Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	faith_n	revelation_n	3,045	5	9.5466	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77357	The vvorks of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge: now preacher of the Word of God at Yarmouth. The second volumn. [sic] Viz. 1. Grace for grace; or, The overflowing of Christs fulness received by all saints. II. The spiritual actings of faith through natural impossibilities. III. Evangelical repentance.	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.; Yates, John, d. ca. 1660.; Greenhill, William, 1591-1671.; Adderley, William.	1649 (1649)	Wing B4446; Thomason E471_2; ESTC R205749; ESTC R24233	190,835	267

go so far And with them sayes he the blind and the lame Answ Oh! Object but I am a woman with child surely I shall never be able to returne to my own Country Yes Answ sayes he the woman with child I Object but I am a woman like to be in travaile about that time surely I shall be left behind I shall never return to my own Country Marke Answ the woman with child and her that traivaileth with child and a company shall return God does not only promise help but he promises to help the children of Abraham when all meanes faile And if you look into the New Testament you will find that severall promises which are given out in the Old-Testament upon speciall and extraordinary occasions assuring helpe beyond meanes are brought down into the New-Testament for us to apply there When the Devil came to tempt our Lord and Saviour to turne stones into bread sayes our Saviour Man lives not by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Math. 4.4 Now if you look into the eighth of Deuteronomy and the third verse you will find that those words were spoken upon an extraordinary occasion help beyond meanes He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know that hee might make thee know that man doth not live by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. And so here in this fourth of the Romans Abraham beleeved when all meanes failed he beleeved the promise and he is brought down for our example that we should beleeve the promise also when meanes faile And if you look into and consider the eleventh of the Hebrewes where you have a catalogue of many beleevers ye shall find that many of them beleeved when the means failed beyond meanes and yet they are all brought downe and made mention of for our example Surely therefore t is the duty of the children of Abraham to beleeve when all meanes faile and seeme to be dead before us Meanes for the Soule Meanes for the Body Means for the Family Meanes for the Churches Take this for the reason Reas Such a Faith is to be exercised unto God as is sutable unto that God in whom we do beleeve If the God in whom we do beleeve were a God that did helpe onely by meanes then we were to trust so unto him but being he is such a God as workes beyond meanes we are to exercise a faith towards him sutable to this God in whom we do beleeve So in regard of our Love We must love God with a love worthy of God Now if a man should onely love God for benefits and blessings that he receives from him and not for the holinesse and excellency that is in God himselfe this love were not worthy of God So in regard of our faith if we should onely beleeve God in regard of the reason and experiences and means this faith were no way worthy of God I will beleeve a man I will beleeve the worst of men the vilest man so farre as I can see him and shall I beleeve God no further We must beleeve with a faith worthy of God faith is not worthy of God unlesse we beleeve beyond meanes this is the faith that is worthy of God this is the faith required and commended Take but one Scripture for it more In the seventeenth of Luke there were ten Lepers came unto Christ desiring cure saying Jesus Master have mercy on us at the thirteenth verse When he saw them he said to them go shew your selves unto the Priests And it came to passe as they went they were cleansed It seems they were not cleansed then as he spake they were not cleansed when Christ sayes Go and shew your selves to the Priests for it is said as they went they were cleansed Why then should they shew themselves to the Priests They were to shew themselves to the Priests to bring an offering for their cleansing yet sayes our Saviour go shew your selves to the Priests They were to beleeve that they should be cleansed although they saw themselves full of Leprosie So although a soule sees himselfe to be full of Leprosy yet notwithstanding it is to rely upon Jesus Christ and to beleeve as if he were fully cleansed This is the second Proposition The third will make out this the more full Thus to beleeve when all meanes faile is exceeding pleasing to God and most acceptable This kind of faith Christ commends in Thomas Joh. 20.29 Thomas sayes Christ thou hast beleeved because thou hast seene but blessed are those that do beleeve and have not seen Blessed is any man that does beleeve though his hands may be full of sence but of all beleevers blessed is that beleever that beleeves beyond sence that beleeves and hath not seene There are two especially that Jesus Christ does commend for beleeving Mat 15.28 Mat. 8 10 the Canaanitish woman and the Centurion To the one sayes he O woman great is thy faith Concerning the other I have not seene such faith no not in Jsrael And both of these beleeved above hope and under hope when the meanes in view seemed to chide them off from beleeving In that eleventh of the Hebrewes many of the Saints are commended for their Faith They had other graces wherein they did excell Moses was a Meeke man he is not recorded there and commended for his meeknesse but for his Faith Sampson was a stout and a resolute man he is not commended there for that but for his Faith They had other excellent graces but this grace of Faith is singled out to weare the Crown Heb. 11.39 They all obtain'd a good report through Faith That weares the Crowne of all other graces And you shall find that that Faith was mingled with many weaknesses Rahab one of those beleevers what a deale of weaknesse passed from her in her beleeving Yet notwithstanding though their Faith was clogged with many weaknesses yet their Faith is commended and most of them beleeving beyond means and when all meanes failed plainly speaking out this truth to us The great acceptation that such a Faith hath with God Beloved this faith beleeving when all meanes faile and lye dead before us turnes God about as we may speak with reverence and make God of an enemy a seeming enemy to become our friend If you trust unto your friend for a kindnesse he will do it because you rest on him if you rest upon an enemy he failes you but if you rest on God he will therefore do it because you rest on him and he will become your friend by your resting on him Oh! I have been a great and a wretched sinner Yet notwithstanding I know there is infinite riches of grace in Christ and therefore sayes the soule I will rest on him yea Lord though thou kill me yet will I rest upon thee I

Come and let us take our fill of love Come friends come company let us go unto such a Tavern or such a place where we may be fully merry Come O my soul take thy contentment in creature fulness there is enough there This robs Christ of the glory of all His fulness To carry away the custom of my thoughts unto another Shop from Christ argues that there is not enough in Christ alone Then beloved to conclude all Are there any here as I fear there may be too many that have thus robbed Jesus Christ of the glory of His fulness I beseech you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ whose fulness I have bin now preaching to you I beseech you in the fear of God go into your Chamber and be alone awhile and fall down before the Lord and say thus unto Him or to this purpose Oh! Lord I confess it hath bin so w th me I have thought that there hath not bin a sufficient rule for the Government of the Churches and herein I have wronged Christ in His Prophetical fulness and the Lord pardon this unto me Lord I confess also I haue said many times that my fins are so great that there is no hope for mercy that there is no hope for pardon herein I have wronged the Priestly fulness of Jesus Christ now the Lord pardon this unto me I confess Lord I have stinted thee and I have limitted thee and I have said many times in my hast if this means fail then England is undone the Church undone thus I have limitted thee Lord Oh! herein I have wrong'd thee and robbed Christ in His Kingly fulness Yea Lord I do acknowledge and I do confess I have gone to creature-comforts and my heart hath taken a content and complacency as if there were enough there but now I see there is a fulness in Jesus Christ the Lord pardon me that ever I let out my heart upon any creature-comfort upon any thing but Jesus Christ You that have bin guilty fall down and humble your selves before the Lord and consider that there is a fulness in Jesus Christ and labor to draw out this fulness from Him Which that you may so do think on all these things and the Lord blesse them to you SERMON II. JOHN 1.16 Preached at Wapping Aug. 17. 1646. And of His Fulness have all we received even Grace for Grace I Have made entrance into these Words in a neighbouring Congregation and shal now desire to go on where I left there The Words hold forth Three Great Grand Propositions First That there is a Fulness of Grace in Jesus Christ Secondly That of His Fulness all we do receive Thirdly That we do receive of His Fulness even Grace for Grace The former Proposition I have dispatched and desire at this time to speak unto the second All we do receive of His Fulness Of His Fulness have all we received The difficulty that lies upon the Proposition is this Who are meant here by this All Wee Some there are that conceive that by those words we are to understand all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth because 't is said before in the beginning of the Chapter That He is the light that lighteth every one that cometh into the world But though the thing be true that there is no Creature either in Heaven or Earth but more or lesse is beholding to Jesus Christ for if Christ had not stept in upon the fall Gods displeasure was so great against man that he would presently have broke up house and the sin of the fall was so heavie that it would have broken the very Axel-tree of the World if Jesus Christ had not put to His shoulder according to that of the Apostle Heb. 1.3 He bears up all with the Word of His Power yet notwithstanding all the Creatures in Heaven or Earth cannot be meant here by this All Wee for all the creatures in Heaven and Earth do not receive Grace they may be said to receive of the Fulnesse of Christ but not Grace for Grace But at the 12. verse 't is said as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the Sons of God euen to them that beleeve in his Name Now in Scripture phrase those are said to receive Christ Himself that do receive His Grace and those that receive His Grace receive Christ Himself Understand therefore by this All Wee those that receive Him as ye have it in the 12. verse which is explained to be Them that beleeve in His Name And then the Observation or Doctrine lies plain before us which is this That all the Saints and People of God Doct. do pertake of the Fulness of Christ in a way of receiving It falls a sunder into Two parts Thus First That there is a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers Secondly That whatsoever Grace or Holiness the Saints have from Christ they have it in a way of receiving I shall only speak unto the former at this time There is a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers Of His Fulness all we receive mark There is a communication of the Fulnesse of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers He is the second Adam which the Apostle Paul speaks of in the 1 Cor. 15. Chapter and the 45. verse The first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit The whole world is divided into Two great Houses As once in this Kingdom There was the House of York And the House of Lancaster So now the whole world is divided into Two great Houses The House of the First Adam And the House of the Second Adam The first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit that is look as the first Adam did communicate life unto all his seed So the second Adam does communicate Spiritual life and grace unto all his people As by the first Adam sin and sorrow and death came into the world and so upon all man-kind So by the second Adam grace and life and eternal life unto all Beleevers There is a dealing out a giving out of the fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers This will appear First of all by the Union that there is between Christ 1 Reason and a Beleever there is a glorious a blessed an incomparable union between Christ and every Beleever though he be never so weak though he be never so poor There is a union between the Root and the Branches and by vertue of that union the Root sends forth life and strength into all the Branches but yet notwithstanding the Root is not in the Branches nor the Branches in the Root mutually There is a union between the Head and the Members and by vertue of that union the Head hath an influence upon all the Members but yet the Head is not in the Members nor the Members in the Head But

And if you look into this first Chapter of John you find That those that are regenerate and borne again 't is said concerning them at the 13. verse that they are not borne of Bloods in the plural number your English hath it Blood in the singular You are not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Some there are and were that thought themselves to be the children of God because they came of godly parents because of their bloods because of their education Ioh. 8.33 So the Jews Wee are the Children of Abraham Some there are and were that think themselves the Children of God because of some Legal workings and monkish devotion all those legalities under the Gospel are called flesh Some there are that think themselves the children of God because of some more refined and raised and heroical actions That he might obviate all these saies he We are not born of bloods nor of the will of the flesh nor of the wil of man but of God You are for Free-will and you think Free-will hath a great stroke in mans Conversion but how can ye look this Scripture in the face No way of will not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man If it be any will it must be either the will of the flesh or the wil of man but I tel you saies he We are not borne of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man no way of will but of God To the like purpose you have in James 1.17 Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above In some of your books you reade thus Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above But it is rather to be read Every good giving Every good gift and every good giving is from above Not only the Thing given is from above but the very Donation the very Exhibition the very Giving out of the thing that is good it is from above Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above So that plainly then there is an utter Insufficiency in Nature unto what is good As for the Al-sufficiency of Jesu Christ Rom. 8.29 Rev. 1.17 He is the first born among many Brethren He is the first fruit that sanctifieth all the rest I am the first and the last saies he The first is the cause of the rest The Sun is the first and the great light so the cause of all other light Jesus Christ He is called the first in this same Chapter 15. verse This was He saies John of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for He was before me So ye reade it but it is He was my first preferred before me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for He was my first and therefore the first giving a Being unto all that follows Jesus Christ He does give a Being unto all our graces I am the way the truth and the life saies He. Joh. 14.6 I am the Way Would you go to Heaven You cannot go thither but you must go in some Way A man cannot go unto a City but he must go some way or other if he go by water go by land this way or that way still he goes some Way or other Saies Christ if you would go to Heaven I am the Way This same word Way it notes the means unto a thing and when He saies I am the way 't is as if He should say That look what ever means you do use in order to Heaven all those means they have their vertue and their power and their efficacy from me I but a man may be in a way and in a right way and yet notwithstanding if he have not some guide he may lose his way True saies He therefore I am the Truth and 't is observable how Truth lies between Way Life as if the way to Life were thorough Truth as if Truth were the great road or the thorough-fare to life saies Jesus Christ I am that too I am the Way and the Truth too I but though a man be in the right Way and have a guide he may fall sick and die and never come to his journeyes end Therefore saies Christ I am the way and the Truth and the Life too I even I am He that gives life unto all your motions and actions for Heaven all Grace from Christ He it is even He alone that hath every mans heart and soul under lock and key There are Three great doors that must ordinarily be opened before converting-Grace can get into the soul of man 1 Cor. 16.9 Job 33.16 Acts. 16.14 Rev. 3.7 The door of a Powerful Ministry A large and an effectual door is opened The door of the Eare He openeth the eare and sealeth instruction The door of the Vnderstanding and of the heart Lydias heart was opened Now if you look into the Scripture you will find that Jesus Christ hath the opening of all these doors He hath the key of David He openeth and no man shuts and shutteth and no man openeth in the 1. of the Revelation and the 18. He saies That He hath the keyes of Hell and of death No man goes into the grave but He opens a door to let him in and no man goes to Hell but Jesus Christ He locks him up there He locks him up there unto all eternity if He did not lock him in he would not be there unto all eternity So that whatsoever Grace or holiness there is in any mans heart He opens the door He lets it in 't is by His ordering and His sending thither And Beloved if Jesus Christ were not the great Lord-Keeper of His Fathers wardrobe why should those Names and Titles be given to Him which you find so frequently in Scripture Cast your eyes where you wil you shal hardly look upon any thing but Jesus Christ hath taken the Name of that upon Himself If you cast your eyes up to Heaven in the day and behold the Sun He is called Mal. 4.2 Rev. 22.16 Col. 1.18 Rom. 13.14 Ioh. 6.35 Ioh. 10.9 Ioh. 10.11 Ioh. 1.29 Luk. 15.23 Zac. 13.1 Isa 28.16 Pro. 3.18 The Sun of righteousness If you cast your eyes in the night upon the Stars or in the morning upon the morning star He is called The bright morning star If you behold your own Body He is called the Head and the Church the Body If you look upon your own Clothes He is called your Rayment Put ye on the Lord Jesus If you behold your Meat He is called Bread The Bread of life If you look upon your Houses He is called a Door If you look abroad into the fields and behold the Cattel of the fields He is called The good Shepherd He is called The Lamb He is called The fatted Calf If you look upon the Waters He is called A Fountain The Blood of Christ a Fountain If you look upon the

this for I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years He look't too much upon and considered he stood poring too much upon the meanes and this was the enemy unto his Faith You know Beloved that the Scripture hath laid a flat opposition between Faith and sence We live by Faith sayes the Apostle and not by sight or by sence The reasons drawn from sence are sence and when a man does live by reason drawn from sence and beares up his heart therewithall he does live by sence If you live by Faith you don't live by sence if you do live by sence you don't live by Faith They are as two buckets the life of Faith and the life of sence when one goes up the other goes down the higher Faith riseth the lower sence and reason and the higher sence and reason the lower Faith That is true of the schooles Reason going before Faith weakens and diminisheth it But Reason following upon Faith increases and strengthens it Besides you know Paul sayes Not many wise c. Why not many wise called Those that are wise they consider the things of God and of the Gospel in a meere rationall way and therefore not many wise are called it hinders them from the worke of beleeving Luther sayes well If you would beleeve sayes he you must crucify that Question why God would not have us so full of wherefores And if you would beleeve you must go blindfold into Gods command Abraham subscribes to a blank when the Lord called him out of his own Countrey Besides You know the great field that Faith hath to work in the large and vast Orbe and Sphear that it hath to move in Faith can go into the Old Testament and run up as high as Adam and come back again to the Soul and tel the Soul I have seene a man whom God hath pardoned that damn'd all the World and why may he not pardon thee Faith can runne up to Heaven and come home againe to the Soule and say I have seene the Glory there be of good comfort ther 's enough in Heaven to pay for all Faith can runne unto Gods All-sufficiency to Gods Omnipotency and having viewed that well it returnes to the Soule home againe and sayes be quiet ther 's enough in God alone and Faith having placed and seated it selfe upon this high Tower and Mountaine Gods Omnipotency and All-sufficiency it hath a great prospect it can look over all the World and look into another World too but now Reason it gets upon some little Mole-hill of Creature-ability and if it can see over two or three hedges 't is well And therefore Oh! what a paine is it to Faith to be tied to Reason I suppose you will all say that if a man were able to go a journey of two or three hundred miles a foote he were a very good footman yet if you will tie him to carry a child of foure or five years old with him you will say it would be a great luggage to him and the man would say pray let this child be left at home for though he may runne along in my hand half a mile or go a mile with me yet notwithstanding I must carry him the rest of the way and when I come at any great water or to go over any hill I must take him upon my backe and that will be a great burden to me And thus 't is betweene Faith and Reason Reason at the best is but a child to Faith Faith can foot it over Mountaines and Difficulties and wade through Afflictions though they be very wide but when Reason comes to any Affliction to wade through that and to go over some great Difficulties then it cries out and sayes Oh! Faith good Faith go backe againe good Faith go backe againe No sayes Faith but I 'le take thee upon my backe Reason and so Faith is fain to do indeed take Reason upon its backe but Oh! what a luggage is Reason to Faith Oh! what a burden is Reason to Faith Faith never works better then when it works most alone The meere rationall considering of the means and the deadnesse thereof is a great and speciall enemy to the worke of beleeving That is the First The Second Proposition is this That when all meanes faile and seem to lye dead before us then it is the duty and commendation of all the children of Abraham to beleeve That is to beleeve the thing may be and so to rest and relye on God in Christ Thus it was here with Abraham And hath not the Lord commanded by the Apostle saying Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Soules to the hand of God as into the hand of a Faithfull Creator the 1 of Peter 4.19 When ye are scrupled about your Election or Reprobation you look upon God as a Potter that hath power over the clay to make it either a Vessel of honour or dishonour But when you are to beleeve then you are not to look upon God as a Potter that workes out of clay or out of materials but as a Creator that workes out of nothing yea as a faithfull Creator that will be sure to worke out of nothing whom you shall be sure of Thus then you are to look upon him You know the place in the third of Habakuk and the 17. verse Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the Fields shall yeeld no meate the flocke shall be cutt off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stals yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation the Lord God is my strength c. Thus Habakuk beleeved Beloved we are so to beleeve as the promise runnes Gods promise is the rule of our Faith look how that speakes so may we beleeve The promise and Faith is the buckle and claspe fit for one another Now the Lord does not onely promise to helpe the children of Abraham Isai 41 17. but he promises to helpe when all meanes faile When the poor and needy seeke for water and there 's none I pray look into that third of Jeremy and the 8. verse Behold sayes the Lord I will bring them from the north Country his people scattered here into the Land of the North. And gather them from the coasts of the Earth and with them the blinde and the lame the woman with childe and her that travaileth with child together a great company shall returne hither The Lord promises to bring them backe to their owne Country from the Land of the North. I but may some say Object I am a poore blind man and I shall never find the way home againe Sayes he Answ I will gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blind Oh! Object but I am a poore lame man and I shall never be able to

into his soule Answerable to that a chaine of gold is hung about his necke Joseph a poor stranger brought as low as ever man was Answerable to that he is made next in the Kingdome to Pharoah Beloved if the dead Mercy rise as your bodies when they rise they rise in glory So when the Mercy rises it will rise a glorious Mercy And as it shall be the greatest Mercy that ever you had so it shall be the surest That is most certain that is certain after uncertainty Whose assurance was like to Thomas's Oh! sayes Thomas My Lord and My God two My's My Lord and My God it came out of doubting A Tree that stands after shaking stands the most firmly Assurance after doubting is the strongest Assurance surest Assurance As 't is the greatest Mercy so I say it shall be the surest Mercy if ever the Mercy rise And then againe Lastly As the surest so it shall be the sweetest Mercy The children of Israel they had wholesome meat and water and drinke but the sweetest water was that which they had after no water water out of a rocke that was like hony And a Mercy that comes out of a rocke that comes from out of the sentence of death from under death it shall be the sweetest Mercy You know what the Father of the Prodigall sayes when his son was come home he cals his friends together Lak 15.32 Come sayes he and make merry with me for this my son was dead and is now alive Cals his friends together and speaks thus unto them So shall it be with the Soule when the Mercy lost is found when the Mercy dead is raised then the Soule shall call in his friends Come O my friends Come I le tell you what the Lord hath done for my Soule here here is a Mercy dead and 't is now alive Come make merry with me O my friends this my Assurance it was even dead and 't is now alive Oh! this Blessing this Blessing it was dead but 't is now alive Come and make merry with me O my friends for this Mercy was dead and 't is now alive Thus I say if this Mercy rise that hath the sentence of death upon it it shall be the greatest Mercy it shall be the surest and it shall be the sweetest Mercy that ever you had in all your dayes And therefore who would not waite upon the Lord who would not waite upon the Lord when the sentence of death is put upon the Mercy and upon all the manes that do lead unto it Oh! my beloved in the Lord that you would but possesse your hearts of this one Truth this Mercy how quiet would your Soules be under all the distempers and the troubles of the time Nationall distempers Personall distempers When you look upon the troubles that are abroad yet your hearts would be quiet and you would say well but yet notwithstanding we may be in the way to the greatest Mercy that ever England saw why should we be thus discouraged Oh! my Soule waite upon God this is Gods way he never gives any great Mercy to any of his people but first he does put a sentence of death upon it and upon all the meanes that do lead unto it And therefore notwithstanding all yet we may be in Gods way Therefore Oh! my Soule waite on him Thus much for this time Rom. 4. vers 19. And being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe THe words as ye heard the last day are spoken concerning Abraham Preached-at Margarets New fishstreet March 2. 1645. And they hold forth three great Truths unto us The First is this That when God intends to fulfill his promise by giving any speciall blessing to the children of Abraham he does first put the sentence of death upon the blessing and upon all the meanes that do lead unto it Abrahams body is dead and Sarahs wombe is dead when God had promised him a great seed The Second is this When God is thus pleased to put the sentence of death upon a blessing or the meanes that do lead thereto Then and then especially 't is the duty and commendation of all the children of Abraham to beleeve in God and not to stand poring upon the meanes and the deadnesse thereof He considered not his own body being dead nor the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe The Third is this That no difficulty can stand before Faith true saving justifying Faith carries the Soule through all difficulties discouragements and naturall impossibilities to Jesus Christ Thus it was here with Abraham he being not weak in Faith he had an eye unto Jesus Christ I have done with the First and my desire is now at this time to dispatch the Second When God is pleased thus to put the sentence of death upon a blessing Doctr. or the meanes that do lead unto it it is the duty of the children of Abraham then to trust in God not to stand poring upon or considering of the meanes and the deadnesse thereof Thus it was here with Abraham God made Abraham a promise that his seed should be like the sand and like the starres for multitude But Abrahams body is dead and his wives body is dead Notwithstanding Abraham considered not the deadnesse of the meanes And in all this he is held forth for our Example as you heard the last day As he did therefore so must we do The Doctrine is somewhat large I shall break it asunder into three parts and endeavour to cleare up these three Propositions unto you for the proof of the whole First That a meere rationall considering of the meanes and the deadnesse thereof is a great and a speciall enemy to the work of beleeving Secondly That when all means faile 't is the duty and commendation of the children of Abraham then to beleeve Thirdly That so to do is exceeding pleasing to God and most acceptable First That a meere rationall considering of the meanes the straitnesse or scantinesse narrownesse or deadnesse of the meanes is a great and a speciall enemy to the work of beleeving Abraham being not weak in Faith considered not his own body being dead If he had considered he might have been hindered in his Faith Ye reade of Zacharias that good man Father of John the Baptist that when the Angell brought him tidings of a child in way of his speciall Mercy he would not beleeve it And in the 1. of Luke and the 20. verse ye reade how he was punished for it Behold thou shalt be dumbe and not able to speak untill the day that these things shall be performed because thou beleevest not my words But what hindred him what kept him off from this work of beleeving you shall find at the 18. verse too much attendance unto and considering of the meanes and the deadnesse thereof Zachary said unto the Angell Whereby shall I know