have little experience in themselves how sad the condition of that soul is from whom God hides his face or turnes his smiles into frownes and how happy he is in the overflowings of all joy peace and comfort who hath the shine of Gods face to be the health of his countenance Psal 42. 11. Secondly believers are not to charge the guilt of criminall sinnes into which they fall upon themselves so as thereby to apprehend or conclude that the pardon of former sinnes is made void and of none effect The forgivenesse of sinnes past may aggravate and accent the iniquities that are afterwards committed being done against the riches of mercy received but the commission of new sinnes doth not revoke the pardon that was before given or make the guilt of such sinnes to returne again in their full strength and power no more then subsequent debts do make bonds formerly cancelled and vacated to stand in force For God when he pardons doth not insert any conditional clauses that carry a respect to our future conversation and make the efficacy of his pardon to depend upon our well or ill doing His gifts and graces are the fruits of his immutable counsel and will and therefore without all repentance It may not be denied but that this truth hath diverse Adversaries the Lutherans are vehement in their opposition of it as also the Papists and the Arminians And yet I say they who have skill and leasure to consult the Schoolmen who much agitate this Question An peccata redeant Whether sinnes pardoned do ever returne and live again in their guilt so as to accuse and to condemne Will finde there are more who are for the Negative then for the Affirmative But it is not my purpose to enter into the lists and to take up the wasters in this Controversie It is enough that the Scripture-expressions concerning Gods pardoning of sinne do clearly hold forth his forgiving of them to be full and absolute I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sinnes Isay 44. 22. The cloud that is scattered or dissolved by the sunne though others may succeed it never returnes to make a second appearance but is wholly extinguished and therefore mans going downe into the grave who never returnes unto the land of the living again is compared unto it Job 7. 9. So Jer. 50. 20. The sinnes of Judah shall not be found for I will pardon them saith the Lord. So againe Micah 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Things that are cast into the bottome of the sea never come to sight again but are more surely buried then things that are hid in the grave and in the bowels of the earth which may possibly be digged out again What more significant words can be used to declare the absolutenesse of Gods pardoning sin then these of the Prophets Thirdly beleivers falling into grosse and conscience wasting sinnes are not to charge the guilt of them upon themselves so as to conclude thereby that they have utterly lost all sanctifying and inherent grace Such sins may make a believer to be as a man in a woone who is without all motion but not as a carcase which is without all life They may be in his heart as spiders in an hive which spoile the honey but do not kill the bees they blast and wither the precious fruites of grace and profession but they do not wholly destroy the root and principle from whence they flow Still the seed of God abideth in him 1 Joh. 3. 9. The Apostasie of Peter in denying out Saviour was great It was a complicated deniall there was in it Negatio notitiae a deniall of so much as knowing him and Negatio consortii a deniall of all communion and converse with him And yet in this reiterated defection the faith of Peter did not expire and give up the ghost For Christ prayed that his faith might not faile Luke 22. 32. Now the ground of this indeficiency in grace is not from its own strength as it is a quality in us but from the covenant and promise of God who hath said that he will put his feare into our hearts that we shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. Qui custodit nos per fidem costodit in nobis ipsam fidem He that keeps us by faith doth keep faith it self in us This particular is very necessary for such Christians to think upon who after a falling into some foule sinne do not onely mourne over their folly as they justly ought but are apt also to complaine that heretofore indeed they had some good in them a little faith they could by some effects discerne in themselves a spark of love to God was once kindled in their breasts But now alas all is utterly extinct and lost Now they are in no better condition then in the gall of bitternesse and the bonds of iniquity a rude and deformed chaos of sinne and folly without any principle of grace or appearance of beauty And in thus doing they do not onely heighten their present darknesse and trouble but also are injurious unto the promise and faithfulnesse of God who hath fixed grace in the heart of a believer more firmely then the soul is feated in the body which is subject to death and dissolution Fourthly believers are not so to charge the guilt of their great sinnes upon themselves as from thence to infer any such sad conclusions as these That they never shall enjoy any day or houre of comfort again but walk in continuall darknesse or that they shall never be used any more as instruments of service or be a vessel unto honour meet for the masters use but be as the broken shards that are not fit to take fire from the hearth or to take water out of the pit Isay 30. 14. That they who defile themselves with voluntary and grosse sinnes if we look unto the just merit of them deserve to be so dealt with it cannot be denied But that God doth retaliate the sinnes of his children with such dealings though they be deeply humbled for their Apostasie and with strong cries do begge both pardon and acceptance from himself is contrary not onely to the promises of mercy which he hath made to penitent sinners Jer. 3. 12. but also to many pregnant instances of such whom he hath both comforted with his love and highly honoured with his service With what expressions and demonstrations of affection is the dejected Prodigal received by his father who peccanti filio dat oscula non flagella gives to his straying sonne kisses and not blowes saith Chrysologus No food is too good to satisfy his hunger no raiment too costly to cloath him with no ornament too precious to adorne him The fatted calfe the best robe the ring of gold are the sure pledges of his fathers love Luke 15. What a choice vessel of honour and service was Peter after his fall who
worth do vie with each other everlasting life is as sweet as long heaven is as glorious in its beauty as vast in its dimensions the crown of righteousnesse that is laid up is as rich as weighty There is no one promise of the Gospel but is of that extent for its latitude and of that value for its preciousnesse that he deserves to be eternally poore who having that for his subsistence looks upon any man who hath an interest in none greater or richer then himself though the gravel of the river were turned into pearles and every showre of raine from the clouds into a showre of silver and gold for to supply his wants The fourth particular is The high and noble end of the donation of the promises That by them we might be partakers of the divine nature c. Painters when they picture Angels do not intend similitude but beauty Nor doth the Apostle in this expression aime at any essential change and conversion of our substance into the nature of God and Christ but only at the elevation and dignifying of our nature by Christ Our neer union with him doth restore us to an higher similitude and likenesse of God then ever we attained in our primitive perfection but it doth not introduce any reall transmutation either of our bodies or souls into the divine nature For if that stupendious union of the two natures in one person the Lord Christ doth not effect an essential change in either but that both natures do conserve and retaine their distinct properties without mixture or confusion much lesse can the Union between Christ and beleevers which is not a personal Union but an Union of persons made by the Spirit and by faith cause any such alteration as that our nature losing its own subsistence should wholly passe into the divine and be swallowed up in the Abysse of it as a drop when it falls into the wide Ocean Pithily doth Cyprian expresse this truth when he affirmes Nostra ipsius conjunctio nec miscet personas nec unit substantias sed affectus consociat confoedérat voluntates Our and Christs conjunction doth neither mingle persons nor unite substances but doth conjoyne our affections and bring into a league of amity our wills Suitable to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 17. They that are joyned to the Lord are made one spirit CHAP. II. In which is declared what a promise is IT is not designed by me as the subject of my present task to undertake a distinct and full prosecution of all these foure particulars in the text every one of which like gold in the beating would easily diffuse and spread themselves into a large compasse but occasionally to glance at them as they conduce to the illustration of that head and branch which I shall single and cull out from the rest as the present subject upon which I shall pitch and fix my thoughts and that is the matchlesse worth and goodnesse of the promises of the Gospel A truth it is of much weight and sweetnesse to every beleever but yet as it lies contracted in a proposition discovers not so much of it as when drawn forth into a full explication like to colours that are lesse beautiful and pleasing while they lie on the palate of the painter then when placed and spread on the picture by the pencil of the artificer I shall therefore in the unfolding of it endeavour these five things First to shew what a promise is Secondly in what respects they are great and precious Thirdly give rules about the due application of them Fourthly resolve some usefull Queries and cases concerning them Fifthly close and shut up all with some practicall inferences and genuine applications such as flow from the doctrine of the promises The honey which drops from the combe is of all the best and sweetest First what a promise is It is a declaration of Gods will wherein he signifies what particular good things he will freely bestow and the evils that he will remove This description like the box of spiknard in the Gospel may be more usefull when it is broken then whole I shall therefore take it into pieces and give an account of it in the several parcels First a promise is a declaration of Gods will it being a kinde of middle thing between his purpose and performance his intendment of good and the execution of it upon those whom he loveth And as wicked Jezabel 1 King 19. 2. could not satisfie her hatred of Elijah the Prophet in intending evil unto him and effecting it upon him in time as she could but withal she lets fall an heavy threatning against him strengthened with a bitter imprecation upon her self as an obliging tie to put in execution the designed evil So let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time So much lesse can the love of God satisfie it self in a gracious decree and purpose of good towards his elect shut up in his own breast and the actual performance of it in the fulnesse of time unlesse withal he discover it unto them before-hand both as a ground of present comfort in the knowledge thereof and of hope and expectation in the certain enjoyment of the good things promised hereafter God also confirming the word of his truth by an oath not for any necessity or weaknesse in its selfe but out of superabundant love unto the heires of promise That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie they might have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. Secondly it is a declaration concerning good And thereby a promise is differenced from the threatnings of God which in divers respects have a neere affinity with his promises For they as things of a middle nature do intervene between the decree of his wrath and the execution of it they are let fall in the Word as so many discoveries of Gods anger against sinne and set as powerful stops to check and bound the lusts of sinners who are apt to dash themselves against the rock of divine displeasure they are sealed with the same oath of God with which the promises are ratified that so they might be as full of dread to sinners in the expectation of the fulfilling of them as the promises are of comfort to Beleevers Thirdly it is concerning good things freely bestowed And thereby it is distinguished from the commands which are also significations of Gods will concerning good but it is of the good of duty enjoyned to be done not of the good of mercy to be received The precepts of God and the promises of God they alwayes go together in the Word as the veines and the arteries do in the body wherever there goes a veine that carries blood there also accompanies it an artery that carries spirits so wherever there is a precept in the Word that enjoynes duty there also is an
resemblance in a full and absolute manner being made one with him in an everlasting fellowship of blisse and glory Deservedly therefore may the promises that seale heaven to believers in the other life and begin it in this life be said to make them partakers of the divine nature CHAP. V. The promises grounds of matchlesse consolations in foure particulars FIfthly the promises of the Gospel are truly great and precious in regard of those superlative and matchless consolations which they derive unto beleevers amidst the changes and vicissitudes that they are subjected unto while they are in the body and beare about them both the remainders of sinne and of death In the sad Winter of desertion when the verdure of all other comforts wither and drop like leaves that are bitten with the frost the promises they are Rosae in hyeme Roses that blow in the Winter and do with their beauty delight and with their fragrancy revive the drooping and dejected soul Thy Word is my comfort in my affliction saith David for it hath quickened me Psal 119. 50. In the apprehensions of Gods displeasure with which many times the best of Saints are afflicted even to the drying up of all their moisture they are Aestivae nives the onely summersnowes that coole and allay the scorching heat and make that Christian that was like a parched Wilderness to become like a watered Garden As cold waters to a thirsty soul faith Solomon so is good news from a far countrey Prov. 25. 25. Good tydings from heaven by the Gospel-promises are most welcome in such a condition In the tempestuous seasons of trouble and affliction they are the sacrae anchorae sacred and sure anchors to stay and fix beleevers amidst all tossings to make them ride safely without touching upon the sands so as to be swallowed up in despaire or dashing against the rocks so as to be shipwrackt by presumption Therefore the Apostle calls them a sure refuge to such as lay hold upon them Heb. 6. 18. In the calme and serene times of peace they are Vela candida the onely white spread sailes which filled with the sweet breathings of the Spirit do triumphantly carry on believers to the faire havens of everlasting happinesse Therefore Paul as within Ken of the shore after the custome of the Mariners gives a joyful and triumphant celeusma or shout O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. 55. And can all or any of these things be affirmed of the best of earthly comforts Surely if we should compare the one with the other we might quickly finde as vast a difference as between a noisome laystal and a precious bed of spices or between a reviving cordial and a dangerous poyson Forestus in his Treatise De venenis concerning poysons reports of a woman that had accustomed her body to poysons by making them her usual food that she had brought her self and her whole constitution to be of the same power as the poyson it selfe was but yet retained so much beauty as that she allured Princes to her embracements and by that means killed and poysoned them Not much unlike this harlot is the world whose delights and pleasures retaine so much of a seeming beauty as to entice many to be enamoured with them but when they are enjoyed by those that eagerly thirst after them they do by their deceitful embracements destroy and kill their lovers There is a poysonful and contagious breath that comes from them which layes the foundation of a lingring and certaine death And who is there that hath inordinately let out his heart unto them that hath not experienced the deadly poyson which abounds in them But that we may the better see how farre the comforts of the promises do excell the comforts of the world let us weigh them in the balance together and we shall quickly finde how greatly they fall short of yielding such real consolations as freely flow from the promises by a due consideration of these foure particulars SECT 1. Comforts of the Promises 1. Pure First the consolations that are derived from the promises do excell in purity the most delightful comforts that are drawne and suckt from the brests of the world The promises are Mulctralia Evangelica the receptacles of the most sincere milke of the Word 1 Pet. 2. 2. they are coelestes utres bottles filled with the choicest and most refined wines they are spirituales aurifodinae the golden mines that are without drosse The milk the wine the gold that the promises do abound with to the nourishing chearing and enriching of believers they are most pure and free from any alloie that might debase them The commendations that Plutarch gives of the Spartans short and weighty speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Laconick speech hath no bark is most true of the seven-times tried and refined words of the Gospel they have neither skin nor husk they are all pith and substance But it is farre otherwise with the best of earthly comforts which when sublimated and clarified to the very utmost that art and skill can reach are yet accompanied with an unseparable mixture of dregs and lees which do minorate their vertue and taint their sweetnesse What Crates in Laertius affirmes of the Pomgranate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the fairest Pomegranate there are corrupt and unsavory kernels may justly be applied to all sublunary contentments and delights whatever there are some impurities cleaving unto them by which they cloy as well as feed there is a weft and tang in their farewell that renders them unpleasing as well as a sweetnesse that makes them desirable 2. Full. Secondly the comforts of the promises as they are pure so are they full and satisfactory when the best that the world yields serve rather to provoke an appetite then to fill it to enflame the thirst of desires rather then to quench them to express an indigency in a restlesse motion rather then a complacency in a perfect rest If we could suppose the apple of a mans eye to be as big as the body of the Sun and as piercing as the beams and heat therof from which nothing is hid yet among those innumerable objects that such an eye would behold it could not spy out anything which might be an adequate proportionable good unto the capacity of the soul The good that is satisfactory unto it must have two properties it must be bonum optimum the best and chiefest of goods that it may sistere appetitum fix the appetite there being nothing desirable beyond it and it must be bonum maximum the greatest good that it may implere appetitum fill the appetite and so free it from the vexation of hunger and want Now the top and creame of all worldly comforts are exceeding deficient in satisfying the sensitive faculties and inferiour part of the soul much lesse can they fill with a grateful satiety and contentment the minde which is the noble and supreme
of blotting out iniquities belongs not unto him He is naked and gladly would that Christ might spread the skirt of his righteousnesse over him to hide his deformities But alas what hath a leper to do with a royal robe He is sick and diseased but the Physick that must cure him the least drop of it is more worth then a world and he is more vile then the dust How then can he expect that he should ever be the patient of such a Physician who will be both at the cost to buy the Physick and at the paines to administer it If he had an heart to love God as David if talents to glorifie God as Paul if he were but an Israelite without guile as Nathanael then he might have hopes together with them to have his person accepted his services rewarded and his imperfections pardoned But his heart with which he should love God is carnal and not spiritual his talents and abilities with which he should glorifie God are few or none his sincerity which should be the Evangelical perfection of all his duties hath more then an ordinary tincture of hypocrisie and self-ends mixed with it With what confidence therefore can such an one draw neer to Christ or ever expect to be welcomed by him Now to put to silence these reasonings and to allay these feares which unless checkt and bounded do oftentimes terminate in the blacknesse of despaire there is not a more effectual remedy then the consideration of the freenesse of the grace of God and Christ in the promises which are not made to such as deserve mercy but to such as want it not to righteous persons but to sinners not to the whole but to the sick And therefore such who through the weaknesse of faith or the violence of temptations finde it difficult to lay hold on the promises of God touching the pardon of sin and the obtaining of life and salvation let them resolve the promises into the first root and principle from whence they spring which is not from any good within us but wholly from grace without us and they will readily finde that by eying the ground and original of the promise they will sooner be encouraged and drawn to believe and to lay hold upon it then by looking onely to the promise it selfe Of all the wayes and experiments to beare up a sinking spirit there is no consideration like this that from the beginning to the end of our salvation nothing is primarily active but free grace This is a firme bottome of comfort against the guilt of the most bloody and crimson sins because free grace is not tied to any rules it may do what it pleaseth Some body that goes to heaven must be the greatest sinner and what if thou beest he whom God will make the everlasting monument of the riches of his love and mercy in Christ This is an impenetrable shield against the constant accusations of Satan drawn from unworthinesse unprofitablenesse backwardnesse to holy duties and distractions in them 'T is true may a beleever say I am unworthy and that which Satan makes the matter of his accusation is the daily matter of my confessions and self-judgings before God the sinnes which he pleads against me with delight I bemoane with tears of bitternesse And were the way which leads to heaven a ladder of duties and not a golden chaine of free grace I could not but fear that the higher I climbe the greater would my fall prove to be every service being like a brittle round that can beare no weight the whole frame and series of duties at the best far short of the ladder in Jacobs vision which had its foot standing upon the earth and its top reaching to heaven But the whole way of salvation from first to last is all of meere grace that the promise might be sure Rom. 4. 16. Every link of the golden chaine is made up of free mercy Election is free Eph. 1. 5. Vocation free 2 Tim. 1. 9. Justification free Rom. 5. 24. Sanctification free 1 Cor. 6. 11. Glorification free Rom. 6. 23. And therefore though I can challenge nothing of right yet I may ask every thing of mercy especially being invited by him who seedes not his people with empty promises but gives liberally unto every one that asketh and upbraides not either with former sinnes or present failings Jam. 1. 5. SECT 3. Eye Gods Power Secondly in the applying of every promise look with the eye of faith upon the greatnesse of Gods power which is able to fulfill to the least iota whatever he hath spoken and to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can aske or think Eph. 3. 20. The confining of Gods power according to the narrow apprehensions and dwarfish thoughts that men naturally have of him in their hearts the Scripture points out as the chief root of all that unbelief and distrust which is put forth in their lives Thus the Israelites in the wildernesse were seldome in any exigency which they looked upon beyond the possibility of second causes to deliver them from but they straightways called also into question the power of God Psalme 78. 19 20. They spake against God they said Can God furnish a table in the Wildernesse Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streames overflowed but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people So when they were in the long captivity of Babylon they had many cleare and expresse promises of being restored and brought back again into their own inheritance yet measuring the truth of Gods Word not by the strength of his power but by the improbabilities and impossibilities which did appeare to their reason they look upon themselves not as prisoners of hope but as free among the dead and as far from any expectation of deliverance as dead and drie bones are from reviving Our bones say they are dried up and our hopes are lost and we are cut off for our parts Ezek. 37. 11. Thus the Sadduces denied and deuided the great doctrine of the resurrection as being full of irreconcileable difficulties and inconsistencies How a body and a soul separated should be reunited how a body not only separated from the soul but dissolved into dust should be recompacted how dust scattered and blown up and down should be recollected was altogether beyond the line of their reason for to fathome or compasse Our Saviour therefore points out the ground of their errour to arise not onely from their ignorance of the Scripture which had foretold it but also of the power of God which was able to effect it Ye do erre not knowing the Scrptures nor the power of God Mat. 22. 29. Necessary therefore it is in the making use of any promise that a beleever have such conceptions of the power of God as that whatever lets and impediments do arise between the promise and the fulfilling of it though as high as mountaines and as strong as
upon the religion of the Israelites that it made them idle Exod. 5. 8. And it is a wrong done to the promises of the Gospel by carnal Libertines who make use onely of them to countenance their sloth not to quicken their obedience None that ever I have heard of have held marriage vain or unnecessary for the propagation of mankinde who have yet been of opinion that the soul is not generated but immediately created and infused by God no more can any man rationally conclude that because the promises of God are the declarations of his unchangeable purpose and will therefore duties and endeavours are superfluous to the effecting of any good which he hath promised to conferre upon us SECT 2. Rule 3. There is a dependency of one Promise on another which must not be broken nor inverted The third Rule or Direction is that there is a sacred concatenation and dependency of one promise to another which may not be violated and a fixed order which may not be inverted First the mutual tye that is between the promises in the application of them must not be broken As the duties of the law are copulative and may not in the obedience that is yielded unto it be disjoyned James 2. 20. So are the blessings of the promises which may not be made use of as severed from each other like loose and unstringed pearles but as collected and made into one intire chaine God hath linked the promises of pardon and repentance together and no man may presume that God will ever hearken unto him who begges the one and neglects to seek the other When he pacifies the conscience he melts the heart and works repentance as well as seales forgivenesse So likewise hath God inseparably knit grace and glory together as that none can lay a just claime to the one who is not first made partaker of the other no man can expect to be an heire of heaven that is not first a Saint on earth Holiness leads to happinesse as the rivulet to the sea as the way to the end the one is as the foot of the ladder and the other as the top Summitas scalae attingitur non volando sed ascendendo saith Bernard Glory which is the highest round is not attained by flying but by an orderly ascending unto it the intermediate steps must not be skipt but trodden Oh! how vaine then are those mens hopes and how sinful are their practices who stand upon the battlements of hell and sport themselves with all the sensual delights of the flesh trampling under their impure feet with scorne the precious promises of holiness by which they should be moulded unto all obedience and yet at the same time stretch forth an hand of presumption to lay hold on the promises of life and eternal glory as if they were the true heirs and proprietaries thereof But their forlorne condition which they would not see by the light of the Word they shall reade by the flames of hell being infinitely more pressed down under the weight of Gods displeasure and endlesse despaire then ever they were lifted up with the transient hopes of happinesse by a carnal and ungrounded presumption Secondly in the applying of the promises the order and method of them is not to be inverted but to be observed The promises which God hath made are a full store-house of all kinde of blessings they include in them both the upper and the nether springs the mercies of this life and of that which is to come there is no good that can present it self as an object to our desires or thoughts of which the promises are not a ground for faith to believe and hope to expect the enjoyment of But yet our use and application of them must be regular and such as suites both the pattern and precept which Christ hath given us The patterne we have in that most absolute prayer of his Mat. 6. 9 10. wherein he shews what is chiefly to be desired by us the Sanctification of his Name in our hearts the coming of his kingdome into our soules the doing of his will in our lives are to be sought for before and above our daily bread We may not be more anxious for food then for grace The precept we have in his most heavenly Sermon Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you Promises are to be improved in prayer and other duties primarily for holinesse and secondarily for other outward comforts The soul is more worth then body as the body is more worth then the raiment and therefore the principal care of every one ought to be to secure the well-fare of his soul by interesting himself in the promises of life and eternal happinesse but yet even here also a Method must be observed and the Law of the Scripture must be exactly followed which tells us that God first gives grace and then glory Psal 84. 11. As it is a sin to divide grace from glory and to seek the one without the other so is it also a sinne to be preposterous in our seeking to look first after happinesse and then after holinesse no man can rightly be solicitous about the crown but he must first be careful about the race nor can any be truly thoughtful about his interest in the promises of glory that doth not first make good his title to the promises of grace Salvation endlesse life fellowship with Angels and the first-borne of heaven they are as Austin calls them promissum finale the last things in order that God hath to give or that we have to ask and therefore we may not anticipate the order of them but wait upon God in his own way What the Apostle saith concerning the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 22 23. That in Christ all shall be made alive but every man in his own order may be truly spoken concerning the promises of the Gospel that in Christ all shall be fulfilled but every promise in its own order SECT 3. Rule 4. Meditate seriously frequently on the Promises The fourth Direction is to meditate throughly and frequently upon the promises and to deale with them as the Virgin Mary did with the things that were spoken concerning Christ she kept and pondered them in her heart Luk. 2. 19. The limbeck doth not put any vertue into the herbs but it distills and extracts whatever is efficacious and useful from them The Bee doth not derive any sweetnesse to the flower but by its industry it sucks the latent honey from it so meditation conveyeth nothing of worth unto the promise but it draws forth the sweetnesse and discovers the beauty of it which else without it would be little tasted or discerned I have sometimes thought that a beleevers looking upon a promise is not unlike a mans beholding of the heavens in a still and serene evening who when he first casts up his eye sees haply a starre or two only
the like mercies which we seek and beg for our selves As the promises are useful to strengthen faith so are examples to confirme and assure sense which is continually apt to implead what faith beleeves and to question what God hath spoken God hath promised that though our sinnes be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be white as wooll Isa 1. 18. But sense suggesteth What possibility is there that ever such a change should be can sope nitre water make scarlet to be as white as undipped wool no more can it be that the ingrained spots and staines of sinnes so often reiterated so long persisted in should be done away and the sinner be cloathed with the white robe of innocency God saith He will heale backslidings and love freely Hos 14. 4. He will love freely without respect of persons he will pardon freely without respect of sinnes but sense that shutteth the doore of hope which he hath opened Sometimes calleth in question his power Can he work wonders among the dead Can he raise from the rottennesse of the grave such as have laine long putrefying in it Sometimes disputeth his mercy Will he ever remember the chiefe of sinners Will he be gracious to the rebellious that have both neglected and refused the tenders of salvation which have been often made Now when a beleever beholds the pregnant examples both of his power and love set forth in the Scriptures in his converting a stubborne Maâ—asseh in his translating into Paradise a bloody robber in his casting forth of devils out of Mary Magdalen a notorious harlot in his changing Paul a persecutor into an Apostle in his compassionating and healing Peter that sealed his backsliding with a curse in his bringing salvation to Zaccheus a hateful extortioner then the expostulations of sense and carnal reasonings are put to silence then he concludes with confidence that the promises are a sanctuary for the penitent and lifts up his feet with chearfulnesse to runne unto them then he pleads the bounty and faithfulnesse of God in the performance of his promises unto others as a strong argument to shew the like mercy unto him Thus David in his low condition strengthens his faith and hope in God from this ground Our Fathers trusted in thee and were not confounded Psal 22. 6 7. This direction is alwayes of use to beleevers in the ordinary and daily application which they make of the Promises because examples as they are powerful in perswading obedience to every precept which commands it so are they also efficacious to strengthen confirm faith when exercised on any promise But it is chiefly useful in extremities when dangers which are insuperable do at any time inviron us Besides the promises which faith useth as a support it is good to have in our eye some such example as Daniel whom God preserved in the lions den sealing up their mouthes by his power that they should not hurt him before the King had sealed the mouth of the den with his signet that he might not come forth When sad desertions and temptations do afflict us it is usefull to call to our remembrance some such instance as Heman who complaines that he was laid in the lowest pit that he was afflicted with all Gods waves that he was ready to die from his youth up that he was distracted while he suffered his terrors Psal 88. And yet afterwards he becomes the Kings Seer in the words of God to lift up the horne 1 Chron. 25. 5. That is he as a Prophet is especially employed to set forth the mighty acts of Gods power in Psalmes and Songs of praise and thanksgiving When sore afflictions are multiplied upon us which for their weight are more heavie then lead for their bitternesse more bitter then gall and wormewood it is good to have in our thoughts some such example as Job that we be not wearied and faint in our minds Take my brethren the Prophets who have spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord as examples of suffering affliction and of patience saith the Apostle James 5. 10 What a mappe and spectacle of myserie is Job made above others How various and how great were the afflictions with which he was exercised Sabeans Chaldeans destroy his substance fire from heaven consumes his servants a great winde smites the foure corners of the house and destroyes all his children ulcers boyles break forth upon his body keen and unjust censures from his friends vex his soul And yet the happy close and end that the Lord makes with him is as famous as his miseries were His riches and substance are doubled his number in children equalled his body healed and his name cleared by God himself These and such like instances when suited with a beleevers condition do contribute much to the suppressing and keeping of that despondency and dejection of minde which the extremity of trials in any kinde is apt to subject the best of Christians unto and cause them to renew their confidence in the promises and in hope to expect the performance of them because that others in the same or not unlike case with themselves have found the faithfulnesse and goodnesse of God in his supporting them under their burthens and giving perfect deliverance from them according to his promise SECT 4. Rule 9. Preserve communion with the holy Spirit entire The ninth rule or directions is To keep and preserve entire our communion with the holy Spirit The dependency which every beleever hath on the Spirit is very great he being unto the soul as the soul is unto the body the originall and principle of all spirituall life and motion What are any untill he quicken them and by his power fashion them unto holinesse but as so many livelesse lumps of undigested clay And what are the best without his continual breathings upon them but as so many disjoynted and weak members which have neither constancy nor uniformity in their motions or actions Grace in its vigour and strength abides in the heart as light in the house by way of emanation and effusion rather then by inherency An instrument when it hath an edge set upon it doth not at all cut any thing till it be guided and moved by the hand of an artificer no more doth a Christian when he hath an habituall aptitude through grace to work yet do or performe any service without the concurrence and assistance of the Spirit of Christ quickning exciting and applying the habitual power unto particular duties Necessary therefore it is that beleevers be circumspect in maintaining their communion with him and not to provoke him to stand at a distance from them who is the fountain both of their grace and comfort But the necessity of it will more particularly appear if we consider in how much need we daily stand of the constant assistance and powerful operations of the holy Spirit to make the applications of all
darke and obscure then the rule of our obedience and the recompence of our service under the Gospel but yet both did center terminate in one and the same end The State of the Church under the Law was represented saith Bright-man by mare aereum a sea of brasse which is of a more thick and dark substance but under the Gospel by mare vitreum a sea of glasse which is most clear and transparent Rev. 4. 6. SECT 2. Foure benefits come to believers by looking to temporall promises The second particular is to shew the Severall benefits that redound to beleevers by looking unto temporall promises with an eye of faith And here many might be insistedon but I shall insist onely on four First Faith in the promises of this life doth much help to the mortification of inordinate desires and of distracting and anxious cares Both which are the genuine fruits and off-spring of unbelief Every man is conscious unto himselfe both of his own wants and of the fading condition of every creature and thereby he is stirred up to seek in a restlesse manner a supply of present necessities and a solicitous provision for all future contingencies Ask many a man why he toyles so uncessantly to the breaking of his head with cares and his body with labour And he will quickly tell you that he hath none to trust unto but himselfe that he knowes not what hard times and changes may come Sicknesse may befall him and waste what he hath gotten Age may overtake him and render him unapt for labour Charges may multiply in his family and it is not the aire that will feed them He had need therefore to do what he doth if not he and his might starve But now when a believer can look unto the promise how soon are all these tempestuous thoughts and fears calmed how sweetly is the heart quieted by casting all its care upon God who careth for us 1 Pet. 5 7. How quickly can be spie in the promises Gods obligation for cloathing to cover his nakednesse for meat to satisfie his hunger for Physick to cure his diseases for armour to safe-guard his person for treasure to provide for his family posterity How fully can he rest contented in the things which he hath because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. Secondly Faith exercised on the temporal promises will much help to strengthen our adherence to the promises of a better life and cause us to trust more perfectly in God for the salvation of our soules Our Saviour tells his Disciples Matth. 6. 26. that if God fed the fowles and cloathed the Lillies he will much more provide for them which are better then they And so may a believer argue with himselfe If God hath made so many rich promises of provision for the body he will not be wanting to the happinesse of the soul if he be so carefull of the casket he will not be unmindfull of the Jewel if he give daily bread to the one he will surely give Manna to the other if he make our pilgrimage delightful and make the paths of our feet to drop fatnesse he will make our rest and habitation with himselfe to be glorious If the feet tread on Roses here and on the Moone and Starres hereafter how orient and beautifull will be that crown of life that shall be set upon our heads Such kinde of argumentations are very helpfull to a believer who ownes all his outward comforts to arise from Gods faithfulnesse in his promise though in the meere and naked having of them no man can know love or hatred Eccl. 9. 1. Thirdly Faith exercised on the promises of this life sweetens the enjoyment of every blessing be it little or much There are two sources from whence all outward mercies flow the Providence of God and the Promise of God The one is as the Nether-springs from which every creature receives its preservation and continuance He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 16. The other is as the upper-springs from which after a peculiar manner the goodnesse and bounty of God is conveyed unto believers Godlinesse hath the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Now the streams that flow from this fountain are more pure and free from that vexation and vanitie which the abundance that the wicked hath is subject unto because they are sanctified by Christ in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen When therefore a believer can look upon all his outward enjoyments as the fruits of Gods especiall love and can say as Iacob did These are the blessings which God hath graciously given his servant Gen. 33. 5. then they become in their use more delightfull and in their taste more sweet A small portion of meat given by the hand of a great Personage is more set by and esteemed then all the variety of his full table upon which his other guests do feed and carve themselves because it carries with it a particular character and marke of favour to him on whom it is bestowed And so a little given by God as a Testimonie of his peculiar love and care towards believers is more desirable and satisfactorie then great revenues that flow onely from a common bounty Fourthly Faith exercised on the temporal promises is a powerfull antidote to preserve believers from the use of unlawfull meanes both in the seeking and in the obtaining of all earthly comforts The inordinacy of the desires puts men oft-times upon dangerous precipices He that maketh haste to he rich shall not be innocent Prov. 28. 20. So They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many hurtfull lusts 1 Tim. 6. 9. Now faith though it do not take off the edge of mens industry and diligence in the pursuance of all lawfull and just means or make them to expect to be fed as the fowles of the aire that neither sowe nor reap or to be cloathed as the Lillies of the field that neither spin nor labour yet it doth so correct and allay the vehemency of all desires towards the things of this world as that they dare not take any way to gaine them which the Word doth not warrant or the promise sanctify Faith suggesteth to them that it is not their labour and care that makes rich but Gods blessing who giveth no sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. That it is not their wisdome that maketh their endeavours in their calling to be successefull but Gods fidelity and truth that crownes them with prosperity that it is not their sweat that feeds the Lamp of their comforts and makes it to shine but the constant droppings and distillations of Gods goodnesse And thereby they are enabled to depend upon his promise and to beleeve that such a dimensum and portion of outward blessings shall be given unto them as that they may truly say with the
particular perswasion that God will give the very thing it self that we begge of him but the faith of submission by which we resolve our prayers into his will and beleeve that he will do whatever is best for our good and his glory We then distrust God when either we are jealous of his willingnesse to performe his Word or of his power to accomplish his Word But when we acknowledge the alsufficiency of his power and resigne our desires to his will we do then pray in faith And this was the faith that our Lord Christ did put forth in his prayer when he said Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 22. 42. I do not deny but that God may sometimes assure and incline the hearts of his children that are importunate wrestlers in prayer to be confident of granting the temporal blessing that they seek but this is a confidence that is rather begotten by the Spirit in the height and vigour of prayer then brought with us unto the duty Sometimes I say such a confidence may be but it is neither ordinary nor usual Secondly temporal mercies must be asked for a right end James 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amisse that ye may consume it upon your lusts Carnal lusts may make men eager in prayer but not successeful Usually wrong ends in prayer are accompanied with disappointments Sinister Aimes turn duties of worship into acts of self-seeking they change the voice of prayer into a brutish howling Hos 7. 14. The execution of justice it selfe into murther Hos 1. 4. Finis in moralibus idem est quod forma in naturalibus The end in moral things is the same that the forme is in natural things The quality and goodnesse of them is not discerned but by the end It concernes therefore beleevers that would in prayer obtaine any outward blessing to look unto their ends in asking of it though the mercy be earthly yet their end in asking of it must be heavenly Gods glory must be in the end of all prayer as his Name must be in the beginning of it else it cannot be expected that it should be owned as a sacrifice by him The fifth Assertion is that the blessings of temporal promises are to be sought secondarily and not primarily Mat. 6. 33. They are neither to be the chief cares of our life or desires of our prayers because the soul may do well without the body but the body cannot do well without the soul And yet of this disorder the greatest part of men may be found guilty Their estates they carefully put into their deeds and evidences and their souls they onely put into their wills the last of instruments that are usually either made or sealed For the one they think it enough if with a few gilded expressions of piety it be given and bequeathed as a legacy unto God But for the other they conceive no paines or toile too great to encrease it or cost too much for to secure it The one they make the task of the morning and day of their lives the other the by-work of the evening and the approaching night of death So that it is no wonder if in these preposterous and irregular actings of men they do not finde the blessing of Gods promise upon their labours that they toil as in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity Hab. 2. 13. that they sowe much and bring in little Hag. 1. 6. For what benefit can they justly expect to reap from the promise who neglect to walk by the guidance of that rule to which the promise is made CHAP. XVII It is an horrible sinne to neglect or abuse the Promises Aggravated in five particulars HAving spoken enough if not too much to each of those foure heads that in the beginning were propounded and laid as so many corner-stones for this small structure to stand upon The last head which now remaines to be insisted on is the handling of such useful applications and inferences as do naturally flow and arise from this Doctrinal truth of the transcendent worth and preciousnesse of the promises which are given unto us by Jesus Christ And the first Application which I shall make is A sad and just complaint which sighes and tears may better expresse then words of the great injury and contempt that is done unto the blessed promises both by mens carelesse and overly seeking after them as things of no great worth and by their sinful perverting of them unto wrong ends and purposes while they turn grace into wantonnesse and sin the more freely because of the redundancy of divine mercy which is manifested in them God layes it as an heavy charge against Israel that he had written unto them the great things of his law but they were counted as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. How much more are they blame-worthy who are guilty of despising the Magnalia Evangelii and of setting light by the most choice and excellent things of the Gospel as if they were of little or no importance for the obtaining of life and salvation This complaint if it had no circumstances to aggravate it but were onely laid in the general against men that they have forsaken the fountain of living water and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2. 13. It would quickly prove to be so black an indictment as could neither admit of an excuse to lessen the sin nor yet of pitty to mitigate the punishment that deserves to be inflicted upon such offenders But if we shall consider it in the several aggravations which heighten it we may then at this sinne justly crie out Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate There are five particulars that make the complaint more sad and the injury which is done unto the promises the more exceeding sinful SECT 1. The first Aggravation is taken from the universality of this sin they who are transgressors in this matter are not a few Parisiensis speaking of Davids Psalmes cries out Eheu quot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habet sanctus David vel potiùs Spiritus sanctus ad suam Cytharam Oh! how many Dullards hath holy David or rather the holy Spirit to his harp who are little affected with the heavenly melody that it makes And may it not be as truly said concerning the precious promises of Christ Oh! how many are there that taste little or nothing of their sweetnesse What vast numbers of men are there who see no more worth and beauty in them then blinde persons do in the Sunne How many be there that spend and blaze away the lamp of their time in frothy studies and curious speculations but seldome or never look into the Bible to read and understand what their interest or right is to the blessings of heaven by the promises How ambitious are others to be thought to know much of the minde of God concerning his decrees which
to him by the grand Sophies of the Epicureans and Stoicks then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sower of words a babler Act. 17. 18. Would it not seem a strange opinion if one should assert that he who lackies it before the chariot is a better man then he that rides in it that he who lives in a Wildernesse meanly clad and faring hardly is more happy then they that are in Kings houses and weare soft raiment that he who is poore and is bid to sit at the footstoole is more worthy then he that hath the chiefest place given unto him in the Assembly And can it sound lesse strange in the eares of the world that the most despicable condition of a believer is far above the happiness of him that hath all the honors and delights that the earth can yield flowing in upon him and meeting in him as so many lines in one point I shall therfore endeavour to clear the truth of this inference so fully as that it may serve to support and comfort afflicted Christians under all their pressures so as not to complain because they are in their extremities more happy then the best worlding in his delights And that it may likewise provoke those who have made it their designe to be rather great then good to bethink themselves of their folly and to acknowledge that there is no tenure like an interest in the Covenant and promises and that there is no happinesse like to the happinesse of a beleever which hath its foundation laid in grace and not in greatnesse To this end let us in a few particulars compare or weigh as in a balance the worst of a beleevers estate with the best of a worldly but yet a wicked mans estate and we shall quickly see that the advantage will lie on that part of the skale in which the beleever stands and not on the other SECT 1. First a believer haply is in the world in no better condition then a stranger that hath little or no interest in its enfranchisements priviledges and immunities which others daily finde the sweet of in the many benefits that they enjoy He is frowned upon when others are courted and smiled upon by those that have honour s and preferments in their power to bestow He lives like Israel in Egypt under hard pressures when others rule and reigne as Lords He is friendlesse and findes none either to pity his wrongs or to do him the least right To his words to his sighs he finds a deaf and regardlesse ear continually turned when others have the Law open where they may implead their adversaries and have friends that are willing to countenance them and ready to help them Can he then that wants all these things be more happy then he who enjoyes them Yes for though a believer be a stranger here below yet he is a Citizen of the new Jerusalem which is above to which every worldly man is a forreigner Ephes 2. 12. And from thence he that bends his brow upon the wicked beholds him with love Ps 11. 7. Though he be the worlds bond-man yet he is the Lords free-man 1 Cor. 7. 22. Though here he be friendlesse yet what near and familiar relations have the whole blessed Trinity been pleased to take upon them and to make known themselves by unto him God as a Father Christ as a Brother and the holy Spirit as a Comforter All whom the men of the world can call by no such titles Though here his supplications and his tears avail not yet in heaven his prayers are registred and his teares are botled SECT 2. Secondly a Believer as he is a stranger so also may he be afflicted with want having little or nothing in possession to relieve his necessities He may want cloathing for his back and food for his belly He may have onely torum itr amineum cibos graminoes straw for his bed grasse and herbs for his meat when others sleep upon soft down and â—are doliciously every day He haply hath scarce water to quench his thirst when others have variety of choice wines to please and delight their palates All this and much more is acknowledged to be the lot and portion of many Christians such of whom the world is not worthy But yet let us view their condition so as to compare it with the men of the world whose bellies are filled with hid treasure and we shall quickly see that a true judgement and estimate being made of both that the thornes of the one will smell sweeter then the roses of the other his necessities will be more desirable then their fulnesse because wants sanctified are better then unsanctified enjoyments All their morsels are rolled up in the filth of their sin and in the bitternesse of Gods malediction and all his wants are both sweetened and supplied with the comforts of Gods promises Though he hath nothing for the present yet he is rich in hopes Though he have nothing in possession yet he hath an inheritance a Kingdome a Crown in reversion They have all their good things in this life and he hath his reserved for the other Though he have no food for his body yet he hath Manna for his soul He hath an hungry body and they a starved soul Though he have here scarce a place to lay his head on yet is there roome reserved for him in Abraham's bosome where he shall for ever dwell in joy when others lie down in sorrow Isa 50. 10. Though his body be as a parched wildernesse for thirst yet his soul is as a watred garden Out of his belly flow rivers of living water John 7. 38. We may truly say of a beleever what Paul speaks of himself though he was poor yet he had enough to make many rich though he had nothing yet he possessed all things Fideli homini totus mundus divitiarum est infideli autem nec obolus To a Christian all the world is his riches to an unbeliever not a doit of it saith Prosper There is no creature which doth not owe an homage unto him and shall certainly pay it if his necessities do require it The heavens shall heare the earth and the earth shall hear the corne and the wine and the oyle in answer to Jezreel ' s prayers Hos 2. 21 22. What is at further distance then the heavens and so more unlikely to hear then heavens What creature more dull then earth and so more unmeet to be affected and moved with a cry And yet both the heavens and the earth shall not be deaf to Jezreel's prayers but shall fulfill their desires and supply their wants SECT 3. Thirdly a beleever is not onely exercised with the pressing evils of want poverty but he oftentimes lies under the sore burthen of reproach and obloquie which to an ingenuous spirit is more bitter then death itself He is the common mark to which all the sharp arrows of mens tongues are directed He is the onely person
like milk in the breast of the Nurse that hath received a concoction and is thereby made a more facil and pure nourishment to the childe that partakes of it Thirdly let thankfulnesse for the precious promises be expressed in a most affectionate blessing of God for the Lord Jesus Christ by whom all that is wrapt up in them is given unto us He is the first matter as it were out of which God hath framed all our good He is the receptacle in which all blessings are laid up and the Well-head from whence they all flow By his blood the promises are purchased for us and by his most powerful intercession they are made good unto us Alas how little efficacy would all our prayers have if they were not presented to God the Father by his hand How small acceptance would our persons finde if God did not look upon us in him How uncertaine would all our comforts be if the root of them were not in him if he were not as the tree of life upon which they grow Yea how quickly should we spie an hell that might amaze us between heaven and any other ground of confidence that could possibly be imagined by us out of Christ When therefore we do at any time make a thankful recognition of Gods goodnesse to us in the particular mercies of the promises of the Gospel let us be sure to put the Name of Christ to all When we blesse God for blotting out our iniquities for pardoning freely all our sins let us set this crown upon the head of the mercy that he hath done it in Christ When we blesse him for sanctifying of us let us ever adde for his sanctifying us in Christ When we praise him for our Adoption and Sonship let us blesse him for doing of it in Christ When we honour him for the assured hopes of life and glory in heaven let us say as the Apostle doth Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 1. 3. Fourthly Let thankfulnesse for the promises appear in strong desires and vehement pantings after the plenary possession and perfect enjoyment of all that felicity of which they are the earnests and pledges given us by God In this life we are but as Kings in the Cradle the setting of the crowne upon our heads is reserved till we come to heaven Here we are but as espoused persons and not as the Bride in her best clothes in the other life we put on the robes of glory which shall make our bodies shine ten thousand times brighter then the Sun and our souls ten thousand times brighter then our bodies Here we are but as invited guests to the feast and supper of the great King we sit not down at his table till we come to heaven and then Christ bids us eate O friends and drink abundantly O beloved While therefore we are absent from the Lord and do by the eye of faith only peep into the things that are within the vaile and enjoy a few foretasts of glory and immortality we should shew how highly we prize the promises by longing after and wishing for the final accomplishment of all Oh! when will it be that I shall see him in whose blood I was washed by whose stripes I was healed by whose Spirit I was sanctified by whose merits such great things are prepared for me How long Lord holy and true will it be ere death shall be swallowed up in victory and mortality put on immortality Thus Bernard upon those words of our Saviour John 16. 16. A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me passionately expresseth himself Pie Domine modicum illud vocas in quo te non videam O modicum modicum longum Good Lord dost thou call that a little while in which I shall not see thee O long long little Such desires as these are true evidences of a thankful heart CHAP. XXI Motives to act fath in the Promises THE fifth and last application is to stir up Believers to act precious faith as the Apostle calls it 2 Pet. 1. 1. upon the precious promises without which what are the promises in the Word but as sugar in the wine that lying unstired doth not sweeten but as full breasts undrawn that do not nourish but as beds of spices that being unblown upon do not lend forth their fragrant and delightful odours It is the exercise and skill of faith that fetcheth out the vertue and sweetnesse which lies hâ—d in them as it is the industry of the Bee that extracts the honey from the flowers The Bee would starve notwithstanding all the flowery meadows if it did not labour and so would a Christian languish and pine away notwithstanding all the precious promises if faith should be idle and unactive O then that I might prevaile with Believers to cast aside every weight that hindereth and to set on work this noble and divine grace of faith whose glory and worth is not to be seene in the habit but in the acts of it What doth Samson differ from another man while he sleeps in the lap of Dalilah But when he awakes out of his sleep and breaks the wit hs and cords that bound him as a thread of towe when it toucheth the fire and carries away the beam and the web in which his locks are fastened then his strength appears in its greatnesse to be matchlesse And so in what is a Believer distinguished from another man while the habit of faith lies asleep in his bosome and is not actuated on the promises But when it stirs and rouseth up it self to take hold of God and Christ in his Word how apparent is the strength of the one and the weaknesse of the other made to every eye What burthens doth the one stand under and carry away upon his shoulders under which the other sinks what temptations doth the one overcome unto which the other without resistance yields What viper doth the one shake off his hand into the fire without the least hurt which fasten upon the other and sting him unto death It is faith which makes us to rejoyce in tribulations Rom. 5. 3. It is faith which maketh us to possesse our souls in patience infiery trials Heb. 10. 36. It is faith which makes us resolute in desertions Ionah 2. 4. It is faith which makes every condition of life comfortable Hab. 2. 4. But that I may yet more fully prosecute this exhortation which hitherto is as a vessel upon the wheel of the Potter that hath not received it perfect shape I shall propound some particular arguments and considerations that may animat Believers to live the life of faith which stands chiefly in two things First in a knowledge of and a familiar acquaintance with the Word so as to have it in readinesse for direction Secondly in a right improvement and exercise of faith