the arms of God how admirably doth it set him forth in all his Attributes his eternity is the rock of ages his immutability an invariable and inconvertible Sun his righteousness like the great mountains his decrees and judgments a mighty deep his mercy a glory a mass of riches never to be told over his holiness as the pure unmixed light his justice as the devouring unquenchable fire In a word there all the glory of his Attributes pass before the believers eye such a book as this must needs be divine Secondly These marks or characters in Scripture cannot be known without supernatural light Meer reason receiveth them not like the child Samuel it hears a voice a sound of words but it knows not that it is the Lord insomuch that some have slighted the Scriptures Politianus said that he never spent time to less purpose then in reading them and Julian that there was as good stuff in Pindars Odes as in Davids Psalms Had they known the word or testimony of God in them they would not have crucified them by their wretched blasphemies But when the light of Faith comes the Scripture appears not in letters and words only but in the divine and heavenly characters and by these it bears witness to it self that it is the word of God There is a double cause of Faith an effective cause and an objective the effective cause is the holy spirit inlightning the understanding and moving the will and the objective is the Scripture it self by its own innate light and Majesty revealing its divinity to the inlightned soul Tertullian having this holy light in him adored the fullness of Scripture St. Austin seemeth to be taken to admiration with the purity of it as not admitting so much as an officious lyc Wheresoever the supernatural light comes the Scripture manifests it self to be divine Fourthly The fourth step of knowledge in order to Faith is Deus revelavit Evangelium God hath revealed a Gospel a way of salvation and eternal happiness Faith as I shall shew hereafter is not a meer belief of the divine testimony but a dependant resignation to God and Christ and to this resignation no man arrives unless he first see an overtopping superlative excellency in the Gospel outbidding the world and all the lusts thereof and verily believe that there and there only is the way of life and happiness And thus to see and believe is beyond the line of reason and all it s acquired notions The natural man in the midst of all his notions carries a false ballance in his heart which makes as if every trifling vanity did out-weigh God and Christ and heavenly things and whilest the ballance is thus he cannot resign and thus it will be till supernatural light come then and not till then doth the ballance turn by a right estimate of the Gospel and the promises thereof The spirit inlightning and not humane reason takes the things of Christ and shews them forth in their glory Joh. 16.14 And in this way God works the heart to resignation CHAP. III. Of the second part of Precious Faith the belief of the Testimony of God in the Scriptures What manner of belief it is and the consequents of it in order to an holy self-resignation THUS far of the first thing in Faith supernatural illumination I now proceed to the second A belief of the testimony of God in the Scriptures and here I need use no words to prove this belief an ingredient in Faith for faith in the Grammatical notion of it is nothing else but a belief of a Testimony and being applied to God it is a belief of his Testimony in Scripture Only I shall open two things first what manner of belief of the divine testimony in Scriptures this is and then what the consequents of it are in order to resignation First What manner of belief this is And this I shall explain in these particulars First This belief is divine and congruous to the divine testimony Such as the testimony is such must be the ratio credendi the Scriptures being a divine testimony must be believed for themselves because of the divine authority stamped upon them Thus the Thessalonians received the word not as the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God 1 Thess 2.13 they lodged the divine truth in a divine faith which was a suitable entertainment Humana omnia dicta testibus egent Dei autem sermo ipse sibi test is est saith Salvian humane words want witness but divine carry their own testimony in themselves To believe the Scriptures because God speaks in them is a divine faith but to believe them upon any other account is below their divine authority and but an humane faith For example to believe the Scriptures for the saying of the woman for the Churches testimony is but an humane faith for it stands on no higher fulciment then an humane testimony and therefore can be but an humane faith Here the subtile Jesuite would help out the Papist at a dead lift that faith saith he which is resolved into the Churches authority is neque purè divina neque purè humana sed quasi media inferioris cujusdam ordinis but what saith the learned Pemble to him Just so men use to speak when they cannot tell what to say It is Quasi and Aliquomodo and Alicujus generis it is somewhat if they could tell what thus he 'T is undoubtedly clear that that faith which calls any man Master on earth and centers on an humane testimony such as that of the Church made up of men must needs be can be no other then humane Indeed the Churches testimony may be inter motiva fidei but if the faith be divine it cannot be inter formales rationes sidei A man in the dark labyrinth of nature may be led out by the Churches lamp but when he is out he sees the Sun by its own light he believes the Scriptures for their own divinity though per ministerium Ecclesiae yet not propter authoritatem Ecclesiae Divine faith hath its Master in heaven and its record on high Secondly Which follows on the other this belief is a firm and stable thing because built on the divine authority of Scripture we believe and are sure saith Peter Joh. 6.69 Nothing on earth can so ascertain things unto us as faith in the divine testimony Julian the Apostate glorying in the Pagan learning jeered at the Christians because all their wisdom was but in that one word Credo I believe but divine faith for all his prophane taunt hath more firmness and real certainty in it then all the Sciences in the world for it sees things in lumine veritatis primae in the light of the first truth and sits even in the infallible chair so that non potest subesse falsum a lye cannot sit under it and glues the heart to the truth in that manner Eonav l. 3 disi 23. quest 4. that
Father and himself would come and make their abode in such an one ver 23. The Abode of the Father and the Son in such an one is in a glorious manifestative way such as gives an experience of their being there and where the Father and the Son are there also is the holy Spirit Thus our Saviour in the 16. and 17. verses of that Chapter saith That the Spirit should abide in them and abide in them in a manifestative way Ye know him for he dwelleth with you saith he And in the 20th verse he saith At that day that is the day of the Spirits in-dwelling Ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Oh what rich glorious Experiences of the Sacred Trinity are here and how happy the Faith and Obedience which arrives at them Godly Men should labour to perfect Holiness to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to get to the top of Godliness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3.14 to be Masters and eminent Presidents in good Works that they may arrive at this great Experiment Thus far touching that center of Divinity the Sacred Trinity In the next place I proceed to the rare Supernatural Truths touching Jesus Christ all which Faith may experiment And here I shall begin with his Incarnation Venit universitatis Creator venit ad homines venit propter homines venit homo saith St. Bernard He was Immanuel God with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man in one Person The Eternal Word was made flesh 1 Joh. 1.14 God was manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And what say the Socinian Rebels to this Truth Rationi sanae repugnat duae substantiae proprietatibus adversae coire in unam personam nequeunt ut sunt mortalem immortalem esse principium habere principie carere mutabilem immutabilem existere saith the Racovian Catechism One and the same Person cannot be Mortal and Immortal have a Beginning and no Beginning or be Mutable Immutable But reason it self though too low a bar for this Truth to appear at will absolve this truth from repugnancy Body and Soul meet in one Person adverse in Properties the one being Corporal the other Spiritual the one Visible the other Invisible the one Rational the other Irrational the one Mortal the other Immortal This is done naturally how much more may it be done Supernaturally It would be against reason to say That Christ were Secundum idem Mortal and Immortal having a Beginning and none Mutable and Immutable But it is not repugnant to say That he is so in respect of the two Natures Humane and Divine Had not Christ been Man he could not have suffered had he not been God he could not have satisfied The Blood was from the Humane Nature and the excellent Merit from the Divine He that disbelieves either must cast away Scripture which asserts both This Truth stands firm in Scripture as might be shewed at large but for the Point in hand Faith may experiment it The Believer may find in himself such fruits of Christs Incarnation as carry a resemblance thereunto and are a kind of inward Seal thereof The humane Nature of Christ was not brought forth of the blessed Virgin generatione sed jussione not in an ordinary way by knowing a man but in an extraordinary by the power of the highest and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost Answerably in the Believer the new Creature is not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.13 He that is such hath not known man nor his power in this great Work but hath had the holy Spirit and its gracious overshadowings on the heart They that dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his shadow shall return saith the Prophet Hos 14.7 Unless the mighty Power of God come upon us we shall have no hearts to return to him This resemblance is excellently set forth by Fulgentius Forma praecessit in carne Christi quam in nostrá side spiritualiter agnoseamus De Incarnat Christi cap. 20. ex eodem spiritu renati sumus ex quo natus est Christas eodem Spiritu Christus formatur secundum fidem in corde uniuscujusque credentis quo Spiritu secundum carnem formatus est in utero Virginis The very same Spirit which formed Christ in the womb forms him in the heart The Humane nature in Christ was united to the Divine in an Hypostatical Union God and Man met in one Person that they might meet in the Covenant of Grace Answerably the Believer is united unto God in a spiritual Mystical Union He is made one Spirit with the Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 Christ was one flesh with us and we are one Spirit with him God is at one with us in Christ and we may approach to God with holy boldness The Humane Nature of Christ had no natural Subsistence but subsisted in the eternal Word sutably the new Creature hath no spiritual Subsistence in it self but subsists in God and his Grace By the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15.10 St. Paul looked on his spiritual Being to be only by Grace In Christ God was manifested in the flesh and tabernacled in it nay the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it Col. 2.10 As low abject a thing as Humane nature is the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it and will dwell in it for ever sutably in Believers the Tabernacle of God is with men he dwells and walks in them and they may be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.19 that is have abundance of his gracious Presence with them A Believer may find that he hath these resembling fruits in himself and withal that unless the Son of God had been incarnate none of them would have been no new Creature but all men lying in the old rubbish of the Fall no Union but an unpassable gulf such as is between Heaven and Hell no spiritual Subsistence but a corrupt one upon the dregs of Free-will no heavenly Fulness but a vacuity of all Grace And from hence he may have an experimental proof of Christs Incarnation the Mystical Union being a proof of the Hypostatical and God manifest in the Spirit of God manifest in the Flesh St. John lays down this as a glorious Truth That Jesus Christ is the Son of God 1 John 5.5 and for proof of it he produces six Witnesses Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost ver 7. and Three on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood ver 8. By the Spirit we may understand the holy Spirit breathing in the Scripture and witnessing in the heart by the Water the sanctifying Graces and those sealed in Baptism and by the Blood the precious Sufferings of Christ which pacifie the Conscience A Believer may experience all these three Witnesses on Earth
the use of thy Talents exercise thy self unto Godliness that the Divine Life now latent in Principles may shew it self in acts blow up the holy fire in thy bosom that what was buried under ashes may revive into a flame Be still a putting forth one Grace or other melting in repenting tears or clasping thy Faith about Promises or kneeling down in obedience to Commands or inflaming thy Love at Gods or perfecting Patience under his hand or drawing out thy Soul in Charity As the season is let one Grace or other be still a-budding and bearing holy fruit Thy Graces thus exercised will become radiant and visible those which before lay hid like Saul among the stuff as if they had been upon the common level of nature will now come forth in their Supernatural statures and appear as the virtues of God Thou maist now dsscern in thy self that which is more than Humane a Divine Nature which sparkles out of thy flesh in holy Operarations Another an higher Spirit than thy own which follows God fully in holy walking Thou maist now sit down under Christs shadow and reckon thy self in the very borders of Assurance waiting the good hour when the irradiating Spirit shall take thee by the hand and lead thee into the full possession thereof Moreover unto the exercise of Grace add growth as a fruit thereof Grow in Grace and in the knowledg of Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 Abound more and more 1 Thes 4.1 Let thy Motto be Plus ultra and thy Christian Arms like Josephs a fruitful bough by a well Thou hast Faith but be strong in it that thou maist wrestle with God and not let him go till he bless thee with Assurance be great in it that he may condescend to thee and say Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Thou hast a being in Christ but be rooted in him by a more close adherence and intimate Union within him grow up into him in statures of Grace till thou come to the oylof gladness upon his head There is some holy Love in thee but be rooted and grounded in it that thou maist comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg and be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.17 18 19. Through radicated and well-grown Graces as the Apostles assures us in that place admirable and wonderful things may be attained In a sober sense we may take Infinity know Transcendencies and be filled with a Deity Labour to grow every way downward in Húmility and self-denial upward in holy desires and raptures inward in the vitals of Faith and Love and outward in all holy fruits and good works fill up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is lacking in Faith and other Graces let Patience and all other Graces have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perfect work that thy path may be as the shining light shining more and more to the perfect day As an Heavenly Pilgrim go from faith to faith and from strength to strength travelling to meet the day coming towards thee in the light of Gods Countenance In such a growth as this as in a clear glass thou maist discover that thy Graces are vital and true feeds of Immortality Statues and Pictures such as Hypocrites are grow not Essentials and Vitals are Vltra penicillum Sincerity and Divine Vitality cannot be painted Confider therefore with thy self how it hath been with thee there was but a little dawn in thy Heart and now a pure morning Thy Grace was but a little grain of Mustard-seed and now it is become a Tree Thou wast but a little Embrio a babe in Christ and now a man of strength and spiritual stature And what doth this argue but Life in thee Confider again thou hast an ocean of Corruption in thy Heart and yet thy little spark of Grace hath grown thou hast stood in the midst of Satans winds and withering blasts and yet thou growest thou hast had many a sharp frost from the World to nip thy fruit in the bud and yet thou growest And what doth this speak but a seed and life of God in thee such as will spring up into Life Eternal Take this as an Earnest from God that maugre Satan and all the power of Darkness thou shalt grow and grow on till thou art transplanted into the Heavenly Paradise Again If thou wouldst have Assurance be much in mortifying of Sin This is the great troubler If thou indulg it a cloud will come over thy Conscience darken thy Evidences thy Graces will all droop and like a Candle in the socket be ready to die the Law will arm it self against thee and from one threatning or other will flash Hell in thy face Satan will rake in thy old wounds of Guilt and put thee into fresh torments the holy Spirit will be gone and carry away all his Cordials with him the Promises will be as dry Breasts and let out never a drop of sweetness to thee thy Duties will hang the wing and become dead and spiritless and without comfort In the end thou wilt experimentally find That in crooked Paths Peace cannot be found Awake therefore O Believer to the work of Mortification Look upon sin as it is an evil an only evil an hellish abomination infinitely more loathsom than the Dogs Vomit or the Sow's Mire or the menstruous Cloth by which it is shadowed out in Scripture Arraign it as the greatest Malefactor that ever was Call in Death and Hell and a blasted World and groaning Creatures and the Ruins of Angels and Souls of Men and the bloody Passion of Christ and the horrible Injuries done to God himself To bear witness against it Each of these can tell sad stories about it and all of them cry out Crucifie it Crucifie it It is worthy to dye Pass therefore thy doom upon it that it may do to Strip it of all its veils and false covers and bewitching appearances pluck off its Golden Profit and Silken Pleasures and Purple of false Honour that it may look as it is in its own ugly nakedness sinful out of measure sinful Nail it to the Cross by holy Restraints if it start in a Thought or creep in at a Sense or hide it self under thy Lawful things have one holy Truth or other as a Nail ready to fasten it that it move no further in thee Pierce it let out its vital blood I mean the love and joy and delight of it Surrender up thy Affections to God and Christ and heavenly things that it may give up the ghost bury it out of thy sight never give it a look or glance more converse no more with it than thou wouldst do with the dead raise it not up again into any fresh embraces no not so much as the picture of it in a sinful thought or fancy After this manner mortifie sin and above all thy darling only one which thy Heart hath been tender of and could wish
a thing above moral virtue There is a vâ—st difference between moral virtues and spiritual graces the seeds of moral virtues are found in lapsed nature but of spiritual graces there are none at all in it nothing but a naked capacity Moral virtues do from those natural seeds bud and spring forth into being under the common influence of the spirit but spiritual graces not being seeded in nature are meer infusions or creations the seed of God must drop down from heaven into the heart or else these cannot exist hence the Apostle in contradistinction to the virtues of men calls them the virtues of God 1 Pet. 2.9 such a thing is faith of a nobler extraction then all the moral virtues in the world Thirdly This precious Faith advances both our natural faculties and our moral virtues It advances our natural faculties and so shews it self what it is grace is nature elevated above it self a reason with an heavenly light in it a will with an holy law in it and affections as it were upon the wings of Angels soaring into the upper world After such sort doth faith elevate the humane faculties when faith comes God shines into the heart and then the Reason which before had a cloud on it sparkles out as a pearl in the Sun-beams the day-star is up in the heart and whilest others live by candlelight the believer hath the Sun then the will which lay in its lusts as a slave in its chains is set upon the wheel and made free indeed then the affections which conversed among the tombs of the creatures are no longer here but are risen with Christ to seek the things above Moreover it advances moral virtues also it grafts them upon a nobler stock they are no longer meer blossoms of reason but fruits of the spirit Josephus relating the patience of the Maccabees under the torments of the bloody Antiochus cryes up Reason Reason as if that were the rock upon which they stood but sure he speaks below them a greater then reason was there even faith as the Apostle asserts Heb. 11.35 a higher spirit then their own acted in their patience and elevated it above meer morality Again meer moral virtues issuing meerly out of our own reason are apt to breed a moth of pride and vain self-reflection here we find the Moralist crowing after a strange rate Beatae vitae causa firmamentum est sibi sidere turpe est Deos fatigare Sence Epist 31. quid votis apus est fac te felicem exurge te dignum singe Deo as if he would have no other happiness but what was of his own making but when Faith comes off go the plumes of pride and humility is as a vail over all the moral virtues I live in temperance and justice saith the believing Moralist yet not I but Christ liveth in me Add hereunto meer moral virtues in their intention rise no higher then their own level of humanity but when faith comes there is a pearl in the head a pure intention in each of them towards the glory of God he that before was temperate to himself just to others and patient to necessity is now all these to God Feci Deo is the Motto of every moral act To conclude what sweet and strong motives Faith adds unto moral virtues may appear in the famous instance of Justus Lipsius Melch. Adam Vit. Philosoph that great humanist and admirer of Morality who in his last sickness being told by one present that he might now fetch much comfort from the Stoical Philosophers made this answer Illa sunt vana Domine Jesu da mihi patientiam Christianam those are but vain things Lord Jesus give me a Christian patience Thus much touching Faith in general CHAP. II. Of the special nature of Faith and here of Spiritual Illumination the first ingredient therein What it is with the necessity thereof unto Faith demonstrated THE next thing is to consider Faith in its special nature and here the first thing in order is supernatural illumination touching which I shall first shew what that is and then demonstrate the necessity of it to Faith And first what it is it is God shining into the heart and lighting our candle to make us discern divine things in a spiritual way It is an illumination above nature subjectively and not objectively only it is a thing above reason and all its improvements made upon external objects reason may be taken in a double posture either sitting with the glass of the creatures before it and so it is meerly the light of nature or else sitting with the glass of the Scriptures before it and so it is a notional knowledge of Divinity but this supernatural light is above reason in both these postures First take reason with the creature-glass before it and this supernatural light is much above it And here I might shew how much the Scripture-glass excells that of the creature the divine words there out-shine the Sun out-weigh the earth out-vye all the treasures and out-relish all the sweetnesses in nature God is more glorious in the Scripture-robes then in all the visible world his chariot in the word is statelier then that in the clouds Evangelical light is a richer garment upon him then meer natural in the creature there is but a print or footstep of God but in the Scripture there is his very image and resemblance Also which is a consequent on the former this supernatural light having the purer glass is of a far greater latitude then meer reason it spreads it self into many mysteries which never entred into natural reason but were hid from ages in the divine mind it takes a view of those rare Evangelical pearls which were never digged out of reasons mine but dropt down from heaven unto the sons of men But because the comparison of these two lights as to their outward glasses and latitudes is not so pertinent I shall compare them as to their inward natures and only in such things as both of them extend unto and a vast difference will appear between them First Reason is a far lower light then that of Faith in natural light Reason is the very faculty but in supernatural it is but a capacity God must shine into the heart there must be light upon light supernatural upon natural or else there is no faith David prays open or as the original hath it reveal thou mine eyes Psal 119.18 There is in faith a revelation of eyes and not of objects only the Apostle speaks of being renewed in the very spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 the rational spirit is the candle of the Lord but unless it be new lighted it is too dim since the fall to believe the things of God Secondly Reason is a far weaker light then that of Faith It is a light shining in darkness and after all its glimmerings it leaves but a foolish heart and vain imaginations Rom. 1.21 it is as a little spark 〈◊〉 an
ocean of reigning corruptions and these keep the heart from taking fire with the love of those excellencies which are known by nature The Gentiles knew God but they did not like to have him in their knowledge Rom. 1.28 millions of unruly lusts like the sons of Belial about Lots house beset this natural light and keep it as it were in prison thus the Apostle they withheld it in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and it is too weak to break out of this prison and shew it self practically I shall give some instances hereof All Nations in all climates and through all ages have conspired together to confess a Deity Conscience within bears witness to him and so do all the creatures without also one would wonder therefore that ever Idolatry should get footing in the world but what saith the Apostle they changed the truth of God into a lye and the glory of the incorruptible one into a corruptible image Rom. 1.23.25 there were store of abominable idols among them no doubt natural light gave its secret vote for God but it was but the vote of a poor prisoner altogether insignificant it was not strong enough to make them own God in his own world Again reason and nature say that God must be worshipped with the heart and that a pure heart purâ mente colendus was the old verse in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore said Seneca God hath not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more proper place upon earth then a pure heart saith Hierocles O divine saying next door to that of our Saviour blessed are the purâ— in heart for they shall see God But after all this can this natural light work a dram of true sanctity or holiness in the heart No the very Schoolmen themselves who ever give nature her due with an overplus will not say so only they say facienti quod in se est Deus revelabit Christum largietur gratiam Well if this hypothesis which I am not now to dispute were true can there be an instance given among all the Pagans from the morning of the world till this day of any one man who by the right use of â—â—turals arrived at true grace If so what will become of that in the Apostle Who hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 If not O what a poor weak light is this of nature and how long and universally a prisoner hath it been indeed true sanctity or holiness is never found without humility but touching that there is no footstep nor shadow of commendation in all the Pagan writers saith the learned Amyraldus it is not so much as a virtue among them on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatness of soul is reckoned among Aristotles virtues Well then might Erasmus his Sancte Socrates have been spared Notable is that of St. Bernard Epist 190. some saith he whilest they go about to make Plato a Christian prove themselves heathens Again because possibly the light of reason may be weakest in the concerns of Religion I shall instance in other things Doth not nature and reason plead for all things of common honesty and humanity and yet in the Laws of Lycurgus which were of high renown and commended even by the Oracle of Apollo and which as Plutarch relates Lycurgus took singular pleasure to see put in ure even as God rejoyced to see the world move and turn about I say in these there are such obscenities and inhumanities as would put any one to the blush to see them in story what else are the dancing of maids naked and throwing weak children into a pit of water spoken of by Plutarch well might the Lacedaemonians have spared the Temple and Sacrifices to their Law-giver unless he had been truer to the Law of Nature Again is not self-preservation an intimate and natural impress in the heart of man it is not scripta sed nata Lex said the Orator and yet this ingraven Law was not strong enough no not in a grave and noble Cato to keep him from murdering himself and tearing out his own bowels and over this unnatural act Seneca sounds a triumph as being a noble and heroical contempt of death it self that that sword of his which was yet pure from the blood of others might let out his own but hear the censure of St. Austin De Civit. Dei l. 19. c. 4. Vtrum obsecro Cato ille patientiâ an impatientiâ se peremit non enim haec fecisset nisi victoriam Caesaris impatienter tulisset and in another place non erat honestas turpia praecavens L 1. c. 23. sed infirmitas adversa non sustinens it was but a proud impatience and miserable trampling upon the Law of Nature Moreover the light of reason doth really produce many moral virtues and yet in these wherein its greatest strength lyeth it is too weak to elevate any one of them to the glory of the great Creator Contra Jul. Pelag. l. 4. c. 3. therefore as St. Austin hath observed the whole body of Pagan virtues for want of a single eye at that great end is full of darkness Thus much of the weakness of reason on the other side the light of faith hath a great deal of strength in it this will not cannot be commonly imprisoned it is an holy unction and at last will be uppermost it is a mighty Engine whereby the hâ—ly Spirit lifts the heart up into belief and resignation a thing of high birth and great activity being born of God and overcoming the world 1 Joh. 5.4 and because the light of reason was not able to bear up the interest of God among men this supernatural light came to do it In the primitive Church whilest this shined clear there were no such things as outward Idols or Images afterwards upon the declension thereof those things crept in by degrees first into banners and then into Churches and there first for instruction only and afterwards for adoration yet nevertheless this holy spark shewed it self in some as in Epiphanius his cutting the vail and Serenus his breaking the Images and divers others abhorrency of Idolatry and what this supernatural light doth in Churches against outward Idols that it doth in hearts against inward it will allow no Idol to stand in the secret place not an Ashteroth of riches not a Venus of pleasure not a Baal a ruling lording lust in the heart every indulged lust stands upon the unilluminated and unresigned will and after Faith hath purified the heart it must give way for God to set up his Throne there that pure heart which the Philosophers talk of at random as a Geographer of a terra incognita faith plainly discovers and practically operates Those dishonesties and inhumanities which reason could not keep out of Laws faith casts away from private Christians as the common mire and dirt of a wicked world those moral virtues
reason with the Gospel before him arrive at so great a notion of Divinity as is before admitted I answer the key to open this is in the Text the natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned A man by reason and its furniture of learning may in the perusal of the holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions and so know the things of God notionally but he knows them not spiritually and by consequence not congruously to their spiritual nature For the opening of this we must consider that there is in the holy Scriptures something humane or which may be inventoried among the things of man as the letters and words made up of them and sentences made up of words not as if these were not dictated exactly by God himself but that they are common to humane and profane Authors I mean not for the divineness of the matter but for the phrases and forms of speech And there is in them something Divine or which must be computed among the things of God as the mysteries and spiritual things themselves which are represented by those words and phrases I may illustrate this distinction farther by that of our Saviour If I have told you earthly things and you believe them not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things Joh. 3.12 I pray what earthly things did our Saviour tell them was not he there preaching on that divine Theme of Regeneration Very true but Christ spake to them of Regeneration under the shadow of a birth and a wind and not according to the heavenly and spiritual nature thereof in it self Thus the words and phrases in Scripture being of common use are as it were humane types and shadows but the mysteries and spiritual things themselves are altogether divine Now to apply this distinction reason improved reaching to the things of man as its proper line may know the words and sentences in Scripture and so gather up a great notion of Divinity But unless inlightned by the holy Spirit which searcheth the things of God it goeth not beyond its own line it knows not spiritual things spiritually Reason without the light of faith Take it in a Jew at a Sacrifice and it saw the type only and not Christ in it Take it in a Christian at the holy Supper and it sees only the outward elements and discerns not the Lords body Take it in the greatest Rabbi sitting with the Scriptures before him and it sees them only in the shell or letter and not in the mystery And no wonder for even in common Sciences it may be so a man may construe and know the Grammar of a principle in Euclide and yet be ignorant of the Mathematical sense of it much more in divine truths may a man be spiritually ignorant who knows a great deal literally Therefore all Scholars may do well in their studies to do as Zuinglius did who having arrived at Arts and Tongues yet in the reading of the holy Scriptures looked up to heaven As for the great Doctor the holy Spirit when he comes in supernatural illumination then we know the things of God not by our own spirit but Gods the very same spirit which breaths in the Scriptures shines in the heart Hence spiritual things are discerned spiritually by a light congruous to their nature the spirit glorifies and shews forth Christ as the expression is John 16.14 Holy truths are as it were transfigured and shewn forth in glory which before were seen but in the flesh or weakness of the Letter the Deity sparkles out in the beauty and spiritual lustre of Scripture-mysteries which before only appeared in the humanity of words and phrases Now heaven opens and free-grace passes before us the secret of the Lord is with us and we are of his Privy Councel This is the first and fundadamental difference Reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light congruous to spiritual things but the light of Faith is Out of this all the other are derived Secondly Meer Reason digging in the Letter of Scripture arrives but at notions and shadows of knowledg and though these be as the sands on the sea shore they are but a form of knowledg Rom. 2.20 but when the light of faith comes there is sound wisdom Prov. 3.21 or as the original word is essence a thing which can no more be made up of meer notions then a body can of shadows Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Without it notions and literal knowledge have no hypostasis in the heart the spiritual world is as it were lost God and Christ and Heaven are but notions But as soon as faith comes and makes the day-break in the heart the spiritual world subsists afresh God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven to the soul all of them are reallized by faith there is a good treasure in the heart far more substantial then Arts and Tongues and School-notions can make Thirdly Reason with its notions arrives but at a knowledge falsly so called for it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known those things are proposed to be known not as meer notions but as practical things to be in the first place chosen loved embraced and practised but it knows them only notionally and not practically That knowledge whilest materially true hath a secret lye in it thus the Apostle He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.4 'T is not in him in a practical way so as to ballance the will and affections with the excellency of the things known but as soon as faith comes those things are known as they are proposed to be known as practical things to be improved in heart and life The supernatural light digests truths into blood and spirits and turns mysteries into godliness It knows Law and Gospel in their true tendency which is holiness not to be holy is to blast and prophane the meaning of both Fourthly The meer notional knowledge acquired by reason hath no spiritual life or sense in it it hath no life in it meer notions are but a dead faith but faith is a living notion In an unbeliever the notions are all dead affording no pulse of holy affections or motion of true obedience they are all buried in a grave of corruption and covered in the dust of earthly things But as soon as faith comes there is a resurrection in the soul the notions before dead now wake out of the dust and rise in life and power every truth lives in the heart and springs up into the new-creature This supernatural knowledge is a well-spring of life Prov. 16.22 and all the vital acts of grace stream from thence Nay as our Saviour tells us it is life eternal John 17.3 heaven doth dawn and appear in it Meer notional knowledg hath no spiritual sense in it
preamble of faith Nay in the Apostle it is the first fundamental faith He that cometh to God must believe that he is Heb. 11.6 But you will say What need supernatural light for this Nature and Reason make this known and indeed they do so but so weakly as not to raise up any one faculty in fallen man unto God his Creator Never did natural light so shew a God as to raise up his love out of this vain world nor as to raise up his faith out of creature-confidences unto God Wherefore this first principle must be seen by a supernatural light which is indeed a middle kind of light between the light of glory above and the light of nature below It sees the invisible one not as the blessed Saints see him in the heavenly vision nor as the meer Naturalists see him by the glimmerings of reason but in a middle way of gracious illumination This our Saviour calls eternal life Joh. 17.3 heaven dawns in it and nature is illustrated by it Secondly As the first step of knowledge in order to faith is Deus est so the second is Deus verax God is true yea truth it self and the first archetypal truth his testimony is infallible and all his words Yea and Amen Unless this be known a man cannot believe him as a God the believer sets to his seal that God is true And if he did not know it his seal would be to a blank and though natural light reveal the truth and veracity of God yet as I said before weakly and therefore supernatural is required Thirdly The third step of knowledge in orâ—â—r to faith is Deus dixit seu revelavit God hath spoken or revealed himself in the Scriptures These are the very words and testimony of God himself If a man do know that God is and is true yet unless he know that God hath spoken in the word that there is his very testimony he cannot believe Should we ask a man why do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world it would be no rational answer for him to say I believe it because God is true No though God be the first infinite truth yet unless he speak and testifie so much it cannot be believed upon his testimony or authority the only satisfactory answer is this I believe it because God who is true hath spoken and revealed it It is necessary to faith to know the holy Scriptures to be the word and testimony of God that God speaks and reveals himself in them and this cannot be known without supernatural light To explain which I shall lay down two things First There are in the holy Scriptures certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or internal marks whereby it may be known that the Scriptures are the word and testimony of God Secondly These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or internal marks cannot be known without supernatural light First There are in the holy Scriptures certain marks or characters whereby they reveal themselves to be the very word of God even as the Sun manifests it self by its own light There is a Majesty in the stile what book or writing ever run in such a strain as thus saith the Lord where before it was there ever any universal Law made unto all mankind Kings and beggars without distinction who ever before commanded obedience upon pain of eternal torments in another world or allured obedience with promises of everlasting glory there The fiery Law carries an awe with it as if the thunders and lightnings of Sinai were not yet over And in the Gospel the kingdom of heaven approaches and opens it self to believers as it were in sparkles of glory Again there is a treasure of Divine mysteries touching the sacred Trinity Nature is mute but Scripture speaks out Reason is but a little child and cannot pass this infinite Abyss unless Faith in the word take him upon his back and carry him over Touching that Incarnation of the Son of God never any natural man dreamed or so much as started a thought of it but in Scripture this and all the train of mysteries in our Redemption break forth in their glory That book which hath such and the like mysteries infinitely transcending all the thoughts and reasons of man doth by them shew that it came out of the bosom of God himself Again there is an unparallel'd purity in it such as is no where else to be found This Sun hath no spots in it this Diamond hath no flaws in it there is nothing terrene or carnal in this heavenly piece as long as it hath stood in the world not a dust or a dreg can be found therein neither ever did or will it licence the least of erratas in man In its pure spiritualness it casts a chain upon the very thoughts and first motions of sin and traces up sin to the black nest of corruption in lapsed nature it calls for a pure heart made from heaven in regeneration and new-creation and the noblest births of Reason and Morality will not serve the turn Such things as these are not so much as named in the writings of the worlds Sophies Plato and Aristotle never arrived at such notions Moreover it hath a wonderful efficacy on the hearts of men it looks into the inmost closet and retiring room of the heart and like Christ it comes and stands in the midst of it when all the doors are shut by obstinacy and unbelief it awakens and alarums the sleeping sinner and makes such impressions and deep wounds in the conscience that it plainly appears no less then the arm of God was in it It Evangelizes the heart and turns it into its own nature that it may be a Temple for that spirit which breaths in the Gospel It comforts the heart and fills it with joy unspeakable and full of glory That place Rom. 1.17 was to Luther porta Paradisi the door of Paradice and that 1 Tim. 1.15 was a sea of sweetness to holy Bilney such activities as these are above the sphear of nature and speak no less then the divine extraction thereof Lastly to name no more the very plot and design of the Scriptures is transcendently divine all the holy lines run into that central divinity that God is to be exalted and man debased Oh! what manner of self-denial doth it call for how doth it labour to un-selve and as it were un-man us that God may be all in all There Reason as fair a Jewel as it is must vail its beauty in an acknowledgment of its own folly and yield up it self to be new lighted from heaven The Will as free an Empress as it is must lay by its Crown in a confession of its spiritual slavery and yield up it self to be made free by grace The Man must be no longer a man in himself but a man in Christ clothed in a better righteousness and acted by a higher spirit then his own And how doth it open the glory and blazon
to which faith must proceed First This resignation is made to Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation I begin with this first because Faith cannot go to God immediately but to the Mediator first and so to God Thus the Scripture saith through him we have access to the Father Eph. 2.18 by him we come unto God Heb. 7.25 and which is more express by him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 If we will go to our heavenly Father we must first put on our elder brothers robes we must cloath our faith and resignation in the resignations of Christ and so appear before God we must put our faith into the hand of a Mediator and from thence it will ascend up before the divine Majesty Take away the Mediator and God is a consuming sire no saith no prayer can approach unto him If the cloud of incense do not cover the Mercy-seat Aaron will dye before it Lev. 16.13 unless the Mediators merits had been as a cloud of incense about God the sinner though in the lowest posture of resignation must have died before the Father of mercies First then there is a resignation unto Christ as the Mediator and grand medium of salvation For the understanding whereof two things are considerable First That Jesus Christ is by Gods ordination sealed to be a Mediator There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 Christ as God-man stood up between an offended God and offending man and acts as a Mediator in all his offices As a Priest he acts with God to pacifie his wrath and purchase grace and glory for men and as a Prophet and a King he acts with men to declare unto them the Will of God and rule over them by his spirit and word Thus the livine days-man lays his hand upon both God above and man below to bring them together in a mutual reconciliation Secondly That this resignation to Christ as Mediator is in a way congruous to all his offices Look as God above sealed him to be a Mediator by his ordination so man below seals as it were the counter-part by his resignation The believer yields up himself to Christ as a Priest by a recumbency on his merits and sweet-smelling sacrifice This in Scripture is called saith in his blood Rom. 3.25 he yields up himself to Christ as a Prophet by an humble teachableness this is called a hearing of the Prophet Act. 3.22 and he yields up himself to Christ as a King by an holy subjection and this is called receiving Christ Jesus the Lord Col. 2.6 Thus this resignation as a key to the wards of the lock suits and hits Christ in every office What is merit in Christ is fiducialness in faith What is instruction in Christ is docibleness in faith What is royalty in Christ is obedientialness in faith Secondly This resignation is made unto God even the whole sacred Trinity as the center and ultimate object of faith I say the whole sacred Trinity For though Christ as God-man the Mediator be only the grand medium by and through which faith makes its approaches to God yet Christ as God is not the ultimate object of faith I say the whole sacred Trinity as the center and ultimate object of faith For nothing is or can be the formal reason or terminating object of faith but the Deity or divine nature only whose infinit excellency and perfection doth naturally merit the same whose infallible truth rich mercy matchless power and unsearchable wisdom calls for faith to come and repose in its bosom there and there only can it ultimately rest and keep Sabbath this the Scripture expresses emphatically by trusting in Jehovah the rock of ages and center of faith Thus then it is faith first goes to Christ the Mediator and then in and through him it advances unto God The Apostle is express in it who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 Faith in Christs blood is saith in the way the new and living way consecrated through the vail of his flesh but faith in God is faith in the ultimate end and center Moreover that faith may arrive at him he comes as it were out of his unapproachable light and manifests himself in Attributes he lets down his veracity grace wisdom power holiness and soveraignty as so many beams of his glory for our faith to lean upon and as it were to climb up by unto himself They that know thy name will trust in thee saith the Psalmist Psal 9.10 the knowledge of Attributes is a staff to our weak faith in its walk to him Thirdly This resignation is made unto the werd as the warrant rule and way in by and according to which faith doth proceed These things are written that you might believe Joh. 20.31 As for the choice blessings which faith waits for from God and Christ the promises are the warrant As for the obediential subjection to God and Christ the commands are the rule As for the teachings of the Spirit the whole word is the way in which believers looks for the same If faith look up the word is the perspective if it work the word is the line and plummet if it consult here 's the oracle if it weigh things here 's the ballance Faith is never warrantless There is transgressing without cause but never believing Faith resigns to the Mediator and through him to God but the commission for both is in the word Thus far of the first thing unto whom or what this resignation is made But to go on Secondly For what things or purposes is it made I answer It is made for very great things and ends In opening of which I shall to each of them accommodate the former distinction of resignation as to the Mediator as to God and as to the Word That the nature of this resignation may the more fully appear the precious things and ends for which it is made are as followeth First The soul is resigned to be instructed in all the ways of God And this resignation that I may keep to the prae-appointed method is made First To Jesus Christ the Mediator and as to him first faith Disciples the soul to him and then yields it up to him to be taught First It Disciples the soul to Christ before faith a man is as a Wolf or a Lion for brutish untractableness but after it a little child may lead him even the least truth in the word and he will not break from it his ear is opened and his mind in a readiness for instruction Now this Faith doth two ways First It doth it by revealing the excellency of Christ as a Prophet Oh! says faith this is the only Rabbie the Angel of Gods face the wonderful counseliar lying in his bosome and knowing all his secrets his mouth is most sweet he speaks hony-combs
very instant of believing a man is justified before God The Antinomians indeed makes as if it came forth much sooner even as early as eternity it self as if it were an immanent eternal act in God But the error of this opinion may be easily made appear For First An immanent act abides in God and doth not as the transient make any change at all in the creature but in justification there is a great change made in man though not a Physical one such as is made in sanctification yet as moral and a relative one the sins which before cried at heaven gates for vengeance are now cast into the depths of the sea the soul which was at the brink of hell is now in the suburbs of heaven the pure beams of grace breaking forth upon it the prison garments of guilt are changed and the righteousness of God is upon the believer the blood of the Lamb is upon his conscience and the damning destroying Law passes over him Again an immanent act in God is the same with Gods essence and not as the transient the same with the effect produced Gods willing is but the divine essence with an habitude to such an object his decrees are himself decreeing otherwise the simplicity of his nature would be overthrown such an immanent act is the decree of justification but justification it self is an effect in time else Gods judicial act may be exercised about a non-existing creature a non ens may be justified a man that is not may be made righteous fin may be remitted before it is committed absolution may anticipate guilt and righteousness Law all which are things hard to be swallowed If any thing in justification look like an immanent act it is either Gods complacential love or the imputation of righteousness but that neither of these are such is clear in Scripture which expresses the same as things future he that loveth me shall be loved of my father saith our Saviour Joh. 14.21 righteousness shall be imputed to us if we believe Rom. 4.24 a shall be cannot be put upon an immanent act futurity cannot be found in eternity Secondly If justification were an immanent eternal act what means a Mediator God and man were at one before would the Lord of all be made under his own Law to bring in righteousness into an already righteous world would he shed his precious blood on a cross to purge away sins eternally forgiven was his sweet-smelling sacrifice to atone a reconciled God did he pay down so great a sum of merits to purchase a freedom for such as were free-born long before doth he still intercede with God to save those from wrath who before were secure from it by an eternal justification this opinion seems to make void the whole satisfaction of Jesus Christ what the Apostle said of the Law if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 the same may be said here if righteousness come any other way then by the death of Christ if it come by an immanent eternal act then Christ is dead in vain Thirdly No man can be at once in two contrary states in a state of wrath and in a state of love too every man whilest an unbeliever is in a state of wrath the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3.36 God is angry with him every day Psal 7.11 and whilest he is in a state of wrath he cannot be in a state of love Joseph whilest he was in prison in his old cloaths was not in change of raiment in Pharaohs Court St. Paul reckoning up a black Catalogue of sins barring men from inheriting the kingdom of God saith of the unconverted Corinthians such were some of you 1 Cor. 6.11 as yet they were in the chains of sin and wrath and immediately after speaking of them as converted he saith but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God then the prisoners were become favourites in the Court of heaven and stood in their robes of grace and righteousness then and not before as evidently appears by the words were and are relating to two distinct states in two distinct times they were not could not be in both states at once but if justification be eternal a man may be at once in contrary states as an unbeliever he may be under wrath and yet as a justified one under love I know a man under wrath may be under a love of benevolence which is the purpose of God to bestow grace and glory but he cannot at the same time be under a love of complacence which is directly contrary to a state of wrath nevertheless eternal justification makes a man capable of both at once Fourthly Justification and sanctification are inseparable companions no more to be sundred then the merits and spirit of Christ which are the respective causes thereof where grace pardons there it heals where Christ is made righteousness there he is made sanctification for he cannot be divided and taken by piece-meal but if justification be an eternal act then these twins of grace may be parted an unconverted man may be justified because that is from eternity and withall unsanctified because unconverted in which case he must needs be in a strange posture at once under two contrary reigns of grace and sin partly in Christ as justified by his blood and partly out of Christ as void of his spirit the light of Gods countenance shines upon him and yet within he wears the image of Satan a blessed one he must needs be because his iniquity is forgiven and an anathema too because no lover of Jesus Christ he is a justified and accepted man and yet a man in his sins all which absurd consequences are unavoidable if justification be an eternal act Thus much may suffice to discover the error of this opinion only there are two Quaeres which must be answered First The first Quaere is this If justification be not an eternal immanent act is not there a change in God God displicentially hates all the workers of iniquity and such are all men before conversion if therefore before conversion he hate and after it he love them is there not a change in him I answer no there is none God such is his infinite sanctity cannot but complacentially love righteousness and displicentially hate iniquity love and hatred are not in God as sin and righteousness are in man in man sin and righteousness succeed one the other but in God love and hatred are eternal and simultaneous the change therefore which is where the succession is and not where the eternal sameness is is in man only and not in God the man who was in a state of sin and so the object of Gods displicential hatred is now in a state of righteousness and so the object of Gods complacential love thus the Apostle you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
a Zeal doth Faith stir up for the Worship of God and no less for the Truth of God this is a precious jewel a secret out of the Fathers bosom a beam come down from Heaven to light us thither if this be subverted Zeal will stand up and vindicate it Secundus when he was commanded to deliver up his Bibles to be burnt answered Christianus sum non traditor In the first General Councils how earnest were the Fathers for the Faith they would not exchange a letter or syllable of it The Arrian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not pass instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor the Nestorian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to Christ as man instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to the blessed Virgin With what an heroical and gallant spirit did Luther cleave to the Evangelical Truth Pia est sancta hac in re nostra pertinacia in this ours is a pious and holy obstinacy saith he Such a Zeal for truth doth Faith ralse up In sum Faith hath a single eye at Gods Glory and so endears all things tending thereunto that upon the least violation thereof Zeal will be ready to break forth in that behalf Moreover Faith gives a further advance thereunto by looking on the unparallelled Love of God O what a Zeal hath he for our Salvation Hath he not writ our poor names in the book of Life and shall we neglect his glorious one Hath not he sent his own Son in the flesh to be the great Ordinance of our Salvation and to fill all the under-Ordinances with his Spirit and Grace and shall we not be zealous in and for his Worship Are not his holy Truths the day-star in our bearts seeds of the New Creature and Cordials of rich Comfort and shall we not earnestly contend for them Will he not glorifie us to all eternity above and shall we not glorifie him in our little span of time here below Whilest Faith is thus musing the fire of Zeal must needs kindle in our Hearts Another Grace actuated by Faith is Meekness which is as cool in our own cause as Zeal is hot in Gods This is the great Moderatrix of Anger that it breaks not out Preter squum bonum not unjustly for a light occasion as that Pope's did who raged upon the missing a cold Peacock and blasphemously added If God was so angry for an Apple he might justly be so for a Peacock Nor upon a just cause excessively as it did in that great Conqueror Stephen King of Poland who was so angry with the Rigenses about the Gregorian Calendar that he sell into Epileptical sus and died Natural Meekness is a beautiful thing and so is Moral but neither is a Grace Natural being but the result of a sweet temper of Body and Moral but the improvement of Reason neither levels so high as Gods Glory In Natural we do but comply with our Temperament and in Moral but sacrifice to our Reason But the Grace of Meekness is a portion of that Dove-like Spirit which rested upon Christ and aims at his Glory whose Goodness is resembled thereby Hence it is observable that where the Meekness is only Natural or Moral Men will be angerless and sintully meek even when Gods Glory lies at the Stake their Meekness being as opposite to holy Zeal as to rash Anger but where the Grace of Meekness is Men in their own concerns glorifie God by a cool converse and in Gods call for Zeal to vindicate his Glory To promote this Grace Faith doth many things as first it looks at the infinite Long-sufferance of God O what doth he bear from Men His Laws are violated Blessings abused Name blasphemed Glory stained and all by his own Creatures and in his own World and day after day year after year nay one age after another and yet the axle-tree of his Patience breaks not under it 〈…〉 a look at this will much meeken us Excellent Melincton under great Calumnies was still of a cool spirit and when his Enemies said That they would not leave him a footstep in Germany all hi◠reply was That he should have one in Heaven And what made him so meek we may gather from his own words Nullum hominem tantum sustinere malorum quantum contumeliarum Deus No man bears so many evils as God doth contumelies And if we will be followers of God we must be meek and as a further motive hereunto Faith looks unto Christ in whom Meekness is exemplified in our own Nature that we may not say flesh and blood cannot be so under reproaches injuries contradictions bloody sufferings He was as a lamb not opening his mouth when he was reviled be reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2.23 And the Believer must follow him and the rather because he hath a spirit of Meekness from him to do so Such a spirit shewed it self in Beza who when in a Dispute about the Eucharist the Jesuits called him and his Colleagues Foxes and Serpents only replied Nos non magis credimns quà m Transubstantiationem We believe it as much as we do Transubstantiation Again this Grace is much advanced by Reslections without Faith a man is a stranger at home and knows every thing better than his own Heart as St. Bernard faith of Petrus Abailardus He knew every thing better than himself but where Faith is there is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a Man looks in wardly into his own Heart and there finds such a black nest of Corruptions that upon reproaches and injuries ostered he is ready to commune with himself and say Are not such Sins with me even with me at least seminally if not actually Have not I done worse to God and may I not do so to Men Aut sumus aut fuimus aut possumus esse quod hic est such Reflections wonderfully meeken us Hence St. Bernard saith That he never saw another man sin but he was jealous of his own Heart Ille heri tu hodie ego cras he did it yesterday and thou to day and I to morrow St. Paul exhorts the Gà latians in the Plural number to restore the lapsed in the spirit of Meekness and adds the reason in the singular considering thy self Gal. 6.1 He changes the number as the Judicious Interpreter observes That every one in particular may deseend into himself and there find an Argument for Meekness towards others Moreover Faith promotes this Grace by viewing the Promises made thereunto which are as large as heart can wish Would we have the things of the World The meek shall inherit the earth and to sweeten it They shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace Psal 37.11 Would we have the things of God The meek shall be beautified with salvation Psal 149.4 And all the good tydings in the Gospel are to be preached to them Isa 61.1 For the true Way They have God to teach them and guide them
God in Christ and that must needs in flame the Heart towards him Tamum amamus quantum credimus Hence Aquinas himself confesses That though Faith and Hope may be without Charity yet without Charity they are not properly Virtues And Durandus saith Credere in Deum non est praecise actus fidei sid actus fidei charitatis simul To believe in God is not precisely an act of Faith but of Faith and Charity together So Inseparable are these two Graces But leaving the Schoolmen I shall proceed Faith connects all Graces together in a triple way it connects them in the fontal cause the boly Spirit which it receives all Graces are from the Spirit and the Spirit is received by Faith hence rivers of living water flow in the Believers heart Joh. 7.38 that is All Graces flow there as waters from a fountain it connects them in the Rule the Command of God which it universally respects It is observed by Divines That the five last Commands in Deut. 5. run thus Thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit Adultery and thou shalt not Steal and thou shalt not bear false Witness and thou shalt not Govet The word And points out to us that all the Commands are coupled together by God like the Curtains of the Tabernacle all are as it were one body and Faith hath a respect to every one of them and in every one owns the same stamp of Divine Authority He that said Love thy God said also Love thy Neighbour He that said Be Zealous said also Be Meek and Patient and Obedient and abundant in all Grace It connects them also in the end the Glory of God which it looks at in all things all Graces tend to that Glory and Faith is the single eye which guides them all thither Bonum opus intentio facit Enarr in Psal 31. in Pras intentionem sides dirigis saith St. Austin Faith knows what that is wherein God would be glorisied All Graces being thus connected in Faith which is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or firmament as the word is Col. 2.5 to them all it comes to pass that Faith in actuating any one Grace gives a strength and further growth to every other Grace Thus it is in Graces respecting distinct Tables the more we act our Love to God the more will be our Love to our Neighbour this though belonging to the second Table flows ex fonte pietatis out of that fountain of Piety which respects the first Thus it is in those Graces which are seemingly contrary as in Zeal and Meekness the more we act our Zeal for God the more will be our Meekness towards Men. Hence in the Primitive Christians who were so hot for Christianity was found a very meek Spirit and the reason is because a Man cannot truly actuate one Grace but he will have more of that Spirit which is fontally all Grace and graciously multiplies Talents in the use of them Neither can he truly obey one Command but it will render his Heart more Obediential and ready to obey others also as being enjoined by the same Authority nor can he in one thing look at Gods Glory but it will in some measure encline him to seek it in other things also and so the New Creature grows in every part and his Path shines more and more to the perfect day in Heaven CHAP. XI Precious Faith considered in the Crowns and Statures thereof The Divine Experiences of Faith as it Experiments the Divinity of Scripture in the Precepts Promises Threatnings and Supernatural Truths thereof Concerning the Blessed Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence Jesus Christ the Mcdiator and the Efficacy of Grace HAVing treated of Justification Adoption and Sanctification which are Fruits of Faith and are more or less in all Believers I now proceed to some other which are The Crowns and Statures of Faith and to be found not in all Believers at least not at first but in such as have made a good progress in Grace Faith have made a good progress in Grace Faith having obtained the Holy Spirit with all its Graces doth now go on like The Baptized Eunuch rejoycing in the ways of God glorying in Free Grace triumphing in Jesus Christ warring against Corruptions actuating Holy Graces bowing down under the Commands of Heaven sucking the Sweet-Breasts of the Promises and waiting for the Heavenly Dews and Distillations of the Spirit and in this holy Progress gathers up many choice Experiments more worth than a World All learned Men are for Experiments and every one would cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it the Sages of the Law are for tried Cases which have been sub judice the Physitian sets a probatum est on approved Medicines the Anatomists hunts after the arcana of Nature by Dissection of Bodies and the Chymist by Dissolution thereof Experience is procreatrix Artium the very Parent of Arts whose universal Precepts are collected by an induction of particulars but there are no Experiments like those of Faith Dr. Dees Spirits made as if they would reveal great Mysteries to him such as they called the Cabbala of Nature the Numbers of the World the linea Spiritus Sancti the Mirabilia Dei and the Nova terra bringing forth without Tillage but all these were but Dreams and Impostures and so I suppose are many things in Chymistry like Helmonts Alkahest wonderful if true But the Experiments of Faith are great Realities and withal Divine as much above those in the Sphear of Nature as Souls are above Bodies and Heaven is above Earth God in the Prophet calls on his People to baing in the Tythes for his House and so by their Obedience to prove him If he would not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3.10 When Faith goes on in a Tract of Obedience proving of God Heaven opens in wonderful Experiences of him the Manna of holy Truth is then tasted the Hony-combs of Free-Grace drop upon the Heart Promises are realized exemplified in Providences Divine Helps and Salvations come down and call for Eben-Ezers to be set up for them and Discoveries of heavenly things in their certainty and excellency are in a manner made as if a Man could look into the Holy of Holies and see God Face to Face Some such Experiences I suppose the learned Rivet had in his last Sickness in which he said of himself In these ten days I have made a greater progress in Divinity than in all my Life but leaving Generals I shall come to Particulars One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God a Believer in his holy Progress comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding as the Apostle speaks Cal. 2.2 At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledg but after Experience Riches and all Riches of it at the first
for his good and hence God doth not fulfil Promises of Temporals as he doth those of Spirituals Promises of Spirituals he fulfils in specie because they cannot otherwise be made good a drop of Grace being more worth than a World but those of Temporals he fulfils disjunctively either in the Blessing it self or in that which is equivalent by inward contentation and supportation compensating the absence of the thing it self These things being so the Believer in what he hath may experience the Promise in the true proportion and meaning of it and not withstanding his wants may know That in Christ he is so far heir of all things that if he could want a world he should have it As touching Spiritual Promises these are either Promises of Grace or Promises to Grace As touching Promises of Grace Faith may know these experimentally The Believer reads in his Bible That God hath promised to give an heart of flesh to make a new heart and a new spirit to write his Law in the heart to give an heart to know him to circumcise the heart that it may love him and many more such-like and afterwards reading over his own Heart he may find these precious Graces all there and be able experimentally to say of these Promises as Joshua did of those made to Israel Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord hath spoken all are come to pass Josh 23.14 In every holy melting he finds the heart of flesh in every holy frame the new heart and spirit in every holy inclination the inward engraven Law in every holy beam the Divine Teaching in every holy affection the Spiritual Circumcision all the Promises are scaled and really exemplified in his Heart and what an admirable experiment is this To see a Work within answering to the Promise in the Word is a greater sight than if a Man could have stood by and seen the light start forth into Being upon the Almighty fiat spoken by God in the Creation unto which the Apostle alludeth in setting forth the Divine light shining into the Heart in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The Magnalia of Grace are more wonderful than those of nature Hence St. Chrysostom upon those words of the Apostle We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.10 saith of Regeneration That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really a Creation and more noble than the old one as adding a benè vivere to that life which came from the old one The experienced Believer hath cause to say what hath God wrought how fearfully is the New Creature made all its Graces were written in the Promise and now are fashioned in the Heart where before there were none of them How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the sum of them This Experiment was notably typed out in Isaac he was by Promise and as soon as he was born the Promise was experimented notwithstanding the dead body and dead womb The Believer the child of Promise is as Isaac was saith the Apostle Gal. 4.28 All the regenerating Graces are by Promise and when these are brought forth the Promise is made good maugre all the deadness of nature By the Promises we are made partakers of the Divine Nature saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.4 that is we have those Divine Graces which as the Creature-module will admit resemble the Holy One and so we have the Promises sealed up to us in Graces As touching Promises made to Grace such as are fulfilled in this life Faith also experiments them to be Divine In the Scripture the Believer meets with Promises of Pardon to such as repent and believe of comfort to the mourner of filling to the hungry and thirsty of the Divine secret to them that fear God of encrease of Grace to the improver and many more of the same nature To experiment these the Believer by perusing the Scripture and his own Heart doth two things first He clears it up to himself that the Graces in his Heart to which such Promises are made are true through the irradiating Spirit vouchsafed to him He may discover them to be such by Scriptural Marks he may find that his Faith purifies and works by Love That his Repentance and Mourning are chiefly for Sin That his Hunger and Thirst are humble and industrious in the use of means That his Fear is of God and his Goodness in a filial way That his improving of Talents is in a way of dependence and holy diligence and so certainly knows that these Graces in his Heart are real things This foundation being first laid then he proceeds to a second review of his Heart and there he may find how Pardons have sensibly broke in upon him in a way of Repenting and Believing or how the Sheaves of Joy and Comfort have followed his Tears or how Satisfactions Manna-like have dropped down on his hungry Soul or how Divine illuminations have come in and Crowned his Holy Fear or how Talents have multiplied in the faithful using and actuating of them And the Experiment thereupon will be compleat every Grace sooner or later being in some good measure answered by the Promises which let out their sweetness to it as God hath ordained them to do Thus the Believer sensibly enters the Land of Promise and eats of the Fruit thereof lifting up his Soul in The high Praises of him who gave the Promises in the Scripture and fulfils them in the Heart As touching Promises of eternal good things in Heaven where there are Plenitudes of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure in the Presence of Him who is All in All the completion of these is in another World nevertheless the Believer hath an experimental taste thereof here Whilest his Hope hangs upon them he finds strength and comfort come into his Heart whilst the weary World is tossing with troubles O what a refreshing is it to look into Eternity Hope Eatring within the vail is an Anchor to the Soul and so stablishes it that it doth not rowl about with the wheelings of this changeable World nor center its happiness in any or all the Creatures Let the World come in all its Fancies and glittering appearances of Good it cannot call off the Believers Heart from Heaven but it will be ready to point that way or let it come with storms of terror and troubles it cannot loosen the Anchor-hold the Believer will rather part with all the World and his Life too then let go his hold of Heaven Ye took with joy the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance saith the Apostle Hebr. 10.34 Or as the Words are in the Original Knowing that ye have in your selves a better and abiding substance in Heaven He speaks as if they had carried Heaven in and about them and in part they did so for as Beza hath it on this place Fide possidemus quod est in