us and canst thou have faith in his bloud before thou knowest whether he shed any for thee that thereby thou mightest know he shed it for thee faith in the bloud of Christ is this through the knowledge and belief of his bloud shed to be imboldned to approach to and rely on God and expect good from him as from one that thereby hath testified his good will toward thee and opened a way of accesse to himself and to his Kingdome for thee that thou mightest come to him and hope in him for it It 's strange that Christs bloud should give thee boldnesse to rely on God when thou knowest not whether ever it was shed for thee or that thou hadst any thing to do with it thou sayst it was shed for all that believe and thou believest c. That it was shed for all that believe is not questioned but that very believing is to be in that bloud Now the doubt is of thy believing in it before thou feest Gods word hold it forth as shed for thee that so thou mightest know it 's shed for thee I say that believing of thine was not a right believing in it that preceded thy belief of it by divine testimony to be shed for thee It was shed for enemies and ungodly that being preached to them they might believe in it as well as for them as believing in it that they might be sanctified and saved by it If thou believest in it or thinkest to have salvation by it because of thy former self-actings to sorrow and to reformation then is not this faith right because not springing from the word yea thou inverttest the order of the Apostle Tit. 2.11 12. 3.4 5. he tels us they were saved from their filthinesse and disobedience and led to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts by the grace the love and pity of God to man appearing and thou first art led to reform and alter and deny thy lusts and to believe as thou thinkest before thou apprehendest his grace and then drawest an inference of his grace from those thy works and denials thou endeavourest and conceitest thy self to work well and thereupon buildest an opinion that God loved thee and Christ came and died for thee this faith springs from thy works and not from the word the testimony of God is not believed by thee Oh but thou wilt say Even all those frames were begotten by the grace of God in thee else thou couldest not have had them and it was in hearing his word that thou wast led to them Ay but what meanest thou by grace the good will of God in Christ fore-manifested to thee in the word of the Gospel No for that thou sawest not but fetchest in by consequence upon thy changes what then a certain secret insensible working of power in thy heart to perswade thee to confesse thy sins and mend thy actions and do better then formerly Now thou speakest in the dialect of that Pharisee Luk 18.10 11. He had such a like considerce that he was a righteous justified person and was in state of grace but how came he by it he trusted in himself he saies not to be made righteous but that he was now a righteous one one that should have benefit by the Messias in his coming and should partake of the promises he fetched the arguments of his confidence from himself and yet what he speaks of as in him he attributes to Gods grace as if he had wrought it in him God I thank thee that I am not thus and thus he doth not ascribe it to himself but to God and it 's not likely but he thought God had perswaded him so and so to walk by what he had heard of his will in the Scriptures in the law of God he thought of a secret working of power in the word but he never apprehended or believed the grace that is the good will of God as it was preached to Abraham in the Gospel and promise he was ignorant of Gods righteousnesse 1 Cor. 10.13 Gal. 4.23 24. he was born of the bond-Woman his changes and righteousnesse sprang not from love and grace fore-apprehended but from the Law enjoyning and adding promises to mans observation and therefore this plea would no serve him his confidence was not currant nor did God accept him Such is thy profession thou findest it said If thou believest thou shalt be saved which in it self only considered is but like a legall promise and nothing differs from it for that saies if thou dost thus and thus thou shalt live or be saved but herein the Gospel differs from it that it laies down a foundation of love demonstrated from God to a sinner in the first place to move him impower and enable him to the thing required of him so doth not the law but only holds forth a conditionall promise upon obedience and while a man sees or closes with no more of the Gospel the Gospel is but a legall doctrine to him it 's not the Gospel he sees not the love declared the glad tidings of Gods good will to him a sinner and ungodly in the gift of Jesus in the belief of which he should be principled to the thing required but I say thou meeting with such a conditionall promise thou endeavourest after faith and humility and fruits and from thy self-endeavours changes and self differings which thou thinkest are notable fruits of faith thou concludest and trustest in thy self that thou art righteous a believer a justifyed one and so that Christ is thy Mediatour and died for thee and attributest this to God as if thou wert no enemy to grace but a Preacher of it in opposition to free-will and thus many men do whenas they never yet saw or discerned what grace is nor had any other principle in what they did but the law its threats and promises and their own will whence though they have as strong confidence of their being righteous as the Pharisee had yet it is but a strong fancy and groundlesse conception of faith the bottom of it is a legall covenant and their own work and endeavour not the word of the Gospel the declaration of grace they receive not the word that should beget it I know they say they beleeve all the Scriptures from the beginning of Genesis to the latter end of the Revelations but come to the point let us examine thee in the testimony of God whereof the Apostle Paul was made a Preacher a Crier or Herauld for the obedience of faith we finde it 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6 7. Dost thou beleeve this God wils all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and that Christ gave himself a ransome for all c. by and by they crie our A damnable heresie I see it there written but I am not perswaded it is meant as it was spoken I cannot embrace it Well how then God hath good will to none but an elect number in the
resting place they have a better home and that they seek after I know others may utter such like words upon other principles as men seeing the brevity and uncertainty of mans life may think they have here no staying continuance as Cicero the heathen Philosopher speaks somewhat to that purpose I go saith he out of this life Ex hâc vitâ ita discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo commorandi enim diversorium naturâ— nohis non habi tandi dedit as if I went out of an Iâ—â—e not out of my dwelling-house for nature hath given us here a place to bait in only not to dwell in Thus a morall man may be led to say by the sense and knowledge he hath of this lifes uncertainty and passing swiftnesse but their confession proceeded from their faith in an earnest seeking after Gods heavenly promises the belief of Gods word and the complacency they had therein in the expectation of the things set before them made them so to reckon themselves as strangers and pilgrims in the earth and therefore not to love or covet after the enjoiments of the earth not to minde to return back into their own countrey whence by faith they had departed to follow after God all see they cannot here alwaies continue but all know not that they have a better countrey and therefore all that so see are not mortified in their mindes to the things whose vanity they see all reckon not nor so walk as if they reckoned themselves strangers and pilgrims in the earth seeking another countrey Two things we may principally note from what hath been said he to about the nature of faith and efficacy thereof 1. Note 3. That that divine faith that will indeed do us good in death stands in the word of God the word of the promise or Gospel closes with and springs from that sees is perswaded of and embraces the testimony of God held forth in that 2. Note 4. That that divine faith is exceeding operative and working inwardly and outwardly embracing the heavenly things propounded it leads to look for expect and seek them and to despise these earthly things in comparison of them Tit. 2 11 12. It leads to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope the promised inheritance at the appearance of Christ Jesus It 's neither a groundless humane conception and presumption nor an empty barren and idle speculation It 's such an heart-closing with the word as in which the word is vigorous in the heart and brings forth fruit unto eternal life this in both parts we have seen already in the opening of the text they saw them afar off and were perswaded and embracing them confessed that they were but strangers and pilgrims in the earth Would we have faith or would we that have any measure of it grow Applic. therein let us take heed to the word the word of faith the doctrine of the Gospel and let us be swift to hear slow to speak or make confessions or protestations of our faith further then that heard effecteth them in us be more ready to hear what God saies to us then to boast our selves of what is in us or to offer the sacrifice of fools Eccl. 5 1â— such as the power of the truths we hear spring not up in us much more be we slow to speak against the Gospel of God because we comprehend it not with our reason or to be wroth and offended thereat because it comes to lay us low and pull down our proud swelling conceptions Hearken diligently and your souls shall live Isa 55 3. And so would we be means to bring others to faith preach we and hold we forth the word to them not our dictates and placitas but Gods word the Gospel as attested in the Scripture that men may believe as the Scripture hath said for to such faith is the promise made Joh. 9.38 He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall slow rivers of living water and for such believers Christ hath praied Joh. 17.20 for them that shall believe through their word Joh. 17.10 Gal. 4.28 the word given by Christ to his Apostles whom he sent out into the world preach the word of promise for of that it is that the heirs are born that shall enjoy the inheritance the word of the death and of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for men which is part of the promise made to Abraham as was shewed before that 's the foundation doctrine upon this foundation build them and then exhort them to walk worthy thereof in all well-pleasing There 's many a mans faith detected to be vain by these two things by its want of a right bottom and by its want of right fruits and operations 1. Thou saist thou believest and trustest in God but according to what dost thou believe it's with many a man because of and according to their works diligence endeavours sense feelings not according as it is said in the word to us as it 's said of Abraham he believed according to what was spoken to him So shall thy seed be Ro. 4.17 Now as that 's not right faith that carries not on the soul after God and causes it not to seek the countrey promised so neither is that right faith that springs from mans own strifts and endeavours after the love of God as that 's not a good faith that 's without works so neither is that good that 's bottomed upon thy works It 's the character of true beleevers in Act. 18.27 that they beleeved through grace not through works I believe saies one that Christ died for me and is a Mediatour for me Well but how camest thou by that faith whereupon is it grounded why they will say perhaps from the word Well let us see how the word evidenced it to thee why I found such and such effects wrought in me I was convinced of my evil way and humbled and mourned and reformed and was thus and thus changed therefore I perceived that I was one of the elect of God and Christ died for me Oh but now believest thou not according to the word but deceivest thy self grounding thy faith of Christs mediation upon thy works or the effects of law and conscience in thee c. I fear when thou comest to the triall thy works will be found light and vain What dost thou tell me of fruits and effects of faith evidencing thine election before and as the ground of thy believing Christ a Mediatour for thee No changes or fruits will evidence election but such spring from faith in Christ in whom the election is nor is there any faith rightly in Christ as now come but in his bloud and mediation Rom. 3.25 by his bloud We have accesse to God to believe in him and approach to him and see his love to
then is nothing with them to trim up themselves and wear and eat and drink the best to play and game and perhaps do worse things these they will not deny the flesh they will please it what they can here because they think it shall have no pleasure or good hereafter But oh take heed to the Scriptures both Pharisees and Sadduces erre in not knowing and believing them Mat. 27.29 ye erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God they pretend to know them better then others while they can pervert them more then others and while they pretend a more spirituall understanding of them they contradict the spirit of understanding speaking in them and through fraud and subtlety seduce the simple seeming at first to speak as they till they winde them into their snares as Tertullian observed of them in his times De Res Car. they would say to the simple-hearted Vae qui in hâe carne non resurrexerint Wo to them that rise not in this flesh which the simple hearted hearing oftentimes were led to judge they meant honestly and according to the Scripture only whenas they meant saies he Dum in hâc carne sunt that rise not while they are in this flesh and so by one part of truth seemingly confessed the rising of our spirits here by faith with Christ they would by little and little undermine the faith of the simple-hearted and doctrinate them not to matter and then to deny the resurrection of the body running themselves and them that listened to them into the errour of Hymenaeus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.17 that say the resurrection is already past in whose very footsteps many also now walk not knowing the Scriptures yea departing from the Scriptures and not acknowledging the power of God thence say they how should the bodies that are long since dead and divers waies dispersed and that have endured so many transmutations be possibly raised and how can the world it self contain them as if they did not believe God Almighty and that all things are possible to him beyond our thought to whom I might say with the Apostle Act. 26 8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead But I say again minde we the word of God and so minde and keep it that we may be kept by it in the faith from this dangerous errour of the wicked dream not with them of all our resurrection here no coming of Christ but what they meet with here no performance of promises but what they have here all enjoyments and fullnesse and perfection here sure if that was true Paul was very low and ignorant to them when he saies he had finished his course 2 Tim. 4 8. and kept the faith and yet adds henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousnesse which God the righteous Judge shall give me at that day he had done his work and yet he had not received his reward it was but laid up for him and laid up to be given him not in this but in that day in another day the day of Christs appearance sure then the Apostle was out here too when he said these all died in faith and yet had not received the promises Nay the Apostle ' Paul instructs us that we shall not one prevent another in the receit of them 1 Thes 4.15 They that live at the coming of Christ shall not prevent them that are asleep They that now live shall not have them till Abraham Isaac and Jacob have them nor they before we have them Heb. 11.40 the dead in Christ shall be first raised at his coming and the living changed and both be caught into the air up together to meet him certainly they say false then that say Christ is come to them in his glory and they are raised and have the promises all they look for or all that any shall have and yet many of their brethren died without them and are not yet raised and if we will believe them never shall be and many yet are uncalled to them But beloved regard we not their sayings but know them to be false and vain and look we to Christ that died for us and rose again and know that as he rose so shall we also and together with Abraham and the Patriarchs and Prophets and all the Saints shall be caught up at his appearance to meet him 1 Thes 4.18 as the Apostle exhorts us comfort we one another for our deceased brethren with these sayings And indeed what comfort could we have for one another in respect of them if we believed that all their portion they are to have they have had it already and when they and we die our spirits go to God and our bodies to the dust and ther 's an end of the matter we shall never enjoy them again there shall be no resurrection away with such unchristian and unsavours conceptions and let ns where we have believed hold fast the faith and not upon any pretence or by any Philosophy or vain deceit of man depart therefrom let us live in it that we may die in it or according to it And thus I have given you a view of the text I suppose you expect I should now return to our present occasion and say something about our deceased brother Truly the text is such a comment on him as that we might go over it again and apply it to him or you might understand that spoken of these Worthies here as if said of him he believed the Gospel and had insight in it and oftentimes rejoiced much in it was perswaded of it embraced it loved it counted himself a stranger and pilgrim in the earth walkt with that contempt and carelessenesse of it how it thought of him and esteemed him as if he judged it not his habitation but had his eye as indeed he had upon a better countrey an enduring city that hath foundations he lived in this world as if he had his heart in another world not regarding nor scarce suffering the honours of this world or of this place to be thrust upon him his name was nothing to him for the Gospels sake that he would approve whoever disproved him he would stop his ears against and not endure to hear of their sayings who deny Christs mediation and impugn the doctrine of the resurrection and professing his joy and comfort to be therein and in the hope he had therethrough of an enduring happy condition for justice uprightnesse and honesty it was his aim and endeavour and therein hath not left many to exceed I doubt I may say to equallize him we may say of him the righteous man is taken away and the mercifull man from amongst us In both which respects I fear many will misse him as the loins of the poor blessed him alive so I doubt they will finde cause of mourning for his death as he affected not honour with men so did he not long enjoy it God not judging us worthy the improvement of his abilities for the good of the Town perhaps because no better respected when more able by them he was more like the self-denying Olive then the aspiring bramble he looked upon earths honour as a burthen having his chief desire upon that which is from heaven therefore God hath taken him from his burthen to give him his desire in a word he was upright in his life faithful to the truth to his death patient under affliction though long in great pain and very desirous of his dissolution that he might be with Christ Let it be ourcare to imitate him in these good steps that with him and all those who through faith and patience have looked after the promises of God we may in due time be raised up and brought to inherit them I shall only adde an Epitaph upon him and I shall leave both you and him * ⎠* FINIS AN EPITAPH QVi cum vixit erat Major major moriendo est Morte repurgatus quam fuit ipse prius Majestatis erat brevita cadaveris umbra Vix ea majestas illius umbra brevis Spe laetus multumque gemens mala publica corpus Mandat humo plenam numine caelo animam In English thus This man alive was May'r now dead is more Advanc't death bettring him then heretofore Short shade o' th corps of Royalty he was That Royalty scarce shadowed what he was Who joy'd in hope did publike woes condole Left earth his corps to heaven his gracefull soul FINIS