dear are you precious to him let him bee dear and precious to you Whatever God doth to the soul it makes an impression in the soul of the same to God Hee loves us and thereupon wee love him so his heart is taken with us thereupon our hearts are taken with him You see here the mutual Indeerments betwixt Christ and his Church Cant. 5.16 Pauls heart was so much taken with Christ that hee was ever in his thoughts ever upon his tongue Hee names him sixteen or seventeen several times in one chapter 1 Cor. 1.1 as Chrysostome notes Peter did but let a word of Christ fall and it is a door to open to further discourse of him Hee takes occasion upon the naming of him to enter into discourse concerning him As you see 1 Pet. 1.7 8. So greatly were their hearts taken with Christ that they could think nothing but Christ speak nothing but Christ No sentence compleat wherein Christ was not part of it Hee was the one of their esteems the one of their affections the one of their desires the one of their delights And so ought hee to bee of ours Get your hearts taken with Christ this will make you Christians indeed this will make you humble active chearful Christians An heart taken with Christ is Heaven on this side Heaven An Heaven on Earth Glory in Clay It is the Paradise where Christ delights to walk It is the House where Christ delights to dwell It is the Throne where Christ sits in his glory It is the Habitation of the blessed Spirit It is the Delight of all the blessed Trinity An heart taken with Christ is the humble soul indeed is the active soul the living soul which breathes forth nothing but love and desire after Christ It is an heart dead to the world for the World can never take that heart which once is taken with Christ All is empty to him whom fulness fills All is blackness where Beauty shines Oh! then get but an heart taken with him and thou livest a Life of Glory and a Life of Grace This is the Porch of Glory the suburbs of Heaven I told you before there were four speciall times in which the heart was taken with Christ I might adde a fifth which I hope is our times When Christ goes forth in his glory for the redemption and deliverance of his Church and punishment of his enemies Then is the heart taken with him 1. Taken with his Wisdome 2. With his Justice 3. With his Power 4. With his Mercy and goodness Which are the visible attributes Christ doth manifest in the deliverance of his Church You see this Isa 25.9 when God went forth in his Glory to deliver his Church the Saints were taken with him even to admiration and speak glorying Loe This is our God wee have waited for him and hee will save us This is the Lord wee have waited and will bee glad in his salvation Here was a Triumphant song of the Church This is our God This who appears so glorious so full of Majesty This This is our God not yours And good reason 1. Christ never appears in his Glory to his Church but hee makes his Church glorious You see when God delivered his Church from Babylon hee did appear in his Glory Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Zion hee shall appear in his glory And you see as hee appeared in his Glory so hee made the Church glorious Isa 54.11 12 13. speaking of the same time Behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones 2. Christ now comes in with the Performance of Promises and needs then must he be glorious and the Church be taken with him If Christ were so glorious when hee made those promises what is hee when hee comes in to make good those Promises Christ hath reserved abundance of his visible Glory to bee seen by his Church now at the end of the World Our Fore-Fathers have seen him but an obscured Christ a persecuted and kept-down Christ Though glorious yet humble-glory But it will not bee long before the Church see him in his Glory when hee comes to destroy that man of sin with the brightness of his comming Blessed bee God for what our eyes see Let us follow him with admiration with the Church This is our God follow with spiritual triumph This is our God And let our hearts bee taken with his goings forth who is set forth in his glory now to redeem and to deliver his Church and People A TREATISE OF THE NATURE AND ROYALTIES OF FAITH BY SAMVEL BOLTON D. D. And MASTER of C.C.C. LONDON Printed by Robert Ibbitson for Thomas Parkhurst and are to be sold at his Shop over against the Great Conduit in Cheapside 1656. A TREATISE OF THE NATVRE ROYALTIES OF FAITH JOHN 3.15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life I Have intended with Gods assistance to enter upon a Discourse of Faith which might last till we come to the place where faith shall be no more And although my preaching of faith may end before yet your practising of it must not The just shall live by faith and the just must dye in faith This Text I have chosen for the foundation of this Discourse Which before I come to handle in particular I shall shew what coherence and dependance it hath with the former words For which purpose you must know that this Chapter from the beginning to Verse 22. contains a discourse between Christ and Nicodemus In which you may observe 1. The Occasion of the Discourse 2. The Discourse it self 1. The occasion of this Discourse most likely was a Question put by Nicodemus which is not here expressed but is probably implyed in Verse 3. in that it is said That Jesus Answered and by the Answer you may guess what the Question was It may be such an one as this What he must do that he might be saved 2. We have the Discourse it self Which was partly continued and partly interrupted Continued by Christ and partly interrupted by Nichodemus in divers places by his Objections Cavils and fleshly Reasonings This Text is a part of Christs continued discourse and hath special relation to the foregoing verse As Moses lift up c. so must the Son of man be lifted up Verse 14. That whosoever believeth in him be he who he will Jew or Gentile bond or free Barbarian Scythian c. Or be his sins what they will for nature never so hainous for number never so many for continuance never so long practised Yet whosoever believeth c. if they believe they shall be as readily and certainly pardoned and saved as other less offendors Whosoever believeth In which words we have 1. The Promise 2. The Condition of the Promise Or here is 1. An act Believe 2. The object Christ
Hee is willing to receive truth as the truth that is in the Power Majesty and Authority of Truth And sets it up as King in his spirit To which hee desires to yeeld subjection and obedience in all Hee lets it come in in its inlightening in its convincing power in its humbling and awakening power as well as in its quickening and comforting power Every truth shall bee received as the truth of God But now an unsound spirit Hee is not willing to receive the truth some truth hee dare not own least they should disturb him in a way of sin As the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.5 Of this they are willingly ignorant they have no desire to know this They desire to shut out the light that their corruptions may not bee disquieted Mat. 13.15 They wink with their eyes that they might not understand 2. They receive not every Truth It may bee such as are notional they will or such as may stand with their lusts and present advantages not such as are practical and cross them in their corrupt ends and practises They look upon some truthes as an ignis fatuus that if they should entertain them and follow them they would lead them into danger It was the speech of a King of France that hee would lanch no further into the deep than hee might come safely to shore That is hee would follow Truth no further than hee may preserve himself and his own If those bee hazarded hee will forsake the Truth 3. They receive it not as Truth 1. Not for it self 2. Not to bee King over them 1. Not for it self but for other private and personal respects Either for their gain their advantage or for fear and danger or out of respects to the greatness or quality of the persons who do entertain a Truth Whereas a godly man doth love the person for the Truths sake As St. John writing to the Elect Lady whom hee said hee loved for the Truths sake 2 Joh. 1.2 They that love the Truth for the persons sake may say they love the Truth for the Ladies sake The one the person for the Truths sake the other the truth for the persons sake So you see they receive it not as Truth for it self 2. They receive it not as Truth to bee Lord and King over them To which they yeeld obedience and subjection in all things Many men would govern Truth but they will not suffer Truth to govern them They would keep Truth though but in prison for all their keeping is but imprisoning but they will not suffer Truth to keep them though the Truth would make them free Corrupt spirits they receive Truth as a Servant not as a King And before they receive it they will ask what it can do for them what service what advantage can it bring them If none Truth shall not bee entertained of them 3. A sincere heart in hearing the Word is an honest heart and there is the summe of all This Christ expresseth in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed Luk. 8.15 the sincere spirit received the Word with an honest and good heart Now the honesty of a mans spirit in hearing or an honest heart in hearing is such as 1. Hears the Word as Gods Word bee the instrument never so weak and despicable yet it shall prevail with an honest heart because it is Gods Word You have an expression in Isa 11.6 A little Childe shall lead him Whoever comes with a message from God whoever brings a word hee shall prevail and perswade with him An honest servant will take notice of his Masters mind though a Child bee the messenger hee looks not on the person that brings it but on the message brought So though the person bee never so weak if hee bring a word from God an honest heart will vail to it 2. An honest heart sides with the Word of God against himself hee takes part with a truth against himself Whereas an unsound heart sides with his corruption against the Word fights against that which fights against it but an honest heart sides with the Word against his corruption 3. An honest heart desires to profit by the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that they may grow thereby Hee is a man that is resolved to practise whatever God reveals Hee hath no exceptions or reservations to himself but is bent to practise every Truth God reveals to him Hee asketh the way to Sion with his face thitherward as one resolved to go the way that God shall reveal This was that which Paul said Lord what wilt thou have mee to do They were not verba expostulantis but verba submittentis Hee was not only desirous to know but resolved to do whatever God did reveale to him An honest heart desires every Truth to bee made his own And that there may bee Principles bred in the spirit sutable to the Truthes revealed to him Hee is desirous that every degree of illumination may bee a further degree of sanctification That his heart may bee transformed into the nature of truthes revealed It doth not content him to have truthes in the head and a lye in the heart Truth in the head and error in the spirit Light in the head and darkness in the heart but hee desires the whole man may bee digested into the nature of truthes Truth formed in his soul 4. An honest heart hee hears the word with reflection As in reading the word hee reads himself with it So in hearing the word hee doth peruse himself with it Hee hears with reflection hee hears with application charging and clearing his heart according to the evidence which conscience gives in upon hearing of the Word 2. Clear the sincerity of your hearts in matter of praying I told you in the beginning that it was possible for a man to pray nay and make many prayers to abound in praying hee may pray in publick pray in private pray in the Church and pray in his closet hee may multiply to pray as the word importeth Isa 1.15 And yet his heart bee unsound And therefore you who do abound much in prayer labour to clear the sincerity of your hearts in this duty Wee will give you these Characters of an heart sincere in Prayer 1. Character Where the heart is sincere in Prayer there is a doing of the duty with all our strength There will bee a laying out of all the strength and powers within us The strength of our Judgement the strength of our will and our affections the strength of the whole soul in the work Prayer when sincere is a wrestling work Jacob wrestled with God that is hee wept and prayed Hos 12.4 Prayer is the souls contention the souls strugling with God It is a sweating work It is the sweat and blood of the soul A sincere heart layes out its strength in prayer Though a mans strength bee but weakness yet if a mans strength bee in the work
these performances is it sound in prayer in hearing if not all this something is nothing If you break the string that goes through a set of Beads they all fall to the ground Sincerity is the string which goes through all our Prayers our Duties and Graces if that bee broken all is broken Sincerity is the Evidence of all our Evidences taken from below It is that which makes every duty glorious every breathing of the spirit sweet every groan weighty every drop of tears a pearl and precious in Gods esteem Sincerity is all in all It is all in all our Prayers all in all our tears all in all our services It is all to God that which God accounts all Sincerity is Gospel perfection And perfection is all Let us then examine our hearts you that abound most in all outward performances clear the soundness and sincerity of your hearts in them 1. Clear the sincerity of your hearts in your obedience in general 2. Clear the sincerity of your hearts in your performances in particular Wee shall now insist upon the last first And that is Clear the sincerity of your hearts in your performances in particular Wee will instance in these three especially which wee single out First in your Hearing Secondly in your Praying Thirdly in your Mourning for sin 1. Clear the sincerity of your hearts in hearing the Word Wee will give you these characters of a sincere heart in hearing the Word 1. A sincere heart desires sincere preaching Such preaching wherein his heart is ripped up his corruptions discovered the most quickening and soul-searching ministry such a ministry as doth most unravel his heart and rip up his soul You see this 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word the preaching of the Word and the sincere preaching of the Word not the Word as it is sophisticated poisoned adulterated by mans invention As the Apostles phrase is but the Word as it comes sincerely from the Fountain Such a man hee desires killing as well as comforting truths searching as well as healing truthes breaking as well as binding And indeed hee desires no comforting but in killing no comforting of his soul but in killing of his sins no healing but in searching no binding but in breaking An unsound heart if hee desire to hear yet it should bee such as would preach placentia speak peace daube with untempered Morter And if a Minister do once preach to the quick If hee once enter upon the discovery of them their hearts rise against the truth they rebel against the Word and such are no Ministers for them They will finde out one that they can live in sin and yet live in peace under his Ministry We read in the 42. of Jer. read it throughout the Chapter is worth your taking notice of Let mee intreat you to read it when you come home you shall see there the depth of a self-deceiving spirit You shall read there the Children of Israel desired Jeremy to inquire of the Lord what they should do and they would assuredly do it but their hearts deceived them You see there that they thought Jeremy would have brought them an answer from God agreeable to their own spirits They did not think that their will must have come up to Gods will but that Gods will would have come down to their will Well Jeremy goes to God and hee brings them a message from God which was clean cross to their lusts And then the venome of their spirits which before lay hid appeared they brake out into open rebellion against the Word of the Lord and spake plain Wee will not hear the Word of the Lord which thou hast told us So it is with many unsound spirits self-deceiving spirits before a Minister come into a Parish Oh then say they let us have a good Minister one that may do our souls good one that may bring a message to us from the Lord discover to us Gods will And few there are but do thus far agree but if once a Minister rip up their sins search their wounds that they may bee healed of them if once hee come to discover their corruptions and indeavour to take them off their unsound bottomes whereon if they live and dye they will perish Then they flye out against the light and him that holds it forth to them Away with such a man from the earth Wee will not hear the Word of the Lord spoken Whereas a sincere heart doth side with the Word with light to fight against and destroy his corruptions These men they side with their corruptions and lusts to fight against the truth to blow out the light and oppose the preaching of the Word A sincere heart doth hold up the Law against his lust Let my lusts perish rather than thy Law bee destroyed But a corrupt heart doth hold up his lust against the Law And saith in his heart Let the Law rather than my lust bee destroyed There is not one corruption which thou keepest with love and liking but thou wishest in thy heart that there were no such Law against it The Drunkard wisheth there were no such Law against his Drunkenness The unclean person would bee glad there were no Law against his uncleanness rather part with so much of Gods Nature which the Law is a beam of than part with his lust Hence it is truly said peccatum est Dei Cidium sin is Gods slaughter because sin strikes against the very being of God the purity and holiness of God Hee that would not bee as God is would hee glad if God were as hee is That is a certain rule that hee that will favour himself in any corruption would bee glad if God would favour him too That there were no Law against it or that there were a Law to countenance it or no Law to punish it That God were not against it that God were of his mind or that there were no God or no God to punish it c. 2. A sincere heart in hearing the Word 1. Is willing to receive the truth of God 2. Is willing to receive every truth of God 3. Is willing to receive it as the truth of God 1. Hee receives the truth not into his head only his understanding to know it but into his heart his affections to love it Hee doth not imprison it in the head but lets it go down into the heart And the whole soul is made the residence and place of truth Lord how I love thy Law contrary hereto is that 2 Thes 2.10 2. Hee is willing to receive every truth Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Hee looks upon every word of God as good every truth of God as comming in the image of God and comming with the authority of God and there is ready entertainment for all as well those which make against him as those which make for him though a truth appear never so formidable that the receiving may cost a man death 2.