had a living God to hope on Iustice cannot be so severe to revenge thée as mercy is gracious to do good unto thée If thy sins be ne'r so many Gods Iustice ne'r so great yet mercy is above all thy sins This may support thy Soul thy sins are pardonable There is no more power in God to shew mercy to thée then power in sin to destroy thée The Lord Iesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost it was the scope of his coming Now saith the broken and humble sinner Did Christ come to save sinners my sins are so many and great can they be pardoned Yet God says Come to me all ye that are heavy laden I am weary and unless the Lord intended good to me Why did he invite me and bid me come Surely he means to shew mercy to me O take héed Question thy estate thou maist but to cast away all hope is very heinous in the eyes of the Lord Cast away all carnal confidence thou must and yet thou must hope Let Israel hope in the Lord for in the Lord c Thou goest to the déep Dungeon of thy corruption and there thou saist these sins can never be pardoned Is any thing too hard for the Lord You wrong God exceedingly you think it 's a matter of humility to count your selves so vile Can God pardon such a wretches sin as mine no no my sins are greater than can be pardoned saith the dispairing Soul Consider how injurious this is to God to make the power of sin greater to condemn thée than the power of God to save thee Sée now and consider what desperate danger Despair brings to a poor heart and carries him beyond the reach of mercy That 's a swéet passage of Davids Psal 77. 7. Will the Lord cast me off for ever I said this was my infirmity What is mercy gone for ever then is all my comfort gone Therefore take héed of this it takes off the edge of all our endeavours and Gods Ordinances that might do us good Therefore let the soul in this case bear upon the Almightiness of the Power of God who said to Abraham I am God Al-sufficient For if thou be perswaded of the Al-suffciency of God that assurence cannot but stay thée from falling and here remember that God can do more then thou canst think He is able and doth the good though thou knowest it not Measure not the riches of Gods love and the swéetness of his saving grace according to your own conceits nor do you think that because you cannot presently receive it therefore God will not do it for Isaiah saith Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts Isa 55. 7 8 9. that is All you wicked ones and you that have lived Lewdly Return from your wicked ways and vain thoughts and God will abundantly shew mercy Thou must in all things that concern thy Soul repair to the Scripture so thou must consider thine own uprightness by it and sée what work is in thy soul that is able to answer the Word and to testifie that the work of grace is there And here be sure to take your soul at the best do not always pore upon the worst that is in it nor upon thy failings nor that that can onely accuse thée but if thou find any thing there that may justly speak for thée neglect not that It is an injustice for any Court to hear one side and not the other The Scripture is a Text of Iustice and the Lord doth not lie at catch with his Children but takes them at the best as Rom. 4. 22. it is there said of Abraham that he believed the promise and it was imputed to him for righteousness Indéed as in the 12. of Gen. he had some doubtings but God took him at the best and speaks this of his faith So Sarah is spoken of as a gracious Woman and of a pattern for women by calling her Husband Lord which was a sign of reverence to her Husband and an humble heart to the Lord and yet we read that she derided the Messuage of the Lord by the Angel the Lord buries that and onely speaks of that which was to her commendation Gen. 12. 12. and so took her at her best too Now as the Lord dealt with these so should we with our selves what soever is found sincere and upright in us that should we observe as well as that which is not so So when men shall bring in so many Indictments against themselves and say Oh what pride and stubborness is in my heart Oh how weak am I and dull and dead and backwardness to holy duties O how careless of enioying Communion with God! How negligent in sifting and trying my own heart in watching over my senses and mourning in secret for my own failings Though this were so yet if men will sée no more and these too much no marvel if they trouble their own house or if Sathan by their own words Iudge them To such a one therefore I say All that thou sayest may be true but art thou not troubled with these failings and are they not the greatest grief that thy soul hath Yea saith the poor soul I confess my heart is vexed and my soul grieved for them and I could be content to be any thing that I could be so Now labor to have thy Conscience settled and stablish'd in the truth which now thou hast gotten to bear witness of the work of grace in thée For if there be any want of the assurance of Gods love For if our Conscience condemn us not then we have boldness towards God We must stop the mouth of Conscience that is be convinced and agrée that it is a sin to say God hath not wrought this work of grace in the heart when 't is so clear he hath For though sense and féeling be as it sometimes will be gone yet Conscience remembers the day and year when the sinner had a clear evidence of Gods love and therefore saith Lord thou knowest it and thou didst say out of the Word at such a time that the heart of this poor soul was upright and sincere before thée You must therefore wait vpon God and the Spirit of God in the use of the means for this matter by believing rightly to your assurance For so the Text saith To you it is given to believe it must be given therefore and Faith is the frée gift of God It is God then that must do it who yet will not do it without us being reasonable men and women in the power of willing Again the Lord affords us means yet not so use them and give him the slip And here it is a good saying let the Lord do what he will and let us do what we should We must not think when wée have the means that we can get Faith presently for as Paul saith The same power that raised up Jesus from the dead must make us
so they make us able to be partakers of the conditions As for example Ezek. 36. the Lord in the former part of that Chapter promises to give them many things but how It must be by prayer and humbling themselves before him he will give thée a family-blessing by prayer in it and a blessing is private by prayer in private and strength against sin and power against corruption But I will be sought unto for all these saith the Lord Blessed is the man that walketh in his integrity and his children after him Therefore walk thou in the integrity of thine heart that 's the condition of a Christian in general This the Lord requires And the Lord that requireth the conditions will help us to perform the conditions and the same Lord saith I will be intreated and sought too for all these And Psal 10. 17. He prepareth their hearts to pray Go thou therefore to God to help thée to pray that he may bestow his blessing upon thée which he hath promised Eze. 26 27. He will first give them a new heart then teach them to walk in his wayes So if thou wilt walk in his ways thou shalt have his blessings therefore go thou by Faith to God for Strength and Grace and then expects a Blessing from him Thirdly We must believe that God will do it so shall we receive in the ways of his providence whatever he hath promised to give This is the work of faith Hannah wept sore and prayed to the Lord and went away was no more sorrowful 1 Sam. 1. 18. and she said Lord I believe that I shall either have a child or that which is as good or better now Hannah's business was done But imagin the Lord delayes and does not suddenly accomplish what he intends and thou hast used means to receive he gives not nor sends no succour according to thy desire Fourthly Then Faith is to stay till it come as thou believest so it will be We prevent Gods kindness when we go away before he be willing to bestow it on us But Faith will not do so he that believes does not make hast away but stays and resolves that it will come The vision is for an appointed time Therefore wait for it Perhaps thou art troubled with thy sins and hast laboured by Faith to subdue them and looks for deliverance and yet it comes not therefore stay till God sées it fit and it will come Psal 123. 2. As the eyes of a servant look to the hands of his master and the eyes of a maiden to her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us It is not when I will or according to my mind but when the Lord pleases Fifthly Yet perhaps the Lord séems sometimes not only to delay his poore servants and to withhold his favour but he séems to frown and say he will not hear and séems to be angry with the prayers of his servants and as if he would not succour or supply them Thus he dealt with Jacob Gen. 32. 26. there the Lord sayes Let me go I care not what becomes of thée But Jacob lays hold upon him and would not let him go So the last work of Faith is this In a holy humility labour to contend with God and by strong hand overcome the Lord for the Lord loves to be overcome thus as it were catch the Lord Iesus strive with him leave him not till thou hast these comforts he hath promised and thou hast begged This is the glorious victory and triumph of Faith that gives thée the day too and yeilds himself conquered As it was with Jacob when God saw he could not prevail verse 28. Thy name shall no more be called Jacob but Israel because thou hast prevailed with God God is ready to give what he hath promised but he will have us try the mastery with him we by faith in God overcome God as James 2. 13 Mercy triumphs over Justice You know what the Lord did to the woman of Canaon when she had striven with Christ a great while and would take no denial at last he saith O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee as thou wilt Take what thou wilt if thou wilt have life for thy child and peace for thine own conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost take it for it is all thine He as it were turns her loose to all his treasury If she had gone away at the first or second denial she had found no help but because she held out she had her hearts desire God would have us wrestle with his Majesty that he may be overcome in mercy and goodness I might here have taken some of the most desperate cases that could be that you might have séen what Faith would have done in midst of the want of all Means and in the greatest extremity that would have befaln a poor Snner but I pass them all over Now I beséech you consider what hath béen said lay these things up by you they will be an everlasting Treasury for you Many people live poorly and make a poor shift to go to heaven but I would have a Christian to learn to live so and use the means that they may get the sap and swéet of the Promises and so go singing rejoycing and triumphing up to Heaven To conclude Thus we sée the hinderances removed and the means propounded and that we may be moved and perswaded for our souls sake for Iesus Christs sake to seek after this blessed Grace of Faith in Christ let us further consider thus much that if we once get this Grace we get all other Graces with it further would you have the glory of God in sight and be more heavenly minded then get it by the eye of Faith look up to it in the face of Iesus Christ for there and there 's only this vision of the Glory of God to be séen to your everlasting Peace and endless Comfort Courteous People I desire you for Iesus Christ's sake to buy this Book and read it seriously end meditate upon it hopeing it will prove an everlasting Treasury for your Souls good FINIS
able to believe Eph. 1. 20. or else all the Angels in Heaven and all the Ministers on Earth and all help that Men and Means can give us will do us no good Now the Means are of divers kinds as Hearing and Prayer and Sacraments which are the Conduits from which God communicats Faith Now Faith brings the Promises home to thée and thou séest the sufficiency of it then all thou hast to do is this in the stream of the Promise be carried home to Christ The Prodigal Luke 15. is said to be like a lost Sheep Mark this for it concerns you The poor Shéep is wandring up and down now in the mouth of the Lyon and then in the Bryers and sometimes in the Pit The Text saith He leaveth ninty nine to seek that That is in comparison of what care he expresseth to the Lost Shéep He leaveth a man regenerate not carel sly but he will not express so great love as to a poor lost man And though thou canst not find the way to heaven yet he will find it thée lye thou upon the shoulders of Christ When thou findest thy heart féeble and weak and thy self unable to beleive then the Lord Iesus Christ brings the Spirit of Grace that comes to séek and Iesus Christ layes that soul of thine upon his Soulders that is upon the richness fréenses of his Grace Therefore let thy heart be transported by the Power of that Grace by the vertue of that Mercy that God hath made known to thée for thy everlasting good Therefore rest thy self upon this Promise and say Lord in the vertue of that Grace and in the power of that Spirit carry me and in the riches of that mercy of thine Lord convey the heart of this poor Sinner and make me happy with thy self for ever Remember what Christ saith Matth. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prpared for you Then no more tears no more trouble no more sorrow no more sin the day will come when ye shall have happiness joy beyond all that the tongue of man can express or the heart conceive Though we are buffetted with many temptations and waried with a world of corruptions yet we shall be saved saith Faith Remember what I speak now and labour to fasten this truth upon thy heart that there is not only present good in thy self but in another and reserved by anther for thy comfort and be thou content it should be so not only to look what thou hast but consider that the greatest part of thy glory is in the glory of a Christ and the greatest part of thy wisdom is in the wisdom of a Christ and the greatest part of thy liberty in the liberty of a Christ and thy riches in the riches of a Christ And know what ever is in Christ thou hast it all as thine John 3. 12. Behold what love the Father hath shewn to us that we are now the Sons of God! I tell you Brethren this is a marvelous priviledge and if you had no more but this you had a childs portion but it appears not what we shall have we have but a glimps now what think you will the harvest be Now we have but the sips of it what shall then the full cups be when we shall see Christ as he is Thus did Moses improve his estate Heb. 11. 26. He bore all afflictions comfortably yea He esteemed the rebukes of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Why because he had an eye to the Recompence of Reward What Moses did do thou Though thou hast many corruptions and many disgraces cast upon thée though thou hast little strength and art at a great loss in point of comfort yet there is enough in Heaven enough in Christ both of riches and comfort Let thy soul then be careful to make all these present with thee for thine own good When the Husband man hath sown his ground and his fruit is ripe and he hath reaped it then he must gather in his Corn that he may live upon it So let us gather in the Promises when we sée the best advantage now let us take the gain and live by it and that comfortably too in the proof of Gods goodness therein For this end I shall give you some directions how to live in and by faith First Thou séest what God is in the Promise and thou expectest no more than God there Then look upon that perticular good in the Promise which thou standest in néed of eye that good in Christ and then set Gods power and Faithfulness a work to bring that good and his Wisdom to continue it That which thou séest and néedst in the Promise that the Power and Wisdom of God may communicate to thy soul This is the meaning of that place Psal 37. 5. Commit thy ways unto the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass Root thy self and lay all thy occasions upon the Lord Therefore the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 5. Hurl your care upon the Lord for he careth for you It is Gods proper office and work he careth for thy soul therefore lay it wholly upon him and put over all thy care into his hands and set his power and faithfulness a work I speak not this that we should take no care at all but I say hang all the weight and burden upon the Lord. Secondly By Faith go to the promise again for help and power to wait on God in that way and to look towards God in the use of those means that he hath appointed for the attaining of that good which his power will work for thée God will certainly work it and so thou must méet God in the course of his providence in the improvement of the means he hath appointed for thy good Observe thou this providence and do thou what God requires for otherwise we live not by Faith but tempt God and throw away the Promises and all deprive our selves of that good which God would bestow we not walking in that way which he hath appointed Luke 24. 46. When our Saviour was to go to Heaven he said Behold I send the promise of my Father among you but tarry you in the City of Jerusalem until you be indued with power from above Christ would indue 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 walk in that way God hath appointed stay at Jerusalem méet God in his providence and then thou shalt receive from his power and faithfulness what thou néedest thou wouldest have God bless thée in thine Estate and yet thou wouldst be idle and careless but this will not do the déed God would give thee a blessing but thou art not prepared to take it This is the excellency of the Promises of God as they require conditions before they bestow mercies