee Rule 3 Lastly we must lay them up that we may have them at hand To lay up the promises bring your provision home and leave it not in the market it is a folly for a man to say I have as good provision as can bee but I have it not here Colos 3.16 Let the Word of God dwell in you plenteously and richly in all wisdome First observe the plenty of our provision it must not be scantie but richly and wisely and it must dwell in you