be plainlier expounded or that distribution is not sound If by Grace be meant all the extrinsick medicinal preparations made by Christ and if by Glory be meant only the Holiness of the soul the sense is good But in common use those words are otherwise understood Sanctification is usually ascribed to the Holy Ghost but Glorification in Heaven is the perfective effect of all the three persons in our state of perfect union with God Rom. 15.16 Titus 3.5 6. But yet in the work of Sanctification it self the Trinity undividedly concur And so in the sanctifying and raising the Church the Apostle distinctly calleth the act of the Father by the name of Operation and the work of the Son by the name of Administration and the part of the Holy Ghost by the name of Gifts 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. And in respect to these sanctifying Operations of God ad extra the same Apostle distributeth them thus 2 Cor. 13.14 The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Where by God seemeth to be meant all the persons in the Trinity in their perfection but especially the Father as the Fountain of Love and as expressing Love by the Son and the Spirit and by the Grace of Christ is meant all that gracious provision he hath made for mans salvation and the Relative application of it by his intercession together with his mission of the holy Spirit And by the Communion of the Spirit is meant that actual communication of Life Light and Love to the soul it self which is eminently ascribed to the Spirit Direct 9. The Spirit it self is given to true Believers and not only grace from the Spirit Not that the Essence of God or the person of the Holy Ghost is capable of being contained in any place or removing to or from a place by local motion But 1. The Holy Ghost is given to us Relatively as our Covenanting Sanctifier in the Baptismal Covenant We have a Covenant-right to him that is to his operations 2. And the Spirit it self is present as the immediate Operator not so immediate as to be without Means but so immediately as to be no distant Agent but by proximate attingency not only ratione virtutis but also ratione suppositi performeth his operations If you say so he is present every where I answer but he is not a present Operator every where alike We are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost both because he buildeth us up for so holy a use and because he also dwelleth in us 1 Cor. 6.19 Direct 10. By the sanctification commonly ascribed to the Holy Ghost is meant that recovery of the soul to God from whom it is fallen which consisteth in our primitive Holiness or devotedness to God but summarily in the Love of God as God Direct 11. And Faith in Christ is oft placed as before it not as if the Spirit were no cause of Faith nor as if Faith were no part of our saving special grace nor as if any had saving Faith before they had Love to God but because as Christ is the Mediatour and way to the Father so Faith in him is but a mediate grace to bring us up to the Love of God which is the final perfective grace And because though they are inseparably complicate yet some acts of Faith go before our special Love to God in order of nature though some others follow after it or go with it It is a question which seemeth very difficult to many whether Love to God or Faith in Christ must go first whether in time or order of nature For if we say that Faith in Christ must go first then it seemeth that we take not Faith or Christ as a Means to bring us to God as our End for our End is Deus amatus God as beloved and to make God our End and to love him are inseparable We first love the good which appeareth to us and then we chuse and use the Means to attain it and in so doing we make that our End which we did love so that it is the first loved for it self and then made our End Now if Christ be not used as a Means to God or as our Vltimate End then he is not believed in or used as Christ and therefore it is no true Faith And that which hath not the true End is not the true act or grace in question nor can that be any special grace at all which hath not God for his Vltimate End On both which accounts it can be no true Faith The intentio finis being before the choice or use of means though the assecution be after And yet on the other side if God be loved as our End before we believe in Christ as the means then we are sanctified before we believe And then faith in Christ is not the Means of our first special Love to God And the consequents on both parts are intollerable and how are they to be avoided Consider here 1. You must distinguish betwixt the assenting or knowing act of faith and the consenting or chusing act of it in the will 2. And between Christ as he is a Means of Gods chusing and using and as he is a means of our chusing and using And so I answer the case in these Propositions 1. The knowledge of a Deity is supposed before the knowledge of Christ as a Mediator For no man can believe that he is a Teacher sent of God nor a Mediator between us and God nor a Sacrifice to appease Gods wrath who doth not believe first that there is a God 2. In this belief or knowledge of God is contained the knowledge of his Essential Power Wisdom and Goodness and that he is our Creator and Governour and that we have broken his Laws and that we are obnoxious to his Justice and deserve punishment for our sins All this is to be known before we believe in Christ as the Mediatour 3. Yet where Christianity is the Religion of the Country it is Christ himself by his Word and Ministers who teacheth us these things concerning God But it is not Christ as a Means chosen or used by us to bring us to the Love of God for no man can chuse or use a Means for an End not yet known or intended but it is Christ as a Means chosen and used by God to bring home sinners to himself even as his dying for us on the Cross was 4. The soul that knoweth all this concerning God cannot yet love him savingly both because he wanteth the Spirit to effect it and because a holy sin-hating God engaged in Justice to damn the sinner is not such an object as a guilty soul can love but it must be a loving and reconciled God that is willing to forgive 5. When Christ by his Word and Ministers hath taught a sinner both what God is in himself and what he is to us and what we have deserved and
will understand Pauls charge Phil. 2.3 4. In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Look not every man on his own but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus You will learn of Christ to take your neerest friend for a Satan that would perswade you to save or spare your self yea your life when you ought to lay it down for the Glory of God and the good of many Matth. 16.22 23. SELF and OWN are words which would then be better understood and be more suspected And the reason of the great Gospel duty of SELF-DENYAL would be better discerned Therefore set your selves to the study of God especially in his Goodness study him in his Works and in his Word and in his Son and in the Glory where you hope everlastingly to see him And if you once love God as God indeed it will teach you to love your Brethren and in what sort and in what degree to do it For many waies are we taught of God to love one another Even 1. By the great and heavenly teacher of Love Jesus Christ 2. And by Gods own example Matth. 5.44 45 3. And by the shedding abroad of his love in our hearts by the Spirit of Love Rom. 5.5 4. And by this actual loving God and so loving all of God in the world Object But by this doctrine you will prepare for the Levellers and Fryers to cast down or cry down Propriety Answ 1. There is a propriety of food rayment c. which individuation hath made necessary 2. There is a propriety of Stewardship which God causeth by the various disposal of his talents and which is the just reward of humane industry and the necessary encouragement of wit and labour in the world None of these would we cast down or preach down 3. But there is a common abuse of propriety to the maintenance of mens own lusts and to the hurt of others and of all Societies This we would preach down if we could But it is Love only which must be the Leveller In the Primitive Church Love shewed its power by such a voluntary community Acts 4. And all Politicians who have drawn the Idea of a perfect Common-wealth have been fumbling at other waies of accomplishing it But it is Christian Love alone that must do it Unfeignedly love God as God and love your neighbours really as your selves and then keep your proprieties as far as this will give you leave I will conclude with this considerable observation that though it is false which some affirm that individuation is a punishment for some former sin for how could a soul not individuate sin And though sensitive self-love which is the principle of self-preservation be no sin it self nor doth grace destroy it yet the inordinacy of it is the summ and root of all positive sin and an increaser of privative sin And this inseparable sensitive self-love was made to be more under the power of reason and to be ruled by it than now we find it in any the most sanctified person even as Abrahams love of the life of his only Son was to be subject to his Faith And holiness lyeth more in this subjection than most men well understand And the inordinacy of this personal self-love hath so strangely perverted the mind it self that it is not only very hard to convince men of the evil of any selfish principles or sins but it greatly blindeth them as to all duties of publick interest and social nature Yea and maketh them afraid of Heaven it self where the union of souls will be as much neerer than now it is as their Love will be greater and more perfect And though it will not be by any cessation of personal individuation and by falling into one universal soul yet perfect Love will make the union neerer than we who have no experience of it can possibly now comprehend And when we feel the strongest Love to a friend desiring the neerest union we have the best help to understand it But men that feel not the divine and holy love are by inordinate self-love and abuse of individuation afraid of the life to come lest the union should be so great as to lose their individuation or prejudice their personal divided interests Yea true believers so far as their holy Love is weak and their inordinate sensitive self-love is yet too strong are from hence afraid of another world when they scarce know why but indeed it is much from this disease which maketh men still desire their personal felicity too partially and in a divided way and to be afraid of losing their personality or propriety by too neâ—r a union and communion of souls CHAP. XXVI How by Faith to be followers of the Saints and to look with profit to their examples and to their end THE great work of living in Heaven by Faith I have said so much of as to the principal part in my Saints Rest that no more of that must be expected here Only this subject which is not so usually and fully treated of to the people as it it ought being one part of our heavenly conversation I think meet to speak to more distinctly at this time As we are commanded first to look to Jesus the Author and perfecter of our faith Heb. 12.2 3. so are we commanded to remember our guides and to follow their faith and consider the end of their conversation Heb. 13.7 And not to be slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6.12 To which end we have a cloud of witnesses set before us in Heb. 11. that next to Jesus whom they followed we should look to them and follow them Jam. 5.10 My Brethren take the Prophets for an example The Reasons of this duty are these 1. God hath made them our examples two waies 1. By his graces making them holy and fit for our imitation He gave them their gifts not only for themselves nor only for that present generation but for us also and all that must survive to the end of the world As it is said of Abrahams Justification Rom. 4.23 24. It was said that Faith was imputed to him for righteousness not for his sake alone but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe So I may say in this case their faith their piety their patience was given them and is recorded not for their salvation or their honour only but also to further the salvation of their posterity by encouragement and imitation If all things are for our sakes 2 Cor. 4.15 then the graces of Gods Saints were for our sakes For the Churches edification it is that Christ giveth both offices gifts and graces to his Ministers Ephes 4.5 12 14 15 16. yea and sufferings too Phil. 1.12 20. 2 Cor. 1.4 6. 2 Tim. 2.10 I endure all things for the elects sake 2. By commanding us to follow
low so dark to question the eternal God concerning the reason of his Laws and dispensations Do we not shamefully forget our ignorance and our distance 2. But if you must have a reason let this suffice you It is fit that the Government of God be suited to the nature of the reasonable subject And Reason is made to apprehend more than we see and by reaching beyond sense to carry us to seek things higher and better than sense can reach If you would have a man understand no more than he sees you would almost equalize a wise man and a fool and make a man too like a beast Even in worldly matters you will venture upon the greatest cost and pains for the things that you see not nor ever saw He that hath a journey to go to a place that he never saw will not think that a sufficient reason to stay at home The Merchant will sail 1000 miles to a Land and for a Commodity that he never saw Must the Husbandman see the Harvest before he plow his Land and sow his seed Must the sick man feel that he hath health before he use the means to get it Must the Souldier see that he hath the victory before he fight You would take such conceits in worldly matters to be the symptoms of distraction And will you cherish them where they are most pernicious Hath God made man for any end or for none If none he is made in vain If for any no reason can expect that he should see his end before he use the means and see his home before he begin to travel towards it When children first go to School they do not see or enjoy the learning and wisdom which by time and labour they must attain You will provide for the children which you are like to have before you see them To look that sight which is our fruition it self should go before a holy life is to expect the end before we will use the necessary means You see here in the government of the world that it is things unseen that are the instruments of rule and motives of obedience Shall no man be restrained from felony or murders but he that seeth the Assizes or the Gallows It is enough that he foreseeth them as being made known by the Laws It would be no discrimination of the good and bad the wise and foolish if the reward and punishment must be seen what thief so mad as to steal at the Gallows or before the Judge The basest habits would be restrained from acting if the reward and punishment were in fight The most beastly drunkard would not be drunk the filthy fornicator would forbear his lust the malicious enemy of godliness would forbear their calumnies and persecutions if Heaven and Hell were open to their sight No man will play the adulterer in the face of the Assembly The chast and unchast seem there alike And so they would do if they saw the face of the most dreadful God No thanks to any of you all to be godly if Heaven were to be presently seen or to forbear your sin if you saw Hell fire God will have a meeter way of tryal You shall believe his promises if ever you will have the benefit and believe his threatnings if ever you will escape the threatned evil CHAP. 2. Some Uses Vse 1. THis being the nature and use of Faith to apprehend things absent as if they were present and things unseen as if they were visible before our eyes you may hence understand the nature of Christianity and what it is to be a true Believer Verily it is another matter than the dreaming self-deceiving world imagineth Hypocrites think that they are Christians indeed because they have entertained a superficial opinion that there is a Christ an immortality of souls a Resurrection a Heaven and a Hell though their lives bear witness that this is not a living and effectual faith but it is their sensitive faculties and interest that are predominant and are the byas of their hearts Alas a little observation may tell them that notwithstanding their most confident pretentions to Christianity they are utterly unacquainted with the Christian life Would they live as they do in worldly cares and pampering of the flesh and neglect of God and the life to come if they saw the things which they say they do believe Could they be sensual ungodly and secure if they had a faith that serv'd instead of sight Would you know who it is that is the Christian indeed 1. He is one that liveth in some measure as if he saw the Lord Believing in that God that dwelleth in the inaccessible light that cannot be seen by mortal eyes he liveth as before his face He speaks he prayes he thinks he deals with men as if he saw the Lord stand by No wonder therefore if he do it with reverence and holy fear No wonder if he make lighter of the smiles or frowns of mortal man than others do that see none higher and if he observe not the lustre of worldly dignity or flâ—shly beauty wisdom or vain-glory before the transcendent incomprehensible light to which the Sun it self is darkness When he awaketh he is still with God Psal 134.8 He sets the Lord alwaies before him because he is at his right hand he is not moved Psal 16.8 And therefore the life of Believers is oft called a walking with God and a walking befâ—re God as Gen. 5.22 24. 6.9 17.1 in the case of Henoch Noah and Abraham All the day doth he wait on God Psal 25 5. Imagine your selves what manner of person he must be that sees the Lord and conclude that such in his measure is the true believer For by faith he seeth him that is invisible to the eye of sense and therefore can forsake the glory and pleasures of the world and feareth not the wrath of Princes as it 's said of Moses Heb. 11.27 2. The Believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw and trusteth in him adhereth to him acknowledgeth his benefits loveth him and râ—joyceth in him as if he had seen him with his eyes This is the faith which Peter calls more precious than perishing gold that maketh us love him whom we have not seen and in whom thâ—ugh now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable and glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.8 Christ dwelleth in hâ—s heart by faith not only by his Spirit but objectively as our dearest absent friend doth dwell in our estimation and affection Ephes 3.17 O that the miserable Infidels of the world had the eyes the hearts the experiences of the true believer Then they that with Thomas tell those that have seen him Except I may see and feel I will not believe will be forced to cry out My Lord and my God Joh. 20.25 c. 3. A Believer is one that judgeth of the man by his invisible inside and not by outward appearances with a fleshly
degree as shall be raised by the beatifical vision in the glorified and as present intuition now would raise if we could attain it yet seeing Faith hath as sure an Object and Revelation as sight it self though the manner of apprehension be less affecting it should do much more with us than it doth and bring us nearer to such affections and resolutions as sight would cause Vse 2. If Faith be given us to make things to come as if they were at hand and things unseen as if we saw them you may see from hence 1. The reason of that holy seriousness of Believers which the ungodly want 2. And the reason why the ungodly want it 3. And why they wonder at and distaste and deride this serious diligence of the Saints 1. Would you make it any matter of wonder for men to be more careful of their souls more fervent in their requests to God more fearful of offending him and more laborious in all holy preparation for eternal life than the holiest and precisest person that you know in all the world if so be that Heaven and Hell were seen to them Would you not rather wonder at the dulness and coldness and negligence of the best and that they are not far more holy and diligent than they are if you and they did see these things Why then do you not cease your wondering at their diligence Do you not know that they are men that have seen the Lord whom they daily serve and seen the glory which they daily seek and seen the place of torments which they fly from By Faith in the glass of Divine Revelations they have seen them 2. And the reason why the careless world are not as diligent and holy as Believers is because they have not this eye of Faith and never saw those powerful objects that Believers see Had you their eyes you would have their hearts and lives O that the Lord would but illuminate you and give you such a sight of the things unseen as every true Believer hath What a happy change would it make upon you Then instead of your deriding or opposing it we should have your company in the holy path You would then be such your selves as you now deride If you saw what they see you would do as they do When the heavenly light had appeared unto Saul he ceaseth persecuting and enquires what Christ would have him to do that he might be such a one as he had persecuted And when the scales fell from his eyes he falls to prayer and gets among the Believers whom he had persecuted and laboureth and suffereth more than they 3. But till this light appear to your darkned souls you cannot see the reasons of a holy heavenly life and therefore you will think it hypocrisie or pride or fancy and imagination or the foolishness of cracktâ—brain'd self-conceited men If you see a man do reverence to a Prince and the Prince himself were invisible to you would you not take him for a mad man and say that he cringed to the stools or chairs or bowed to a post or complemented with his shadow If you saw a mans action in eating and drinking and see not the meat and drink it self would you not think him mad If you heard men laugh and hear not so much as the voice of him that gives the jeast would you not imagine them to be brain-sick If you see men dance and hear not the musick if you see a Labourer threshing or reaping or mowing and see no corn or grass before him if you see a Souldier fighting for his life and see no enemy that he spends his stroaks upon will you not take all these for men distracted Why this is the case between you and the true Believers You see them reverently worship God but you see not the Majesty which they worship as they do You see them as busie for the saving of their souls as if an hundred lives lay on it but you see not the Hell from which they fly nor the Heaven they seek and therefore you marvel why they make so much ado about the matters of their salvation and why they cannot do as others and make as light of Christ and Heaven as they that desire to be excused and think they have more needful things to mind But did you see with the eyes of a true Believer and were the amazing things that God hath revealed to us but open to your sight how quickly would you be satisfied and sooner mock at the diligence of a drowning man that is striving for his life or at the labour of the City when they are busily quenching the flames in their habitations than mock at them that are striving for the everlasting life and praying and labouring against the ever-burning flames How soon would you turn your admiration against the stupidity of the careless world and wonder more that ever men that hear the Scriptures and see with their eyes the works of God can make so light of matters of such unspeakable eternal consequence Did you but see Heaven and Hell it would amaze you to think that ever many yea so many and so seeming wise should wilfully run into everlasting fire and sell their souls at so low a rate as if it were as easie to be in Hell as in an Ale-house and Heaven were no better than a beastly lust O then with what astonishment would you think Is this the fire that sinners do so little fear Is this the glory that is so neglected You would then see that the madness of the ungodly is the wonder Vse 3. By this time I should think that some of your own Consciences have prevented me in the Vse of Examination which I am next to call you to I hope while I have been holding you the glass you have not turned away your faces nor shut your eyes But that you have been judging your selves by the light which hath been set up before you Have not some of your consciences said by this time If this be the nature and use of Faith to make things unseen as if we saw them what a desolate case then is my soul in how void of Faith how full of Infidelity how far from the truth and power of Christianity How dangerously have I long deceived my self in calling my self a true Christian and pretending to be a true Believer When I never knew the life of Faith but took a dead opinion bred only by education and the custom of the Countrey instead of it little did I think that I had been an Infidel at the heart while I so confidently laid claim to the name of a Believer Alas how far have I been from living as one that seeth the things that he professeth to Believe If some of your consciences be not thus convinced and perceive not yet your want of faith I fear it is because they are seared or asleep But if yet conscience have not begun to plead this cause against you
the most we will not deny it to be aetas aurea in the Poets sense Aurea nunc vere sunt secula plurimus auro Vaenit honos auro conciliatur amor This prevalency of things seen against thing unseen is the Idolatry of the world the subversion of nature the perversion of our faculties and actions making the soul a drudge to flesh and God to be used as a servant to the world It destroyeth Piety Justice and Charity It turneth JVS by perversion into VIS or by reversion into SVI No wonder then if it be the ruine of societies when Gens sine justitiâ sine remige navis in undâ It can possess even Demosthenes with a Squinancy if there be but an Harpalus to bring him the infection It can make a Judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impiorum regionem contrary to Cicero's description of Sulpitius who was magis justitiae quam juris consultus ad facilitatem aequitatemque omnia contulit nec maluit litium actiones constituere quam controversias tollere In a word if you live by sense and not by Faith on things present and not on things unseen you go backward you stand on your heads and turn your heels against Heaven you cause the beast to ride the man and by turning all things upside down will turn your selves into confusion 2. Consider that it is the unseen things that are only Great and Necessary that are worthy of a man and answer the excellency of our nature and the ends of our lives and all our mercies All other things are inconsiderable toyes except as they are dignified by their relation to these Whether a man step into eternity from a Palace or a Prison a Lordship or a Lazarus state is little to be regarded All men in the world whose designs and business take up with any thing short of Heaven are in the main of one condition and are but in several degrees and forms in the School of folly If the intendment of your lives fall short of God it matters not much what it is you seek as to any great difference If lesser children play for pins and bigger boyes for points and pence and aged children for lands and money for titles of honour and command What difference is there between these in point of wisdom and felicity but that the little ones have more innocent delights and at a cheaper rate than the aged have without the vexatious cares and dangers that attend more grave and serious dotage As Holiness to the Lord is written upon all that is faithfully referred to his Will and Glory so Vanity and Sin is written upon all that is but made provision for the flesh and hath no higher end than Self To go to Hell with greater stir and attendance and repute with greater pomp and pleasure than the poor is a poor consolation a pitiful felicity 3. Faith is the wisdom of the soul and unbelief and sensuality are its blindness folly and brutishness How short is the knowledge of the wisest unbelievers They know not much of what is past and less they would know if Historians were not of more credit with them than the Word of God But alas how little do they know of what is to come sense tells them where they are and what they are now doing but it tells them not where they shall be to morrow But Faith can tell a true Believer what will be when this world is ended and where he shall live to all eternity and what he shall be dâ—ing what thoughts he shall be thinking what affections shall be the temper and employment of his soul what he shall see and feel and enjoy and with what company he shall converse for ever If the pretenders to Astrological prediction could but foretel the changes of mens lives and the time and manner of their deaths what resort would be to them and how wise would they be esteemed but what is all this to the infallible predictions of the All-knowing God that hath given us a prospect into another world and shewed us what will be for ever more certainly than you know what a day may bring forth So necessary is fore-knowledge in the common affairs of men that without it the actions of the world would be but mad tumultuary confusion What would you think of that mans understanding or how would you value the imployments of his life that lookt no further in all his actions than the present hour and saw no more than the things in hand What would you call him that so spends the day as one that knoweth not there will be any night and so past the night as one that looked not for that day that knew not in the Spring there would be an Harvest or in the Summer that there would be any Winter or in Youth that there would be Age or Death The silly brutes that have no fore-knowledge are furnished with an instinct that supplieth the want of it and also have the help of mans fore-knowledge or else their kind would be soon extinct The Bees labour in Summer as if they foresaw the Winters need And can that man be wise that foreseeth not his everlasting state Indeed he that knoweth not what is to come hath no true knowledge of what is present For the worth and use of present things is only in their respect to things eternal And there is no means where there is no end What wisdom then remains in Unbelievers when all their lives 〈◊〉 mis-imployed because they know not the end of life and when all their actions are utterly debased by the baseness of 〈◊〉 brutish ends to which they serve and are referred 〈◊〉 is truly wise or honourable that is done for small and 〈◊〉 things To draw a curious picture of a shadow or elegantly write the history of a dream may be an ingenuous kind of foolery but the end will not allow it the name of Wisdom And such are all the actions of the world though called Heroick Valiant and Honourable that aim at transitory trifles and tend not to the everlasting end A bird can neatly build her nest but is not therefore counted Wise How contrary is the judgement of the world to Christs When the same description that he giveth of a fool is it that worldlings give of a wise and happy man Luke 12.20 21. One that layeth up riches for himself and is not rich towards God Will you perswade us that the man is wise that can climb a little higher than his neighbours that he may have the greater fall That is attended in his way to Hell with greater pomp and state than others That can sin more Syllogistically and Rhetorically than the vulgar and more prudently and gravely run into damnation and can learnedly defend his madness and prove that he is safe at the brink of Hell Would you perswade us that he is wise that contradicts the God and Rule of
sinful world and flesh linger not now as unwilling to depart repent not of thy choice when all that the world can do for thee is past repent not of thy warfare when thou hast got the victory nor of thy voyage when thou art past the storms and waves and ready to land at the haven of felicity Thus Faith may sing our Nunc dimittis when the flesh is lothest to be dissolved But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly worldly life nor of a careless dull and negligent life Nature which brought us into the world without our forecast or care will turn us out of the world without it But it will not give us a joyful passage nor bring us to a better world without it It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honourable or plentiful estate that they may fall from an higher place than others and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them and may have a greater account to make at Judgement and that their passage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle And may a believing joyful death be expected without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life Nature is so much afraid of dying and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world that even true Believers do find it a work of no small difficulty to desire to depart and be with Christ and to die in the joyful hopes of faith A little abatement of the terrours of death a little supporting hope and peace is all that the greater part of them attain instead of the fervent desires and triumphant joyes which the lively belief of endless glory should produce O therefore make it the work of your lives of all your lives your greatest work your constant work to live by faith that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies may be able also to overcome the last and may do your last work well when it hath done the rest CHAP. I. Directions how to live by Faith And first how to strengthen Faith And secondly the natural Truths presupposed to be considered THe Directions which I shall give you as helps to live by Faith are of two ranks 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of your Faith 2. Such as tell you how to use it The first is the greatest part of our task for no man can use that faith which he hath not nor can use more of it than he hath And the commonest reason why we use but little is because we have but little to use But on this subject supposing it most weighty I have written many Treatises already The second part of the Saints Rest The Unreasonableness of Infidelity And last of all The Reasons of the Christian Religion Besides others which handle it on the by And somewhat is said in the beginning of this discourse But yet because in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much I will here give you an Index of some of the chief Helps to be close together before you for your memories to be the constant fuel of your Faith In the work of Faith it is first needful that you get all the prerequisite Helps of Natural Light and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence and their Vsefulness to befriend the supernatural revelations For it is supposed that we are men before we are Christians We were created before we were redeemed And we must know that there is a God before we can know that we have offended him or that we need a Saviour to reconcile us to him And we must know that we have reasonable souls before we can know that sin hath corrupted them or that grace must sanctifie them And we must know that whatsoâ—ver God saith is true before we can believe that the Scripture is true as being his revelation Faith is an act of Reason and Believing is a kind of knowing even a knowing by the testimâ—ny of him whom we believe because we have sufficient reason to believe him 2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of supernatural Truth which presupposeth the foresaid Natural Verities I shall set both bâ—fore you briefly in their order 1. Think well â—f the nature of your souls of their faculties or pâ—wers their excellency and their proper use And then you will find that you are not meer brutes who know not their Creatâ—ur nor live noâ— by a Law nor think not of another world nor â—â—ar any â—â—fferings after death But that you have reasâ—n free-will and executive power to knâ—w your Maker and to live by â—ule aâ—d to hope for a Reward in another life and to fear a pâ—nâ—shmeâ—t hereafter And that as no wise Artificer maketh any thing in vain so God is mâ—ch less to be thought to havâ— given you such souls and faculties in vain 2. Coâ—sidâ—r next how all the world declareth to you that there is a Gâ—d whâ— is infiniteâ—y pâ—werful wise and good And thaâ— it is not possible that all things which we see should have no cause or that the derived Power and Wisdom and Goodnesâ— of the creature should not proceed from that which is more excellent in the first and total cause Or that God should give more than he had to give 3. Consider nexâ— in whâ—t Relation such a creature must needs stand to such a Creatour If he made us of Nâ—â—hing 〈◊〉 is not pâ—ssible but that he must be 〈◊〉 Owner and wâ— aâ—d all things absolutely his Own And if he be our Maker and Owner and be infinitely powerful wise and good and we be Reasonable-free-agents made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end it is not possible but that we should stand related to him as subjects to their rightful Governour And if he be our Creatour Owner and Ruler and also infinitely Good and the grand Benefactor of the world and if the nature of our souls be to Love Good as Good it cannot be possible that he should not be our End who is our Creatour and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefest Good both originally as our Benefactor and finally as our End 4. And then it is easie for you next to see what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related That if you are absolutely his Own you should willingly be at his absolute dispose And iâ— he bâ— your Soveraign Ruler you should labour most diligently to know his Laws and absolutely to obey them And if he be infinitely Good and your Benefactor and your End you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly and to place your own felicity in his Love All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature that nothing but madness can deny
many waies apparent and also of the communion which they have with man And when we find also an intellectual nature in our selves why should we not believe that our likeness of nature doth infer our likeness in our future duration and abode 9. And mark well but the inward and outward temptations which solicite all the world to sin and what notable Evidences there be in many of them of an invisible power and you will easily believe that man hath a soul to save or lose which is of longer duration than the body 10. Lastly If yet there be any doubt consider but of the sensible Evidences of Apparitions Witchcraft and Possessions and it cannot chuse but much confirm you Though much be feigned in histories of such things yet the world hath abundant evidence of that which was certainly unfeigned See the Devil of Mascon Mr. Mompessons story lately acted and published Remigius Bodins Danaeus c. of Witches Lavater de Spectris and what I have written elsewhere CHAP. II. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural Evidences of Faith and Rules therein to be offered WHen you have thus seen what evidence there is of GOD and his Government and of a life of reward and punishment hereafter and of the natural obligations which lie on man to a holy just and sober life and of the depraved state of the world which goeth so contrary to such undoubted duty and how certain all this is even by natural revelation proceed next to consider what supernatural revelation God hath added both to confirm you in the same Truths and to make known such other as were necessary for mankind to know Where I must first direct you in the true Method of Enquiry and then set before you the things themselves which you are to know 1. Think not that every unprepared mind is immediately capable of the Truth either this or any other except the first principles which are nota per se or are next to sense All truth requireth a capacity and due preparation of the recipient The plainest principles of any Art or Science are not understood by novices at the first fight or hearing And therefore it were vain to imagine that things of the greatest distance in history or profundity in doctrine can be comprehended at the first attempt by a disused and unfurnished understanding There must be at least as much time and study and help supposed and used to the full discerning of the evidences of faith as are allowed to the attainment of common Sciences Though grace in less time may give men so much light as is necessary to salvation yet he that will be able to defend the Truth and answer Objections and attain establishing satisfaction in his own mind must ordinarily have proportionable helps and time and studyes unless he look to be taught by miracles 2. Remember that it is a practical and heavenly doctrine which you are to learn It is the Art of loving God and being happy in his love And therefore a worldly sensual vicious soul must needs be under very great disadvantage for the receiving of such a kind of Truths Do not therefore impute that to the doubtfulness of the Doctrine which is but the effect of the enmity and incapacity of your minds How can he presently rellish the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of the Gospel who is drowned in the love and care of contrary things Such men receive not the things of the Spirit They seem to them both foolishness and undesirable 3. Think not that the history of things done so long ago and so far off should have no more obscurities nor be liable to any more Objections than of that which was done in the time and Country where you live Nor yet that things done in the presence of others and words spoken in their hearing only should be known to you otherwise than by historical evidence unless every Revelation to others must have a new Revelation to bring it to each individual person in the world And think not that he who is a stranger to all other helps of Church-history should be as well able to understand the Scripture-history as those that have those other helps 4. Think not that the narrativt of things done in a Country and Age so remote and to us unknown should not have many difficulties arising from our ignorance of the persons places manners customs and many circumstances which if we had known would easily have resolved all such doubts 5. Think not that a Book which was written so long ago in so remote a Country in a language which few do fully understand and which may since then have several changes as to phrases and proverbial and occasional speeches should have no more difficulties in it than a Book that were written at home in the present Ages in our Country language and the most usual dialect To say nothing of our own language what changes are made in all other tongues since the times that the Gospel was recorded Many proverbial speeches and phrases may be now disused and unknown which were then most easie to be understood And the transcribing and preserving of the Copies require us to allow for some defects of humane skill and industry therein 6. Vnderstand the different sorts of Evidence which are requisite to the different matters in the holy Scriptures The matters of fact require historical evidence which yet is made infallible by additional miracles The miracles which were wrought to confirm our history are brought to our knowledge only by other history The Doctrines which are evident in nature have further evidence of supernatural revelation only to help us whose natural fight is much obscured But it is the supernatural Doctrines Precepts and Promises which of themselves require supernatural revelation to make them credible to man 7. Mistake not the true Vse and End of the holy Scriptures 1. Think not that the Gospel as written was the first Constitutive or Governing Law of Christ for the Christian Churches The Churches were constituted and the Orders and Offices and Government of it settled and exercised very many years together before any part of the New Testament was written to them much more before the writing of the whole The Apostles had long before taught them what was commanded them by Christ and had settled them in the order appointed by the Holy Ghost And therefore you are not to look for the first determination of such doctrines or orders in the Scripture as made thereby but only for the Records of what was done and established before For the Apostles being to leave the world did know the slipperiness of the memory of man and the danger of changing and corrupting the Christian Doctrine and Orders if there were not left a sure record of it And therefore they did that for the sake of posterity 2. You must not think that all is essential to the Christian Religion which is contained in the holy Scriptures Nor that
cast in the light of Faith extraordinarily which is indeed the life of Faith Nor is it seeming to stir up Faith in a Prayer or Sermon and looking no more after it all the day This is but to give God a salutation and not to dwell and walk with him And to give Heaven a complemental visit sometimes but not to have your conversation there 2 Cor. 5.7 8. Direct 3. Be not too seldom in solitary meditation Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled to perform in any set and long and orderly manner yet it is so needful to those who are able that the greatest works of Faith are to be managed by it How should things unseen be apprehended so as to affect our hearts without any serious exercise of our thoughts How should we search into mysteries of the Gospel or converse with God or walk in Heaven or fetch either joyes or motives thence without any retired studious contemplation If you cannot meditate or think you cannot believe Meditation abstracteth the mind from vanity and lifteth it up above the world and setteth it about the work of Faith which by a mindless thoughtless or worldly soul can never be performed 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Phil. 3.20 Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 3. Direct 4. Let the Image of the Life of Christ and his Martyrs and holiest servants be deeply printed on your minds That you may know what the way is which you have to go and what patterns they be which you have to imitate think how much they were above things sensitive and how light they set by all the pleasures wealth and glory of this world Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set before us that cloud of witnesses and catalogue of Martyrs in Heb. 11. that example may help us and we may see with how good company we go in the life of Faith Paul had well studied the example of Christ when he took pleasure in infirmities and gloryed only in the Cross to be base and afflicted in this world for the hopes of endless glory 2 Cor. 11.30 12.5 9 10. And when he could say I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 9 10. No man will well militate in the life of Faith but he that followeth the Captain of his salvation Heb. 2.10 who for the bringing of many Sons to glory even those whom he is not ashamed to call his Brethren was made perfect as to perfection of action or performance by suffering thereby to shew us how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal things are to be valued in comparison of the things invisible and therefore as the General and the souldiers make up one army and militate in one militia so he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2.10 11 12. Though that which is called the life of Faith in us deserved a higher title in Christ and his faith in his Father and ours do much differ and he had not many of the objects acts and uses of Faith as we have who are sinners yet in this we must follow him as our great example in valuing things invisible and vilifying things visible in comparison of them And therefore Paul saith I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Direct 5. Remember therefore that God and Heaven the unseen things are the final object of true Faith and that the final object is the noblest and that the principal use of Faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal to things invisible and eternal and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian Faith 1. Many think of no other object of it but the death and righteousness of Christ and the pardon of sin and the promise of that pardon And God and Heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of Faith 2. And they think of little other use of it than to comfort them against the guilt of sin with the assurance of their Justification But the great and principal work of Faith is that which is about its final object to carry up the soul to God and Heaven where the world and things sensible are the terminus à quo and God and things invisible the terminus ad quem And thus it is put in contradistinction to living by fight in 2 Cor. 5.6 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect in Rom. 6. throughout and many other places and thus it is that Heb. 11. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of Faith as it was expressed in valuing things unseen upon the belief of the Word of God and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them And thus Christ tryed the Rich man Luke 18.22 whether he would be his Disciple by calling him to sell all and give to the poâ—r for the hopes of a treasure in Heaven And thus Christ maketh bearing the Cross and denying our selves and forsaking all for him to be necessary in all that are his Disciples And thus Paul describeth the life of Faith 2 Cor. 4.17 18. by the contempt of the world and suffering afflictions for the hopes of Heaven For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Our Faith is our victory over the world even in the very nature of it and not only in the remote effect for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen is one and the same motion of the soul denominated variously from its various respects to the terminus ad quem and à quo Direct 6. Remember that as God to be believed in is the principal and final object of Faith so the kindling of love to God in the soul is the principal use and effect of Faith And to live by Faith is but to love obey and suffer by Faith Faith working by Love is the description of our Christianity Gal. 5.6 As Christ is the Way to the Father Joh. 14.6 and came into the world to recover Apostate
contingents are known to him in their causes or in his decree or in their coexistence in eternity They can tell what Decrees he hath about Negatives as that such a man shall not have Faith given him that millions of things possible shall not be that you shall not be a plant or a beast nor any other man nor called by any other name c. And how all Gods Decrees are indeed but One and yet not only unconceivably numerous but the order of them as to priority and posteriority is to be exactly defined and defended though to the detriment of charity and peace As to sin they can tell you whether he have a real positive Decree de re eveniente or only de eventu rei or only de propriâ permissione eventus i. e. de non impediendo i. e. de non agendo whether non agere need and have a positive act of Volition or Nolition antecedent Though they know not when they hear the sound of the wind either whence it cometh or whither it goeth yet know they all the methods of the Spirit They know how God as the first-mover predetermineth the motions of all Agents natural and free and whether his influence be upon the essence or faculty or act immediately and what that influx is In a word how voluminously do they darken counsel by words without knowledge As if they had never read Gods large expostulation with Job 42 c. Deut. 29 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Even an Angel could say to Manoah Judg. 13.18 Why askest thou thus after my name seeing it is secret No man hath seen God at any time saving the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1.18 And what he hath declared we may know But how much more do these men pretend to know than ever Christ declared But who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Rom. 11.34 Etiam vera de Deo loqui periculosum Even things that are true should be spoken of God not only with reverence but with great caution And a wise man will rather admire and adore than boldly speak what he is not certain is true and congruous Direct 6. Let all your knowledge of God be practical yea more practical than any other knowledge and let not your thoughts once use Gods Name in vain If it be a sin to use idle or unprofitable words and especially to take Gods Name in vain it cannot be faultless to have idle unprofitable thoughts of God for the thoughts are the operations of the mind it self There is no thought or knowledge which ever cometh into our minds which 1. Hath so great work to do and 2. Is so fit and powerfull to do it as the knowledge and thoughts which we have of God The vâ—ry renovation of the soul to his Image and transforming it into the Divine Nature must be wrought hereby The thoughts of his Wisdom must silence all our contradicting folly and bring our souls to an absolute submission and subjection to his Laws The knowledge of his Goodness must cause all true saving Goodness in us by possâ—ssing us with the highest love to God The knowledge of his Power must cause both our confidence and our fear And the impress of Gods Attributes must be his Image on our souls It is a common and true observation of Divines that in Scripture words of God which express his Knowledge do imply his will and affections As his knowing the way of the righteous Psal 2.6 is his approving and loving it c. And it is as true that words of our knowledge of God should all imply affection towards him It is a grievous aggravation of ungodliness to be a learned ungâ—dly man To profess to know God and deny him in works being abominable and disobedient and reprobate to every good work though as orthodox and ready in good words as others Titus 1.16 A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul It should partake of the Omnipotency and perfection of the blessed Object No creature should be able to stand before him when our minds entertain any serious thoughts of him and converse with him A thought of God should annihilatâ— all the grandure and honours of the world to us and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh and all the power of temptations what fervency in prayer what earnestness of desire what confidence of faith what hatred of sin what ardent love what transporting joy what constant patience should one serious thought of God possess the believing holy soul with If the thing known become as much one with the understanding as Plotinus and other Platonists thought or if man were so far partaker of a kind of deification as Gibieuf and other Oratorians and â—enedictus de Benedictis Barbanson and other Fanatick Fryers think surely the knowledge of God should raise us more above our sensitive desires and passions and make us a more excellent sort of persons and it should make us more like those blessed spirits who know him more than we on earth and it should be the beginning of our eternal life John 17.3 Direct 7. By Faith deliver up your selves to GOD as your Creator and your Owner and live to him as those that perceive they are absolutely his own The word GOD doth signifie both Gods essence and his three great Relations unto man and we take him not for our God if we take him not as in these Divine Relations Therefore God would have Faith to be expressed at our entrance into his Church by Baptism because a believing soul doth deliver up it self to God The first and greatest work of Faith is to enter us sincerely into the holy Covenant In which this is the first part that we take God for our Owner and resign up our selves to him without either express or implicit reserve as those that are absolutely his own And though these words are by any hypocrite quickly spoken yet when the thing is really done the very heart of sin is broken For as the Apostle saith He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 Because a dead man hath no faculties to do evil So we may say He that is resigned to God as his absolute Owner is freed from sin because he that is not his own hath nothing which is his own and therefore hath nothing to alienate from his Owner We are not our Own we are bought with a price which is the second title of Gods propriety in us and therefore must glorifie God in body and spirit as being his 1 Cor. 6.20 And from this Relation faith will fetch abundant consolation seeing they that by consent and not only by constraint are absolutely his shall undoubtedly be loved and cared for as his Own
Jesus Acts 21.13 3. In so strong a fortitude of soul as to venture and give up our selves our lives and all our comforts and hopes into the hand of Christ without any trouble or sinful fears and to pass through all difficulties and tryals in the way without any distrust or anxiety of mind These be the characters of a strong and great degree of faith And you may note how Heb. 11. describeth Faith commonly by this venturing and forsaking all upon the belief of God As in Noah's case verse 7. And in Abraham's leaving his Countrey v. 8. And in his sacrificing Isaac v. 17. And in Moses forsaking Pharaoh's Court and chusing the reproach of Christ rather than the pleasures of sin for a season v. 24 25 26. And in the Israelites venturing into the Red Sea v. 29. And in Rebab's hiding the spies which must needs be her danger in her own Countrey And in all those who by faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong O hers were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in Sheep skins and Goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy They wandered in Desarts and Mountains and in Deus and Caves of the earth And in Heb. 10.32 33 c. They endured a great fight of affliction partly whilst they were made a gazing flock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst they became companions of them that were so used And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance And thus the just do live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. See also Rom. 8.33 36 37 c. These are the Spirits descriptions of faith but if you will rather take a whimsical ignorant mans description who can only toss in his mouth the name of FREE GRACE and knoweth not of what he speaketh or what he affirmeth or what that name signifieth which he cheateth his own soul with instead of true Free Grace it self you must suffer the bitter fruits of your own delusion For my part I shall say thus much more to tell you why I say so much to help you to a right understanding of the nature of true Christian Faith 1. If you understand not truly what Faith is you understand not what Religion it is that you profess And so you call your selves Christians and know not what it is It seems those that said Lord we have eaten and drunken in thy presence and prophesied in thy Name did think they had been true Believers Matth. 7.21 22. 2. To erre about the nature of true Faith will engage you in abundance of other errours which will necessarily arise from that as it did them against whom James disputeth James 2.14 15 c. about Justification by Faith and by Works 3. It will damnably delude your souls about your own state and draw you to think that you have saving Faith because you have that fancy which you thought was it One comes boldly to Christ Mat. 8.19 Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest But when he heard The Foxes have holes and the Birds have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head we hear no more of him And another came with a Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life Luke 18.18 as if he would have been one of Christs Disciples and have done any thing for Heaven And it 's like that he would have been a Christian if Free Grace had been as large and as little grace as some now imagine But when he heard Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven Come follow me he was then very sorrowful for he was very rich Luke 18.21 22 23. Thousands cheat their souls with a conceit that they are Believers because they believe that they shall be saved by Free Grace without the faith and grace which Christ hath made necessary to salvation 4. And this will take off all those needful thoughts and means which should help you to the faith which yet you have not 5. And it will engage you in perverse disputes against that true faith which you understand not And you will think that you are contending for Free Grace and for the Faith when you are proud knowing nothing but sick or doting about questions which engender no better birth than strifes railings evil surmisings perverse disputings c. 1 Tim. 6.4 5. 6. Lastly You can scarce more dishonour the Christian Religion nor injure God and our Mediatour or harden men in Infidelity than by fathering your ill-shapen fictions on Christ and calling them the Christian or Justifying Faith Direct 29. Take not all doubts and fears of your salvation to be the proper effects and signs of unbelief Seeing that in many they arise from the misunderstanding of the meaning of Gods Promise and in more from the doubtfulness of their own qualifications rather than from any unbelief of the Promise or distrust of Christ It is ordinary with ignorant Christians to say that they cannot believe because they doubt of their own sincerity and salvation as thinking that it is the nature of true faith to believe that they themselves are justified and shall be saved and that to doubt of this is to doubt of the Promises because they doubtingly apply it Such distresses have false principles bought many to But there are two other things besides the weakness of faith which are usually the causes of all this 1. Many mistake the meaning of Christs Covenant and think that it hath no universality in it and that he died only for the Elect and promiseth pardon to none but the Elect no not on the condition of believing And therefore thinking that they can have no assurance that they are Elect they doubt of the conclusion And many of them think that the Promise extendeth not to such as they because of some sin or great unworthiness which they are guilty of And others think that they have not that Faith and Repentance which are the condition of the promise of pardon and salvation And in some of these the thing it self may be so obscure as to be indeed the matter of rational doubtfulness And in others of them the cause may be either a mistake about the true nature and signs of Faith and Repentance or else a timerous melancholy causeless suspition of themselves But which of all these soever be the cause it is something different from proper unbelief or distrust of God
to the proud to take them down and make them stoop The rich answereth roughly but the poor useth intreaties Prov. 18.23 So much of the Marks of Pride Direct III. Overlook not the odiousness and peril of Pride I will name you now but a few of its aggravations because I have more largely mentioned them elsewhere 1. It is the most direct opposition to God to set up our selves as Idols in his place and seek for some of his honour to our selves 2. It is the first born of the Devil and an imitation of him whom God in nature hath taught us to take for the greatest enemy of him and us and the most odious of all the creatures of God 3. It is madness to fall by that same sin which we know was the overthrow of our first Parents and of the world 4. And it is sottish impudency in such as we who know that our bodies are going into rottenness and dust and think in what a place and plight we must there lie and that those daies of darkness will be many And who know that our souls are defiled with sin and if we have any saving knowledge and grace it is small and mixt with abundance of ignorance and corruption and the nature of it is contrary to Pride 5. It is contrary to the design of redeeming grace which is to save the humble contrite soul 6. It betrayeth men to a multitude of other sins as vanity of mind loss of time neglect of duty striving for preferment quarrelling with others upon matters of reputation or precedency c 7. And it is a sin that God is specially engaged against and the surest way to dejection and self frustration 1 Pet. 5.5 James 4 6. Isa 2.12 Prov. 15.22 16.5 21.4 Psal 138 6. 31.23 Job 40.11 12. Luke 14.11 18.14 II. After these three general Directions I shall briefly name a few particular ones Direct 1. Remember continually what you are and what you were what your bodies are and will be and what your souls are by the pollution of sin and how close it still adhereth to you and from how great a misery Christ redeemed you He neither knoweth his body nor his soul his sin or misery nor Christ nor grace who is a servant unto Pride Direct 2 Remember the continual presence of the most holy dreadful God And can Pride lift up the head before him Direct 3 Look to the example of a humbled Saviour and learn of God incarnate to be lowly Matth. 11.29 From his birth to his ascension you may read the strangest Lecture of Lowliness that ever was delivered to the haughty world Direct 4. Turn all your desires to the glorifying of God remembring that you were not made for your own glory but for his Direct 5. Think much of the heavenly Glory and it will cloud all the vain-glory of the world Direct 6. Think what it is that is your honour among the Angels in Heaven and what is most approved and honoured by God himself and therein place your honour and not in the conceits of foolish men Direct 7. Lastly Make use of humbling occasions to exercise your self-denyal and lowliness of mind I commend not to you the pious folly of those Popish Saints who are magnified by them for making themselves purposely ridiculous to exercise their humility as by going through the streets with their breeches on their heads and other such fooleries For God will give you humbling occasions enough when he seeth good But when he doth it be sure that you improve them to the abasing of your selves and use your selves to be above the esteem of man and to bear contempt when it 's cast upon you as Christ did for your sakes though not to draw it foolishly or wilfully upon your selves He that hath but once born the contempt of men is much better able to bâ—ar it afterwards than he that never underwent it but thinketh that he hath an entire reputation to preserve And he that is more sollicitous of his duty and most indifferent in point of honour doth usually best secure his honour by such neglect and alwaies best undergo dishonour CHAP. XVI How to scape the sin of Fulness or Luxury by Faith THE second sin of Sodom and fruit of abusrd Prosperity is Fulness of Bread Ezek. 16 49 Concerning which having also handled it elsewhere more at large I shall now briefly give you these general Directions first and then a few that are more particular Direct I. Understand well what sinful Fulness It is sinful when it hath any one of these ill conditions 1. When you eat or drink more in quantity than is consistent with the due preservation of your health or so much as hurteth your health or reason For the use of food is to fit us for our duty and therefore that which disableth and unfiteth us is too much But here both the present and future must be considered 2. When you have no higher end in eating and drinking than the pleasing of your appetite Be it little or much it is to be judged of according to its end A beast hath no other end because he hath no reason and so properly hath no end at all But we are bound to eat and drink to the glory of God and to do all to further us in his service 1 Cor. 10.31 The appetite may be pleased in order to a higher end that is 1. So far as it is a true directer what is for our health and will be best digested 2. So far as by moderate and seasonable exhilaration it fitteth us by cheerful alacrity for our duty and therefore it hath been good mens use to have holy feasts as well as holy fasts But the appetite must be restrained and denyed 1. When it is against health And 2. When it hindereth from duty Or 3. When it would be the ultimate end of our repast and there is no higher reason for it than the appetites delight It is not said that the Sensualist in Luke 16. did eat too much but that he fared sumptuously every day and that he had his good things here that is that he lived to the pleasing of his flesh It is not said of him in Luke 12.19 20. that he ate or drank too much but that he said Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry that is that he preferred the pleasing of his appetite or flesh before the everlasting pleasures The sin of the Israelites was that they were weary of eating Manna only so many years and desired flesh only to please their appetite and therefore is is said that they asked meat for their lust Psal 78.18 that is to gratifie their flesh or sense And the terrible threatnings thundered out by James against the rich are on such accounts James 5.4 5. Ye have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter And we are commanded to make no provision for the flesh
his body is a little weary his mind is so too and suffereth the weariness of the body to prevail Because the flesh is King within them Nay a slothful mind doth oft begin and they are weary to look upon their work or to think of it before it hath wearyed the body at all And what they do they do unwillingly because they are in love with idleness Mal. 1.13 But the lowly and laborious are in love with diligence and work and therefore though they cannot avoid the wearyness of the body their willing minds will carry on the body as far as it can well go The diligent woman worketh willingly with her hands her candle goeth not out by night c. Prov. 31.13 c. Servants must do service with good will as to the Lord Ephes 6.7 If Ministers preach and labour willingly they have a reward 1 Cor. 9.17 But not if they are only driven on by necessity and the fear of woe 1 Pet. 5.2 What shall we do willingly if not our duties He that sineth willingly and serveth God and followeth his labour unwilingly shall be rewarded according to his will 6. The idle Sodomite doth love and chuse that kind of life which is easiest and hath least work to be done This is the chief provision by which he fulfilleth his fleshly lust An idle servant thinketh that the best place in which he shall have most ease and fulness An idle Parent will cast all the burden of his childrens teaching upon the Schoolmaster and the Pastor An idle Minister thinketh himself best where he may have no more labour than what tendeth to his publick applause and when he hath the most wealth and honour and least to do he taketh that to be the flourishing prosperity of the Church And indeed if our calling were like the souldiers to kill men and not liker the Surgeons to cure them we might think it is the best time when we have least employment But the faithful servant will be most thankful for that state of life in which he doth most good And as he taketh doing good to be the surest way of getting and receiving so he taketh the good of another as his own and anothers necessity is his necessity He knoweth that he is best who is likest unto God and that is he that is the most abundant in love and doing good Like the Sun that never resteth from moving or giving light and heat The running spring is pure when the standing water is muddy and corrupt The cessation of motion quickly mortifieth the blood He that said as to works of charity Be not weary of well doing for in due time you shall reap if you faint not Gal. 6.9 hath said so too as to our bodily labour in our common callings in the world 2 Thes 3.13 I know that a servant may be glad of a place where he is not oppressed with unreasonable labour and where he hath competent time for the learning of Gods Word And a poor man may be glad when he is freed from necessity of doing that which is to his hurt But otherwise no man but a fleshly bruit will wish or contrive for a life of idleness Object Is it not said Blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 Ans True but mark that their works follow them And what are the works which follow you And note that it is not work or duty that they shall rest from For they rest not crying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty c. But it is only their labours that is the painful sort of work and suffering proper to this sinful life The blessed indeed are freed in Heaven from this because they were not freed 〈◊〉 it on earth as the ungodly and slothful servant are 7. Lastly Idleness is seen by the work that is undone Pro. 24.30 The sluggards Vineyard is overgrown with weeds If your souls be unrenewed and your assurance of salvation and evidences yet to get and few the better for you in the world and you are yet unready for death and judgment you give too full a proof of idleness The diligent woman Prov. 31.16 c. could shew her labours in her treasures her Vineyard the cloathing and provisions of her family c. shew yours by the good which you have done in the world and by the preparation of your souls for a better world Let every man prove his own work that he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Gal. 6.3 4. What case are your children in Are they taught or untaught What case is your soul in your fruit must judge you III. The mischiefs of this Sodomitical Idleness and the reasons against it are briefly these 1. It is contrary to the active nature of mans soul which in activity exceedeth the fire it self It is as natural for a soul to be active as for a stone or clod of earth to lie still And this active nature animateth the passive body to move it and use it in it's proper work And should this heavenly fire be imprisoned in the body which it should command and move Psal 104.23 Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour till the evening 2. It is contrary to the common course of nature Doth the Sun shine for you as well as for others or doth it not Doth all the frame of nature continue in its course the air the waters the summer and winter for you as well as for others or not If not then you take not your selves beholden to God for them And if you have no use for the Sun and other creatures you have no use for life for by them you live But if yea then what is it that they serve you for Did God ever frame you so glorious a retinuue to attend you only to sleep and laugh and play and to be idle what is all this for no higher an end or rather do you not by your idleness forfeit life and all these helps and maintainers of your lives 3. It is an unthankful reproach and blasphemy against the God of Nature yea and against the Lord your Redeemer to think that the wise Almighty God did make so noble a thing as a soul and place it in so curious an engine as the body where spirits and blood and heart and lungs are never idle but in constant motion and that he hath appointed us so glorious a retinue as aforesaid and all this to do nothing with or worse than nothing To sleep and rise and dress your selves and talk and eat and drink to tell men only that you are not dead lest they should mistake and bury you alive what is it but to put a scorn on your Creator and Redeemer to live as if he had created and redeemed you for no better and nobler ends than these 4. You do as it were pray for death or provoke God to take away your lives For if they be good for nothing else but idleness
and beastly pleasures why should you expect to have them continued or at least why should he not use you as Nebuchadnezzar and take away your reason and turn you into beasts if the life and pleasure of a beast be all that you desire Could not you eat and drink and sleep and play without an intellectual soul Cannot the birds make their nests and breed and feed their young and sit and sing without an intellectual nature Cannot a swine have his ease and meat and lust without reason what should you do with reason for such uses 5. You shew a stupid sensless heart that can live idly and have so much to do and have so many spurrs to rouse you up To live continually in the sight of God to have a soul so ignorant so unbelieving so unholy so unfurnished of faith and love so unready for death so uncertain of salvation nay in such apparent danger of damnation and to be still uncertain of living one day or hour longer and yet to live idly in such a case as if all were well and your work were done and you had no more to fear or care for O what a mad what a dead what a sottish kind of soul is this to see the graves before your eyes to see your neighbours carryed thither to feel the tokens of mortality daily in your selves to be called on and warned to prepare and yet under this to live as if you had nothing to do but to shew your selves in the neatest dress and as a Peacock to spread your plumes for your selves and others to look upon or to pamper a carkass for worms and rottenness O what a deplorable case is this The Lord pitty you and awaken your understandings and bring you to your wits and you will then wonder at your own stupidity 6. Idleness is a sin which is contrary to Gods universal Law The Law which extended to all times and places Adam in innocency was to labour He that had all things prepared for his sustenance by God was yet himself to labour He that was Lord of all the world and was richer than any of our proud ones whosoever was yet to dress and keep the garden Cain was a tiller of land and Abel was a keeper of cattel when they were heirs of all the earth Noah also was Lord of all the world and richer than you and yet he was an Husbandman Abraham Isaac and Jacob were Princes and yet keepers of sheep and cattle It is not a bare permission but a precept of diligence in the fourth Commandment Six daies shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do Christ himself did not live idly but before his Ministry they said Mark 6.3 Is not this the Carpenter And afterward how incessantly was he doing good to mens bodies and souls And what laborious lives did his Apostles live See 2 Cor. 6.5 11.23 Acts 18.3 And are you exempt from the universal Law 7. You shew a base and fleshly mind The noblest natures are the most active and the basest the most dead and dull The earth it not baser than the fire in a greater degree than an idle soul is baser than one that is active and spendeth themselves in doing good Methinks your Pride it self should keep you from proclaiming such a dead and earthen disposition 8. Idleness is of the same kind with fornication gluttony drunkenness and other such beastly sins For all is but sinful flesh-pleasing or sensuality The same fleshly nature which draweth them to the one doth draw you to the other and they do but gratifie their flesh in one kind of vice as you do in another And it 's pitty that Idleness should be in so much less disgrace than they And truly if you cannot deny your flesh it's ease I cannot see if the temptation lay as strong that way how you should deny it in any of those lusts so that you sâ—em to be vertually fornicators gluttons drunkards c. and ready to commit the acts 9. And hereby you strengthen the flesh as it is your enemy for the time to come When you have long used to please it by idleness it will get the victory and must be pleased still And then you are undone for ever if grace do not yet cause you to overcome it For if you live after the flesh you shall die but if by the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live Rom. 8.13 None are freed from condemnation nor are members of Christ but they that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 For the carnal mind is enmity against God v. 7. 10. Idleness is a sin much aggravated by its continuance A drunkard is not alwaies drunken nor a swearer is not alwaies swearing nor a thief is not alwaies stealing but an idle person is almost alwaies idle whole hours and daies if not weeks and years together O what a continual course of sin do our rich and gentile drones still live in As if they were afraid to do any thing which when death cometh they could comfortably be found doing 11. And O what a time-wasting sin is Idleness O precious time how art thou despised by these drowsie despisers of God and of their souls O what would the despairing souls in Hell give for some of that time which these Bedlams prate away and game and play away and trifle and fool away and sleep and loiter away And what would they give for a little of it themselves upon the same terms when it 's gone and when wishing is too late 12. Idleness is a self-contradicting sin None are so much afraid of dying as the idle and I do not blame them if they knew all and yet none more cast away their lives They die voluntarily continually He that loseth the use and benefit of life doth lose his life it self For what is it good for but as a means to its ends What difference between a man asleep and dead but only that one is more in expectation of usefulness when he awaketh It is a pittiful sight to a man in his wits to see the Bedlam world afraid of dying and trembling at every sign of death and in the mean time setting as little by their lives as if they were worth no more than to spend at cards or dice or stage-playes or dressings or feastings or ludicrous complements 13. You teach your servants that life which yet you will not endure in them For why should they be more careful and diligent in the work which you command them than you in the work which God commandeth you Are you the better Masters or will you find them better work or will you pay them better wages I know God needeth not your service as you do theirs But he commandeth it for other ends though he need it not And should any be more carefulâ— to please you that are but worms and dust than you should be to please your Maker If an idle
disturbing and corrupting of the Church the deluding of others and the disappointing and deceiving of your selves Direct 7. Neglect not any helps which you can have by the excellent gifts of any of Christs Ministers or flocks and yet take heed that through prejudice or for the faults of either you vilifie or reject nothing which is of God But carefully distinguish between Christs and theirs Communion with the holiest and purest Assemblies is more desirable than with the less pure But yet all that is less desirable comparatively is not simply unlawful nor to be rejected The labours of an abler and more faithful Minister are much to be preferred before theirs that are less able and faithful For God worketh usually according to the aptitude of the means and of the receiver To the recovery and salvation of a soul it is necessary 1. That the Vnderstanding be made wise 2. That the Heart or Will be sanctified by Love 3. That the Life be holy and obedient To the first of these there are three things needful 1. That the Vnderstanding be awakened 2. That it be illuminated 3. That it be preserved from the seduction of temptations to deceit Now an able and faithful Pastor is suited to all these effects 1. He is a lively Preacher to awaken the understanding He is a clear intelligent methodical and convincing Teacher to illuminate it 3. He can confute gainsayers and refute objections and shame the cavils of tempters and deceivers to preserve it And 2 He speaketh all from the unfeigned Love of God and men and as all his words do breathe forth Love so they art apt to kindle such love in the hearers For every active nature tendeth to propagation 3. And the holiness of his life as well as doctrine tendeth to win the people to a holy life So that he that loveth his own soul must not be indifferent what Pastor he chuseth for the help and conduct of his soul but should most carefully seek to get the best or fittest for such necessary ends But yet it followeth not that a weaker or worse may not be heard or may not be accepted or submitted to in a case of necessity when a better cannot be had without more disturbance and hurt than the benefits are like to recompence And when we live under such a weak or cold or faulty Pastor our care must be so much the greater that we may make up that in the diligence of our attention which is wanting in his manner of expression and that we make up that in a care of our own souls which is wanting in his care And that our knowledge of his failings tempt us not to slight the truth which he delivereth and that we reject not the matter for the manner The Sheep of Christ do know his voice and they know his words and reverence and love them from what mouâ—h soever they proceed A Religious zâ—alous man that preacheth false doctrine is more to be avoided than a cold or scandalous man who preacheth the truth If you doubt of this observe these texts Matth. 23.2 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not Acts 1.17 For he Judas was numbred with us and had obtained part of this Ministry Judas the thief and traitor was an Apostle called and sent out by Jesus Christ Phil. 1.15 c. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will The one preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add afflâ—ction to my bonds what then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Acts 20.30 Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Gal. 1.7 8. If we or an Angel from Heaven bring another Gospel let him be accursed Is not all this a plain decision of the case Direct 8. While you prefer local communion with the purest Churches and â—est taught and ordered for your own edification take heed that you disown not a distant and mental communion with any part of the Church of Christ on earth which Christ himself disowneth not But first remember that you are members of the Vniversal Church and as such in mental communion with the whole present your selves and services to Christ and next as members of your Particular Church It is true that you must not own the corruptions of any Church or of any of their Worship but you must own the Church it self and own all the substance of the Worship which is good and which God owneth God doth not reject the matter for the manner nor the whole for a faulty part where the heart is sincere that offereth it nor no more must you And if they force you not to any actual sin as by false speaking subscribing or the like you must sometimes also locally joyn with such Churches when occasion requireth it As when you have no better to go to or when it is necessary to shew your mental communion or to avoid schism scandal or offence As you must not approve of your own failings in Gods Worship as in the manner of praying preaching c. and yet must not give over worshipping God though you are alwaies sure to fail even so must you do by your communion with others And here I would earnestly intreat all those that are inclinable to sinful separation to think but of these few things 1. What is more contrary to Christianity than Pride and what is a plainer sign of Pride than to separate from whole Churches and perhaps from most part of the Christian world for such faults as are no greater than others of our own and to say They are too bad for such as you to communicate with 2. Whether it be not much contrary to that clemency of Jesus Christ by which he pardoneth the failings of Believers and which we have need of our selves as well as others And whether it be not an horrid injury to our Lord to ascribe his inheritance to the Devil and to cast those out of his Church whom he himself receiveth and to deny so many of his servants to be his 3. How great a loss is it to lose your part in all those prayers of the Churches how weak soever which you disown And how can you justly expect the benefit of such prayers I would not take all their riches for my part of the benefit of those prayers of the Churches of Church which some reject because they are extemporate and others because they are forms or book-prayers or imposed nor would I take all their wealth and honour for my part in all the prayers of the Vniversal Church which
very brief I. For the first Case before sickness cometh Direct 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come that your Faith may not fail Direct 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life as wise Believers are obliged to do That is as men that are alwaies sure to die as men that are never sure to live a moment longer as men that are sure that life will be short and death is not far off and as foreseeing what it is to die of what eternal consequence and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe and to your comfortable change Direct 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God to whom you go and with whom you hope to live for ever Direct 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ who is the way the truth and life who must be your hope in life and death Ephes 3.17 18 19. Direct 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ and all his Promises by keeping grace or the heavenly nature in life activity and increase 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 John 15 1 c. 1 John 3. Direct 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven and how highly it is advanced and how near his relation is and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies so hath Christ as to his body the Church John 17.24 Ephes 5.25 27 c. Direct 7. Look to the Heavenly Host and those who have lived before you or with you in the flesh to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you as in the former chapter Direct 8. Improve all Afflictions yea the plague of sin it self to make you weary of this world and willing to be gone to Christ Rom. 7. Direct 9. Be much with God in Prayer Meditation and other heart-raising duties that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin nor in any slothful neglect of duty lest guilt breed terrour and make you fly from God your Judge But especially study to redeem your time and to do all the good you can iâ— the world and to live as totally devoted to God as conscious that you live to no carnal interest but desire to serve him with all you have and your consciences testimony of this will abundantly take off the terrours of death whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit A fruitful life is a great preparative for death 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 1.12 c. Direct 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory than upon any pictures or hopes below then you will be able to die in and for those comforts Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Thes 4.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Direct 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven John 17.3 1 Cor. 13. c. and the foretastes are excellent preparations Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ so much you do for the foretastes and best preparations for Heaven 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with approbation and love II. In the time of sickness and near to death Direct 1. Let your first work when God seemeth to call you away be to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of Though this must be done through all your lives yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal For it is only to Repenting Believers that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin And the impenitent have no right to pardon Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten and for sins which you are willing to know and remember but cannot a general Repentance will be accepted as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of And Repentance is a remembring duty and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins which are known to be sins indeed If your Repentance be then to begin alas it is high time to begin it And though if it be sound it will be saving that is If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life if you should recover yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion and contain a Love to God and Godliness or whether it be only the fruit of fear and would come to nothing if you were restored to health But he that hath truly repented heretofore and lived in uprightness towards God and man and hath nothing to do but to discern his sincerity and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation Direct 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world Which at such a time one would think should be very easie to do When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures and have had all except a grave to rot in that ever this world willd o for you may you not easily then see whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after Matth. 6.33 Isa 55.1 2 3. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. Direct 3. Remember what Flesh is and what it hath been to you that you may not be too loth to lay it down Of the dust it was made and to the dust it must return Corruption is your Father and the Worm is your Mother and your Sister Job 17.14 Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters so doth the grave those which have sinned The womb shall forget him the Worm shall feed sweetly on him Job 24.20 Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but this mortal must put on immortality by being made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about so much care and labour to provide it food to repair that which daily vanisheth away and so many weary painful hours and so many fearful
wind will blow and the rain will fall and the earth will bear fruits whether we know it or not so our knowledge of it is not at all necessary to any Divine Efficiency as such The Spirit by which we are regenerate is like the wind that bloweth whose sound we hear but know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth no nor what it is John 3.6 7 8 9. But all those things which are necessary to work objectively and morally on the soul do work in esse cognito and the knowledge of them is as necessary as the operation is It was of absolute necessity to the salvation of all before Christs coming and among the Gentiles as well as the Jews that the Spirit should sanctifie them to God by possessing them with a predominant Love of him in his Goodness and that this Spirit proceed from the Son or Wisdom of God But it was not so necessary to them as it is now to us to have a distinct knowledge of the personality and operations of the Spirit and of the Son And though now it is certain that Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but by the Son Joh. 14.6 Yet that knowledge of him which is necessary to them that hear the Gospel is not all necessary to them that never hear it though the same efficiency on his part be necessary And so it is about the knowledge of the Holy Ghost without which Christ cannot be sufficiently now known and rightly believed in Direct 4. The presence or operation of the Spirit of God is casually the spiritual Life of man in his holiness As there is no natural Being but by influence from his Being so no Life but by communication from his Life and no Light but from his Light and no Love or Goodness but from his Spirit of Love It is therefore a vain conceit of them that think man in innocency had not the Spirit of God They that say his natural rectitude was instead of the Spirit do but say and unsay for his natural rectitude was the effect of the influx or communication of Gods Spirit And he could have no moral rectitude without it as there can be no effect without the chief cause The nature of Love and Holiness cannot subsist but in dependance on the Love and Holiness of God And those Papists who talk of mans state first in pure naturals and an after donation of the Spirit must mean by pure naturals man in his meer essentials not really but notionally by abstraction distinguished from the same man at the same instant as a Saint or else they speak unsoundly For God made man in moral dispositive goodness at the first and the same Love or Spirit which did first make him so was necessary after to continue him so It was never his nature to be a prime good or to be good independently without the influence of the prime good Isa 44.3 Ezek. 36.27 Job 26.13 Psal 51.10 12. 143.10 Prov. 20.27 Mal. 2.15 John 3.5 6. 6.63 7.39 Rom. 8.1 5 6 9 13 16. 1 Cor. 6.11 2.11 12. 6.17 12.11 13. 15.45 2 Cor. 3.3 17. Ephes 2.18 22. 3.16 5.9 Col. 1.8 Jude 19. Direct 5. The Spirit of God and the Holiness of the soul may be lost without the destruction of our essence or species of humane nature and may be restored without making us specifically other things That influence of the Spirit which giveth us the faculty of a Rational Appetite or Will inclined to good as good cannot cease but our humanity or Being would cease But that influence of the Spirit which causeth our adherence to God by Love may cease without the cessation of our Beings as our health may be lost while our life continueth Psal 51.10 1 Thes 5.19 Direct 6. The greatest mercy in this world is the gift of the Spirit and the greatest misery is to be deprived of the Spirit and both these are done to man by God as a Governour by way of reward and punishment oft-times Therefore the greatest reward to be observed in this world is the increase of the Spirit upon us and the greatest punishment in this world is the denying or with-holding of the Spirit It is therefore a great part of a Christians wisdom and work to observe the accesses and assistances of the Spirit and its withdrawings and to take more notice to God in his thankfulness of the gift of the Spirit than of all other benefits in this world And to lament more the retiring or withholding of Gods Spirit than all the calamities in the world And to fear this more as a punishment of his sin Lest God should say as Psal 81.11 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice Israel would none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels And we must obey God through the motive of this promise and reward Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will powre out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words to you Joh. 7.39 He spake this of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive Luke 11.13 God will give his holy Spirit to them that ask it And we have great cause when we have sinned to pray with David Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit in me Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and stablish me with thy free Spirit Psal 51.10 11 12. And as the sin to be feared is the grieving of the holy Spirit Ephes 4.30 so the judgement to be feared is accordingly the withdrawing of it Isaiah 63.10 11. But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them Then he remembred the daies of old Moses and his people saying Where is he that brought them up Where is he that put his holy Spirit within them The great thing to be dreaded is lest those that were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost should fall away and be no more renewed by repentance Heb. 6.4 6. Direct 7. Therefore executive pardon or justification cannot possibly be any perfecter than sanctification is Because no sin is further forgiven or the person justified executively than the punishment is taken off and the privation of the Spirit being the great punishment the giving of it is the great executive remission in this life But of this more in the Chapter of Justification following Direct 8. The three great operations in mâ—n which each of the three persons in the Trinity eminently perform are Natura Medicina salus the first by the Creator the second by the Redeemer the third by the Sanctifier Commonly it is called Nature Grace and Glory But either the terms Grace and Glory must