on the Word and promises of God For as faith is truly the life and guide of the soul so the Word is the ground life and guide of our faith Now the Arguments that I shall set down are briefly three First The life of faith is that life which above all others God would have Believers to live And this appears by the distance that God hath put between his promises and his performances making their whole life to be rather a life of hopes then of enjoyments and the good things that he gives to relate more to the future then to the present time God was graciously pleased to open a door of hope to fallen man in that first Gospel-promise which he himself proclaimed Gen. 3. 15. that the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head But how many generations passed away before the fulnesse of time came in which he sent forth his Sonne made of a woman He hath promised to Believers that they shall tread down the wicked and that they shall be ashes under the soles of their feet Mal. 4. 3. But yet he hath made their warfare to be as long as their life He hath promised a glorious resurrection of their bodies out of the grave And yet for how many thousand years have his Saints lain dissolved in their dust as if they did seeme to be altogether forgotten by him Now to what end hath God set such long periods of time between the making and the accomplishing of his promises but only that he would have the heirs of them to live by faith yea and to die in faith by resting on the truth of his Word for the fulfilling of every mercy which he hath undertaken for in his promises And indeed this glory which Believers give to God in the exercise of their faith upon his Word is farre greater and more noble then all that glory which the whole universe of creatures do yeeld unto him They give him the glory of his goodnesse in their being and in the comforts of it derived unto them by him But who gives him the glory of his faithfulnesse in his promises but a Believer Who is it that rejoyceth in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. but a Believer Who glories in tribulations but a Believer Who is it that lets not his confidence die when his life expires but a Believer My flesh and my heart faileth saith David but God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 26. Secondly The life of faith is of all estates the most contented and of all lives the fullest of real sweetnesse and delight First It is the most contented life True contentment is the inseparable companion of true faith 1 Tim. 6. 6. A Believer is the onely person that is instructed in this sacred mystery Phil. 4. 13. The things that others want he desires not Riches which others covet with the straining of their consciences he throws away as snares Pleasures which others drink down with a thirst unsatisfied he out of choise sparingly sips of or else refuseth so much as to taste Honours that others value themselves by he looks upon as fancies and not realities As Plato told the Musicians that a Philosopher could dine and eate his meat without them So a Believer can live happily without the having of any of these things And the ground of all this is because by faith he lives above them and enjoyes more high and noble delights in the very expectation and hope of that blessednesse which God hath promised then any other can have from the fruition of an earthly Paradise or of the whole world it self if turned and changed into an Eden Secondly Of all lives the life of faith is the sweetest The delicacies that faith feeds upon doth not arise from any stagnant and impure pits or cisterns but from the fountain and well of life It sucks the breasts of consolation Isay 66. 11. It lives upon the free favour of God which is better then life it self Psal 63. 3. It hath Christ himself for nutriment whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed John 6. 55. All which are food the world knows not of it never understood their preciousnesse or tasted their sweetnesse There is a greater difference between the repasts of faith and the refreshments of the world then there is between the Physick of the Galenists Paracelsians the one giving it in the drug and the other as they boast in the quintessence and spirits extracted from that flegme and earthymatter that deads allaies their efficacy All the comforts of faith have in them a native purity and spiritualnesse and need not the help of Artists to refine them Such they are as that Angels themselves have neither better nor higher to live upon How injurious then are Believers to their own happinesse while they neglect the living by faith and gaze rather upon these dainties with their eyes then feed upon them with their mouths How greatly do they live below themselves while they take up with the things of this world and put not forth this divine grace of faith which can fetch every good thing out of heaven What dishonour do they cast on the precious promises while like the lustful Israelites they slight this Manna of the Gospel as dry food O therefore if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any excellency in the promises be perswaded you that are the beloved ones of God to live the life of faith and to exercise it in an improvement of the promises the use of which makes you more rich and blessed then the having of them Thirdly to move Believers to act faith upon the promises I shall adde this Argument that their labour and expectation will not be in vaine Faith in the promise is like the bowe of Jonathan and the sword of Saul which never returned empty 2 Sam. 1. 22. It alwayes findes what it seeks and enjoyes what it desires He that beleeveth shall never be confounded 1 Pet. 2. 6. that is he shall not be disappointed or broken in his purposes or hopes If the promise be not good security to rest and build upon What is What bond can be so firme as his Word who cannot lie Tit. 1. 9. What pledge can be more certain then the earnest of the Spirit by which the inheritance of Believers is sealed unto them Ephes 1. 14. If these foundations fail then we may well say with the Prophet What can the righteous do But sooner shall the rocks be broken into bits and thrown as pibbles and cockle-shels upon the shoar by the violence of the waves sooner shall the mountains that God hath set fast by his strength Psal 65. 6. be over-turned by the breath of tempestuous windes then the promises which are founded upon the immutable power of God and the never-failing goodnesse of Christ be in the least iota made void
not prescribe and limit any in their choise but leave them to the free use of such Scriptures and promises as themselves by experience have found to be full of life and sweetnesse yet it will not be amisse to recommend the use of some few eminent promises of divers kinds out of the full store-house of the Word which may serve as so many meet cordials to revive the spirit of drooping Christians amidst the several kindes of necessities that may afflict them Are any burthened with the guilt of sinne so as that their soule draweth nigh unto the pit of despaire What more joyful tidings can ever their eares heare then a proclamation of free mercy made by the Lord himselfe unto beleeving and repenting sinners What more glorious and blessed sight can their eyes ever behold then the Name of God written in sundry of his choice attributes as in so many golden letters for them to read The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sinne Exod. 34. 6 7. He is the Lord who only hath jus vitae necis the absolute power of life and death in his hands but he is the Lord God merciful who far more willingly scattereth his pardons in forgiving then executeth his justice in condemning like the Bee that gathers honey with delight but stings not once unless she be much provoked He is gracious not incited to mercy by deserts in the object but moved by goodnesse in himself his love springs not from delight in our beauty but from pitty to our deformity He is long-suffering bearing with patience renued and often repeated injuries which he might by power revenge upon him who is the doer He is abundant in goodnesse grace overfloweth more in him then sinne can do in any Sin in the creature is but a vicious quality but goodnesse in him is his nature He is abundant in truth as he is good in making the promises so is he true in performing them when men deale unfaithfully with him he breaks not his Covenant with them He keeps mercy for thousands former ages have not exhausted the treasures of his mercy so as that succeeding generations can finde none there are still fresh reserves of mercy and that not for a few but for thousands He forgives iniquity transgression and sinne not pence but talents are forgiven by him not sinnes of the least sise are onely pardoned but sinnes of the greatest dimensions And as this promise in which the Name of God is so richly described doth fully answer the hesitancies doubts and perplexities of such who fear their iniquities for number to be so many for aggravation to be so great as that sometimes they question Can God pardon sometimes Will he ever shew mercy to such a wretched Prodigal So likewise may that blessed promise made unto beleevers Hos 14. 5 6 7. exceedingly support such who mourne under their want of holinesse and complaine of the weaknesse of their grace fearing that the little which they have attained unto goes rather backwards then forwards God himself having promised that he will be as a dew unto them which shall make them to put forth in all kindes of growth They shall grow as the lilly and cast forth their roots as Lebanon their branches shall spread and their beauty shall be as the Olive-tree they shall revive as the corne and grow as the vine What more comprehensive summary can there be either of Gods goodnesse or of a beleevers desires then there is in this one promise wherin he hath promised to make them grow in beauty like the lilly in stability like the Cedar in usefulnesse like the Olive whose fruit serves both for light and nourishment in spreading like the vine and in their encrease like the corne God himselfe being both the planter and waterer of all their graces To them who are full of fears through the approach of dangers which they have no hope to avoid or power to overcome How full of encouragement and comfort is that promise of protection and safety When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Isa 43. 2. Water and fire are two evils in which none can be with their nearest friends without perishing with them Who can save a Jonah when cast into a boisterous sea but God And who can walk in the fiery furnace with the three children and not be consumed but the Son of God In the prison one friend may be with another in banishment he may accompany him in the battel he may stand by him and assist him but in the swelling waters and in the devouring flames none can be a reliefe to any but God and he hath promised to beleevers to be with them in the midst of both these that so in the greatest extremities which can befall them they may fully rest assured that nothing can separate God from them but that he will either give them deliverance from troubles or support them under troubles Martyres non â—ripuit sed nunquid descruit saith Austin He did not take the Martyrs out of the flames but did he forsake them in the flames Lastly to them the meannesse of whose condition may seeme to expose them above others to hunger cold nakednesse evils that make life it self far more bitter then death how full of divine sweetnesse is that blessed promise of provision The young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing Psal 34. 10. The Septuagint renders it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great wealthy men of the earth who like beasts of prey live upon spoile and rapine who think that in the hardest times that can come they shall be eaten up last they shall be bitten with hunger and perish by famine when they who fear the Lord shall be in want of nothing The widows little barrel of meale in the famine yielded a better supply then Ahab his storehouse and granary her cruse had oile in it when his Olive-yards had none Oh! how securely and contentedly then may a beleever who acts his faith in such promises lay himself down in the bosome of the Almighty in the worst of all his extremities not much unlike the infant that sleeps in the armes of his tender mother with the breast in his mouth from which as soon as ever it wakes it draws a fresh supply that satisfies its hunger and prevents its unquietnesse SECT 3. Rule 8. Consider of the examples to whom promises have been fulfilled The eighth direction is in the making use of any promise to parallel our condition with such examples which may be unto us as so many clear instances of the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God in his giving unto others the same or
believers that look unto it and seek an establishment of their wayes from it The promise is written in faire and capitall letters which those that are of the lowest rank in knowledge and wisdome may easily read and discerne It makes wise the simple and being pure enlighteneth the eyes Psal 19. 7 8. But the providences of God are written in darke and unlegible characters which though they may soone be discerned to be his hand yet to decipher the sense and meaning of them is a task that oft times exceedeth the line of humane wisdome They are like the hand-writing upon the wal Dan. 5. 5. where part of the hand that wrote it Belshazzar saw but the meaning of it neither he nor the most learned of his Caldeans could finde out To interpret the mind of God in his providences requires the skill and wisdome of a Daniel who was filled with an excellent spirit of knowledge and understanding but to know his will in his promise it is enough if a man be a Nathanael an Israelite in whom there is no guile the path of them is plaine and wayfaring men though fools shall not erre therein Isa 35. 8. Providences God useth as his Ciphers many times to hide his secret and his counsells from the eyes of men but the promises are alwayes as his Letters of love in which he reveales himself unto believers and acquaints them both of his peculiar love and care to them and of their dutie and obligation unto himself Secondly the promises do exceed in certainty the most constant dispensations of providence The tenure by which any blessings are given and to which we are intitled only by providence is not so firme and sure as that which is derived unto us by the promise By the one we are made no better then tenants at will and at the discretion of their Lord who though he let them enjoy rich possessions and revenues may yet at his own pleasure resume them and take all into his own hands by the other we are made heirs of all the good things that are given unto us and so may plead the promise of God as our right they being a part of that portion which he as a Father is pleased to bestow upon us for our more comfortable subsisstance in our present pilgrimage Oh! how slippery then is the foundation of those mens comforts which is only built upon the dispensations of providence and not upon the stability of the promise How unsound are their evidences which altogether stand in the successe of their atchievements in the prosperity that hath followed them in all their paths which may in one moment be turned into a sad change having the same hand of providence which was wide opened in its bounty to them lifted up in its displeasure against them 3ly The promise exceeds providence in the purity and sweetnesse that it derives and conveyes to every externall mercie which without it are not freed from that vexation and vanity which sinne hath subjected every creature unto Providence dispenseth blessings but the promise only sanctifies them the one gives the possession of them the other the true fruition of them This is that which makes a wide difference between the temporal mercies which believers enjoy and those which wicked men do oft-times partake of in greater abundance from the hand of God A little that a righteous man hath is better then the riches of many wicked Psal 37. 16. His drie morsels are sweeter then their dainties his small pittance is more satisfactorie then their plentie For the wicked have all these outward and inferiour things only ex largitate donantis from the meere generall bounty of God which doth not remove the incumbrances the vacuity and vexation that are entailed upon them by sinne But the righteous hath the same things given unto him virtute promissâ— by the right of a promise which sanctifieth the gifts of common providence and taketh away from the creature that curse wherin it was wrapped through the sin of the first Adam While therefore men please themselves in the single interest and right of providence to their earthly comforts look not unto the conveyance of them by the promise it is no wonder if they become snares toiles and thornes unto them and that they complain that the streams of their abundance are like the waters of Marah Exod. 15. 23. so bitter as that they cannot drink of them seeing that they want Christ who is the onely tree of life for to heale them and to change their unpleasing bitternesse into a delicious sweetnesse by the power of his Word Secondly Believers are to be cautious that they weaken not the expectation of faith in the performance of any good which the promise doth hold forth unto them by making the providences of God that seeme to crosse the fulfilling of it to be moving arguments to incline them to doubting or diffidence about the truth of it When Jacob understood that his brother Esau was coming against him with four hundred men Gen. 32 6. he doth not distrust the promise that God had made unto him Gen. 28. 15. but he strongly pleades it as a ground for his deliverance Thou saidst I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbred for multitude Gen. 32. 12. When God by a dreame that was doubled on purpose to confirme the certainty of the thing had revealed unto Joseph the future honour and greatnesse which he would exalt him unto above his brethren causing their sheaves to bow to his sheaf and the sunne moon and the eleven starres to make obeysance unto him Gen. 37. 7 9. The meanes that God useth for the effecting and bringing to passe his decree not the concurrence of successefull and smiling providences but of such onely which to the eye of reason seeme rather to destroy the promise then to accomplish it Who could ever have conceived that the casting of him into a dry pit the selling of him to the Ishmaelite merchants the putting of him into prison and fetters by Potiphar as a shameful offendor should lead to the advancement of Joseph not to his ruine Can light spring out of darkness glory out of ignomie liberty out of thraldome And yet by such stops as these doth God rais up Joseph into the throne of honour Untill the time that his word came the word of the Lord tried him saith David Psal 105. 19. That is until the very accomplishment of the promise he was tried in the expectation of it by many and sore afflictions in all which he exercised such a measure of faith and patience as not to murmur or repine at the dispensations of God towards him or faint in his waiting quietly for the fulfilling of the word which the Lord had spoken unto him The archers sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him but his bowe abode in strength and the armes of his hands were
earth of which it makes a concoction and then sends forth a digested nourishment unto the several branches and fruit that hangs upon the tree so doth the radical grace of faith distribute to other graces that strength and life which it is partaker of from Christ and his promises And as the concoction that faith makes is more or lesse perfect so are the operations of every grace the more or lesse vigorous Faith is a kinde of mediatour between Christ and all our graces as Christ is between us and God As we have nothing from God but we receive by and through Christ So no grace is partaker of any vertue and influence from Christ but by the mediation and intervention of faith SECT 3. The things promised precious Thirdly the promises are exceeding great and precious in respect of the remarkable worth and value of those things in which they interest beleevers and give them a right unto by an unquestionable claime and title It is a full and weighty observation of which Grotius hath afforded two parts that there are three things which do clearly demonstrate and highly also commend the doctrine of the Gospel above any other Religion whatever The certainty of principles of trust the sanctity of precepts and the transcendency of rewards What religion is there amongst that multiplicity which have found entertainment in the world wherein God is represented to the soul so meet and fit an object of trust as in the Gospel Majesty being there made accessible by the condescention of goodnesse and God and man who were at a distance so neerely united together in one as that it is impossible to be determined whether be the greater wonder the mystery or the mercy Where are there in any religion such exact precepts of holinesse enjoyned as in the Gospel which lay a law upon every motion of the soul and become either a rule to guide it or a Judge to censure it Or where by search do we finde such ample and full rewards as may match and parallel the rewards of the Gospel to beleevers There we read of the bread of life for food of the waters of life for pleasure and delight of a crown of life for honour of an inheritance in life for riches of a weight of glory for cloathing and beauty All which are not mentioned in the Word as in a bare and naked declaratory which conveighs nothing of title or interest and speaks rather the perfection of heaven then the happinesse of beleevers but are set down and specified in the promises which as they declare a goodnesse and excellency in things do also give a right and propriety unto persons in them they being in the matters of God as deeds and evidences are in the matters of men which when they are signed sealed witnessed and delivered do invest men in a just and legal right of whatever is mentioned and contained in them All that a beleever hath to plead or to shew for that estate of glory of which he is an heir is the promise Eternal life is by promise 1 John 2. 25. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life The crown is by promise Jam. 1. 12. He shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The kingdome where for love all shall be sonnes for birthright heirs for dignity Kings is onely by promise Jam. 2. 5. God hath chosen the poore of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdome which he hath promised to them that love him The bounty laid up and the bounty laid out the good that a beleever expects and the good that he enjoyes both flow from the promise without which no present thing could be sweet nor no future thing would be certain which by the stability of the promise are now made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts without repentance Rom. 11. 29. Or as Austin expoundeth it dona sine mutatione stabiliter fixa gifts firmly fixed without change Every promise being ratified by Gods oath then which nothing is more immutable sealed by the blood of Christ then which nothing is more precious testified by the Spirit then whom nothing is more true delivered by the hand of mercy then which nothing is more free and received by the hand of faith then which nothing is more sure CHAP. IV. In which is discovered the noble effect of the Promises FOurthly the promises of the Gospel are exceeding great and precious in regard of that high and noble effect which they work in beleevers who by the energie and powerful operation of the promises are raised to the utmost pitch both of perfection and blessednesse in their being and estate being by them made partakers of the divine nature as the Apostle tells us Not by having a share and partnership in the substance and essence of God and thereby to become drops beames particles of the Deity as some have most fondly dreamed But by a participation of divine qualities and excellencies whereby beleevers are made conformable unto God having those perfections which are in the holy nature of God and Christ by way of eminency to be formally or secundùm modum creaturae imprinted and stamped on their souls so farre as the image of his infinite holinesse is expressible in a limited and restrained being As the wax when it doth receive an impression from the seale doth not participate of the essence of the seale but only receives a signature and stamp made upon it so when God leaves a character and print of his holinesse or other excellencies upon the soule he doth not communicate any thing of his substance or essence but effecteth only a resemblance in the creature of those perfections that are truly in himselfe which being originally and totally derived from him may in some sort be said to be the divine nature In the Painters table that is called a face or hand which is onely the lively image or representation of such things to the eye and so those divine lineaments of beauty and holinesse which are drawn by the finger of God upon the soul of believers may be called the divine nature as they are shadowy representations of his own glorious being but not as they are any particles or traduction of it The highest honour that any creature can attaine unto is to be a living picture of God to shew forth as the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 2. 9. the vertues of God and Christ and he that raiseth it any higher must have swelling and lofty thoughts of the creature and low and dishonourable thoughts of God Now this likenesse to God or this Deiformitas Christiformitas as the pious Ancients were wont to style it is wrought by the promises SECT 1. The Promises the Word of life First as they are the words of Spirit and life John 6. 63. As they are the immortal seed 1 Pet. 1. 23. whereby a man is begotten again and made partaker of a second birth in
part of man and by its creation fitted for communion with an infinite good When saith Plutarch did Epicurus cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fed with so much joy and delight as Archimedes in his Mathematical contemplations did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found And when did both they or the whole sect of Epicures and Philosophers in the enjoyment of their sensual and intellectual pleasures crie out with such strong ravishments of soul they had either fed or found as a beleever doth when he hath tasted and found the goodnesse of God in one promise Listen but a little and you shall heare in how loud and patheticall a tone David expresseth himself when he had but tasted these divine consolations Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. And Bellarmine tels of a pious old man that was wont to rise from prayer with these words alwayes in his mouth Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jam videbitis Be shut be shut O mine eyes for now ye shall never see any thing more desirable 3. Sure Thirdly the comforts of the promises are abiding and sure mercies Act. 13. 34. such which are the crystal streames of a living fountaine and not the impure overflowings of an unruly torrent which sometimes with its swellings puts the traveller in feare of his life and at other times shames his expectations of being refreshed by it Job 6. 15. Geographers in their description of America report that in Peru there is a river called the Diurnal or day-river because it runs with a great current in the day but is wholly drie at night which is occasioned as they say by the heat of the sun that in the day-time melts the snow that lies on the mountaines thereabouts but when the Sunne goes down and the cold night approacheth the snow congealeth which only fed it and the channel is quite dried up Not much unlike this river are all wordly contentments which are onely day-comforts but not night-comforts In the sun-shine of peace and prosperity they flow with some pleasing streames but in the night season of affliction they vanish and come to nothing Then the rich man as Cyprian saith vigilat in plumâ suspirat licèt bibat gemmas lyes restlesse upon a bed of downe and fetcheth deep groans though he drink pearles and Saphires But it is farre otherwise with the promises whose streames of comfort in the time of trouble do usually run most plentifully and refresh most powerfully the weary and afflicted soul so as to preserve it from dying and fainting away under the pressure of any evil This was it which made Hezekiah under a sentence of death to revive and to cry out O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit Isa 38. 16. But if at any time these divine consolations do runne in a more shallow and spare channel and vary from their wonted fulnesse yet do they never prove like waters that faile or streames that are quite dried up A beleever may at sometime be drawn low but he can never be drawn drie while Christ is a full fountaine faith will never be an empty conduit-pipe His comforts may be like the Widows oyle in the cruse where onely a little remaines 1 King 17. 12. but never like the water in Hagars bottle that was quite spent Gen. 21. 15. The widow thought her store of meale and oyle to be brought to so low an ebbe as that it would serve but for one cake which two sticks would be fuel enough to bake and then both she and her son must expect to die but then the Lord did put forth his power though not in making the oile and meale to overflow to the feeding of others therewith but in keeping it from wasting so as to be a constant supply unto her and the Prophets necessities in the extremity of the famine The like apprehensions have the dear and beloved ones of God frequently in their afflictions and temptations which befall them they think they have scarce faith enough to last one day more scarce strength enough for one prayer more scarce courage enough for one conflict more and then they and their hopes must die and give up the ghost for ever But in the midst of all these feares and misgivings which arise from their hearts there issueth out such a measure of comfort from the promises which if it gives not deliverance from their temptations doth effect their preservation in them if it overflow not to make them glad it failes not to make them patient and to wait till God send forth judgement unto victory Mat. 12. 20. 4. Universal Fourthly the comforts of the promises are universal such as agree with every estate and suite every malady they are the strong mans meate and the sick mans cordial the condemned sinners pardon and the justified persons evidence but the best of the worlds comforts are only applicable to some particular conditions and serve as salves for some few sores Riches are a remedy against the pressing evils of want and poverty but they cannot purchase ease to the pained Armour of proof is a defence against the sword and bullet but can no way serve to keep off the stings of piercing cares oiles and balsames are useful for bruises and broken bones but they are needlesse to an hungry man that seeks not after medicines but food As the hurting power in creatures is stinted and bounded fire can burne but not drown water can drown but not wound serpents and vipers can put forth a poisonful sting but cannot like beasts of prey teare and rend in pieces so the faculty of doing good which is in any creature is confined to a narrow scantling and reacheth no further then the supply of some particular defect but the comforts and vertue of the promises are in their operations and efficacy of an unlimited extent they flow immediately from the Father of mercies and God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. and are therefore meet to revive and establish how disconsolate in any kinde whatsoever the condition of a beleever be In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul saith holy David Psal 94. 19. When disquieting thoughts did swarme within his breast as thick as motes in the Sun-beames and did continually ascend like sparkes from a flaming furnace which the Crown upon his head could not charme which the Scepter in his hand could not allay which the delights and pleasures of his Court could not sweeten then did the comforts of God in his promises as so many fresh springs in the midst of all his estuations both glad and calme his unquiet and perplexed spirit One sunne when overcast with thick clouds which threaten to blot it out of
to peep and with difficulty to put forth a feeble and disappearing light by and by he looks up again and then both their number and lustre are increased a while after he views the heavens again and then the whole firmament from every quarter with a numberlesse multitude of stars is richly enamelled as with so many golden studs So when a Christian first turnes his thoughts towards the promises the appearances of light and comfort which shine from them do oft-times seeme to be as weak and imperfect raies which neither scatter feares nor darknesse when again he sets himself to ripen and improve his thoughts upon them then the evidence and comfort which they yield to the soul is both more cleare and distinct but when the heart and affections are fully fixed in the meditation of a promise Oh! what a bright mirrour is the promise then to the eye of faith What legions of beauties do then appear from every part of it which both ravish and fill the soul of a beleever with delight How doth he sometimes admire free grace whereby God becomes a debtour not by taking any thing from us but by promising great things unto us How doth he triumph in the fulnesse of mercy which overflows in it as being enough to fill the widest capacity and to supply the greatest necessity How doth he stay himself upon the stability of the promise it being founded upon strength it self The strength of Israel who cannot lie One promise throughly ruminated and meditated upon is like to a morsel of meat well chew'd and digested which distributeth more nourishment and strength to the body then great quantities taken down whole Samson when he had made a great slaughter of his enemies and laid them heapes upon heapes yet he complaines that though God had given him so mighty a deliverance he was ready to die for thirst Judges 15. 18. So many Christians who make it their work to heap promise upon promise may yet be sorely distressed for want of comfort if by meditation they do not dive into the depths of the promise The water wherewith Samson was refreshed came forth out of an hollow place which the Lord clave in the jaw and the springs of comfort which beleevers drink of come out of the clifts of the promise which faith and meditation makes in it Let me therefore perswade such as are desirous and willing to make the utmost of every promise to put in practice this much neglected duty without which every Ordinance is of little fruit The Word as it must have preparation before it which like the plough fits the ground for the reception of the seed so must it have meditation to follow after which is as the harrow to cover and hide the new-sown seed or else the fowles of the aire will pick it up The Sacrament as it is food to be received with an appetite so is it to be digested with meditation else the nourishment will be little The promises as they must be read in the Scripture with diligence so must they be called to remembrance by many serious musings and actings of our thoughts upon them else they will never prove strengthening and reviving cordials Roses are sweeter in the still then on the stalke and promises are more fragrant in the heart then in the book The grapes hanging on the vine do not make the wine that cheares the heart of man but the grapes that are squeised and trodden in the wine-presse no more do the promises as they stand in the Bible work joy and gladnesse but as they are pondered in the minde and like pressed grapes have their juice and vertue drawn from them which by a percolation in the thoughts turnes into a most soveraigne and precious liquor SECT 4. Rule 5. Be much in the application of the Promises The fifth direction is to be much in the use and application of promises though we do not finde such visible effects either of grace or comfort issuing from them as we expect or desire Elijah when he went up to the top of mount Carmel and fell upon his face before the Lord to pray for raine he sent his servant seven times to look towards the sea before he saw so much as the appearance of a cloud of an hand-breadth yet was he not discouraged 1. King 18. 43. So beleevers though they have been much in musing upon the promises in their thoughts frequent in pleading and spreading them before the Lord in prayer and after all their lookings towards heaven say as the servant of Elijah when he looked towards the sea non est quicquam there is nothing yet must they not cast away their confidence in them or neglect the daily use of them because the promise and the word that goeth forth out of Gods mouth shall not returne unto him void but shall accomplish that which he pleaseth and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto he sent it Isa 55. 11. The manner of the fulfilling of it may be various but the performance of it is most certain The blessing of the promise descends sometimes like raine in visible showres producing the sensible effects of joy and peace in the soule sometimes it falls like dew in a silent and imperceptible way without making any discernable alteration in the heart of a beleever the vertue which it puts forth is real but yet withall hidden and secret As gold put and boyled in broth helps to make it strengthening and cordial which if weighed afterwards in the scale is found to lose little or nothing of its former weight or to suffer any dimiunition of its substance so the promise when much meditated on when frequently applied by a beleever to his present straits yields a secret influence and support though to his apprehension no vertue or quickening doth appear to have issued from it Then it is as the cork to the net to keep it floating in a sea of difficulties when every moment we look for nothing else but a dismal and irrecoverable perishing amidst those many rolling waves and billows that passe over us This direction I propound the rather because that Christians lying under fears darkness and temptations are not seldom like hasty patients under diseases and infirmities who if they finde not a present benefit in the use of Physick either in the removal or in the abatement of their distempers do straightways conclude that it were better for them to beare the paine of the disease then to trouble themselves with the daily applications of fruitless remedies prescripts not considering that Physick may be useful to prevent the danger of the disease when it doth not work the cure to keep them from growing worse though it do not make them better So beleevers when by the use of promises and other Ordinances they finde no sensible alteration for the better in respect of their present condition are apt to throw off the use of meanes as things that stand them in little
it was their usual food in the Wildernesse or Quailes the more because they were a new kinde of meat The one indeed pleased their appetite and palate more but the other supplied their necessities as well And so the promises which are most obvious and common in their use do yield to Christians as much reall and solid comfort when rightly applied though others which they conceive to have been lesse observed or by themselves onely taken notice of may more affect and please the curiosity of a lustful fancy SECT 3. Cau. 5. Take heed of carnal reasonings The fifth Cautionary direction is to take heed of carnal reasonings which are restlesse in their enmity to all matters that appertain to faith or at the best full of impotency and unable to yield any assistance to beleevers in them First carnal reason is unwearied in its opposing and contradicting of faith which of all graces hath the most immediate relation unto the promises and is of greatest use in the application of them It is an enemy to the first implantation of it and hinders men from submitting to the righteousnesse of God by possessing their mindes with unjust prejudices and cavils against his Word God saith that his words do good to them that walk uprightly Mich. 2. 7. But the Language of carnal men is It is vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances Mal. 3. 14. Christ saith that his yoke is easie and his burden light Mat. 11. 30. But his carnal disciples cry out It is an hard saying and who can heare it Joh. 6. 60. God saith his waves are just and equal But the carnal Israelites are not afraid to censure his as crooked and their own as strait Ezek 33. 17. And as by the disguises and artifices of carnal reason men are kept from an happy change of their natural estate by beleeving So when faith is wrought they are by the enmity of the same principle continually disquieted and interrupted in the comfortable enjoyment of those many blessed priviledges which they are interessed in by faith Sometimes it calls into question their title to what they possesse and suggests unto them that they are rather presumptuous intruders then just proprietaries that the evidences upon which they build their hopes are the delusions and self-flatteries of their own hearts and not the unerring testimony of Gods Spirit Sometimes it raiseth jealousies concerning the promises themselves that they are things as easily revoked as they are made which though they yield present comfort yet do not ascertaine any future security that though God turne not away from them nor repent him of his love yet they may turne from him and so nullifie the promises and the Covenant of his mercy unto themselves It is therefore of great concernment unto beleevers in the making use of the promises to be cautious in admitting the pleas and arguments of carnal reason which being never so often answered will never be silent But peremptorily to resolve to beleeve notwithstanding all that sense and reason can suggest to the contrary To wink and beleeve to shut their eyes against all difficulties and when they are so great as to pose their reason not to let them to pose their faith Excellent is that saying of Luther Aperuit nobis in Paradiso oculos Satan nunc omnis labor in eo nobis est ut eos iterum claudamus obturemus In Paradise Satan first opened our eyes and now it is our chiefe labour to shut and fast close them again that so we may no more be betrayed by them Sense and reason being in the things of faith noxiabestia an harmfull beast as he calls it to overturne and destroy whatever faith useth as a prop to rest it selfe upon Secondly as Carnall reason is an enemie unto faith so at the best it is full of impotency and unable to give the least assistance to believers in their making use of the promises or dijudication of spirituall objects as may appeare in three particulars First it is dimme-sighted and wants a perceptive faculty Busie and curious it is in prying looking into the mysteries of faith but altogether weak and unskilful in making any true judgement concerning them Reason is like the Crocodile which is reported to be of quick-sight on the land but of dull sight on the water It is sagacious in earthly things but hath no insight in spirituall objects Asaph attempted by the discussions of reason to have found out the ground of Gods differing administrations towards his people and the men of the world whose bellies were filled whith hid treasure but he was by his own confession soon at a losse When I thought to know this it was too painful for me Ps 73. 16. And when he did go that way to satisfie himselfe how opposite is the inference and conclusion to that which he makes upon a second view and lookes upon the same things by the light of the lamp of the Sanctuary When he beholds Gods dispensations with the eye of his reason onely what a wilde and erroneous conclusion doth he take up Verily I have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands ininnocency ver 13. But when he comes to read them over again by the eye of faith then he draws a right inference from the premisses It is good for me to draw neer to God verse 28. And as reason is blinde in discerning spirituall objects so is it also unskilful in the use of those meanes by which faith is enabled to make a full perfect discovery of them Reason is like unto a man that takes the wrong end of the perspective glass to see with which lesseneth the magnitude of the object and increaseth the distance It looketh upon the promises by unapt mediums which do not make a just representation of them and therefore discernes little or nothing of their reality and existence but faith that looketh at the right end of the glasse which being more full of light doth multiply the species and thereby takes away the remotenesse of the objects and presents them as close unto the eye Thus Abraham saw Christs day and rejoyced to see it Joh. 8. 56. Great was the space of time between the making of that promise and the fulfilling of it unto Abraham that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed Gen. 12. 3. But yet his faith eying the power and truth of God that made it looks upon the long intervall of many ages that was between him and his promised seed as upon a very small and inconsiderable distance Thus the holy Patriarchs did not only see the promises afar off but they also saluted and embraced them as neare they were in regard of their own existence afarre off but in regard of their faith they were hard at hand Heb. 11. 13. 2ly Carnal reason as it is blinde so is it also full of impatience and therfore unmeet to be an assistance unto
the visions of God and of the raptures of the Spirit How often doth Satan by transforming himself into an Angel of light endeavor the seducement and ruine of many Christians against whom as an Angel of darknesse he could not prevaile being in every thing Gods Ape to imitate those extraordinary wayes by which God hath sometimes made known himself unto his people Gerson in his book de probatione spirituum of the triall of spirits tells a remarkable story of Satans appearing to an holy man in a most glorious and beautifull manner professing himself to be Christ and because he for his exemplary holinesse was worthy to be honoured above others therefore he appeared unto him but the old man readily answered him that he desired not to see his Saviour in this wildernesse it should suffice him to see him hereafter in heaven and with all added this pithy prayer Sit in alio seculo non in hoc visio tua merces mea O let thy sight be my reward Lord in another life and not in this life This direction therefore is of no little importance unto beleevers that would not loose and wilder themselves in uncertainties both in regard of duty and comfort to take heed how they leave the precept of the Word and betake themselves unto revelations for rhe guidance of their wayes or how they neglect the application of the promises by faith for the establishing of their hearts in the peace and love of God and expect their assurance to flow from an immediate voice or dictate of the Spirit as if the Word and promises had no activity and light in them to evidence and declare the certainty and truth of these things unto their souls Such wayes though the novelty of them may render them pleasing to many yet it cannot as we see make them safe to any that tread or walk in them And therefore let that of Austin be every Christians practice and prayer Sint sacrae Scripturae tu◠deliciae meae in quibus nec possim fallere nec falli Lord let thy holy Scriptures be my pure delights in which I can neither deceive or ever be deceived SECT 2. Cau. 7. Let not thy heart out on earthly Objects The seventh and last Cautionary direction is To take beed of having the heart let out to earthly objects either in earnest desires after them or in long and frequent musings of the minde upon them The application of the promises is then most powerful and operative when they lie nearest and closest unto the soul and the comforts that distill from them are then most sweet when they are received into the most inward parts of the hidden man The softest garments men usually weare next their skin and the best Jewels they lay up in the most inward cells of their Cabinets And of such a nature are the promises and invitations of mercy in the Gospel they are things of the greatest delicacy and therefore should be applied next unto the heart which is of all parts the most tender they are of the highest worth and value and therefore should highest be lodged in the most retired and inward receptacles of the minde as their most due and proper seate All interposition of earthly things doth not onely hinder the conveyance both of grace and comfort from the promises but doth also according to the measure predominancy of it make the heart as an unmeet vessel to receive such heavenly treasure in diverse respects First earthly things do fill the heart thereby put it into an incapacity of receiving either divine counsel or comfort from the Word or promises They fill the heart with crouds of businesses so that Christ and his Word finde no more place in it then he and his mother did roome in the Inne where the manger was fain to be his cradle Luk. 2. 7. They fill the heart with diversity of cares and solicitudes so that it cānot have any freedom to attend heavenly duties Martha who was troubled about many things did not with Mary her sister sit at Christs feet to hear the Word her cumber about much serving made her to neglect the one thing that was needfull Luke 10. 41. They many times fill the heart with pride and scorne so as that the choicest things of the Gospel are no better then foolishnesse The Pharisees heard Christ preach against earthly affections but they derided him Luke 16. 14. The full soul loatheth the honey-combe Pro. 27. 7. and so doth an earthly minde reject the Word which is more sweet then the dropping honey Secondly earthly things defile the heart with many vile and corrupt affections which do unqualifie it for the reception of holy and precious promises They stain the heart with an adulterous and impure love which is enmity unto God James 4. 4. and make it apt to prefer carnall satisfactions before communion with Christ They defile the heart with a false and unsound confidence turning it from God who is the sole object of trust unto the mutable and unstable creature and therefore Paul enjoynes Timothy to charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God 1 Tim. 6. 17. They pollute the heart with sensuall joyes with unhallowed pleasures and delights so that the joy of the corne wine and oile increasing doth extinguish that complacency and tranquillity of mind that flowes from the presence and fruition of spirituall objects as in luxurious persons strange love doth eate out and obliterate that which is conjugall How then can any man expect that the holy Spirit of promise should be both a Counsellor and Comforter unto such an one whose love confidence joys are adulterate and sinfull Surely he who hath the purity of a dove will never take up the lodging of a crow he who dwells in the soule when it is a temple of holinesse will never afforde his presence when it is turned into a cage of uncleane birds Thirdly earthly objects divide the heart Hosea 2. 10. and make it uncertain in its motions towards God As the balance hath no stedfastnesse in it self but doth by every breath and touch fluctuate sometimes to the one hand sometimes to the other so the earthly mind is various and inconstant in its desires to heavenly things sometimes for a short and sudden fit it seemes to affect them and by and by growes cold and heartless again Like to the grasse-hoppers which as Gregory observes give a flirt up and make a faint essay of flying towards heaven and then presently fall on the earth againe Thus the young man Marke 10. 17. comes running to Christ to shew his fervour and zeal kneels to him to testifie his observance prayes to him to direct him in the way to eternall life to evidence his care and solicitude about it but when Christ bids him to sell whatsoever he had and give to the poor that so he might have treasure in heaven how soon doth he who
salvation and resolves neither to seek it nor expect it any other way Thus the Prodigal Luke 15. 18. did cast himself upon his father when he could not tell whether he would owne him as his sonne or make him so much as an hired servant But secondly it may be objected If faith be not Assurance wherein doth lye the certainty of faith To this I answer that there is a double certainty The one is a certainty of sense such as Thomas had who seeing believed Joh. 20. 29. And such a certainty Assurance hath which is rather a kind of sense then faith The other is a certaintie of event and this faith hath though it want the former He that believes shall as certainly not perish as he who is assured though he doth not know it after that manner as the other doth Christ hath promised that he who cometh to him he will in nowise cast out John 6. 37. The words include more then they expresse He will be so farre from casting out any that come to him as that he will embrace them in the armes of his dearest love and manifest the most tender compassions of his heart towards them But the end of all that hath been spoken in answer to this Querie is not that any should rest in their having of faith without assurance or lessen their giving of all diligence to make their calling and election sure Though a malefactor may be pardoned and he not know of it yet he cannot be so comfortable as he that carries his pardon sealed in his bosome He whom God loves though he know it not is happy but he that knowes it knowes himselfe to be happy And therefore believers though they are not to faint under the want of Assurance or to conclude against themselves that they have no faith because they have no Assurance yet they ought in prayer and all other Ordinances to seek not onely the having of eternall life but the knowledge of their having it in Christ CHAP. XIII In which the second Query is resolved THe second Query is What use a believer may make of the promises of mercy and pardon after relapses and falling into grosse sins which waste the conscience and whether he may lay an immediate claime unto his right and interest in them without his being first humbled and afflicted for his sinnes To this I answer that though it be not with a believer under the Gospel as it was with the Nazarite under the Law who if he were defiled in the time of his consecration lost all the former dayes of his separation and was to begin it wholly anew Numb 6. 12. though he do not by his present defilement lose the vertue of his former cleansing and purifying of himselfe so as to extinguish his interest in the promises yet his right may justly be suspended so as that he cannot actually enjoy the benefit and priviledge of them untill he first humble himselfe and lay to heart the greatnesse of his defection and Apostasie from God But that I may give more distinct and cleare satisfaction to this Question I shall speak to these two heads First I shall shew how farre a believer may and ought to charge the guilt of atrocious sinnes that he falls into upon himselfe Secondly I shall shew how farre he may not go or conclude any sentence against himselfe there being errours oftentimes committed in the excesse as well as in the defect SECT 1. How farre a believer ought to censure himselfe after atrocious sinnes First how farre a believer may and ought to judge and sentence himselfe for sinnes that are not quotidianae incursionis of daily incursion and incident to humane frailty but are devoratâ—ria salutis sinnes that more immediately hazard and endanger salvation it selfe as springing from more mature deliberation and a more full consent of will and take it in these particulars First a believer ought to acknowledge that such sinnes which have in them notâ—rietatem facti a notoriety of fact do deserve notorietatem poenae a notoriety and exemplarinesse in their punishment and he is to be affected as one who hath justly merited death though it be not inflicted because the desert of sinne is still the same though the sentence be revoked by a pardon The mercy of a Prince is richly manifested in giving unto a traitour his life but yet that doth not disoblige him to confesse that his offence deserved death but layes rather a greater tie upon him to do it that so he may magnifie the clemency of his Soveraigne So though God do keep a believer from coming into the condemnation of sinners by giving unto him a Royal and full pardon for whatever he hath done against him yet this ought to be so farre from withholding him to acknowledge what the just wages of his rebellions are as that it ought the more to provoke him thereunto that so he may give God the glory of his free pardoning grace Thus Peter bewailed the foulenesse of his sinne in denying his Lord and Master Mark 14. 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We translate it He thought thereon and wept But Teophilact and others with him interpret it Obvelavit se he covered his head and wept Alluding to the generall custome in the Easterne Countreys where the condemned malefactors had their faces covered And by this ceremony Peter judged his sinne to have deserved no lesse then death and as a sonne of death he wailed himselfe He wept bitterly Luk. 22. 62. Secondly a believer may so farre charge the guilt of grosse sinnes and defections upon himselfe as to acknowledge his utter unworthinesse to stand in any relation of love unto God and that he might be so farre from owning him as a sonne as that he might deny to look upon him in the number of his servants Thus the Prodigal whom Divines not improbably conceive to be the embleme of a regenerate man falling into scandalous sinnes in his returne to his father Luke 15. 19. acknowledgeth himselfe to be unworthy to be called his sonne Though he doth not deny the relation of a sonne yet he judgeth himselfe most unworthy of the title of a sonne and thinkes it an happinesse if he may but be in his house as an hireling And surely every child of God who hath through loose and riotous living wasted both his grace and his comforts and brought sad extremities upon himselfe by straying from his fathers house ought in those resolutions and purposes of heart which he hath of returning unto God againe to be deeply apprehensive how unworthy he is of any favourable reception from him how undeserving he is to lodge in his house as a servant much more to lie in his bosome as a sonne that thereby he may the better prize the mercy of restored love and for the future may the more dread the sad effects of a voluntary departure from God and be more watchfull in preserving his communion with him Thirdly a believer falling into
Prophet Their lines are fallen unto them in pleasant places yea they have a goodly heritage Psal 16. 6. SECT 3. Five assertions directing to the right understanding of temporall promises The third particular is the giving of rules for the right understanding of the nature of temporall promises and the manner of due applying them unto our selves which I shall set down in these five subsequent Assertions First that God declaration in his promises of giving temporall blessings is not absolute but carries with it a tacit condition and limitation of expediency The great and utmost end of all the promises is one and the same with that which is the chief end of man the fruition of God and communion with him in everlasting blessednesse Now the means that are subservient to this end are either such as are of absolute necessity and do immediately prepare and dispose the soul for the obtaining of it Or else such as are lesse requisite and have onely a remote and consequentiall tendency thereunto and that not of themselves but as they are over-ruled by God who makes Omnia cooperari in bonum all things to work together for good to them that love him And of this kinde are all temporall blessings prosperity riches health freedome and the like All which do as I conceive come no further under the verge of a promise then as they conduce to the happinesse of the other life this life being onely a way and passage unto it As the wildernesse was to Israel to bring them to Canaan Because therefore none can know what is that measure of these outward comforts which most tends to the furtherance of their eternall happinesse which in and above all things ought to be eyed by them It being haply more for their spirituall good to have many advantages of this life in a lesse degree rather then in a greater to want them rather then to enjoy them They cannot then in their supplications to God seeke the absolute performance of his promises in temporall blessings but must refer themselves to his wisdome and faithfulnesse so to order and measure out the comforts of this life unto them as may best stand with the welfare of their everlasting condition without which all earthly happinesse is no other then a splendid misery But it is much otherwise in the blessings of grace and holinesse which are things so essential to a beleevers fruition of God as that without faith he cannot please God Heb. 11. 6. without holinesse he cannot see God Heb. 12. 14. without being born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3. And being therefore so intrinsecally good in themselves so absolutely also necessary unto salvation they are in prayer to be most absolutely sought as considered in their essence but their degrees are arbitrary God giving to some a lesse to others a greater measure of grace according to his pleasure The second Assertion is that the fulfilling of temporal promises is disjunctive God either giving the blessing it self or that which is equivalent unto it The promises of God are all made in Christ and derive their certainty and stability from him in whom they are made not from us to whom they are made they are all ratified with the same oath and purchased by the same blood And though they are not equally precious in regard of the things promised yet they are equally true in regard of the certainty of their performance onely the manner of their fulfilling is different In the spiritual promises God gives the things in kinde for how can they be otherwise made good What is answerable in worth or excellency to grace the least drop of which is of more value then the whole creation In temporals God gives the things themselves or makes a compensation some other way If riches be asked of him in prayer and yet denied he makes it up in contentation which brings that satisfaction with it that riches cannot yield If health be prayed for and not granted he gives strength to beare the crosse by putting under his everlasting armes If deliverance in trouble be desired and not obtained he gives the divine consolations of Martyrs which that Noble Landgrave of Hessia said he found in his long and tedious imprisonment And in thus doing God doth not break his promise but change it to the better It is said of our Saviour Heb. 5. 7. That in the dayes of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared That which Christ prayed for was deliverance O'Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Mat. 26. 39. Was there then any defect in Christs faith in that he did not obtain the thing prayed sor Or how was his prayer heard did he not die the death of the crosse was he not buried in the grave Yes but yet he had from God an answer of supportation though not of deliverance He was strengthened in his agonie by the appearance of an Angel Luke 22. 43. He was assured by Gods promise of victorie over death though not of freedome from it He under-went the darknesse of the grave but not the corruption of it Psal 16. 10. The third assertion is that temporal promises are to be expounded with the reservation and exception of the Crosse God in the Covenant of Grace which is the adequate measure of his obligation to believers hath kept to himself this prerogative of chastening the delinquencies of his children with rods Psal 89. 33. of withdrawing his favours from them when they with-hold their obedience to him of exercising the severity of a Father as well as the indulgency of a Mother And therefore beleevers when they want the staffe of many outward comforts in their hand and feel the smart of the rod of affliction upon their back they are not to suspect Gods fidelity in his promise but to reflect upon themselves and by a serious disquisition to consider from whence the suspension of any good things that he hath promised doth arise And if Christians under Gods reâ—ukes did make this their chief task they would be so farre from charging him with unfaithfulnesse as that they would more wonder that God is pleased to vouchsafe them any thing that are Prodigals that justly deserve nothing In the midst of their deepest trials they would say as the Church did in her extremities It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Great is thy faithfulnesse O Lord Lam. 3. 22 23. The fourth Assertion is that temporal mercies in the promises are onely to be obtained by a well regulated prayer in which God is sought after a right manner and the mercies begged for a right end First the manner of seeking God must be in faith James 1. 6. Let him ask in faith nothing wavering But the faith here required is not the faith of a
particular perswasion that God will give the very thing it self that we begge of him but the faith of submission by which we resolve our prayers into his will and beleeve that he will do whatever is best for our good and his glory We then distrust God when either we are jealous of his willingnesse to performe his Word or of his power to accomplish his Word But when we acknowledge the alsufficiency of his power and resigne our desires to his will we do then pray in faith And this was the faith that our Lord Christ did put forth in his prayer when he said Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 22. 42. I do not deny but that God may sometimes assure and incline the hearts of his children that are importunate wrestlers in prayer to be confident of granting the temporal blessing that they seek but this is a confidence that is rather begotten by the Spirit in the height and vigour of prayer then brought with us unto the duty Sometimes I say such a confidence may be but it is neither ordinary nor usual Secondly temporal mercies must be asked for a right end James 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amisse that ye may consume it upon your lusts Carnal lusts may make men eager in prayer but not successeful Usually wrong ends in prayer are accompanied with disappointments Sinister Aimes turn duties of worship into acts of self-seeking they change the voice of prayer into a brutish howling Hos 7. 14. The execution of justice it selfe into murther Hos 1. 4. Finis in moralibus idem est quod forma in naturalibus The end in moral things is the same that the forme is in natural things The quality and goodnesse of them is not discerned but by the end It concernes therefore beleevers that would in prayer obtaine any outward blessing to look unto their ends in asking of it though the mercy be earthly yet their end in asking of it must be heavenly Gods glory must be in the end of all prayer as his Name must be in the beginning of it else it cannot be expected that it should be owned as a sacrifice by him The fifth Assertion is that the blessings of temporal promises are to be sought secondarily and not primarily Mat. 6. 33. They are neither to be the chief cares of our life or desires of our prayers because the soul may do well without the body but the body cannot do well without the soul And yet of this disorder the greatest part of men may be found guilty Their estates they carefully put into their deeds and evidences and their souls they onely put into their wills the last of instruments that are usually either made or sealed For the one they think it enough if with a few gilded expressions of piety it be given and bequeathed as a legacy unto God But for the other they conceive no paines or toile too great to encrease it or cost too much for to secure it The one they make the task of the morning and day of their lives the other the by-work of the evening and the approaching night of death So that it is no wonder if in these preposterous and irregular actings of men they do not finde the blessing of Gods promise upon their labours that they toil as in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity Hab. 2. 13. that they sowe much and bring in little Hag. 1. 6. For what benefit can they justly expect to reap from the promise who neglect to walk by the guidance of that rule to which the promise is made CHAP. XVII It is an horrible sinne to neglect or abuse the Promises Aggravated in five particulars HAving spoken enough if not too much to each of those foure heads that in the beginning were propounded and laid as so many corner-stones for this small structure to stand upon The last head which now remaines to be insisted on is the handling of such useful applications and inferences as do naturally flow and arise from this Doctrinal truth of the transcendent worth and preciousnesse of the promises which are given unto us by Jesus Christ And the first Application which I shall make is A sad and just complaint which sighes and tears may better expresse then words of the great injury and contempt that is done unto the blessed promises both by mens carelesse and overly seeking after them as things of no great worth and by their sinful perverting of them unto wrong ends and purposes while they turn grace into wantonnesse and sin the more freely because of the redundancy of divine mercy which is manifested in them God layes it as an heavy charge against Israel that he had written unto them the great things of his law but they were counted as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. How much more are they blame-worthy who are guilty of despising the Magnalia Evangelii and of setting light by the most choice and excellent things of the Gospel as if they were of little or no importance for the obtaining of life and salvation This complaint if it had no circumstances to aggravate it but were onely laid in the general against men that they have forsaken the fountain of living water and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2. 13. It would quickly prove to be so black an indictment as could neither admit of an excuse to lessen the sin nor yet of pitty to mitigate the punishment that deserves to be inflicted upon such offenders But if we shall consider it in the several aggravations which heighten it we may then at this sinne justly crie out Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate There are five particulars that make the complaint more sad and the injury which is done unto the promises the more exceeding sinful SECT 1. The first Aggravation is taken from the universality of this sin they who are transgressors in this matter are not a few Parisiensis speaking of Davids Psalmes cries out Eheu quot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habet sanctus David vel potiùs Spiritus sanctus ad suam Cytharam Oh! how many Dullards hath holy David or rather the holy Spirit to his harp who are little affected with the heavenly melody that it makes And may it not be as truly said concerning the precious promises of Christ Oh! how many are there that taste little or nothing of their sweetnesse What vast numbers of men are there who see no more worth and beauty in them then blinde persons do in the Sunne How many be there that spend and blaze away the lamp of their time in frothy studies and curious speculations but seldome or never look into the Bible to read and understand what their interest or right is to the blessings of heaven by the promises How ambitious are others to be thought to know much of the minde of God concerning his decrees which
him he denied the receiving any And being thereupon cited before the Judges for want of other proof it was resolved that the matter should be determined by a solemn oath A day for which being appointed Cydias faining illnesse provides him an hallow staffe into which he put the gold and while he went to the Altar to sweare he gave his staffe into the hand of Archetimus to hold and then swore that he had received moneys of him but he had returned them again Archetimus being much incensed both by his impudence and his own losse flings down the staffe with such violence upon the ground that it brake into pieces and the money in it scattered abroad whereby Cydias his fraud was fully detected And this the Historian calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lie made up of art and subtilty such are all Satans promises they are nothing but well tempered and fine spun lies gilded impostures cheats framed on purpose to deceive The matter of them is false as well as the end of them is deceitful A third difference is in the ground of the promises Gods promises do arise from his love and good will to those to whom they are made and are the powerful motives by which he winnes and draws men to the obedience of himself But Satans promises do flow from his irreconcileable hatred of God and his envying of mans happinesse which God by Christ hath freely estated upon him He cannot beare that God should have any to worship him or to love him and therefore he useth all wayes that malice and envy can prompt unto him to draw and entice men from him As God useth his promises to oblige and tye men to himself as by so many strong cords and bands of love So Satan on the contrary makes use of his promises to alienate mens hearts and affections from God and to bring them into bondage to himself His great end by all these specious artifices of promising honour riches pleasure or whatsoever may be a bait to carnal hearts is at once to deprive God of his glory and man of his happinesse His promises are as the meat which fowlers set before birds which is not to feed them but to take them A fourth difference is in the accomplishment Gods promises are alwayes like unto a rich and seasonable harvest which fully answers the hopes and expectation of the husband-man they who wait upon him have never their faces covered with shame nor their hearts dejected with disappointments He is as Bernard expresseth it Verax in promissione potens in exhibitione Faithful in promising powerful in performing God who cannot lie hath promised Tit. 1. 2. But as God is alwayes righteous in keeping his word so Satan is alwayes false in breaking his word If he promise bread he gives a stone if fish a serpent if riches poverty Remigius who was a Judge in Florence and had many witches under his examination reports that divers of them have confessed that the seeming gold and money which they received of him when it came to be used proved either leaves or sand not above the value of three stivers was ever found to be currant money And indeed how can it otherwise be expected When such is his hatred unto all man kinde as that he continually seeks their ruine and not their welfare Can any man rationally conceive that he should deal better with him then with our first Parents In propounding the temptation he makes a shew of friendship but in the close he proves a bloody liar What other thing did they behold by his opening of their eyes but their own shame and folly in hearkening unto his deceitful words What other knowledge did they gain but only the sad experience of the transitorinesse of sinful pleasures which vanish as soon as they are tasted and prove to be not food but poyson Seeing then that in all these respects there is so wide a difference between Gods promises and the Devils Oh! then how inexcusable is their sin who by the inchantments and effascinations of Satan are drawn aside to give more credit unto his bare word then to the promises of God that are ratified with his oath and Christs blood What higher contumely and scorne can any put upon God then by their unbelief to make him a liar and that in such a manner as to have more regard to what Satan the father of lies speaks then to what God who is the Father of mercies sweares And yet in this kinde God suffers dishonour from more then a few How great is the number of those who upon the appearance of the least difficulty are apt to be jealous of his faithfulnesse and through distrust to wave the waiting upon him in his promise for the obtaining of some particular blessing and betake themselves unto such wayes as Satan secretly suggests to them to be both more compendious and certain And what is this lesse then to be interpretatively guilty if not formally of so foul a sin as the making of the most holy and righteous God a liar Let me therefore in a few words prevail with all those that professe to the world to have their dependance upon God and to derive their comforts from his promises to be circumspect how they comply with any way or means for the effecting of their desires that may be dishonourable to God and to those most sure promises which he hath made of giving them whatsoever they ask of him according to his will To speak well saith Isiodorus Pelutiota is to sound like a Cymbal but to do well is to act like an Angel It is not a beleevers work onely to speak well of the promises but to act faith in them and when through diffidence he steps aside into any unwarrantable path he then gives occasion unto worldly and carnal men to think and speak as slightly of Gods promises as he at other times hath spoken unto the world of the deceitfulnesse and inconstancy of the promises of Satan CHAP. XIX The worst estate of a beleever is better then the best estate of unbelievers A Third application may be this If the promises which are by Christ are so exceeding great and precious Then the lowest estate that can be fal a believer who hath an interest and right unto them is farre better then the highest and most glorious condition of any person that can lay no claime or title to them So that Luther might well say he had rather be Christianus rusticus quà m Alexander ethnicus a poor Rustick and a Christian then to be great Alexander and an heathen This corollary though it be a truth which all contradiction can no more shake then the violence of tempestuous waves can stirre the rocks against which they dash and break yet it hath so much of a Paradox in it that from the most part of men it may finde no better entertainment then Pauls doctrine of the resurrection did at Athens where he hath no better title given
that is taken up in the lips of talkers and is the infamy of the people Ezek. 36. 3. When others are in their name as beautiful as Absalom who from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head had no blemish in him he is as Job on the dunghill overspread with defamations that are as so many putrid ulcers When others are cried up as the glory of their times he is decried as the filth and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. 4. 13. When the actions of others are blazoned as their vertues his that are in themselves commendable are censured as full of pride hypocrisy affectation and singularity Where is then the blessednesse of his condition that you spake of How can his estate that is overcast with a more pitchy darknesse then that of the night be better then the best of theirs that hath not the least shadow of any such evil stretching out it self upon it True it is that none are more evil spoken of and blasted in their names then beleevers but the ground of it springs not from their just deservings but from the worlds malice and enmity to God which is derived to them for his sake Let Nehemiah and the Jews set upon the rebuilding of the Temple and the repairing of the waste place of Jerusalem and Sanbullat upbraids them with intentions of rebellion Neh. 6. 6. Let Paul make known the Gospel of Christ and the Jews that beleeve not cry out that he is one of them that turn the world upside-down Act. 17. 6. Let the primitive Christians that cannot safely meet in the day take the opportunity of the night to worship God and the Heathens asperse their Assemblies to be full of uncleannesse and cruelty and that they have suppers not much unlike that of Thiestes as Tertullian shews in his Apology Now in these sufferings for God there are such promises from God made and fulfilled to them as that there is more sweetness to be found in the reproaches that they undergo for him from the world then there can be contentment in its smiles or favour And therefore Moses chose rather to suffer reproaches with Israel then to enjoy treasures in Egypt Heb. 11. 26. The contumelies slanders which they undergo on Christs behalf serve both to make the present comforts more sweet and their reward hereafter more glorious Blessed are ye saith our Saviour when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Mat. 10. 11. And now speak O ye worldlings that judge happinesse by as false a rule as they do that measure their height by their shadow Who is in a true estimate the better man Elijah that runs before the chariot or Ahab that sits in it John the Baptist that is cloathed with camels haire or Herod his Courtiers that are arrayed with robes and costly garments the poor whom God hath chosen to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdome James 2. 5. or the man that hath the gold ring and hath the chief place in Assemblies given unto him Which condition is now more desirable to be a stranger to the world and to be the Lords freeman or to be an Alien to God and the Covenant of promise and to be a Denizon onely of the world To be rich to God and poor to men or to be rich to men and poore to God To be the favorite of heaven and to be contemned on earth or to be the darling of earth and the enemy of heaven O therefore learn to judge of happinesse not by the light of sense but by the lamp of the Sanctuary and in time bethink your selves that nothing can be a foundation of happinesse unto you that hath not its stability from the promise of God CHAP. XX. Grounds of thankfulnesse for precious promises A Fourth application is to exhort beleevers that are made partakers of such great and precious promises to abound in all thankfulnesse to God and Christ who are the sole fountain from whence these streams of living waters do flow When old Isaac had eaten of his sonnes venison he blessed him that had prepared it for him how much more should they that have tasted how good God is have their mouthes filled with the blessing and praising of his Name that hath poured forth his love and mercy in such rich promises as are to the soul more sweet then marrow and fatnesse To this duty holy David doth quicken and stirre up himself Psal 103. when he summons all the faculties of his soul to praise the Lord Let all that is within me blesse his holy Name Vers 1. And that he may make the deeper impressions of Gods goodnesse upon his own heart he frames a short but yet a pithy compendium of his love towards him in his pardoning and healing grace Vers 3. He forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases In his redeeming and saving grace Vers 4. He redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindnesse and tender mercies In his supporting and renuing mercies Vers 5. He satisfieth thy mouth with good things thy youth is renued as the eagles And of all these blessings are beleevers made partakers in the promises it therefore becomes them to pay unto God a tribute of thankfulnesse and that upon these grounds First the end of Gods goodnesse to his creatures is his glory and that which he chiefly delights in Trumpeters love to sound where there is an echo and God loves to bestow his mercies where he may hear of them again For man to make the end of his actions in any kinde to be his own praise doth not onely taint and flie-blow his services with hypocrisie and pride so as to marre the beauty of them but also transformes them into vices that are hateful unto God and man For it is not meet that he who derives his being from another should have his actions to terminate in himself He that gives the being gives also the rule and end of its working by both which the goodnesse of its actions are denominated The rule of its working is the law and will of him who gave it a being and the end of all its actions is his glory But God who is the fountain of his own being can have in all his works no other end then his own praise and glory This is his end in all his works of creation Prov. 16. 4. The Lord made all things for himself And this is the great end of all his works of grace in Christ Ephes 1. 6. That we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace All the eternal purposes of God concerning mans salvation from the first to the last do ultimately resolve themselves into his glory Secondly to give unto God praise and thankful acknowledgements for his great and precious promises is all the return that
and of no effect For besides the infallibility of Gods Word which may abundantly confirme unto Believers the truth of the promises the goodnesse also and mercy of Christ are as another sacred anchor for their faith and confidence to rest upon if in relation to the promises it be seriously thought on in two particulars First That the promises are the real purchase of the precious blood of Christ and must therefore be certainly made good or else he must be a loser in all his sufferings If he like Jonathan 1 Sam. 18. 4. should strip himself not only of his robes but of his life that he might expresse his love to distressed and undone persons with whom God is angry and displeased and yet they receive no advantage or fruit by it would not all these condescensions of goodnesse and mercy be in vain If he should drink of that brook and torrent of curses that was in the way between salvation and sinners and yet the passage to the heavenly Canaan be no more open then it was before should not Christ be a greater loser then sinners themselves They it is true lose their soules each of which are of more value then so many worlds but Christ must lose the revenue of his glory which is farre more precious then the souls of all the men in the world How would sinne exult and triumph if it should ever be able to say there was a pardon covenanted for to be given such a person but I have hindred the execution of it How would Satan reproach the death of Christ if he could be able to say that he hath destroyed one soul for whom Christ died Yea how should Paul or any other believer be able to throw forth their gantlet and to challenge all the enemies of salvation to do their worst Rom. 8. 31. if any of them could make a separation between the love of Christ and them How quickly would tribulation persecution famine nakednesse say we will make you miserable How soone would perils and the sword reply we will conquer you How confidently would principalities and powers say we will pluck you out of Christs hand But for ever blessed be his Name there are none among the whole host of enemies that dare revile the confidence of a beleever or say as that uncircumcised Philistine to David 1 Sam. 17. 44. I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the aire or to the beasts of the field There are none that dare presume to say that they can make void the least mercy which the promise doth hold forth to be the gift of Christs love and the purchase of his blood Let therefore beleevers lift up the hands which hang down and put forth the strength of faith in renewed acts of confidence upon the promises being fully perswaded in themselves of this truth that they can no more be disappointed of their hopes then Christ can be disappointed of his purchase Secondly That the promises are the matter of the most prevailing intercession of Christ who now sits on the right hand of God in glory When he was on earth he purchased by the price of his blood all that masse of treasure and riches both of grace and glory that are inventoried in the promises and by his last Will and Testament on the crosse bequeathed them to beleevers But all this which was transacted here below was onely as Divines usually terme it medium impetrationis the meanes of procurement or obtaining it for beleevers the medium applicationis the meanes of applying all this unto them are as his resurrection and intercession his resurrection that declares his conquest over death his intercession that shews his favour and acceptance with God And they are both as necessary to make his satisfaction of force unto beleevers as the image or stamp of the Prince is to make the coin currant though it neither adde weight or value to the substance He saith the Apostle being made perfect became the Author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Now the intercession of Christ is set forth in Scripture with all the advantages that may be that thereby beleevers may be secured of their interest and title to the things which he hath purchased We have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Sonne of God let us therefore hold fast our profession Heb. 4. 14. First He is a great high Priest greater then all that were before him both in power and favour with God Secondly He is passed into the heavens a Sanctuary which no other Priest could ever enter into or sit down in all their sacrifices being imperfect and therefore to be daily renewed by them Thirdly He is Jesus the Sonne of God more near in alliance unto him then Angels or men and therefore most sure to prevaile for the obtaining of whatever he asks or requires of him When he therefore who is the only Favorite of heaven is the Believers Advocate and doth continually solicit God to fulfil his Covenant made with him and his peoples prayers made unto him What ground can therebe for jealousies and distrust in a Believers heart What rational impediment can there be imagined to hinder or weaken the confidence of faith which the intercession of Christ doth not fully remove and take away Are your prayers tainted with the corruption and infirmities of the flesh he perfumes them with the sweet odours of his intercession Rev. 8. 3. Are your sins multiplyed and renewed daily So are the intercessions of Christ It is his only work in heaven to intercede for sinners Heb. 7. 25. Are your persons vile and such which you fear God will not accept Christ who is your high Priest is holy harmlesse and separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. He hath in his person a fulnesse of all perfections which may assure every Believer that the promises which he pleads that the requests which he makes to God in Christs Name shall not be like arrowes shot at the Sunne which never reach it or come near to it but that they shall pierce the heavens and be of such power and prevalency with God as that what they seek he will grant and the promises which they plead in faith he will performe and make good in truth Wherefore let me again commend unto Believers the great duty of exercising faith on he promises of Christ which cannot but fill the heart with strong and inseperable consolations when by the eye of faith they are looked upon as those great things which are both the purchase of his most precious blood and the matter of his most powerful intercession And now as Mariners who when they come nigh the port roll up their sails which were before spread they being not useful in the harbour that were before most necessary on the sea So must I being arrived at that point which was the utmost boundary of my thoughts and intentions draw towards a conclusion and winde up this