and real in his offer he doth not mock her her judgment approves of him as one fit to make a good Husband Then her will consents and takes him When the publick Minister as it ought to be and was in Commonwealths well governed and Churches comes to marry them his question is Wilt thou have this man c. She answers I will Then he ties the marriage knot Here is union they twain now are become one flesh he hath taken her and she hath taken him into marriage covenant and union She now being united to him rests upon him trusts to him goes to his purse for whatever she wants she lives upon him this is communion in his goods Thus it is in the spiritual Marriage the poor awakened sinner hears that Christ offers himself unto it if it be one who never heard of Christ as Jaylour and those Christians converted from Heathenisme then Paul must speak to him the Word of the Lord Acts 16.32 If others have heard the Name of Christ have general notions of him while they read the Gospel or hear it preached the Spirit joyns with it as it did with Paul and teacheth the Soul the knowledge of Christ that the Soul seeth Christ and knows him so as it never knew him before though it knew some of the same notions The Spirit teacheth the goodness of Christ this the Soul needs the same Spirit assureth the Soul of the truth of what he teacheth and draws the understanding to assent to all this Doctrine as true But if the question be Is Christ reall and true in his offer to such a vile wretch as I am He assureth the Soul from the Offer Call Command and Promise of Christ that he is true and doth not mock it Assent is given here also The Judgment approves of Christ exceedingly no good to him I am happy for ever in having him now the Soul having thus heard and learned of the Father John 6.45 both the excellency goodness and truth in all now the Will comes off freely take him ay with all my heat The door is opened to Christ who stood knocking Rev. 3.20 He hath opened the heart of Lydia Acts 16.14 The will thus taking him and giving up it self to him as thus offered union is made Christ and the Believer are become one mystically upon this follows communion the married believing Soul rests upon him trusts to him for all its wants till Christ hath brought the Soul to his Fathers house and to himself in glory This is Faith Christian and saving Faith that which will carry thee through if thou hast it and improvest it daily spending upon Christ his Stock who hath never the less do you and all Believers spend what you can Whether thou hast attained as yet to that assurance that this Christ and all his benefits are thine If thou hast a stormy and dark Voyage and canst not see the Sun many sad fears I know thou mayest have and sorrows enough yet this faith will carry thee safe to Heaven at last It is by grounded assurance that thou art comforted but it is by this faith thou art saved Which that I may make good let me prove that this saith which I have described is Gospel or saving faith And before I come to that let me speak to one Question which will help to the clearer proof of what I have affirmed if that be removed Quest Whether the essence of saving Faith doth lye in a particular perswasion and assurance that Christ with all his redemption is mine that I shall have life and salvation by his means Or assurance of Gods favour to me in particular and forgiveness of my sins Thus we have been catechized thus we read in eminent holy men master-builders against whom though we may argue for Truths sake and for the support of thousands of true believers yet for their abilities holiness Gospel simplicity spiritualness I fear few of us shall ever reach them their memory is precious Definitions give the essence or else they tell you nothing The question lies in that particular perswasion assurance that Christ is mine that my sins are forgiven as our ancient Divines have affirmed our later Divines have spoken exceeding well to it yet give me leave upon the Reasons I before mentioned to cast in my Mite That the essence of saving Faith doth not lye in that particular perswasion or assurance that Christ is mine and my sins forgiven I thus prove First Argument That is not the essence of saving Faith which Gospel-Ministers cannot press all men to but they must press most to believe a Lye But to press all men to particular perswasion or assurance that Christ is theirs forgiveness theirs is to press most men to believe a lye Ergo Particular perswasion or assurance that Christ is mine forgiveness mine is not the essence of saving Faith The Major is plain Gospel-Ministers who preach the Gospel of Truth and him who is the Way and Truth and cannot lye Tit. 1. must not preach that or press people to believe that which if they do believe as they are pressed they must most of them believe a lye this were horrible Now Gospel-Ministers are to press all men who hear the Gospel to believe in Jesus Christ This is the Commandment of God For this they are threatened if they do not believe in him with the wrath of God Christ is offered to all whosoever believe in him The Texts I have given before Object Ministers are to press all men prepared to belive in Christ Answ First But what if not prepared Is it not therefore their duty If it be not their duty then I confess all men must not be pressed to believe in him but then I hope unbelies in them is no sin because faith is not their duty because not prepared So unbelief in Christ shall condemn only those who were prepared for Christ but did not believe in him Mr. Shepherd gives this as the fourth general Reason of mans ruine Sincere Convert p. 266. false Faith Of this I doubt not false faith in Christ is the cause of the destruction of many Christians but for those words of this reverend Author We cannot rap off mens fingers from catching hold on Christ before they are fit for him need a little examining for some poor Christians will soon apply this to themselves Catching hold of Christ is meant faith this is plain from the thing it self and the Head he is upon Some men should have their fingers rapped off from catching hold on Christ but Ministers cannot do it What is the reason their fingers should be rapped off Not the error in their catching hold but because they are not fit for Christ then it seems they ought not to catch hold on Christ it is not their duty for if it be then their fingers must not be rapped off but guided and helped in laying hold Secondly Till they be fit But what is that fitness Is it not preparedness And when
never was right prepared for Christ I never yet saw sin in its right colours lours I never felt that spirit of bondage those legal terrors and sorrows as I ought to have done hence fin is no more bitter Christ and holiness are no more precious to me sin and I were never so separated in that work as ought to have been hence it cleaves so close unto me and hath such power over me at this day here also they lay the blaine when they cannot find their hearts running out in love after Christ as they should have them and would have them yea all their errors and miscarriages in their after works they reduce to their errors in this first work it being a sure Rule An error in the first concoction is not mended in the second I shall not repeat what I have before written but desire the Christian Reader to look back upon what I have said about Preparations and especially my Answer to that Question How a Christian may satisfie himself concerning those preparatory legal works Here I shall only add these few Heads very briefly First It is very true legal fears terrors and sorrows are very good to help loosen the Soul from sin to imbitter sin to make the Soul see the necessity and excellency of Christ prize him and love him accordingly Secondly It had been well for many Christians had they experienced them more than they have done light hearts apt to be frothy vain and running out to the utmost line of lawful liberties Thirdly Legal terrors and sorrows will not of themselves kindly nor soundly take off a Soul from sin such persons who have been plunged in them have returned to their vomit again after them Fourthly Soms Christians who have experienced them in a small measure have walked more awfully tenderly with a more mortified Gospel-conversation than other Christians who have had them in far greater degrees and yet have true Grace Fifthly Christians who have had great legal workings and attained sound Grace after them have found and complained of the rebellion of strong corruptions and the same things which other Christians complain of who have not found the legal workings after their manner but they cannot say that these things they complain of and which make them fear the soundness of their work arise from want of legal preparations they have had enough of them Why then should the workings of those corruptions c. be resolved into the want of legal preparations fears and sorrows and you for want of these legal workings question the soundness of your faith and conversion For you might have had those legal workings as others have had in a great degree and yet make as great complaints of these inbred corruptions and other evil frames as now you do Sixthly Great legal workings with great Gospel-grace following the remembrance of the legal works past kept up fresh the glory of Gospel-grace at present seen and felt make Christians set a higher price upon Christ morefearful of sin and so legal workings become very helpful and subservient to a Gospel-conversation all the dayes of a mans life Seventhly A frame of holiness wrought in the heart the Spirit of Christ there dwelling keeping and acting it the glorious Majesty of God discovered the love and sweetness of Christ really tasted and out-tasting all the sweetness of sin and creature do most kindly and soundly take off the Soul from sin and creature Let us labour then to experience these things more and not run to legal terrors which can never soundly and surely do the work though they may prepare for the work The next thing that makes many real Christians exclude themselves from the number of Believers is their want of faith they have no faith And why no faith Because they have not that particular perswasion that Christ with all his benefits are theirs they cannot say they dare not say Christ is mine or that my sins are forgiven when they hear of unbelief they know of no unbelief but this when persons do not believe or cannot believe that Christ is theirs and their sins are pardoned when they hear how great a sin unbelief is and what terrible threats the Word of God hath made against unbelievers they apply all to themselves What pangs have some Christians yea men of great parts and Ministers been under when they read that Revel 21.8 But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their parts in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone applying the Text to their fears doubts unbelief because they could not believe that Christ and his benefits were theirs And no wonder if Christians did thus conclude against themselves if faith in Christ be no other than that particular perswasion and assurance that Christ Jesus is mine that I shall have life and salvation by his means that whatever Christ did for the redemption of mankind he did it for me c. Those that had not this definition had not the thing defined that is saving faith Hence they might exclude themselves from the number of Believers Now though this be in great part taken off since Ministers of late have cleared the nature of faith in Christ better than it was before yet still it is that which keepeth many Christians under the old doctrine being not yet forgot of many and the latter not so clearly understood by most of which many Ministers may be in fault for if they be not clear in it themselves how can they preach it clearly to others But if that be saving faith in Christ which we have opened and are assured it is saving how many thousands will be found to be real Christians sound believers who according to the old definition of faith were cut off from that number Ask Christians Have you this particular perswasion that Christ is yours that whatever he did for the redemption of mankind he did it for you and that your sins are pardoned They will shake their heads answer you with a sigh O no I wish I had it I cannot come to that grounded assurance and perswasion Ask them again Hath not the Lord made you sensible of your sin guilt misery wretchedness in your self Hath he not revealed such excellency and fulness in Christ that now you feel your Heart willing to receive and embrace him for your Saviour and Lord Prophet High-Priest and King and so commit your self to him to have all his work of Redemption applyed to your Soul trusting and resting upon him alone for life and salvation They will answer you sometimes with an awful jealousie of their hearts I would have it so if my heart deceive me not sometimes more roundly ay with all my heart and soul Yea this work is found in them and unless it be in a day of great darkness desertion or vile sinful temptations and lusts working pend them up close in examination and they have been forced to yield it though sometimes they would eat their words again
something lurking that I do not yet see some secret hppocrisie lyeth yet undiscovered he that is known to be a lyar who will trust him or believe him though at this time he doth speak truth My heart is known to be a lyar God hath said so Jer. 17.9 and I have found his Word true how then can I chuse but fear there may be something at bottom that as yet I know not Thus you shall have Christians stand when you have so pent them up that they cannot but yield to you yet say they I fear I fear and that is all you shall get from them but to draw up the Conclusion no by no means they cannot do that Thirdly Though the Soul doth assent to the minor Proposition yet his assent unto it is not so strong and firm to force the Conclusion that Christ is his or that he is a believer as his Assent to the minor Proposition in the state of unregeneracy was to force this Conclusion that he was miserable and in that state must perish or that Christ was none of his Frame the Argument thus He that is an enemy to God and God to him under sin under unbelief a child of wrath he is in a miserable perishing state But I am an enemy to God and God to me I am under sin under unbelief a child of wrath Therefore I am in a miserable and perishing condition Here the Premises and the Assent to these Premises is so strong that the Conclusion is forced so as no resisting The Major is so plain that there is no opposing it The Minor where the pinch lies in concluding our good estate here in our proving our miserable state is as strong as the Major for the same word of God tells us it is the condition of us all by nature Col. 1.21 Ephes 2.16 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Rom. 8.7 and 11.32 Gal. 3.22 Ephes 2.3 Rom. 3.23 Whence the Assent I give to the Minor is not only from the sense of sin and enmity which I feel in my self which Assent is yet stronger for I am sure here cannot subesse falsum but besides this I Assent to it by a Divine faith because by necessary consequence from these Scriptures it follows That if all men are so by nature then though my name be not in the text yet I am sure I am included in the text But in drawing up my Conclusion for my saved state the Minor Proposition upon which the stress lies I cannot assent to it by a Divine faith as I did to the other because it is not contained in any Text that I do believe and may be forced out of the Text by necessary consequence Again to say I am as sensible of sincerity of saving grace as I am sensible of sin therefore I can as truly assent to the Minor from what I feel that I have sound faith as I did assent from my feeling that I had and have sin this the heart will shrink at and is afraid to speak so boldly though it may be truth that he is sensible of Grace Thirdly When a Christian by close examination is pent up to give answer yea or nay whether he have not so received Christ or such a work of faith is wrought in him as you by opening it and questioning of him would perswade him Arguments pro and con being weighed the Arguments for the Affirmative that such a work is wrought prove the heavier and cast the scale in the judgment of his own Reason and Conscience which he must not bely which doth witness and his own feeling testifies this in him But then here are two things 1. Though the Soul doth assent to the Affirmative yet he seeth much lye in the other Scale for the Negative which makes his assent that it is not so strong 2. He doth answer to what is in him according to his feeling or spiritual sense what work is actually there and if he denies his own feeling then Conscience will tell him he lyes and it is a vile thing to deny the work of God which he feels But this Proposition Christ is mine pardon is mine is not a work in him it is not felt by spiritual sense and experience as the other is and therefore he less minds that as being in no such great danger of denying a work of God in him or having Conscience tell him he lyes in denying what he feels and cannot but experience is wrought in him Fourthly The Christian upon tryal and examination answers to the question as he considers the work of faith in its causes or essence a priori and so commonly when you examine is it not thus you open the nature and essence of faith to him and he viewing of his own heart tells you if I know any thing of my own heart I have thus received I do thus cleave to Christ rest and roul my Soul upon him for all benefits of communion and execution of all his Offices but for the experiencing of these in my heart I cannot I have looked and longed to find Christ ruling like a King in me and acting like a Prophet in me and so as a Priest for me Now the want of these experiences shake his assent which he gave before while he considers faith in the causes Certainly saith the Soul if I had rightly received him did I truly cleave and trust to him I should experience the vertues of his Offices as well as the woman found vertue flowing from him when she touched the hem of his garment Matth. 9.20 Now if the want of these make him almost to eat his words the assent he gave before though still the Soul would hold that for saith the man were I to begin the work now again that a new I were to believe in Christ I could not tell how I should receive him adhere to him roul upon him otherwise than I do and have done already note this Christian and hold it so that it will not wholly let it go but hold it yet if the want can so shatter his assent to the minor Proposition to be sure the want of these experiences will trouble him so that he dare not assent to the Conclusion A man must have experience of Christ before he can say Christ is mine Fifthly Suppose saith the poor Christian I should draw up the Conclusion and say Christ is mine my sins are pardoned and if this should not be true where am I then hath not this been the case of many a hypocrite and unsound believer have not they thus said and thus believed and after all prove rotten and may it not be my case as well as theirs for they appeared to have more than I have these examples make the real Christian to tremble he dare not speak or think such high things for fear his fall should be more dreadful How Satan can work in all these I do not mention I will not multiply Heads Sixthly To draw up this Conclusion Christ is mine forgiveness
is mine will require the assistance and testimony too of that good Spirit when he helps the Soul to make his Syllogisme indeed the Soul shall be able to draw up his Conclusion according to his Premises He is called the Comforter and this his Office none can perform but himself if others help it is a he conveys himself by them Such is the work of Conversion from the first work of Illumination to the last all the things that come within the compass of a real Christian they do all depend upon the Spirit of God Men shall know it is not their great learning high parts c. that can do any thing belonging to a real Christian without the Spirit of God His work doth not depend upon the greatness of mens abilities God hath no need of them yea we find that as great parts hinder men from sound conversion that is a low thing fit for Mechanicks so where men have by the work of Gods Spirit attained to saving Grace their great parts have been great hinderances to their setling and comfort Many a poor sincere Christian whose natural abilities are but low shall be able to draw up the Conclusion and walk in the comfort of it that Christ is mine when other great heads though they have Grace shall not be able to reach it their excellent parts do but help them to be the more acute Disputants against themselves snarle and baffle themselves No flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.29 Hence we have known great Scholars able Divines have been glad to confer with and listen to the experiences of plain Christians in these cases Thus the eye hath need of the hand 1 Cor. 12.21 yea of the foot Seventhly Many Christians must have their setling and assurance come in their way which they have set down they chalk out Gods path for him they must have their comfort and evidence as such a Christian had it may be in an absolute promise without any condition expressed this was the only way of evidencing which some cried up and all assurances that came not this way were not valued this would take up some paper to handle that question which did so unbottom many serious Christians it would be too long to treat of it here but thus divers have lain looking for and listning after such a word set home by an impulse of the Spirit and all other wayes of evidencing are neglected to draw up a mans evidence by syllogizing taking first the word then applying that word to my heart and if my heart answers the word then conclude thus or so of my condition this was cryed down as being no sure or sound way of evidencing Hence many poor but sincere Christians were afraid and dare not go this way to work This hath made sad work I know where Lastly Some Ministers have preached it and their works published have declared it that Assurance is no saving Grace it is comfort but not grace and now there is no great danger though they do want assurance for they want not grace but want the comfort only of their grace in wanting assurance So they may do well in the conclusion though they want comfort at present it is want of saving grace not comfort which will ruine them This will occasion another Question Quest Whether a Christian upon self-examination or examination by others judicious and godly being convinced so much at least that he dares not deny but God hath wrought the good work of Faith in him ought not now to conclude Christ is mine and my sins are forgiven I speak of such a Christian who hath been examining himself by what hath gone before or by any other Book or Rules which are sound and unerring Some their Rules are false and most men judge by false Rules but I am speaking of a real Christian who is careful of his Rule and as careful in the applying of his heart to the Rule Amongst these in discourse we meet with some who manifest too much frowardness pettishness whom I much mislike and suspect others of a more humble meekened reverent frame of spirit willing to subject to any way of God and would conclude if they dare but they fear they should be too bold and thus out of fear are kept from their conclusion these are the Christians I aim at and observe the stress of the question lyes in the word ought it is not what they may do but what they ought to do making it a duty incumbent upon them and if that can be made good though that be yielded assurance is not grace yet they are not at liberty to turn off the conclusion as they please Answ Our Fathers who defined Faith by a particular perswasion and assurance c. had here a mighty advantage for their assurance is grace and those who had it not must want saving grace for they wanted faith without which no salvation and this I believe did put on many Christians that they dared not to deny the conclusion that Christ is mine forgiveness is mine because therein lay their work of saving faith and the contrary to it was unbelief the great Gospel damning sin Few Christians then and many now I believe knowing no other faith but this or unbelief but what is contrary to this Hence rose that Position which hath been so stifly maintained If a Christian should fall into a scandalous foul sin yet he must not let go his assurance of his interest in Christ of the love of God but that he ought to hold firm Very true if faith be the particular perswasion and assurance that Christ is mine then it ought to be so for every mans duty and so his duty is to believe he must not be an unbeliever though he hath fallen But what danger lyes in this Some rotten bold Hypocrite may be will say he holds his assurance at such a time but shew me that real sound Christian that ever did so till by sound repentance and laying hold upon the blood of Atonement with true faith he had recovered himself and made up his peace with God When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren said Christ to Peter Luke 22.32 rising from scandalous great falls is as it were another conversion or a now conversion a man shall meet with works now more terrible it may be than in his first conversion Neither David nor Peter knew such at the first conversion that they did in their rising from their scandalous falls But no more of this now Before I come to try whether we may determine affirmatively upon the Question I would take off an Objection and premise two or three things The Objection runs thus If assurance be no grace then I ought not to conclude according to the Question I am not bound to any thing but what is grace The Consequence and the Reason of it here given I deny Though assurance be not saving grace yet I may be bound and it may be my duty to conclude
Thus have those found it whom God intends to save by this discovery of their sin and guilt bringing them to repentance and embracing of Christ And blessed is that sight of sin when God withall gives the sight of a Saviour Thus also have others found it in a day of evil often on a death-bed when their sleepy Consciences come to be awakened now they can see their sins set in order before them and hell attending them and a sad time it is when the despised Ministers and Christians are sent for but know not what to say to them I have found it a great trouble what to say at such a time one while our bowels move hearts relent to hear poor Creatures that now lye under the fears of dropping into hell every moment what sad complaints they make and how they cry out for one word of comfort on the other side when we have known their lives how the Word the Offers of Christ and Promises have been slighted but now they see their lusts forsake them they must part now they would be glad to have Christ and a Promise and how dare a faithful Minister apply any upon what grounds can he do it It is a mans duty alwayes to believe in Christ that is true and that we must counsel them to lay hold on Christ But what said one to me who had once been a zealous and profitable Preacher but apostatized sadly a week before he dred he put that question to me What shall I do to be saved Sir said I it is a question you have answered many a time your self you know what answer Paul gave to the Jaylour when he propounded this question Yea said he but this believing I find a hard work And it is indeed though most think it the casiest thing in the Bible though they can do nothing else yet they can believe yea yea while Conscience lies asleep but when Conscience is awake and God sets all thy sins in order before thee in an evil day death drawing near now friend tell me is it easie to believe in Christ you will find with that poor Apostate my heart trembles while I think of him believing is a hard work indeed It is nothing but a sleepy Conscience that makes Faith easie Now friend give me your answer Is it best to see sin and guilt now while you may see a Saviour also or to see sin and a Judge hereafter but no Saviour Sin you shall see as we say in spite of your teeth will you nill you O then let me see sin and guilt now O now with a sweet Saviour that I may have this woful sight past when I come to dye Secondly Thou fearest if thy lusts and Idol-creatures were discovered to thee as they are in themselves thou and they should part there is I confess fair probability of it for certainly were a man throughly enlightened to see what it is to be a slave to its Iusts a vassal to the Creature an enemy unto God a stranger from Christ a prisoner under the Law a drudge to the Devil and God an enemy to him which is the state of us all by Nature no man living could bear it but would cry out for a Redeemer presently But is it not then a most irrational thing that a man should be loth to see these things as they are Truth is the object of the understanding we may say truly Intellectus vult verum so it is in all things but in matters of eternity a mans own salvation here he is content with falshood and afraid of truth if a man goeth to buy Cloth or any other Commodity he will endeavour to know the thing as it is views it well and gets others to help him if his own skill be doubted but for Sin and Creatures in reference to a spiritual end he doth not desire to see them as they are it is just as if a man were bewitched with a painted Hag he is very loth to have the paint washed off that he should see her as she is lest while he seeth her wrinkles and deformity he should loath her and cast her off This is the case between our Souls and Sin and Creature O the power of Sin O the witchery of the Creature How rich is that Mercy how precious that Redemption that delivereth us from Sin-slavery and Creature-bondage Thirdly What is it that thou enjoyest in thy lusts that God doth not allow thee remove but inordinacy Art given to the pot doth not God allow thee good Beer or Wine Yes sure you may have it with a good will only you must not be inordinate in drinking you are hugely hurt truly you may drink and enjoy the comfort of the Creature and bless your God but not be drunk or inordinate in drinking I have often thought of the Rechabites Jer. 35. and would chuse rather to be Gods Servant then Jonadabs Son Doth God lace you so streight as Jonadab did his posterity not allow them to drink wine build houses sow fields c. he allows these things and much good may they do you let but him be served while you enjoy them and good reason why it should be so Art a slave to thy unclean lust that imperious and God-despising Devil Because thou hast despised me 2 Sam. 12.12 I pitty thee whose hands are bands Eccles 7.26 much stronger then the Philistins seven green Wit hs or new Ropes wherewith they bound Sampson Judg. 16.7 11. Ah Sampson was faster bound with unseen Cords But hath not God allowed thy own Cistern the Marriage-bed which being sanctified by prayer may be sufficient through his Mercy to quench this thirst What the vileness of the heart is when it is hedged in by the Commandment of God here you must keep is known too well Rom. 7.8 If the temptation lye there the wind blow in that quarter if God steps not in with his power and interpose not between thy lust and temptation it is not thy Yoak-fellow thine own Cistern but stollen waters that must quench this thirst nor will they quench it but inflame the more O satisfie us with mercy prayed Moses Psal 90. so I say thy Wife and Mercy will satisfie thy Husband and Mercy will satisfie but if Mercy be not joyned and the Temptation blow strong thou art gone let thy Wife or Husband be persons never so likely to give content in the opinion of others One nearly related to me * Almost sixty years since was Minister to a Company of English Merchants in Prussia the chief of the Company whether he were called the Consul or Governour of the Company I know not but he was married his Wife a proper and very comely Woman but it seem'd did not satisfie him he was enslaved to others not so comely as his Wife not to be compared with her his Wife took it sadly my near friend being Minister dealt with him one thing he urged was that of all men he had the least temptation having
prepared Is it not when made willing to lay hold upon him and take him as he is offered because they will not else come to Christ for life John 5.40 By this expression he plainly shews that it is not mens duty to believe in Christ till they are fitted which upon the former Reasons I deny I see not one Scripture or Reason given to prove what he infinuates what men will do is one thing what men ought to do another Besides the end of preparing is to make men come to Christ and lay hold of him if now the Soul will venture upon Christ catch hold of him take him as God tenders him then they are fit I think why must their fingers be rappped off if their error be in catching hold that they do not take Christ right let the falseness of their faith in catching hold be discovered but not say it is not their duty because not fit For fit or not fit is every mans duty to whom the Gospel is preached to believe in Christ as much as it is his duty to repent Secondly I answer to the Objection if a man be prepared for Christ yet if there be no necessary connexion between preparation and saving faith as Doctor Ames Mr Pemble and many of our able Divines affirm then it will not follow that because men are prepared therefore they ought to believe Christ is theirs forgiveness of sin theirs It is one thing for a man to be prepared to lay hold on Christ another to be so prepared to say truly Christ is mine between preparation for Christ and the Souls saying Christ is mine there must come in another Act as the ground of this such an Act as Christ will own this Soul to be his and that is the reception of him upon his terms if Christ will say this Soul is mine then may that Soul say Christ is mine but not else to any true comfort The Minor needs no proof for Ministers in pressing all men to believe Christ is theirs forgiveness theirs is to press most men to believe a lye is so evident to them that look on their Congregations that it doth not deserve Arguments so much to prove it as tears to lament it Second Argument That which makes the essence of saving Faith to lye or subsist only in an Act of the understanding that is not the essence of saving Faith But to make the essence of saving Faith to lye in a particular perswasion or assurance that Christ is mine forgiveness mine is to make the essence of saving Faith to lye or subsist only in an act of the understanding Ergo The particular perswasion or assurance Christ is mine c. is not the essence of saving Faith The Major I proved before in proving that saving Faith takes in the will the heart that is the will is the subject of it according to some Divines If the whole Soul as Mr. Pemble and others to be sure the will is included that cannot be shut out for the reception of Christ into the will is that which chiefly denominates Faith saving The Minor But this particular perswasion or assurance that Christ is mine and forgiveness mine is but an Act of the understanding giving an assent to this Conclusion or Proposition as true upon such Premises layed but here is no act of the will such I mean as we have opened in the reception of Christ there may be an act of the will indeed as the will may move the understanding to assent as we say You may believe me if you will but that act of the will terminates there and is not such an act as we have mentioned Our ancient Divines use to oppose doubts to faith commonly but to what faculty doth doubting pertain I pray but to the understanding Third Argument That which is not cross to the corrupt heart of man nor doth directly empty a man of himself that cannot be the essence of saving Faith But the particular perswasion that Christ is mine the assurance my sins are forgiven is not cross to the corcupt heart of man nor doth directly empty a man of himself Ergo The particular perswasion and assurance that Christ is mine is not the essence of saving Faith The Major is plain The works of Faith or the grace of Faith is as cross to the corrupt heart of man as any Grace required the second branch proves it for it doth so empty a man of himself it empties him of his evil-self and empties him of his good-self which other Graces do not so directly I mean as to good-self and what hath a man more to be emptied of Were not Faith so cross it should not be called so much the gift of God nor the faith of the operation of God Col. 2.12 The Minor But this particular perswasion and assurance Christ is mine c. Is First Not cross to corrupt nature For it is that which any carnal wretch that owns there is such a one as Christ and that he is a Saviour would have Christ is mine forgiveness mine who will refuse it Nay we find men are aforehand here with the Ministry Doth the Minister preach of Faith People have it How hard a matter is it for Ministers to unbottom men from their false grounds When you have preached one Glass out turn it again preach another yea and twenty hours more if you will you shall never move them from this good hope and perswasion that Christ is theirs it were well if men could be taken off from these groundless perswasions and assurances so that to be perswaded and assured that Christ is theirs this is not cross to their nature And if Mr. Shepherd had meant this in mens catching hold of Christ before they be fit that is their perswasions and assurances Christ is theirs then would I heartily have joyned with him that mens fingers had need be rapped off from catching hold of Christ in this sense till they be fit Secondly Not doth it directly empty a man of himself By consequence a man may gather such a Truth or Proposition If Christ be yours then you are emptied of self i. e. of that self which stands in opposition to Christ because faith in Christ doth thus empty a man of this self but the particular perswasion and assurance that Christ is mine doth not empty a man directly of this self for observe many of these who have this assurance as they conceive and whom you cannot beat off from their deluded and deluding perswasions they do not know what it is to be emptied of self but are under the dominion of it Fourth Argument That is not the essence of Faith which is not found in all sound Believers But the particular perswasion or assurance that Christ is mine is not found in all Believers Ergo It is not the essence of saving Faith The Major is plain What it is that makes Faith saving must be found in all those who are sound believers else they are not sound
had read at that time for said he had I been meditating upon it before and so had comfort from the Text I should not have regarded it so much that was the emphasis that it was a Scripture he had not thought of Whence according to him the greatest assurance is when the Spirit sets home a Promise to a man which Promise was not in a mans mind he was not meditating upon it for if he had been in meditation upon it he should not so regard it This Divinity I told him I dare not preach for I doubt not but if the Spirit will please to witness healing pardon love peace by a Promise that I was meditating upon it is as sound sure and good as if he doth it by a Promise I did not think of Hence we see experiences of eminent Christians must not be in every point our rule for in my discourse with him he alwayes set the Accent there and so that if it had not been a Text not thought of he should not have so much minded it at least not so much But sure his great comforts he would have minded Well then that this was the testimony of the Spirit I doubt not it was clear to him by the Sun that then did shine into his heart Here was no syllogisme First May we not say his assent to this testimony was special faith I conceive we may grant it The testimony came with such light and self-conviction that he could not deny but it was the testimony of the Spirit immediately Now if I be convinced clearly it is his immediate testimony I am bound to assent to his testimony which is here Divine special faith Secondly But this I hope is not the assurance and particular perswasion which holy Perkins and holy Rogers mean If so the number of true believers will be but few indeed I have known many and do now know many whom I question not but they are sound believers but never knew what this kind of testimony meant yet have and do know what the testimony of their own renewed spirits mean Hence quaere whether that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.16 be not ordinarily to be meant of that concourse of the Spirit with the Spirits of believers which while they are clouded and darkened in their self-examining and know not what to make of themselves the good Spirit scattereth those mists and helps the believer to see the work of faith and the frame of grace which he hath wrought in it and thus helps the Soul to witness and is a witness with it For if it be meant only of the Spirits witness as Mr. Bolton describeth it and this good Christian found it that witness I find very rare amongst those with whom I have conversed To have comforts by promises applied now and then I deny not but this was in an eminent way Thirdly Nor do I think this was the irradiation which learned Ward intended because as I said here was no Syllogisme which he is upon Nor I think is this that our Divines mean by their special faith in opposition to the Papists for they will yield that a man may have the assurance of his pardoned estate and being in grace by a certainty of faith if God will please to give him that assurance by a special revelation De Justific l. 3. c. 3. As Bellarmin yields and quotes abundance of his Authors agreeing to the same Opinion What to call this but a special revelation I cannot tell for here was no ratiocination on his part but now composing to rest and laying by those thoughts in came the Spirit of God after this manner immediately bearing down all doubts before him and assuring him he was pardoned and in favour with God But as to assurance if all the Papists will yield what Gregory de Valentin tom 2. disp 8. q. 4. p. 1. doth I would never quarrel with them about it Eighth Argument That cannot be the essence of saving Faith which leaveth a true Belieuer sinking under the sense of his sin and misery without support But this particular perswasion and assurance Christ is mine c. affirmed to be saving faith leaves a true Believer under the sense of sin and misery without support Ergo It is not the essence of saving faith For the minor first Here is a Christian and one whom if you examine as we have opened the work of faith can give some good answer to it this Christian is under the sense of his own vileness guilt and wretchedness ready to sink I pray how will you support him Thus though thou art guilty vile abominable yet there is enough in Christ to heal thee pardon thee redeem thee and reconcile thee to God yea saith the Soul I doubt not of it but how shall I get him How by faith that is the way the Gospel tells us Ay but saith this Soul I cannot believe What no Do you know what faith is A particular perswasion and assurance that Christ is mine and that my sins are pardoned c. Ah saith the Soul if this be faith I am damn'd indeed Without are unbelievers Revel 21.8 I must be without indeed for I am sure I am an unbeliever now A perswasion Christ is mine that my sins are forgiven I cannot reach such perswasion or assurance had I this faith there were an end of my troubles but now you tell him what faith is and if no faith no Christ and to be sure he hath no faith if this be the faith which uniteth to Christ so you do but plunge him deeper into despair while you go about to support him yet that he is a true believer the notes which these worthy men give of one are found in him The major is clear True believers have right to comfort and support they ought to be supported Strengthen the weak hands confirm the feeble knees Isai 35.3 but miserable Physitians will they prove that go about to heal their wounds with this plaister More Arguments might be added but these I hope are sufficient to prove that the definitions of our fore-fathers which they gave of faith was not clear And so Christians may be eased as to that point not cutting off themselves from true faith because they have not attained to that particular perswasion and assurance that Christ is theirs Having removed this now I shall prove that to be saving faith which I have opened As for the other contest between the Papists and us about the general assent to Divine truths c. though as I said to have that assent to be Divine faith is another manner of thing than many Christians take it to be yet as that was never my own doubt nor of others with whom I converse whether that alone would make up saving faith being easily convinced of the contrary therefore I leave it Faith in Christ then is the receiving of Christ as he is offered in the Gospel and so resting upon him alone for life and salvation How
humblings as being the common road through which men go that come to Christ then put in a few words to ease troubled souls because they cannot find them alas they little regard these words being but particular exceptions from a general Rule That soul which is tender and very inquisitive after the soundness of its own conversion will not be satisfied unless it can find all that in its self which other Converts have The scope of my book being to help remove stumbling blocks out of the way of a tender Christian who would fain be sound and get its work cleared out let me lay down my thoughts concerning Preparations in general under these following Positions First Position It is the duty of all the sons and daughters of Adam who hear the Gospel preached and Christ offered to them to believe in or receive Christ be they prepared or not prepared I say it is the Duty incumbent upon them All Not that it is their duty mediantibus preparationibus if you be prepared but not your duty if you be not prepared So that my duty depends upon my preparation not so but I say though men be not prepared yet they ought to believe it is their duty to receive Christ What men will do is another thing I shall speak to that in my next Position but now I am speaking of what they ought to do If you ask me of what use is this Position to a gracious heart troubled about its state I answer If it be made good as I doubt not but I shall make it good it is the best answer thou canst give to the objections which thy timorous heart and a cavilling devil do make against thy believing in Christ or thy Faith from the want of these preparations no answer like it experience you what I say Satan you have a long time been battering of my poor Faith and beating me off from Christ but here Christ is offered to me I am called to receive him is it my duty or not my duty to close with him Yes saith he I never denied it was your duty if you were prepared for him as your own Ministers preach by conviction great terrors fears sorrows humblings which thy unbroken heart was never acquainted withall But Satan where doth the holy Scripture by which I must be judged put that condition prepared into the Command to make it my duty I know very well why Ministers preach these preparations but do any understanding Ministers preach them as things antecedent to make Faith in Christ my duty As for my Will Christ hath it whatever my preparations were My soul embraceth him as he is offered his terms please me well If I do not believe I disobey the great Command Why then do you endeavour to beat me off from my duty by suggesting to me this my want of preparations Let me prove my Position 1 John 3.23 This is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ Is the word prepared put in Doth it run thus This is his Commandment when we are prepared to believe in his Son The next words and love one another I hope this is not a duty depending upon our being prepared That when we are prepared then it is our duty to love one another and not before no more is our Faith in Christ our duty after we are prepared they are both joyned together in the Text. Commands bind the Creature immediately Commands express our duty unto God without Conditions Promises express the good Will of God to us upon Conditions It is as much every mans duty to believe in Christ when he hears him preached and offered as it is to love God and our neighbour But will any man say it is not our duty to love God and our neighbour until we be prepared Object The reason is not the same those were our duties in the state of innocency before the fall Answ The Argument signifies nothing For it is not the state I am in be it innocency or nocency that makes any thing my duty but the Command of the supreme Law-giver Take away the Command there is no Obligation But the Command being given to fallen man to believe in Christ his Redeemer it is as much his duty to believe in him in a state of nocency as to love God in a state of innocency 2. Reason doth as well dictate that fallen undone man a slave a captive under sin Satan and wrath should fly to God embrace a Redeemer revealed and offered as it doth dictate he should love his Creator in a state of innocency Object But Christs calls the weary the laden the thirsty c. which denote a soul qualified Answ What then doth it follow it was not their duty to believe in him and receive him before they were laden weary c No man will love God as he ought with that love his people do but there must be a great work first wrought on the heart but is it not his duty to love him before that work be done To this purpose speaks Christ John 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Those to whom Christ gives this answer did not appear to be men prepared by ver 26. yet this was the work of God which at that time they were bound to do then surely it was their duty Secondly That famous Text John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him c. Here is a blessed offer of Christ but to whom to the prepared ones The Text saith Whosoever believes in him Surely it is the duty then of every one to whom this blessed offer is made to accept him and not to say alas I am not prepared so this offer belongs not to me Thirdly The 18. ver and 36. ver of the same Chapter He that believeth not is condemned already If all men be condemned for not believing in Christ then all men were bound to believe it was their duty This plea will not serve the turn to say Lord it was not my duty to believe in Christ I was not prepared or qualified for faith Object This is the way to make plain Hypocrites and hath been the cause that so many have been made to wit men jump out of a state of nature into a state of believing without any humblings preparations and hence have held for a time but fallen off at last and that finally Answ 1. I pray first what do you mean by that state of believing or by faith if you understand faith as Mr. Perkins Mr. Rogers and the Ancient Divines it were dangerous indeed to talk of such faith without preparations but I do not affirm yea I utterly deny that faith to be the duty of all men 2. Shew that man who did ever truly close with Christ and grew an hypocrite or rotten at last for want of preparations before his closing with Christ I
Spirit in the first work convinceth the Soul by that sin in which the snner took most pleasure and delight Here Conviction is easiest effected and this sin will the Spirit imbitter to the Soul the peccatum in deliciis the sin which he hides under the tongue Job 20.12 this we hear of commonly in the day of Christs power Fleshly lusts lye fairest in view a mans natural Conscience can more easily work here How terribly hath the Word spoken against Covetousness what sin more common but how rare a thing is it to hear of a person whom the Lord convinceth of that sin in his first work yea it were well if those who go for Christians were convinced of it afterwards yea when this sin hath got such a head that the bones of the lust as we say stick out others may see it but how hard to convince men of it it is a common thing for men to bespatter one another with this sin and some I have observed most deeply guilty of it themselves yet they not covetous in their own opinion for God to begin his conviction by spiritual lusts this is not so common yet sometimes I have known it I will not enlarge upon this head as I intend not upon any Fourth Position The Spirit in the first stroke doth not usually set home all a mans actual sins but commonly two or three kinds of sin Enough to do his work By degrees he gives the Soul a view of all his vile pranks Sins forgotten buried long ago out of mind he makes these revive come out of their graves and appear to men but to have them all come in at the first without a great support the Soul could not stand but must utterly sink it cannot stand in one sense by what he doth set home but if all came in at once it would be overwhelmed My transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sowest up mine iniquity saith Job ch 14. v. 17. Did Job find it so Yea and so do others they are sealed up and sown up and such things are to be brought forth again So doth the Spirit bring them forth sins committed twenty thirty years since come now as fresh to mind with all the circumstances as if yesterday committed but not all in the first stroke Fifth Position That the Spirit in the first stroke convinceth all the elect of original sin I dare not affirm it That he doth convince all I speak of persons adult first or last yea and that early also I doubt not of it but to say he doth it in the very first stroke of Conversion this I dare not defend Mr. Shepherd moves the question Conversion p. 15. Whether the Lord convinceth all the elect at first of the sin of their nature and shews them their original sin in and about this first stroke of Conviction He answers I doubt not of it Paul would have been alive and a proud Pharisee still if the Lord had not let him by the Law see this sin Rom. 7.9 To what he saith after I readily agree that he doth first or last in a lesser or greater measure c. but this doth not seem to agree with the former As to his instance of Paul because he was so convinced ergo All are and must be convinced of it in this first stroke I am not satisfied in the consequence yet it may be Paul's persecution was a sin more set home at first this I grant if the state of a person be as Paul's was one that rests in himself hath good thoughts of his own righteousness duties and doings and upon these bears up himself then no doubt if God works upon such a one in the first stroke he sets home original sin It is hard to prove that those Converts in the second of Acts were convinced of their original sin at that time when they were pricked at their hearts the sin that Peter charged them with was their crucifying of Jesus who was both Lord and Christ ver 36. and upon this they were pricked in their hearts ver 37. That the Jaylour Acts 16. was convinced of this sin when he came in trembling to Paul and put forth that question What shall I do to be saved I dare not affirm it because I know not how to prove it Convinced he was of sin and that he was an undone condemned Creature And I hope it cannot be denied that the Spirit of God may so set home some particular actual sins that shall make the Soul see it self in such a lost and damned condition that the news of a Saviour will be welcome and glad it may enjoy him upon any terms This we observe is the ordinary way of the Spirit in persons adult living in sins against light especially he doth so set home sins and follow his work so close that the sinner hath not leisure to turn aside to the by-paths of his own righteousness which he hath none and duties but is pursued so hard that he is glad to fly for refuge to Christ though the sense of his original sin as yet hath not seized upon him as it will afterwards and therein I do heartily agree with Mr. Shepherd that first or last God doth convince His of original sin Hence for any Christian to call into question the truth of his Conversion because he was not convinced of his original sin in the first snoke of Conversion though adult when God first began to work this is but a needless troubling of himself but of this more hereafter By this work of Illumination and Conviction those vain hopes wherewith so many delude themselves that their case is not so bad as some of these censorious Ministers would make men believe but they may do well enough Their quarrellings with the Word and Ministry their extenuations of sin their shiftings of the Word from themselves to others as not belonging to them the slight thoughts they had of a man in his natural state the fickleness and unconstancy of mind whence nothing would sasten or hold upon them these and such like things are removed and way made for further workings 1. Hence How far are they from Conversion who have not attained to this first work no not so much as in the notion they are not yet come to so much light and conviction to see themselves sinners that they are sinners they will not deny because you say you are a sinner and all men say they are sinners and it is no shame to be what all men are but if you come to any particular sn they know none they are guilty of as I have given instance before and others I could mention who having lived to above sixty years when they have been asked How do you hope to be saved have answered roundly They have not sinned against God in all their life Others They have kept the Commandements of God but for a state of sin and misery they neither feel it know it nor believe
it 2. Hence What necessity is there of preaching the Law to discover and open sin with the effects thereof if this be the way of the Spirits working to convince first of sin and Ministers be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 3.9 workers with God why should not they work as God works To preach the Law in order to Christ to labour to make men that lye in their spiritual Lethargies to know and feel their disease that they may see the need of and embrace the blessed Physitian is not this rational I think all men naturally stand under a Covenant of works and to make men know what that state is I think is very requisite if ever we would make them feel the necessity and know the worth of a Covenant of Grace yet I know not how it comes about of late years this kind of preaching is laid by When I consider the people then I can see their reasons why they love it not but when I think of the Ministry I know not why Ministers should so gratifie the corruptions of people So the Law were rightly preached I never knew it offend any godly and judicious Christian I remember my Father-in-law told me that Bishop Vher having once an Ague and being in Essex when Mr. Thomas Hooker preached it so fell out that my Father-in-law went to visit him a little before his fit should come they both lying on the bed discoursing I wish said the Bishop that Mr. Hooker were here to preach the Law home to my Conscience that fit they talked away he missed it By this we may read the Spirit of that highly learned and pious Bishop Thousands of Christians have wished they had felt more of it to Gospel-ends but to slight it as some cry out against it as others such will hardly approve themselves to be persons well skilled in the work of Conversion That some Ministers may be imprudent in their preaching of the Law and not carry it with that wisdom that doth become them I deny not but for the Principle it self that the preaching of the Law is necessary to make men know their sins and their woful condition by sin that thereby they may be glad to listen after and embrace the Gospel I think this cannot be denied by any judicious Divine In Physick indeed we find that those things which have gone for Principles for above a thousand years none so much as questioning them within less then thirty years are turned out of doors very few of the ancient Principles standing but if men will do so in these great points of Divinity they may prove themselves Fools but no spiritual Physitians Mr. Saltmarsh in a book of his which I read many years since but have it not now by me gives these legal Preachers a notable jeer he tells his Reader that these Preachers will preach Christ Gospel and Free-grace also but they do by these as some do by Wine at Funerals or Baptizings they offer it freely and bid the people drink but the Wine being burnt they give it so hot that the people cannot nor dare drink it for scalding their mouths So do these offer Christ Grace Gospel very freely bid people take and drink but they have so heat the Gospel with legal preaching that they are afraid to meddle with it Had there been as much Piety and Truth as there is wit in the jeer I should have liked it well I do not justifie men in their errors want of wisdom prudence in preaching of the Law I condemn them as much as he but for the Principle I do contend To win Souls to Christ by teaching them the Gospel and overflowings of Christs blood without preaching the Law to convince men of sin and make them see and feel the necessity of Gospel and Christs blood to convince men of sin by the Gospel first this I look upon as very irrational and immethodical Take my mind under these heads First It is not the proper work of the Gospel to convince of Sin but of the Remedy Paul tells us he had not known sin but by the Law Rom. 7.7 By the Law comes the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 For sin is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3.4 The Law then must be preached or Sin cannot be known Paul doth not say he knew Sin by the Gospel but there he found the remedy against Sin as in many of his Epistles we observe Gospel bringeth glad tidings Secondly The Gospel convinceth men of sin by consequence but the Law directly As if I see an Apothecaries Shop full of Physick and a Physitian there I can gather by consequence then there is sickness else why is all this Physick prepared why Physitian though I see no diseased person nor feel any disease my self Thus when I read of glorious Promises in the Gospel and find Christ the Physitian there I may well conclude then there is Sin and condemnation for Sin else what need of Christ and these promises of pardon and justification through his righteousness Yea I grant also by the Gospel we may argue how great an evil Sin is that must have such a Medicine as the blood of Christ to heal it but still this is by consequence The Law tells you directly what that Sin is and that condemnation for Sin Thirdly Men may be convinced of Sin without the Gospel but not without the Law God hath convinced many of Sin where the Gospel was not known or not understood The Heathen had Convictions Rom. 2.16 by a Law not written But to have men convinced of Sin by the Gospel where no Law was known I wish Mr. Saltmarsh would tell us where those persons are Tell men of the Son of God being incarnate doing suffering dying rising interceding and tell them of his righteousness obedience and blood what will you convince men of by this discourse alone unless you first teach them the cause of all this and then I am sure you must teach them the Law and this being opened and set home will soon teach them the meaning of the work of Christ in Redemption Fourthly As the Gospel convinceth of Sin only by consequence so only in general but the Law convinceth of Sin directly and in particular When the Gospel is first preached what particular Sin doth it convince a man of how doth that make him appear to be guilty but the Law will tell him his particular Sins and this must be done else men will hardly come to a thorough and saving Conviction that they are Sinners indeed After men have had the Gospel preached and refuse to embrace it then there is a particular Sin against the Gospel this is true but I think never was it heard that any man was convinced of this Sin against the Gospel who was not first convinced of Sin against the Law what cares he for the Gospel that seeth not himself in his sin and misery and condemned under the Law Grant it that Repentance to life and Faith
in the Righteousness of Christ imputed to our justification be not comprehended under the Law but the Gospel so that impenitency and unbelief opposite to that Faith are Sins against the Gospel not the Law as a Covenant of works Yet before a man is convinced of his necessity of this justifying Faith and Repentance he must be convinced he is a Sinner and so need these but this must be by the Law which will convince him of his particular Sins Let these Reasons sussice though more might be added to prove that the preaching of the Law to these ends I have mentioned is both Scriptural and rational and the contrary opinion is both against Scripture and reason As to Mr. Saltmarsh his jeer though there seem to be wit yet there is more sophistry in his Similitude For those legal Preachers did not make Christ and Gospel so hot by their preaching of the Law but by that preaching they laboured to make mens lusts so hot that they might not any longer drink iniquity like water but their hearts being scorched with the apprehension of the wrath of God due for their Sins they might now be glad to listen to and answer that blessed Call of Christ Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Rev. 22.17 By this I hope it will appear Mr. Shepherd had no just ground to suspect me to be against the preaching of the Law unto right ends though I know many serious Christians have gone many years troubled about the want as they apprehend of these legal works to whom as I have spoken already which I hope may give some ease so I have more yet to speak towards their satisfaction in due place I think it not amiss to give the Reader the close of Mr. Shepherd's Letter to me in these words Dear Brother let my love end in breathing out this desire Preach Humiliation labour to possess men with sence of wrath to come and misery The Gospel-consolations and grace which some would have only disht out as the dainties of the times and set upon the Ministry's table may passibly tickle and ravish some and do some good to them that are humbled and converted already But if Axes and Wedges withall be not used to how and break this rough unhewn bold yet professing Age I am confident the work and fruit of all these mens ministry will be at best but meer hypocrisie and they shall find it and see it if they live to see a few years more 3. Hence If this be the way of the Spirit in drawing the Soul to Christ how rational and necessary is it for those who indeed would have Christ and would have a sound work to beg this Light and Conviction from God to pray with Job though I know the scope of Job in that place something differs Job 13.23 How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin It was part of that counsel Christ gave to the luke-warm Angel of Laodicea To anoint his eyes with eye-salve that he might see Apocal. 3.18 What should he see Among other things he should see himself to be wretched miserable poor and naked ver 17. which for want of this work of Illumination and Conviction he did not see and therefore mistook himself as do most who are called Christians thinking he was rich and had need of nothing Was this counsel of Christ good Deny it if thou canst If it were good then my Use cannot be bad for it calls for the same thing that God would make thee see thy self Sin Creatures all as they are What I see not teach thou me Job 34.32 I am sure none of us naturally see Sin and Creatures as they are nor ever will unless God be the Teacher I know this counsel will not take with a carnal heart though it be that which converted Souls daily follow God for to have themselves Sins and Creatures opened and discovered unto them as they are Let Sin be Sin and Creature be Creature and let me see the misery of being a slave to Sin and the Creature as I feel my self enslaved too much unto these daily But for others I know they like it not And what is the matter Alas this would spoil all the sport should we once have Sin guilt and our misery discovered we must never see merry day after and that which we fear must follow our Lovers and we must part and that we find a hard thing yea impossible to bid farewell to those lusts companions and wayes which have brought us in so much pleasure and profit in our dayes These or such like were the thoughts of him who would not hear Doctor Sibbs for fear he should convert him he said We have been before you and know your Objections very well having had the same thoughts in our own hearts against the work of God which you have now uttered and so can tell the better what answer to give I know it to be a frequent Objection made against the work of God That it makes men melancholy mopish if not mad I heard it once my self being in company amongst some Gentlemen and Scholars one of whom God had pulled out and being now under this work the discovery of his sinful and miserable estate was dejected being before chearful and too too vain in his mirth now was as sad the other Gentlemen his Companions threw this in his teeth presently this is the fruit of your Religion when once men begin to be Puritans they must loose all their mirth and chearfulness now nothing but mopishness sadness and sowr faces and were much offended But are you in earnest Do you verily think if God should indeed enlighten you to see your self sin guilt misery that it would spoil your sport and hazard a divorce between you and your Lovers Then if thou beest a man hast the use of thy reason let us grapple a little as I have felt your Objection so I can give you a feeling Answer First You must and shall see your sin self and guilt do what you can there is no avoiding it if as you are loth to see sin and guilt now so you could take a course that you should never see it nor know the effects of it then you might have some reason on your side why you so oppose this work but this is impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will set mens sins in order before them Psal 50.21 he will set them in order the word is used variously sometimes for the ordering of a Table sometimes for the ordering of an Army God will set them Rank and File and a terrible Army will this appear Before thine eyes turn thy eyes which way thou wilt yet there shalt thou see thy sins you shall not be able to turn your eyes from them My sin is ever before me said David Psal 51.3 David did not now seek to hide it nor could hide it
many terrors as Judas had if those ends were not attained he were not truly prepared for Christ he that hath the least of those that any man had yet if the ends be attained he hath that which the Lord aimeth at and as to preparatory work is sound There are many Christians who have not found the tenth part of those legal hellish terrors which others have done yet have proved sound and got to Heaven when others notwithstanding their great hellish terrors have at last gone to Hell Thus therefore they examined their hearts and found That first God had made them willing to part from their lusts and idols and if he would redeem them from them make an eternal divorce between their Souls and them they would for ever bless his Name Secondly They found that Christ was made so precious to them that they did most gladly accept of Gods offer and think it the best bargain that ever they made might they but enjoy him upon his own terms Fifthly They confidered that great Command of the Gospel To believe in Jesus Christ to receive him which as I have said before makes it my duty to believe in him prepared or not prepared they could not answer their neglect of that Command by saying Alas I am not prepared therefore I must not or I cannot believe in Christ This will not do and therefore they must say as that good Woman on her death-bed to her Minister examining her about her Faith the grounds of it which at that time was understood to lye in Assurance and so she answered O Sir said she I did believe because I dare do no other Sixthly Some for I do not say all have found it have found that though God did spare them in the first coming home as to legal terrors and sorrows from the guilt of fin yet for sorrows and troubles arising from sin another way they have met with their hearts full yea full indeed so full that might they have been their own chusers they would rather have chosen a year lying under that legal bondage which hath made them so often call into question the soundness of their Conversion then to lye so many years under those pressing loads which have made them weary of their lives Whence let me give this advice to Christians Is thy heart light too vain frothy beg of God to make it serious and study how to walk awfully and humbly before him but do not you as some have been apt almost to quarrel with God for want of legal sorrows and fears if you have them not one way you may have enough another way God may let out some lust upon thee it may be that lust in which thou tookest delight before and with which thy heart was most defiled which lust though God keeps thee so that it shall not prevail or get mastery over thee yet it may follow thee so impetuously and incessantly with the motions in all thou goest about and hence cause such horrid vexations and afflictions to thy spirit that thou wilt cry out a hundred times with Job chap. 7.15 My soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life How pleasing have the thoughts of the halter been under these loads but take heed and dread these temptations as patiently as thou canst chuse rather to submit to the soveraign and righteous pleasure of God under these sad and soul-vexing buffetings rather then to give the least ear to those devillish temptations of self-destruction But still which is the advise I give labouring for a plain heart with God do not you teach God what dose of legal workings and sorrows he shall give you It is with Souls that are sick of sin as it is with those who are bodily sick most of these when they send to the Physitian send him word they can take no Physick that is no Vomit no purging Physick they mean but desire him to send them some comfortable things or nothing this is the frame of most of our Country people when as they have ten times more need of Vomits and Purges then of Cordials Some have sent to me Physick being that which before I entred upon the Ministry I studied and practised and now being deprived of my Ministry I am forced to practice again for a rowzing vomit so they termed it that might cleanse them thoroughly but I have not made their desires the rule for my administring Physick had I done so I had in an ordinary way killed them but I gave as I judged they were able to bear Some send no directions what the Physitian should do but leave themselves to his judgment let him send his Physick they submit themselves to it these are the right Patients Thus do sin-sick-souls most if they find troubles arise Conscience being a little awakened presently must have comfortable promises applied listen for such words from Ministers and Christians when they have need of other kind of Physick Some they call for higher discoveries of sin and guilt that sin may appear like it self and they feel more sorrows and if God should give them what they would have unless his mighty hand did support them little do they know what may be the horrid effects Others give up themselves to God do not teach him how much to give but only heal them soundly do his work in them thoroughly and let him take what course his merciful wisdom pleaseth and this is the right frame of a gracious heart What I have said may serve to answer the other case about sorrows for fin of which Divines have written being another part of Compunction The want of sorrows have caused many sorrows in the hearts of many Christians Let not the Reader expect that I should enlarge upon this for as I enlarge upon nothing much less shall I enlarge upon that to which so many have spoken Only a few words First I grant legal sorrows are of good use to prepare the heart and make it willing to part with its sins and remove from that term from which it is called in Conversion but yet give me one ounce as I may say of Evangelical sorrow for sin rising from a Gospel-work and principle before pounds of legal sorrows rising from slavish and hellish fears How much of these sorrows with bitter exclamations against mens lusts have been known and yet not long after men could hug their lusts again but sorrows which arise from the sense of the enmity of sin against the greatness and goodness of God against the love and tenderness of Christ in that great work of Redemption of which the Soul hath had some good hope and taste and that it should deal so disingeniously with this God and this Christ these sorrows being accompanied with reverent filial fear and entire love do not let the Soul ever close with its lusts again Secondly But art thou a sound Christian and hast not known what sorrow for sin means Surely thou art mistaken thou wrongest thy self in saying so
Let us see if the case be parallel First To drink that dreadful bitter Cup was the design and intent of God in sending of his Son and the intent of Christ in coming Thus John 12.27 when his Soul was so troubled that he could not tell what to say but this Father save me from this hour he adds John 18.11 But for this cause came I unto this hour he should loose the end of his coming And is this the intent the design of God to send all men into the world to damn them if he please Secondly Christ undertook this work freely he was at his own choice whether he would or not He gave himself Gal. 1.4 T it 2.14 For this cause I came John 12.27 Is the case so with us Thirdly He was able to undertake it he did go through with it drunk up his Cup the dregs of it blessed be his Name left nothing in it for his poor people to drink of it Hence Luke 22.15 With desire have I desired this Passover his last when he should be made our Passover that was next Is it so with us Fourthly True Christ did pray to be delivered from it when he came to smell the Cup it was so horrid that the human nature flew back as if he had repented of his undertaking but Christ was not bound to pray that prayer there was no duty in it obedience to a Command which is my Argument but only the human nature amazed astonished at the dread of what he was now going upon would have saved it self it did discover the reallity of his humane nature but no sin in it whence I leave it to any judicious Reader whether there be any thing in this Answer to take off my Argument Seventh Arg. Lastly I will not draw my Argument into form but this I would say blessed Lord what mean these worthy men do we find the sons of men to be so eagerly set after thy Love after thy Grace are men so disquieted without thy Love and thy Grace that we must now go teach them that they must be quietly contented and satisfied if they suppose thou wilt never give them thy Grace How long may thy poor Ministers preach and mourn at last that they cannot get one perswade not one in a year to care for thy Love to regard thy Grace Instead of quarrelling with thee because thou wilt not give them thy Love and Grace they quarrel with us because we stir them up to seek it and threaten them from thee because they neglect it So that certainly of all doctrines this doctrine might have been spared Mr. Shepherd p. 97. speaking against some saith Are we troubled with too many wounded Consciences in these times that we are so solicitous of coining new principles of peace The same say I are we troubled with too many disquieted Souls for the Love of God and the manifestation of his Grace that we must invent a new way how to quiet them not new principles of peace but new principles of trouble heart-stabbing principles to be content without Gods Love Grace to be content to abide the state of damnation to tell the Devil that if God will give me up to my lusts and damn me yet so he hath the honour of his Power and Justice I am content Blessed be God for revealing his gracious name his Christ his Gospel Covenant Promises Seals we can find better principles for disquieted Souls out of these than this new one which I never read in any other Author but these So much for these worthy men as to this point whose persons as I knew so their eminent graces and Ministerial abilities I do most highly honour it being my greatest trouble in this that I must oppose those whom I do so much honour But Truth and the Lambs of Christ must be regarded Amicus Socrates Amicus Plato c. CHAP. VI. Of Faith in Christ How the Spirit draws the Soul to him THe awakened Sinner by this time is loosened and made willing to turn from that term from which he is called The next thing is to consider the term to which he is called to which he must turn Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 was the sum of Paul's preaching to the Ephesians God the proper Object of Repentance Christ of Faith Christ then is the mediate Object of Faith in effectual Calling God the ultimate Christ I mean as Mediatour as Christ God in our flesh for as God he is the ultimate Who by him do believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 The heart of the Sinner thus prepared as I have opened he is now enquiring if there be any way to get out of that state of sin and misery emptiness of all good and wants which he feels himself in the news of a Redeemer is welcome Is there such a one Yes What is he Is he able to do the work May one rest and confide in him Yes he is a Saviour and a great one Isai 19.20 Mighty to save Isai 63.1 May he be had Yes for he calls you What are the terms upon which he may be had They are but equal good such as when you come to understand them you would not have them changed A Redeemer must be that the Soul is convinced of there is no coming to God a consuming Fire a just Judge a holy God whose Law I have trampled under foot and that Law curseth me to Hell but I must have one to undertake for me besides I feel such a hell of filthiness within me such rebellion in my heart that if I be left alone I am undone Price and Power must be or I must perish As then in that term from which the Soul was called the Spirit let in Light which discovered the evil of that state Conviction accompanied that light and fears and sorrows followed that Conviction thus the affections with will did avert fly from and turn from that evil but how to help it self it could not tell feeling nothing but sin weakness and emptiness no righteousness no ability in it self So now in this term Christ and God to whom the Soul is called the Spirit enlightens the Soul to see the Son Every one that seeth the Son John 6.40 to understand him in his Person Offices work of Redemption it shews him the adequate fulness in God in Christ to answer its desires and will the loss of whatever the Soul stuck at which hindered it from turning from that term from which it was called the Spirit convinceth the Soul of the truth of all this goodness discovered it convinceth the man also that there is a fair probability of his enjoying this Christ yea convinceth him it is his duty to come to him and now he will add a worse sin to all the former if he obey not the Command and Call of God This sutable and adequate goodness being thus discovered and the will renewed now the will and affections move strongly
Socinian Jesus hath no such matter of wonder nor any reason why Man or Angel should worship him To conclude Our Jesus is he whom his Father hath exalted to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Acts 5.31 Doth he forgive sins on earth Matth. 9.2 3. and in heaven too Doth he give repentance also Then he must give a new heart a new spirit then he must take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 else he cannot give repentance If he can create a World Col. 1.16 and uphold a world by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 If he can create new hearts too in giving repentance and preserve them Jude ver 1. Preserved in Christ so as none shall pluck them out of his hand John 10.28 then without controversie our Jesus must be God man for a Socinian Jesus that is but meer man can never do these things Let the Reader excuse me though I have gone beyond my intentions When I wrote this I did not know the Socinian heresie did spread so as since I have that it did spread secretly I knew but that it should be openly maintained and books printed I heard not till I had done for I had no thoughts to have written one line upon this subject but that hearing how the Socinian doctrine spreads which stubs up our Christian Religion by the roots I thought it not amiss to add a few meditations which I have had besides those I saw in Books and it 's possible this book may fall into the hands of some who are troubled with these temptations and have not other books to help themselves And now I proceed The Spirit I say enlightens the understanding to know him in his Person Offices and work of Redemption whom the Soul is to receive Phil. 4.9 Those things which ye have learned and received there must be learning before there can be receiving The high-way-hearer did never receive the Word which it seems the stony ground did Matth. 13.20 Why did not the high-way-hearer go so far as the stony ground The Text saith ver 19. he did not understand the word of the Kingdom which it seems the other did but did not set down and consider what it would cost Luke 14.28 Hence John 6.45 who hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me He that cometh to Christ receives Christ Now what goeth before this coming The Father teacheth it semes several Lessons concerning Christ the Soul hears and because he hath such a Master he learns then follows infallibly that Souls coming Isa 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justifie many by our knowledge of him Divine knowledge taught by the Spirit is the first thing to make up justifying Faith Verba notititae apud Hebraeos c. But alas how ignorant are the greatest of those who are called Christians and must be called so else they take it in great scorn of the Truths of Christ how little do they know of his Person Offices or his work of Redeniption put questions to them what sad answers would they give Sermon upon Ignoramus The story which blessed Pemble gives us of that fine civil man who had heard three thousand Sermons yet when on his death bed came to be examined about his knowledge is very famous how he understood Christ you may read by his answer Essex hath been a famous County for preaching yet one that I know in my Parish being asked what is Christ he could not tell Is he God or man I cannot tell but I think a Spirit Another on his death-bed about sixty years of age when told him what Christ was what he had done suffered fell a wondering as if they were things he never heard before yet catechizing besides preaching was set up in the Parish Little do we know what ignorance is in people Secondly The second thing required to the receiving of Christ is the Assent which the understanding gives to all the propositions concerning Christ his Person Offices and works of Redemption as being trùe though propositions be known yet if not assented to as true they are not received I may know abundance of propositions or opinions of other men in Divinity Philosophy Physick but if I do not do not assent to them as true I never receive them Thus when the Soul gives its assent to all those things as true Christ is received into the understanding the intellectual part and the ground of this assent being because he who is the Prima veritas saith it because of the authority of Gods Testimony who reveals it Fides Historice differt a Fide Historiarum this makes that which we call Historical Faith or Dogmatical Faith Though this assent alone is not enough to make a saving reception of Christ yet it is in saving Faith and that without which it is impossible there should be any saving Faith The Spirit convinceth of righteousness John 16.10 Thus he carrieth on his work by Conviction under the Gospel so clear and strong in his arguing that the understanding cannot but assent to what he teacheth it is more for the Spirit to convince of righteousness than to convince of sin unless of that particular sin of not believing in Christ for in his conviction of sin our own natural Consciences quickly strike in and help do the work but for this Righteousness of Christ natural Conscience can do nothing in it Concerning Dogmatical or Historical Faith a few words Divines in their Disputations against the Papists have spoken not so highly of it as it may be it deserves because saving Faith differs from it commonly amongst us it is very much slighted what a tush do many make of it to my knowledge Hence some and those not of the lower form of Christians for knowledge when they heard what books our Divines Doctor Stillingfleet and Mr. Baxter have written in defence of the truth of our Christian Religion have said they wonder they should busie their heads about such needless subjects When I read over Alvarez de Auxil some years since and met with his 49. Disputat upon that question Vtrum homo per solas vires naturae possit omnibus mysteriis supernaturalibus sibi propositiis explicatis assentiri tanquam revelatis a Dee assensu certo firme ex parte credentis When I had read his four Conclusions upon the Question how he denied it that man could not do it my opinion then about Dogmatical Faith not being so high though never so low as I see some mens is I a little wondered at this Popish Author but since I have met with that which doth sufficiently confirm me of the truth of what he saith and I shall ever honour him the more for what I then read in him while men take all upon trust are carried in the croud set quiet no temptations trouble them how light do they make of that which if ever they come to be sifted winnowed in
is de fide we know it by revelation we have Gods testimony for it But I believe this minor proposition how do you know that It must be by a mans retiring into himself and there taking a view of his own heart examining what God hath done there how he hath drawn the Soul to Christ which I know the mind of man illuminated sanctified this Spirit of man the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20.27 with the Spirit of God helping of it against all those darkning Objections which Satan and his own timerous heart raiseth may experience find out and that certainly and so draw up this conclusion therefore Christ is mine my sins are forgiven the conclusion is certain that Soul is not deceived there may be a firm assent given to this conclusion If so then saith learned Ward De fide justific cap. 33. Rectissime dicitur assensus-fidei specialis cui nec subest aliquando nec subesse potest falsum non minus quam fidei Catholicae Here I shrink certainty I acknowledge not a wavering conjecture but to have it special Divine faith and to be as certain as this proposition That he that believeth in Christ is justified or pardoned of which I am sure it is true non potest subesse falsum this is hard to yield to The minor is certain with the certainty of experience or experimental knowledge he saith experience and faith are different things How then is the conclusion certain with the certainty of Divine Faith The conclusion must follow the weaker part and I think my experience is weaker than Gods testimony then let the conclusion follow my experience and so be certain with the certainty of experience and if so then be sure the particular perswasion and assurance Christ is mine cannot be the essence of saving faith For there is no faith at all in that conclusion However make the best of it it is but mixed I find that learned Author twice asserting that divine propositions p. 33. 205. de fi de being more obscure and less evident they are therefore the weaker eo nomine deteriores because of the Inevidentia in this Divine proposition He that believeth in Christ the Mediatour his sins are forgiven therefore there is a Debilitas a weakness in this proposition whence if the Syllogisme be formed He that believeth in Christ Mediatour his sins are forgiven But I believe in Christ Mediatour which I know by experience Therefore my sins are pardoned Here the conclusion must follow the more ineyident and so the weaker part which is the Major Pace tanti viri here we must dissent I would not have it said that ullo nomine a Divine proposition should be deterior than other Scientifical propositions That stout Champion Bradwardin arguing against some Philosophers who presumed they could know God fully and deriding of Christians because they believed something concerning God which they knew not how to demonstrate by way of humane reason after he had proved that God was infinitely more not known than known he bids the Philosophers cease deriding Christians for believing some things divinely revealed concerning God and his works which they knew not how to demonstrate De causa Dei p. 29. but knew how to defend them from their contradictory demonstrations then saith he ought not this to satisfie any Christian yea or profane man for a Demonstration Deus dicit Jehovah saith it is a Demonstration sufficient in Bradwardin's esteem and certainly if it be as impossible for God or the Prima Vâ—â—â—â—â—â— to be untrue or false as for fire to be cold or Sun 〈…〉 dark then if he saith it there is as much strength in that proposition to command assent from our understandings as in any proposition of which you can make demonstration by any humane reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dialog can Triph. p. 224. Justin Martyr saith the Prophets did not compose their Writings by demonstration but were Witnesses worthy to be believed of truth far above all demonstration then certainly a Divine proposition cannot be the weaker part of a Syllogism which the conclusion must follow Again why doth this learned man say that Divine propositions de fide are more obscure I mean ex hypothesi that it be yielded that it is a Divine Proposition as this proposition which he propounds He that believes in Christ the Mediatour his sins are forgiven What obscurity is there in this proposition more than in the next But I believe in Christ the Mediatour Is the obscurity as to the proposition whether this be an Article divinely revealed Then the minor is but in vain I would never trouble my self to know whether I believe in this Christ Mediatour or not But is that yielded it is an Article of Divine faith Is the obscurity in the word believe Then the minor must be as obscure Is it in the object of this faith Christ the Mediatour That is a Mystery indeed his person and his work but still the minor will be as obscure for the minor Proposition assumes the Tertium argumentum out of major Proposition and disposeth it with the subject of the question and if it be obscure there it must be so here In the next words cannot be the obscurity But this I am sure of in the minor that I believe there may be obscurity rising from a person where though there be light yet there is also much darkness but in God there is light and no darkness not so much as the shadow of a lye Again whereas the learned Author saith Propositions de fide are more certain than Scientifical propositions If they be more certain then my assent unto such Propositions must needs be more certain If the question then be to which of these Propositions He that believes in Christ the Mediatour his sins are pardoned I believe in Christ the Mediatour Can I give the most certain assent To the first surely being a Proposition de fide then that must be the stronger of the premises and the minor is the weaker which the conclusion must follow The learned Author saith that the minor I believe in Christ must be de fide because it cannot be known quoad modum without the irradiation of the holy Spirit which irradiation for so I think he puts infallibiliter certa vera in the ablative case to agree with irradiatione is infallibly certain and true Here we have something that is obscure What is this irradiation of the Spirit Reverend Mr. Bolton mentions several cases and times Gener. Direct p. 326. in which the Spirit doth suggest and iustifie to a sanctified conscience with a secret still heart-ravishing voice thus or in like manner thou art a Child of God thy sins are pardoned thou art one of them that shall be saved That it is with a voice alwayes he doth not say but that the Spirit doth so break in upon a Soul in a secret