Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	bear_v	good_a	21	3	3.4410	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60254	The herbal of divinity, or The dead arising from the dust to confute the hereticks of these times that say, there is no resurrection : in several sermons / by John Simpson ...	Simpson, John.	1659 (1659)	Wing S3816; ESTC R38922	212,064	462

faith which is not accompanied with sanctification and good works As soon may a dead horse carrie a man as a dead faith save him Object This is a slander wee doe not deny sanctification Answ If yee acknowledge sanctification and a sanctified change yee contradict your selves For how can that make a sanctified change in us which is nothing else but sin or sinfull I shall be glad if you will stand to an inward change by love and sanctification But some there are who have affirmed that the distinction between a regenerated an and unregenerated man is but a legall distinction Arg. 22. The holy Spirit which is promised to us and dwelleth in us doth plainly demonstrate this point For as the Spirit is holy formally in it selfe in its owne nature essence and being so it is effectively holy because it makes that man holy who was formerly sinfull If thou be nothing but darknesse if God convert thee thou wilt have a glorious light 〈…〉 understanding if thou have nothing 〈…〉 ●●linesse in thy will if the Spirit of God live in thee it will be a Spirit of holinesse a Spirit that will shew thee what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit a spirit checking thee if thou step aside into the way of the flesh and a spirit leading thee into the paths of holiness As the Psalmist saith Thy Spirit is good lead me into the land of holinesse and uprightnesse Therefore those that doe not find that Spirit leading them into the paths and wayes of holinesse those men have received a counterfeit spirit to delude them and not the true Spirit of the Lord Jesus Object The spirit is good but our actions are evill by the adherence of sinne in us That holy things may be defiled is plaine by Exod. 28.36.38 Aaron having his plate upon his forehead was to beare the iniquity of the holy things Answ 1. Though sin and holinesse be in the same man yet I deny that sinne by any adhering to holinesse in us doth change holinesse into the nature of it But what is of the Spirit in us doth retaine its spirituall nature and what is of the flesh doth retaine its fleshly nature 2. The Scripture produced doth prove that in doing of holy duties we sin and that Jesus Christ doth beare those sins which wee have granted unto you before But that the fruits of the Spirit in us are those sinnes cannot be proved from this place of Scripture nor from any other Scripture which I know this still doth remaine to be proved Arg. 23. There may bee another argument drawne from that place of the Apostle when hee saith The Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 The Spirit cannot beare witnesse to our old darke prophane spirits for the naturall man receives not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishnesse to him therefore it must be to our spirit enlightned renewed and filled with the Spirit of God And therefore there is somthing in a Saint besides that which is sinne and sinfull Object This is true but we are not renewed perfectly which is the thing to be proved Answ Perfection in Scripture is opposed to that which is more perfect And in this sence wee doe not affirme that a man is so perfectly renewed as he shall be 1 Cor. 13. 2. Perfection is opposed to that which is sinfull Luke 1. And in this sence we say that he is perfectly renewed that is he is holily not sinfully renewed Arg. 24. I doe ground my next argument upon the words of the Apostle Rom. 14. last Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne And therefore that which is done in faith is not sin If we deny this we shall take away the difference between doing good works in faith and doing good works without faith if both of them be alike sinfull or sinne And therefore I conclude that the work of the Spirit which is done in faith is not sin Without faith it is impossible to please God and therefore by faith it is possible to please him by doing good works Arg. 25. Another argument may be drawn from that place 2 Cor. 13. where the Apostle makes the comparison betweene faith hope and love and prefers love before faith hope for this reason because love is more permanent and of longer continuance than faith and hope when a man comes to heaven hee ceaseth to live the life of faith for then he shall live the life of sight and vision he ceaseth to hope for he enjoyeth that which he hoped for but love shall continue Therefore he saith that love that is the fruit of faith is greater than faith in respect of its continuance That which remaines and endures after this life in the Saints in glory is not sin but love shall remaine and endure after this life therefore it is not sin Object But some say if you looke on this place and take notice of this character and description of love you will scarce find any man in the world that hath such a love and by your argument no true faith For hee saith that love suffereth long it envieth not it vaunteth not it selfe it is not puffed up behaveth not it selfe unseemely seeketh not her owne is not easily provoked thinketh no evill rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Love never faileth Answ Every man that is borne of God hath such a love as farre as he is born of God I say not that he hath it in the flesh in the old man but in the new man Wee have a new man as we have an old man and as wee are sometimes acted by the new man so sometimes by the old man As wee are acted by the olde man we doe nothing but that which is contrary to this love but as far as we are acted in the Spirit by the new man by the power of God and the grace of Christ so far we have such a love as is here set downe Therefore if any man hath not such a love and hath beene perswaded that hee hath true faith I dare preach it in the name of Christ that that man never had true faith for true faith works by such love as the Apostle describes here And he positively saith that if a man have other gifts and such a faith by which hee can remove mountaines and hath not this love that he is nothing I would not trouble weak Christians by this I speak not of them in the flesh but in the spirit as farre as thou art spirituall and livest and walkest in the Spirit thou hast such a love And if upon examination thou shalt finde that thou hast not such a love I say thou art a stranger to God For hee that knoweth God walks in love He that saith be knoweth God and walkes not in love he knoweth not God God is love and he that

avoyded are discovered Lex est divinum speculū in quo facienda fugienda refulgent Aug. but it will sentence us to death for the least spot or wrinkle which it doth discover so that it is impossible that a man should see himselfe justified in the glasse of the Law But thou wilt say he may look upon his love sinceritie and works in the glasse of the Gospel And to this I answer that if he look upon them in the glasse of the Gospel which is Jesus Christ then he must put himselfe under the Gospel and look upon himselfe as a man in Christ that so he may see his works good by Jesus Christ which he will never be able to see without the eye of faith which seeth things invisible Heb. 11. and by which wee look upon Christ 1 Joh. 2.1 dwell in Christ Ephes 3.17 Live in Christ Gal. 2.19 And doe living works acceptable to God by the life of Christ in us Heb. 11.4 By faith with open face wee behold as in a glasse the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 and see that our good works are the effects of Christs love discovered in himselfe and in his Gospel to our soules And therefore when John doth informe us that we shall know that wee know him if we keep his Commandement He doth propose beleeving as the first Commandement of God without which we cannot assure our selves that we are obedient to his other commands 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his commandement that we beleeve in him whom he hath sent Good works after a man hath faith are not the cause of justification but the consequent they follow a mans justification they doe not precede the act of justification they neither precede the act of Gods grace by which he justifieth a sinner neither doe they precede justification in the Court of Conscience But being justified by faith we have peace Rom. 5.1 in our Consciences This was the doctrine which was frequently preached by those heavenly Carpenters which did first strike at the hornes of the beast Vt dilectio oriatur necesse est praecedere fidem hoe est fiducia misericordiae It is necessary saith Melancthon that faith which is a confidence of Gods mercy doe precede love And in another place Non nititur fides nostra dilectione sed tantum misericordia promissa ut constat nec existere dilectio potest nisi sit apprehensa remissio Faith is not grounded upon our love but the promised mercy of God so that it is manifest that there cannot be true love unlesse remission of sinnes be first apprehended Another reason is from the imperfection of workes wrought by a man after he is justified If any man that is justified look on his works and doe not behold them in the glasse of the Gospel he shall reade his own condemnation for his works There is an imperfection in our works seeing wee doe not love God so perfectly as we should with all our heart all our minde and all our spirit but while the regenerate part through the power of the Spirit runs after God and loves God the fleshly part runneth after sinne and hates God Therefore seeing there is such imperfection in the works that we performe that the best of us are unprofitable servants and that the most holy amongst us doe that for which he may be damned every day if God should not deale with us in the Gospel but in the Law it will follow that a man cannot be justified by the works that he doth after he hath faith and is converted doth works which are wrought by the Spirit of grace It may here be objected that the good works of Saints are perfect For an answer to this I referre the Reader to what shall be delivered from those words That he which is borne of God sinneth not I come now to the next Consideration which is this That wee are not justified by the practise of any Gospel-Ordinances which are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ There are some who it may be are convinced that they are not justified by works yet I know not what new kinde of Popery they have found out for they thinke to please God by submitting to Ordinances and finding out the true Discipline and government of Christs Church therefore you shall finde a kinde of spirit of bondage in them if they be not satisfied concerning the true discipline government Ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore I shall endeavour to demonstrate this and shew clearly that as we are not justified by works before or after conversion so we are not justified and saved by the submitting to any Ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ Salvation is not in these there is nothing to be found in these availeable to justification Formes of government and Ordinances doe not make men Christians but a lively faith in the Lord Jesus When Caius Marius Victorinus told Simplicianus that he was turned from Heathenisme to Christianisme and he replyed that he would not beleeve him unlesse he saw him in the Congregation of Christians He wittily thus reprehended the rashnesse of his speech Ergone parietes faciunt Chrisiianos Doe your walls then make Christians So to those that say men are of the world until they are under this or that forme of government and ordinance I may thus speak do these things make Christians Presbytery all government is nothing Independency is nothing dipping is nothing but faith which worketh by love The Apostle clearly proves this poynt Gal. 5.3 I testifie againe to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you he shall profit you nothing Wee know that Paul circumcised Timothy after he was a preacher of the Gospel and submitted himselfe to many of the rites Ceremonies of the Jewes shaved his head put himselfe under a Jewish vow yet here he saith if a man be circumcised he is a debtor to the whole Law His meaning is this that if a man submit to circumcision as thinking it will any whit availe him to his justification and salvation that man shall not be saved by Jesus Christ but he is a debtor to the whole Law he is not under grace but under the curse of the Law Act. 15.1 When some preached that there was a necessitie for men to be circumcised and keepe the Law of Moses that they might be justified see how the doctrine was disrellished by the Apostles Peter calleth it a tempting of God and laying a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which they nor their fathers were able to beare Paul though as a spiritual man he could become all things to all men to the Jew as a Jew to the Gentile as a Gentile 1 Cor. 9.20 21 22. That by all means he might save some yet how doth he thunder and lighten in the face of those that laid too much upon

our selves by our faith love and working of righteousnesse and saith vers 19. That hereby we assure our selves before God therefore this distinction is of no validity in this place though some thinke that it will answer all our arguments Argu. 3. The olde man and the new man are distinguished by their contrary natures and operations But if the new man were sinfull and his operations sinfull The new man would be confounded with the old man who is sinfull in himselfe and his operations but this is contrary to Scripture The old man is corrupt according to deceitfull lusts but the new man after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.22.24 And speaking of these in the Concrete as in us Eph. 5.8 9. he saith to them Ye were sometimes darknesse but now are ye light in the Lord walke as children of the light For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth Argu. 4. Those works which are commended by Jesus Christ for good works are good works but the workes of the Saints are commended for good works therefore they are good Revel 2.2 Our Saviour saith that he knoweth the workes of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and his labour and patience that is he approveth or commendeth his workes and so Rev. 3.8 It would be a disparagement to the judgment of Christ to commend sin or sinfull works for good workes And therefore I conclude that they were good works And by consequence that the works which are wrought by a man borne of God are good works Obj. They were washed from their pollution in the blood of the Lamb. Answ When we speak of the new man and his works we look not upon him or his works but in Jesus Christ And thus he is washed from all the sins of the flesh and the works of God in us are well pleasing unto God the worker through Jesus Christ through whom hee did work them in us Arg. 5. Christ doth not present that which is sinne or sinfull to the Father to be accepted but he presenteth our workes 1 Pet. 2.5 Wee offer up spirituall sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ If Christ did present any work that were sinfull he might present our sinful works It is evident therefore that there is something which is good which is presented as well as something in us which is sinfull which is forgiven Malum ex quolibet defectu The lesse defect doth make a thing evil and if there be such a defect in the work of the man who is born of God to make it sin and evill what reason can any man give from Scripture why every sinne should not be presented and accepted as well as those sins which they call good works Arg. 6. The Scripture calleth the works of the man born of God neither sinfull or sinne but works of righteousnesse Faith is called righteousnesse Rom. 4. and Rom. 5. the last Paul calleth the sincerity which was in him speaking of it in the Concrete godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Paul prayeth that grace may be with all them who love the Lord Jesus in corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doth he pray for such whom hee thought were no where to be found or for all true Saints whom he did know did love the Lord Jesus in incorruption Reply If they be considered as they ought to be done so they are not evill but as they be done by us so the holy Ghost is not affraid to call them menstruous rags even our very righteousnesse not our old man only Isa 64.6 Answ The Prophet doth not speak here of the righteousness of a man underthe Covenant of grace considered under that Covenant For in the precedent verse he doth acknowledge that the righteousnesse of such a man is not as a menstruous ragge Thou meetest him that rejoyeth and worketh righteousnesse But he speaketh of men as looked upon under the olde Covenant and of their works as done under and to be judged by that Covenant which appeareth by the following words Our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee For thou hast hid thy face from us and we are consumed because of our iniquities We must not judge of this truth by expressions which holy men have made use of in confessing the sins of the whole nation of the Jews in the language of the Jewish nationall Covenant but by those passages of Scripture in which God doth speake of a man as under the Covenant of grace with his works wrought by the spirit of grace 7 Arg. God doth remember the workes of his Saints Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of love saith the Apostle He will remember the good works of men borne of God at the great day of judgement The good workes of some are manifest before-hand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid 1 Tim. 5.15 They cannot for ever be hid because God will make mention of them at that day But hee hath engaged himselfe by oath to remember our sins and sinfull actions Hebr. 8. And therefore the works of the spirituall man are not sin or sinfull Arg. 8. There is no law against the workes of a spirituall man or the fruits of the spirit of grace and therefore they are not sin because where there is no law there is no transgression But there is no law against these This is plain by that passage of the Apostle Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance against such there is no law Object They are here considered as they are precisely the fruits of the spirit and as they ought to be done by us and so they are no sins but consider them as acted by us even with the spirits assistance and so they are defective and sinfull Answ The Apostle doth not speake of the fruits of the spirit as Tully of his Oratour Plato of his Common-wealth Moor of his Utopia as of things no where to be found But he speaks of the spirit as in us and the fruits of it as in us And doth plainly tell us that if we are led by the spirit we are not under the law and that there is no law against the fruits of the spirit But I shall have occasion hereafter to speake more fully of some places where the Apostles and servants of God doe speak plainly of these works as done in us that so I may break the neck of this distinction which is made as a Catholicon or salve for every sore Arg. 9. God doth give a testimony concerning his Saints that they are righteous and holy which is spoken in reference to their spirituall nature and actings and therefore they are righteous and holy The judgment of God is according to truth hee being the God of truth Doth not God give this

Thess 4.17 The Apostle speaks of the same subject and shewes the manner of the resurrection and how Christ shall come from Heaven The Lord himselfe shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-angel and the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first verse 16. Here you see he holdeth forth this that Christ who is that mediator between God and man and true man now in Heaven this Jesus Christ shall descend from Heaven and that the Saints shall rise from the Earth to meet him in the aire So the Angels told the Apostles Act. 1.11 when they looked up to Christ when he ascended this same Jesus shal so come from Heaven as you now see him ascend into Heaven the same Christ shall descend from Heaven and the Apostles shall see him in the same manner with the very same eyes with which they saw him ascend into Heaven with the same eyes they shall see him descend from Heaven the Scripture is so full that I need not take more paines to give you more places for the opening of it unlesse you will please to take one place more out of the Old Testament that you may know that they had a cleare knowledge of this in the dayes of the Law as well as wee have now in the dayes of the Gospel Dan. 12.12 And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the Children of thy people that is the Lord Jesus Christ who always stands for his people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Nation even to the same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the booke And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt And they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnes as the Stars for ever and ever Here you see the same thing held forth Though I will not trouble you with many reasons to confirme this doctrine of the resurrection for the truth is it is a Doctrine above Reason I call here not so much for reason as for Faith to believe what is above Reason and what seemes contrary to carnall reason yet give me leave to give you a reason or two drawne from the sacred truth of Gods word The first is drawne from the truth of God God is true therefore there will be a resurrection he should deceive and delude his people were there not a resurrection of bodies Doth he not often tell us of a resurrection And doth not our Saviour tell us that hee will raise those at the last day who are drawn unto him by the Father Joh. 6.44 And therefore unlesse we will make the great God which is blasphemy to think a lyer and Christ his Sonne a Preacher of the resurrection the greatest impostor in the world and all his Ministers Servants and Messengers cheaters juglers and deceivers of the people we cannot but acknowledge a resurrection for God hath spoken of it and hath revealed this to them that there shall be such a resurrection and they preach it in his name therefore the God of truth should be found a lyer if there should not be a resurrection of bodies according to his word Secondly the justice and mercy of God seeme to call for a resurrection If wee looke upon wicked and ungodly men so God in Justice must send his Son Jesus Christ to raise the dead and to judge the world or else how should the justice of God shine cleare and bright before the eyes and saces of men This is the Argument that the Apostle laies downe 2 Thess 1.5 6. where he speakes of the sufferings of the Saints and of the wickednesse of their persecutors who wrong them for making profession of the truth of the Lord Christ which is saith he a manifest token of the righteous judgement of God it is a demonstration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evident infallible signe that there will be a judgement day and a resurrection because else God should not be just it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you It is just with the God of justice to punish the vessells of wrath disobedient and wicked men who never did flee to his grace for life and salvation it is just with him to pay the persecutors of his people their wages after they have done their worke Now if there were not a judgement day if there were not a resurrection where should God give them their wages for persecuting and troubling them that make profession of his name How should God that is the Judge of the world appeare to be just Here is the first Argument that God is just to wicked and ungodly men and God could not appeare to be just if there were no judgement day no resurrection therefore there shall be a resurrection Now the same things fall alike to the just and unjust we see wicked and ungodly men thrive and prosper in the world they live in pleasure there are no bands in their death as the Psalmist speakes they spend their dayes in mirth and die upon their beds without sorrow How should God appeare to be just unlesse there be another day when God will call these men to a reckning for all the sinnes and iniquities which they did commit against him when they lived upon the Earth Secondly if we looke to the mercy of God And this is the Argument that our blessed Saviour makes use of Matth. 22.31 When the Sadduces came to him who said there was no resurrection nor spirit nor Devill as our Sadduces doe who say there is no Devill but our owne evill thoughts nor good Angels but the good motions of our owne spirits nor any resurrection of the body See what Argument he useth to prove the resurrection as touching the resurrection have yee not read that which was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living God professeth himselfe the God of dead Saints in a speciall manner therefore these must live againe and be made happy by this God that professeth himselfe to be their God while their bodies lye rotting and putrifying in the earth God in his never failing faithfulnesse ownes them in the dust keepes their ashes in safety by which Christ doth ascertaine us that there will be a resurrection of bodies at the last day So that you see if this truth be denyed it will overthrow the Scriptures which acquaints us that some are vessels of honour some of dishonour that some are vessels of grace and some are vessels of Gods furie and indignation if there be no judgement day no resurrection there cannot be vessels of

tanquam ad epulas invitata as though she had been invited to a banquet We read of some when they came to lay downe their lives they were sorrie that they had no more lives to lose for the Lord Jesus Tertullian saith that the Christians were so ready to suffer that they were as willing to be devoured by the Lions as the people were desirous of their destruction by the Lyons Eusebius tells us that when as the Proconsul exhorted Germanicus to relent admonishing him of his tender yeares praying him to pitie his owne case being now in the flower of his youth he without intermission inticed the beast to devoure him Eusebius fourth book of the Eccl. Hist What steeled the spirits of these men and carried them above carnall reason and the weak principles of nature but a strong and powerfull perswasion in their spirits that they should have a glorious and joyfull resurrection at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ This is that that the Apostle proves to us Heb. 11.35 Some were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection He informeth us that when deliverance was offered they would not accept of it What was the reason they expected a resurrection Threatnings could not terrifie them from the truth nor promises draw them to errour because they were without wavering perswaded of a resurrection This was that that made Polycarpus the Martyr so willing todie for the Lord Jesus Christ which appeareth by his speech when he was tied at the stake I thanke thee that thou hast graciously vouchsafed this day to allot me a portion among the number of Martyrs among the people of Christ unto the resurrection of the everlasting life both of body and soule c. Euseb This was that likewise that made the Saints to be so merry and chearfull upon their death-beds When Hilarion lay sick and in his flesh did feele a little feare of death he presently reproves himselfe and breaketh forth into these words Egredere egredere anima goe forth goe forth my soule hast thou served Christ so many yeares and now art thou afraid to die What difference could there be between the death of Saints and of wicked prophane unbelieving men if there were no resurrection of the dead at all and therefore as you desire to live comfortably and to die happily in the bosome of Christ rejoycing upon your death-beds live constantly in the assurance of the truth of this Doctrine of the resurrection and while others that have seduced ignorant and poore people into Familisme with a brazen face all their dayes shall tremble upon their death-beds being afraid of death and dreading a judgement day which they have denyed like the Emperour Hadrian Animula vagula blandula Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula rigida nudula Poore wandring pale quivering soule whither shalt thou goe Platina in the lives of the Popes You shall call for death and not looke on death as a way to the infernall prison but as a passage to immortality in Heaven ye shall see the Lyon death slaine and find nothing but honey in the carkasse you shall rejoyce in confidence that your bodies shall be raised while they shall tremble for feare of a resurrection For I would have you to take notice that God seldome suffers men that are growne to this height of unbeliefe and ungodlinesse to deny the resurrection and Christs coming in the flesh to die without galled and troubled consciences As it is observed by some of many that were professed Atheists who when they came to their death beds though they in their health and strength swimming in a world of pleasure and contentments asserted that there was no god yet when they came to lie on their death-beds none seemed to be more afraid of a God and to tremble so much at his power as these men so none are more afraid of death Hell and a resurrection then some of these that have denyed that there is any Hell or a resurrection I remember the speech of Zeno the Philosopher if I would perswade any man frō Atheisme said he I would lead him to the death-bed of an Atheist when he is gasping out his last breath So if I had not sufficiently perswaded you that there shall be a resurrectiō of the body by what I have brought out of the word of truth if I knew where any of these did lie sick I would carry you to their death-beds and you might see some of them troubled and galled in their conscience that have blasphemously professed that there is no Christ come in the flesh and that there shal be no resurrection of the body hereafter I shall not need at the present to adde many more words for I hope better things of you and such things which accompanie salvation I hope there are few such spirits as these in this Congregation yet I know the Devill is so subtle that where he thinks people are most spirituall and know God most and are acquainted with Christ he sends his imps his Sadduces to trouble and assault them he doth not set so much upon any people to draw them away as upon those that make profession of the Gospel of Christ The Devill knowes such whom he hath safe within his owne command and many of these are not assaulted by these imps but when men seeme to be heirs and boast of the Lord Jesus and professe themselves to be in the spirit of glory and adoption and to have their names written in Heaven and that none are able to separate them from the love of God the Devill sends his evill Angells to such men as these Therefore knowing that you should meet with such spirits I thought good to speake somewhat before that being forewarned you might be fore-armed praemoniti praemuniti that you may goe on in the power of God and the strength of his might though the Devill may buffet you for a time by these wicked instruments and cast his fiery darts into your hearts and spirits to perswade you that there is no resurrection and may certainly know that if there be any truth in the history of the Gospel this is a truth concerning the resurrection And it is the desire of my soule that ye may live continually and constantly in the confidence and assurance of the resurrection of your bodies which being joyned with a lively Faith in Christs death and resurrection will sweeten your lives and crowne your deaths with happinesse Death which came in upon men as a legall curse shall be turned into a blessing unto you it shall not be your feare but desire with Paul ye shall desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ But this Doctrine being layd aside as of no worth or value Christ will appeare unto you but a shadow fancy and forged Chymera of mans braine As the wicked Pope was perswaded who did thus glory in his riches What great riches have we gotten by this fable of Christ

Well and Fountaine from which other Writers doe fetch the truthes which we find in their writings He that addicts himselfe more to the reading of mens writings then the Scriptures is like one that leaving the Fountaine where the waters are pure had rather drink in the channell where they are impure and muddy Truly if you grow in grace you will grow in liking and approving the holy Scripture though it be written in a plaine style and though there be not that humane Eloquence and Rhetorick in it which you shall find in the preaching of some men who preach themselves rather then the Lord Jesus and the simplicity of the Gospel That man is a good proficient in the Schoole of Christ that every day growes more and more in love with the blessed and holy Scripture I remember what an Orator speaking in the commendation of Cicero saith he is a good proficient in Oratorie that delights to read the Orations of Cicero so he is a good proficient in Christianity that in believing delights in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Therefore you shall find that men that fall off to these opinions presently they slight the Scripture and either wholly deny the word of God or else they overthrow the truth of it by allegorizing those things that have a plain simple historicall meaning in them That is the first Rule Search the Scriptures and there you shall see no such sancies and fond notions as these men have The second direction is this take heed of those that preach not the Gospel in a plaine familiar way you may know some Familists by their bombastick language they speake not in the language of Canaan in their Sermons but they have an affected language of their owne that few understand but those that have applyed themselves much to the studie of their writings and are well acquainted with their opinions And by their chymicall darke expressions and fond notions they ●●lude poore soules that thinke they are spirituall men and that great things are revealed to them which are not discovered to other Saints when there is nothing but horrid Antichristianisme or Atheisme lies at the bottome of their hearts which shall be evident when according to the truth of God 2 Tim. ● 9 Their folly shall be manifest unt all men Paul saith when he came to preach at Corinth 1 Cor. 2.4 That it was not in the excellency of speech nor in the enticing words of mans wisdome but in plainnesse of speech in demonstration of the Spirit and power And it is the command of God that if any man speake he should speake as the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or As doth relate to the manner of speaking as well as to the matter which is to be delivered Men are to speake as the Oracles of God speaking nothing but truth and as the Oracles of God for plainnesse of speech St. Paul speaking of true Gospel-Preachers saith we use great plainnesse of speech The Scripture is in a plaine familiar style the Sermons of our Saviour are plaine familiar Sermons adorned with plaine similies And the Apostles were not ashamed to imitate their Master so should our discourses be with all plainnes of speech demonstration of the spirit power that the glory may be given not to the Eloquence of our tongues but to the power of Christ in converting of soules Therefore take heed of those that lead you from the plainnesse of preaching hiding their cursed errours in a thicket and cloud of darke workes and unscripture-like expressions not holding fast the forme of sound words according to Gods precept 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Cor. 3.12 Looke on the Scripture and see how Paul speakes of Justification of remission of sinnes of the resurrection and so let us preach the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of Christ But those that have language not like the language of Scripture suspect them they make a faire shew there is great glory and outward pompe in their words but latet anguis there is a snake that lies under these fine greene herbes take heed of such men and looke mmore for the inward power and Spirit of God in the speaking of men then for fine words phrases notions and similies that men may make use of to winne you to the approbation of their errours The third direction which I shall present unto you is this take heed of spirituall pride for one reason why so many fall off from the truth to these horrid opinions is from a principle of spirituall pride some of these thought that they had a great deale of knowledge wisdome and understanding and that they understood as much of the Doctrine of Christ and mysteries of the Gospel as was necessary that they had heard as much of the Doctrine of Justification as any could preach of it and of the resurrection as any could speake they knew as they supposed what this man spake and what the other preached what this mans judgement was what Authors did write and they knew perfectly as they imagined whatsoever lies in the Scripture to be embraced for truth And by their pride did surfeit of their knowledge supposing that they knew all points of the Gospel when in deed and in truth they knew nothing of the Gospel savingly spiritually or practically so that as the people of Israel came to loath Manna and lusted after other food so these being puffed up with spirituall pride begin to loath the Heavenly Manna of the Gospel and disesteeme it for the plainnesse and simplicity that is in it And nothing now will please them but new fancies therefore they must have Sermons dressed in another fashion new cooked new notions and new conceits and anything that is new pleaseth them better then the old and ancient truths of the Lord Jesus But when God teacheth a man to understand the Gospel aright the more he knowes the Gospel the more he sees his ignorance of the Gospel that man sees he never learned the Doctrine of Justification fully that man sees that he hath not sufficiently learned the Doctrine of Sanctification this man lookes not on his knowledge meerely as it is speculative but as it is practicall when he sees any unbeliefe in his heart he saith within himselfe I have not sufficiently learned the Doctrine of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when he sees any hatred in his spirit to that which is good and any inclination to that which is evill he wisely concludeth I have not sufficiently learned the Doctrine of Sanctification when he finds sadnesse in his spirit O saith he there is more in the Gospel concerning the spirit of joy and consolation then I have attained to when he reads sundry enigmaticall and difficult places of the Prophets and in the Revelation and hath nor attained to the spirituall meaning of them O saith he I am not sufficiently acquainted with the truths which lie hidden in the word though I

hee shall more freely and fully shew us the things that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what they are 1 Cor. 2. Wee have seene great things in the world Crownes Scepters riches worldly pomp and glory but what are all these things they doe not shadow forth the things that wee see here in the Spirit and shall more plainely see hereafter Our fancies and Imaginations worke beyond our eye we fancie greater things then we behold but what eye hath not seene nor eare hath heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what they are wee darkly see here and shall fully enjoy hereafter The Poets in their fancies have fancied golden Mountaines and great things the earth doth not afford such things as they have fancied and minted in their poeticall braines but the things that shall then be discovered to us goe beyond the cogitation and thought and workings of mans heart and spirit and these things shall be gloriously revealed to us by the Spirit of God and the Spirit shall shew us that all these things are ours Wee shall see God ours and Christ ours and all the glory of Heaven ours and see our selves in the Kingdome of Heaven So that there shall be the presence of all things that shall make us happy the confluence of all good things that can bring any blisse tranquillity and joy to the spirit and soule of man So that it is evident there will be great joy if wee consider that there will be every thing wanting that may make us sorrowfull and every thing present that may make us joyfull there will be the absence of all evill and the presence of all good there will be God himselfe who is the summum bonum the chiefe good and this God will unvaile himselfe and shew forth his love and shine forth in his glorie beautie and excellency on the spirits of his people and seeing themselves in this happie and blisfull condition they cannot but sing and rejoyce at the resurrection Here the Saints in believing doe rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 How glorious then and unspeakable will be the joy of the resurrection Againe you may take notice that there will be cause of great joy if you confider that all the joy which wee have here is but a shadow of that joy which the Saints shall have hereafter Nay all the joy in the world here cannot shadow forth that joy that shall be hereafter Consider for what men doe rejoyce here and you shall see that they have the same cause to rejoyce for the same things in a full manner hereafter The resurrection day is the Saints Coronation day and their wedding-day Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her selfe ready It is Gods and their harvest day Among men the time of harvest is a time of joy They shall rejoyce before thee according to the joy of harvest Isa 9.3 The resurrection is Gods harvest for the gathering in of Saints When a man sowes his seed he sowes it in expectation of a harvest So God sowes his seed he sowes the bodies of the Saints in the earth he layes them in the surrowes he doth it in expectation of a harvest And the people of God were commanded to rejoyce before him in the time of harvest which did typifie the spirituall joy that the Saints shall enjoy at the generall resurrection which shall be their harvest when their bodies shall spring and come out of the dust in their glory and excellency Againe that I may bring you back to remember what the worke of the day is and enlarge my selfe upon that at which I pointed even now we know that we use to have great joy for great deliverances When God hath suffered us even to come to the brinke of ruine and destruction and then doth pull us from it and save us there is joy with shouting We know how neere wee were to ruine wee had almost been destroyed by the enemies that rose up against us but the Lord hath delivered us and seriously considering this deliverance wee cannot but be thankfull and joyfull for the mercy And our joy for the mercy of this day may imperfectly shadow forth and represent unto you the joy which shall be in Saints at the resurrection For wee that were compassed about with so many enemies in the world that had all the Devills in hell against us and all the wicked men in the world holding forth their hands to draw us and lead us into the broad way that leads to destruction and a base malignant party that wee carrie about us within our selves joyning with the Devill the world wicked men against our selves by the power of God shall we be preserved from all these enemies and made more then Conquerours over all our enemies through Jesus Christ that loved us And so shall have cause to rejoyce in our preservation and deliverance Truely we are not able fully to apprehend our deliverance here and that is the reason that Saints rejoyce so little in the God of grace and his mercies We cannot apprehend fully what it is to be freed from sinne that hath layed the foundation of Hell Wee apprehend not what it is to be in the hands and jawes of the Prince of darknesse and then to be pulled out of his hands and jawes by Christ as David recovered his Lamb out of the mouth of the Lyon 1 Sam. 17.34 Wee doe not apprehend what it is to be by nature children of wrath and yet to be crowned with grace glory and immortality through the goodnesse of God but then we shall fully apprehend our great deliverances by the grace of God and the power of the Lamb and shall sing for joy In the 15. of the Rev. the 3. it is said of Saints that they sing the song of Moses wee sing it here in the spirit in part believing with Zacharias that wee are delivered out of the hand of our enemies but then we shall sing it fully in the fulnesse of spirituall joy It is called the song of Moses because it shall be a song for their deliverance out of the hand of all enemies As Moses when the Israelites were delivered from Egypt called the people to play upon Musick and sing prayse to God so that the Heavens answered and ecchoed to their singing and the joyfull noyse that they made to God for their deliverance So when wee shall apprehend that the Lord by his mighty power hath delivered us from the Egyptian Pharaoh the Devill from the house of bondage the Iron furnace of Egypt from the sting of sinne from the power of darknesse from all curses and condemnation from temporall spirituall and eternall death being fully apprehensive of this deliverance wee cannot but be filled with joy in singing prayses

a Doctrine of great joy so it is a Doctrine that obligeth us to great holinesse The Doctrine of Christ in every part and branch of it leads to holinesse If thou meet with any tenent or opinion that furthereth not holinesse looke on that opinion as an errour for whatsoever is the truth of the Lord it is a truth that leads us to holinesse of life and conversation So doth this Doctrine of the resurrection for if wee consider seriously that the bodie shall be raised and we shall be happie at the resurrection in enjoying of God will not this raise up the spirit of a man to thankfulnesse and where there is true thankfulnesse will not that thankfulnesse be legible in obedience Therefore seeing God intends to glorifie thee with himselfe in bodie and in spirit since thou shalt be ever happie with him shouldest thou not glorifie this God while thou art here in thy life and conversation As the Apostle saith 2 Pet. 3.13 14. We according to his promise looke for new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse What is the use of this Wherefore beloved seeing ye looke for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse A true assurance of salvation given by the Spirit of grace doth not make us negligent in the performance of good duties it doth not make us loose and licentious in our lives but that assurance that is a right assurance which is wrought in us by the Spirit of grace will as well teach us to be holy as assure our hearts that we shall be happy Lucian speaking sceffingly of the zeale of Christians and their readinesse to help one another doth give this as the reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These miserable men saith he believe that in bodie and soule they shall be immortall The scoffing Atheist did speake truth in this and found out the true cause of the zeale which was in primitive Christians There can be no holinesse without a perfwasion of happinesse for men after this life If there be no resurrection saith Paul Let us eat and drinke 1 Cor. 15. But when a man is perswaded of this He will purifie himselfe as Christ is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Againe this shewes the different condition between a Saint and a sinner Looke upon Saints and sinners eye them onely with a carnall eye in respect of the present condition and it may be you shall apprehend a sinner in a better condition then a Saint God oft-times gives temporall blessings to them which he denies to his owne people they are the worlds happie creatures But looke on Saints in this condition and then you shall see a vast difference between the condition of a believer and of a man that is an enemy to Christ the one shall awake and sing He shall awake at the resurrection to be filled with joy to be crowned as a King with immortall glorie The other shall awake and houle As Agag when he thought and was perswaded that the bitternesse of death was past was hewen in pieces so Epicures and prophane men that sing away sorrow feare of Hell and damnation spending their dayes in mirth in a moment they goe downe to the grave Job 21.13 and are raised from thence to suffer torments to eternitie But the Saints sleeping for a while in the grave are raised to felicitie This is elegantly set forth in the book of Wisdome 5. Chap. We fooles thought their lives madnesse and their end without honour and behold they are become the children of God speaking of the Saints vers 6. And in the 8. v. speaking of themselves they doe thus complaine What hath our pride profited us what hath our pomp and riches brought unto us The time will come that wicked men shall wish that they had never been else that some mountaine would be so propitious as to fall on them that they might never come into the presence of God and his Sonne Jesus Christ that shall fit upon the Throne O what a dolefull noyse will it make in the eares of wicked and ungodly men when they shall be called forth to the resurrection of Damnation while the Saints shall be bid to awake to the resurrection of life Who would bee envious at wicked men that grow rich and prosper and flourish in the world that get great estates and leave their estates and houses to their heires if they did but consider that at the resurrection they shall be enforced to take hell as part of their purchase and shall be drawne and dragged as slaves to eternall torments I remember what the Heathen said It is a miserable thing for a man to have been happie Fuisse faelicem miserrimum est Boeth It grieves a man when he comes to povertie to remember that he was once rich when a man is in a disgracefull condition to thinke with himselfe I was honourable this is double misery Remember saith Abraham to the rich man that thou in thy life time didst enjoy riches and poore Lazarus lying at thy gate was denied the crummes falling from thy Table This was the aggravation of the rich mans misery to be put in minde that he had been happy and rich upon the earth Consider this and you shall plainly see that rich and great men without Christ though they live happily to the eye of the world yet they are in a miserable condition and the meanest Saint is in a farre better condition then they The wicked rich men shall awake to howling and screeching to misery and torment eternall the poore Saint to joy rejoycing and happinesse for evermore Wicked men are like the Persians slave who for a day was feasted and had all things provided to delight him that they used to provide for the Emperour and at night he was put to death So wicked men God feasts them as slaves here they have furnished tables and servants children and musicke but poore wretches night comes upon them and death takes off their heads and they are miserable to eternitie Therefore James saith They are nourished as against the day of slaughter God doth but fat them as men use to fat beasts for sacrifice or slaughter so God suffers them to swim in pleasures to live in vanities to get riches to grow fat in the earth but it is to destroy them they are fatted for the day of damnation In this glasse or mirrour see the difference between Saints and sinners Then in the next place seeing it is thus that the people of God shall be made partakers of such happinesse at the resurrection let me exhort you to waite in expectation and desire of it A Ward that knows that when he shall live beyond the dayes of his wardship he shall have his Lands and possessions in his own hands he desires that the time may be expired that he may have all in his own hands that now is in the hands of his Guardian who it may be keepes him

to a short allowance though he be an heire to great possessions Wee are Wards as yee heard even now and wee are under a guardian though wee are rich in reversion happinesse and heaven and all things being ours yet God keepes us low here Let us desire that the time of our wardship may be expired that wee may come to that happinesse which he hath promised that wee may awake and sing and be happie in a more full enjoyment of God and this is the desire of those that are truly faithfull When Christ saith He will come and appeare What doe the Saints answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.2 If a naturall carnall man should speake forth that which lies at the bottome of his heart when Christ saith He will come he would say O Lord never come I am not conformed to thine Image I am not made a new creature by hearing of thy Gospel O let me never see the face of Christ But the man that knows the love of God and truly understands he everlasting Gospel when he heares Christ say I come presently there is this eccho by which he answereth the Lord Christ in his owne Spirit Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly When the Judges are in their circuits malefactors tremble and quake but an innocent man that hath a good cause expects and de●●res to have it heard and is glad that they are ●ome so wicked and ungodly men who are theeves robbers murtherers and malefactors guiltie of all sinnes and lie in im●risoned shackled in their own consciences when they heare that the Lord Jesus shall ride is circuit and appeare as a Judge unlesse they have seared consciences they cannot but tremble and quake But the other when Christ shall be as a Judge to the wicked he shall be as a Saviour to them therefore they cannot but desire the coming and appearing of the Lord. Wherefore let us desire the appearing of the Lord Jesus let us not live as the men of the world that are afraid and tremble quake when they heare of a Judgement day Christ coming to judge every man according to his workes but let us continue in the assurance of Gods grace beleeving that our sinnes are pardoned Let not the coming of Christ be our feare but our desire let us desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wait as one doth upon one that he would speake with for the Sonne who shall deliver us from the wrath to come and shall put a Crowne of glory on our heads which he hath promised to all those that love him Againe that I may draw to a conclusion let this sweeten all miseries troubles and afflictions that we shall meet with here below If wee meet with persecution with imprisonment with hatred in the world with reproaches from men let this be sufficient to sweeten all Consider the day is coming it is at hand Christ is at the dore Jam. 5.10 and you shall awake and sing while these that now rejoyce shall howle and lament Beloved Thinke it not strange concerning the fiery triall which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you But rejoyce in as much as yee are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed yee may be glad also with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. God leads his people to happinesse by straits Heaven is a Palace of glory a spacious place but the way to it is narrow the gate is straite by which wee must enter in unto it Let the joyes provided for us at the end of our journey sweeten unto us the troubles and difficulties of the way God intended to make Job a great man but before God brings him to his full height of greatnesse God first brings him to the dunghill So God will bring us first to the dunghill he will lay us in the dust and then make us such glorious creatures as you have heard the Saints shall be at the resurrection Joseph was to be ruler in Aegypt but first he must be laid in prison so God layes his first in prison he brings them to a low condition to be nothing in the world and afterward layes them in the prison of the grave and then hee raiseth them to be Kings Priests Rulers and Judges with the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore let this meditation of the resurrection sweeten trouble and perfume the grave unto us And let it likewise sweeten all the comforts that wee enjoy here by looking upon them as pledges of the joy which wee shall have at the resurrection Let it sweeten the mercies of this day which will have little relish in them without this Alas what is it to looke on Nationall deliverances mercies victories and conquests over our enemies unlesse you see your happinesse in the Lord Jesus What is it if the Land have peace if thou hast not peace of conscience by beleeving What is it if the enemies of thy body of the State and Kingdome be wholly routed and put under the feete of those that desire to stand for the liberties of the Subject if in the meane while thou be a vassall and a slave to the Prince of darknesse What is it for thee to be free from corporall enemies and yet to be under the power and led captive by the enemy of thy soule What is it if thou be a freeman in thy body and a slave in thy soule to all lusts filthinesse and ungodlinesse What is it to keepe such a day as this and to rejoyce in a carnall way for outward mercies when thou doest not spiritually rejoyce in the first place that God hath freed thee from the enemies of thy eternall salvation Rejoyce not onely as a Heathen may for nationall blessings but rejoyce as a Christian seeing God reconciled to thee in the Sonne of his love let the joy of the resurrection both sweeten thy troubles and adde spirituall fewell to the flame of thy joy for temporall mercies Truly wee then rejoyce in temporall things and in creature-comforts and mercies aright when we rejoyce in them in a spirituall way when wee see all sweetened to us in the Lord Jesus Therefore improve to the full this doctrine for the heightening of your joyes this day Let there not be an evill heart of unbeliefe in any to keepe him from rejoycing Though there were great plentie of Corne in Samaria yet the Lord that would not beleeve what the Prophet said though he saw it he did not taste of it 2 Kings 7.19 I tell you of great plentie and happinesse I have set it before your eyes as God hath enabled me but unlesse you beleeve you shall never taste of this heavenly Manna you shall never drinke of these rivers of pleasure Here is a cup of salvation you that have the lips of faith drinke and your soules shall be refreshed and comforted in the enjoyment of it but if you lie in unbeliefe you may want the joy and comfort that

you might have of it here and you may want the enjoyment of it to all eternitie Therefore beleeve what hath been spoken what God hath promised and rejoyce in it here being confident that thou shalt enjoy what God hath promised And what thou hast in spe in hope here thou shalt hereafter have in re in full fruition serving God chearfully joyfully and comfortably in the assurance of happinesse by Jesus Christ at the resurrection thou shalt be happie with God and with Jesus Christ at the resurrection in body and spirit Which God of his infinite mercy grant unto us all Amen Man 's legall righteousnesse is no cause or part of his justification EPHES. 2.8 9. For by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast THERE are two things which men ought chiefly to know Their misery by sin and their happinesse by the grace of God in Christ And by the wicked unfaithfulnesse of our memories wee are more apt to forget these two things then to forget any other points whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy selfe is a lesson as difficult as it is old and common How hard a matter is it for a man to remember himselfe as to know what he is in himselfe The King of Macedonia thought it needfull that his Page should every morning put him in remembrance that he was a mortall man And every spirituall man doth finde it necessary that the Spirit daily should become his remembrancer to put him in mind that he is a sinful man So likewise it is a hard matter without the power assistance of the Spirit alwayes to know the rich full and free grace of God as it is held forth in the Gospel to poore sinners The last of these as it is the most sweet and excellent lesson so with the greater difficultie it is retained in our memories This is a Doctrine which if it were preached unto us every day wee should forget it every day The daily teaching and hourely learning of it cannot wholly free us from the ignorance of this truth But as farre as we are carnall and fleshly wee are strangers to the knowledge of it So that he that thinkes he perfectly knowes the doctrine of justification by faith alone I dare professe to that man that he knows nothing of this doctrine of justification as he ought to know As long as we live upon the earth we may be learners of this doctrine Paul after he had been a scholler and an aged teacher in the schoole of Christ many yeares did then professe that he endeavoured to forget his own workes and legall righteousnesse in reference to his justification and pressed forward to know more of the mystery of Christ labouring to be found in the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.10 Therefore though I have sormerly spoken of the chiefe point that lieth in these verses yet I know it is needfull and necessary for mee to speake of it againe that you that have heard it opened may heare more of it as well as for those who have not heard the point so clearly fully unfolded unto them to whom God may make my discourse beneficiall if he accompany mee with his presence Wherefore I have pitched upon this subject at this present in which the summe of all divinitie is comprized For faith and love is the summe of all that we preach Faith towards the Lord Jesus and love towards God and all those that are united to him in the same Spirit with our selves And the Apostle layeth down both these in these verses shewing first clearly the doctrine of justificatiō through faith alone without works and then shewing that though we are justified without workes yet how in the Spirit wee are carried forth to performe all good works for he saith Wee are created the workmanship of God unto good works ver 10. In these words these particulars present themselves to your best attentions First that salvation and justification is by grace that is by the free favour of God Yee are saved by grace Secondly He sheweth how we are saved by grace in a way of beleeving not working Yee are saved by grace through faith Many pretend that they look on grace but it is thorough the spectacles of their own works but he that doth truly eye grace he looks on grace in an act of beleeving and not through working Thirdly The Apostle discovers the nature of true faith which is the unfained faith of the Elect. First negatively he informeth us that this faith is not of our selves There is not a fountain in our selves from whence a true and lively faith springs it floweth not from the naturall carnall or rationall principles of the first Adam but from the power of the Spirit of grace Secondly affirmatively he informeth us concerning the nature and originall of it it proceedeth from God and is bestowed upon the creature as a free gift It is not of our selves it is the gift of God Fourthly He shews that as it is by grace so it is not by works as it is by beleeving so it is not by working Not of works Fiftly He gives the reason why it is not by works Least any man should boast If a man could say that God hath justified and saved him for his endeavours labours paines or good workes then a man might boast When he meeteth with one that is without Christ he may say I have done this good worke and the other good worke for Christ I shall be saved and thou shalt be damned But the true childe of God if he meet with a reprobate he sees no cause to boast it is by the grace of God that he is saved when the other is damned Not by works least any man should boast It is the designe and intention of God in justifying a sinner by grace without works to keepe men from pride and boasting Man did fall from happinesse by pride there is no way to attaine happinesse but by humilitie and faith the true way to humilitie is by beleeving for beleeving empties the creature of all works and righteousnesse and shewes that he is nothing in himselfe and that all his treasure glory happinesse riches and perfection lies treasured and laid up in another Fides hominem vacuum Deo adducit ut Christi bonis impleatur Faith bringeth a man in a poore and beggerly condition to Christ that he may be enriched by Christ Lastly The Apostle declareth that though we are saved by faith without works yet wee shall not be unfruitfull in bringing forth good works Wee are the workmanship of God by a new creation And the end of our creation in Christ is this that being in him we may be active to love and good works First I shall endeavour to prove negatively that there is no justification by works And then shew how it is by grace and then how it is in

is vaine therefore to seek justification by many things Psal 130.7 There is mercy with God and plenteous redemption No need therefore of mans righteousnesse If thou hast been a slave to many sinnes to vile lusts and base corruptions pride vaine-glory hypocrisie swearing and uncleannesse c. There is plenteous redemption God can redeeme thee from all thy sinnes that thou hast been accustomed unto many yeares He is able to redeeme thee out of the hands of all thy corruptions that hold thee fast in bondage and slavery Wherefore there being such a sufficiency in grace it is not needfull or necessary that a man doe good works that he may be justified The fourth consideration may be this Almightie God doth not require us to doe good works that they should justifie or save us I confesse in the letter of the Word God seemes to require them When he speaks in the language of the Law he saith Doe this and live c. But in the Ministery of the Gospel which is the only Ministery of salvation God doth not require thee to do any thing that thou maist be saved or justified The Law sets thee to work and is never satisfied but the Gospel bids thee doe nothing at all This is the tenour of the Gospel Beleeve in the Name of the Lord Jesus and be confident to be justified onely by his Name The Apostles when they preached endeavoured to beat men off from their own works and performances in the point of justification When the Gaoler said What shall I do to be saved Paul bids him not to work but to beleeve in the Lord Jesus So in Isai 55.3 God reprehends men that spend their time for that which is worth nothing laying out so much time in acting doing for justification and salvation in the mean while neglecting the glorious and precious Gospel of grace by his Son Wherefore doe yee spend money for that which is not bread Wherefore doe yee spend the strength of your bodies spirits in working labouring and tyring out your dayes under the spirit of bondage that yee may be justified and saved You spend your money for that that is not bread you shall never have a piece of bread from the Law for this you shall never satisfie the Law it will not give you a crumb of comfort worke and doe what you can Hearken unto me and eat that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse Foolish and ignorant people they take paines to satisfie their spirits and to get comfort by making long prayers and observing fasting dayes and giving almes to the poore endeavouring to love God and Saints that they may be saved but they labour for that that will not profit for that that is not bread If duties could satisfie why did Christ die If we could be saved by the Law why was the Gospel made knowne Therefore he points them to the Gospel Heare and your soule shall live That is heare the Word of Gods grace beleeve that God will pardon your sinnes for his Name sake and not for any works or righteousnesse in your selves Beleeve that Christ came to save sinners ungodly sinners the worst of sinners the chiefe of them beleeve this and your soules shall live If any bid thee worke that thou maist be justified to get love to the brethren to get a good conscience to God and men he setteth you upon a labour that will not profit you The voyce of God is Heare and your soules shall live Beleeve that which is reported concerning this Christ who was borne of a woman though the eternall Son of God and was manifested in the flesh and hath borne the sinnes of sinfull flesh and hath made an end of all iniquitie and brought in everlasting righteousnesse In beleeving this doctrine we are assured of his love And this God bids us preach and nothing else for justification ceasing from our selves our works our righteousnesse our performances resting on his love setting foot on his grace disclaiming our doings not coming to him in the sight of our works and our love but of his goodnesse as it is displayed in Christ Fifthly It is positively forbidden and God reproves men for it he shews them that they undoe their soules to eternitie if in a secret way they rest upon their owne works Israel which followed after the Law of righteousnesse hath not attained to the Law of righteousnesse Wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. He doth not say that they did directly seek salvation by the Law but indirectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed tanquam operibus legis as it were by the works of the Law Works are not onely not required but forbidden God doth not bid us to worke but he forbids us to worke for justification It is not he that worketh that is justified but he that worketh not but beleeveth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousnesse Rom. 4.5 When the Apostle presseth men to beleeve and perswadeth them to entertaine the doctrine of grace that he preached in those Exhortations there is a vertuall forbidding of working for life When he bids them onely to beleeve Act. 16.3 it is as much as if he had bid them not to work Consonant to that speech of his A man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Christ Gal. 2.16 He excludeth works that he may establish men in the doctrine of faith and prohibiteth working for justification Lastly We are not to desire the presence of good works that we may be justified A man is not onely to goe thus farre to be convinced that he is not justified by works but he is to be convinced of this that the presence of good works are not needfull and necessary to him when he comes to God for justification I am not onely to professe that my works have no influence into my justification or are the cause of it but that good works in the presence of them are not needfull and necessary to justification Good works are inefficatious to justification and not needfull to be present in the person that is to be justified Here some flie off from the truth they acknowledge that we are not justified by works yet they require the presence of good works in the person who is to be justified But God when he efficatiously works upon us convinceth us that not onely our good works have no causalitie in justification but likewise convinceth us that there is no necessitie for the presence of good works in us before justification And this is cleare because when the Spirit comes he shews us that we are to come to the throne of grace not as men already made righteous and holy but as men unrighteous and unholy to be made holy by Jesus Christ So that good works are not necessary as a qualification or disposition in the person to

be justified This is that glorious Gospel which carnall reason cannot apprehend mans learning cannot reach which the worlds wisdome accounteth foolishnesse and which the Devill and worldly men will alwayes oppose and persecute What saith the zealous Pharisee Will the God of love justifie him that hates him Will the God of justice sitting upon the throne pronounce the sinner guiltlesse Yea Pharisee he will What saith the Scripture He justifieth the ungodly What is an ungodly man but he that hates God that is an enemy to God that doth not for the present love God And when a man looks to his grace he must looke on himselfe as an unrighteous as an unholy ungodly man He is not bound to come as the Pharisee but as the Publicane He is not to come thus qualified I love God and the people of God I desire to obey God I am thus qualified therefore I shall be justified and no sinfull man that hath not these qualifications to fit him for justification God bids sinners while they are in their bloud to live Ezek. 16.6 Christ cometh to call sinners to repentance or changednesse of heart by the discoveries of grace For God doth not command us to come as men loving him or loving his people that we may be justified but when we see our selves sinners ungodly and the chiefe of sinners then he commands us to come to the throne of grace and offers justification and salvation to us freely without works as Paul saith This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe 1 Tim. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the first of sinners so it is in the Greek Primus non tempore sed malignitate The first not in time but in sin and malignitie This is the truth which Paul preached and which he accounted not onely worthy of acceptation but all acceptation for the sweetnesse and excellency of it If other truths are worthy of acceptation this is worthy of all acceptation If a man seeth that he hath a heart that will not suffer him to love God that he hates the people of God yet heareth the Gospel preached that there is grace offered to sinners to the chiefe of sinners if this man beleeve if he come and trust the grace of God he hath as good an assurauce for heaven as heaven can give as God gives to any that he intends to save and make happy with himselfe to eternitie By this wee see that wee are not to bring good works because their presence is not necessarily required Though wee see all evill present with us and all good absent wee may rest upon the promises of grace for justification which is the plaine direct way to true and perfect holinesse Now in the next place I shall give you considerations to prove that wee are not justified by works that are done after conversion This will appeare as clearly as that which I have delivered concerning the neediesnesse of the works of the Law for our justification before our justification The first reason which I shall lay down is this Those things are not the cause of justification which follow justification and true faith but good works follow justification and true faith therefore good works are not the causes of justification The cause precedes the effect good works are the effect of justification right reason therefore will teach us that they cannot precede justification The worke of the justification of a sinner is done compleated before works are done and therefore works can have no hand in our justification That old rule is as old as the doctrine of justification and as true as it is old Bona oper a non praecedunt justificandū sed sequuntur justificatū Good works doe not precede in the person who is to be justified but follow the person that is justified From which it will follow that a man is not justified for good works that follow faith because he is justified before he hath those good works good works in order of nature following true faith true faith working by love Gal. 5.6 I am not to love that I may beleeve but I must beleeve Gods love that I may love God Joh. 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us Wee are first purged from dead works by beleeving and then wee serve the living God Heb. 9.14 God hath sworn that justification shall goe before sanctification Luk. 1.73 He first delivereth us from our sinnes our soules deadly enemies and then wee serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse as Zachariah being filled with the holy Spirit doth sweetly powre forth the holy water of this soule-refreshing truth Luk. 1.74 75. Redemption doth antecede purification He hath redeemed us from all iniquitie to purifie us to himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good works Faith which looketh upon the grace of him who is invisible is the mother-grace Radix bonorum operum fides Faith is the roote good works are the fruit there must be the roote before the fruit But some man may say may wee not see the fruit before wee see the roote as wee see some fruit upon trees while the root lies hid and from the beholding of the fruit may wee not very rationally conclude that there is a root so from the beholding of our good works the fruit of true faith may wee not conclude that there is faith though it be not in it selfe visible unto us To this I answer That this similitude proves not the thing for though it be a truth that good works may appeare first to men yet faith is first visible to us in our own spirits and it is impossible that I should see the truth of good works except I first see the truth of faith Evident sanctification doth evidence unto us the truth of our justification but sanctification is not evident our justification being not evidenced to us in the first place If it be manifested in our spirits to us that our works are good it will presently be manifested unto us that we have true faith But this is not manifested in our spirits that our works are truly good works and such which cannot be done by an hypocrite untill the truth of our faith be manifested unto us I will make this evident by this reason A man must see his good works as done either under the Law or under the Gospel and look upon them either in the glasse of the Law or the glasse of the Gospel if a man look upon them in the glasse of the Law and doe rightly and spiritually understand the Law he shall be so farre from drawing an assurance of his justification from them that he shall behold himself cursed and damned with all his good works For the Law curseth every man that cōtinueth not in the doing of all things which are commanded by God It is indeed a divine looking-glasse in which things to be done or

mightily in him to pervert the Gospel and to bring in Antichristianisme in this way of flaming zeale love and holinesse And if he were now alive he would wonder at his numerous off-spring and progeny which he hath now amongst us But that you may avoid this first rock before yee be engulfed into the deepe and bottomlesse pit of Familisticall Atheisme and Antichristianisme let what hath been spoken to reprove them establish you in the truth of the Gospel and looke upon the best piece of Familisme but as upon refined Popery For wee are not saved by Christ working in us and making us obedient to his Fathers holy will but wee are saved by the righteousnesse of Christ who hath shed his bloud for us And though we deny not but that wee have Christ within us and the Spirit of Grace to subdue our sinnes Yet this is denied that the workings of the Spirit are our justification for wee are justified before wee have these workings which wee feele within us Wee are not justified because we love God and Christ and desire to walke in sinceritie to glorifie God but because wee apprehend the Grace of God in Christ and therefore we love God and Christ and destre in sincerity to walke in all the wayes that God hath made knowne to us in Christ Wee are not justified by the conformitie of our will to Gods will or the onenesse of our will with his but wee are justified by faith before any of those works are wrought in our hearts by the Spirit of Grace He that denies this is ignorant of Christ and the Gospel and is not an honourer of Christ but a Minister of Satan and Antichrist and a deluder of the people Thirdly This is for the reproose of the hypocriticall Protestant who professeth the doctrine of justification by faith without works with his tongue but denieth it with his heart not daring to trust his soule in the armes of a Saviour unlesse he brings good works along with him to procure his welcome and entertainment This man stumbles at the thresh-hold of the doore of Grace being never able to enter into the house of love because he will not adventure his salvation upon the promises of Grace which are made to sinners that have no workes or righteousnesse inherently in themselves He will not goe to God or close with a promise of Grace unlesse he have the sight of righteousnesse in himselfe in the first place He will tell you that good works are not the matter of our justification and yet he will not conclude that he is a justified man untill he see good works in himselfe This man following the law of righteousnesse doth not attaine to the law of righteousnesse because he seeketh it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. The Apostle speaks against this pharisaicall opinion when he saith Wee are justified by Grace through beleeving not through working I am not bound to love God and the brethren that I may be beloved of God but I must beleeve that I may love God and my brother The preposterous preaching of sanctification before justification for the evidencing of justification is that which keepeth many poore creatures in bondage for many yeares and ruines many soules How many are gone to Hell who thought they were going to Heaven deceiving themselves with false and unsound assurances And fetching their comforts from the sight of their own works and not from the Grace of God in Christ by a pure act of beleeving If this were the right path to justification we should not be justified in beleeving but in loving and working For I seeing my love to God should conclude Gods love to me But herein is love not that wee loved God but that God loved us and sent his Sonne to be the propitiation for our sinnes 1 Joh. 4.10 And true love is wrought in us by the sight of Gods free love to us in an act of beleeving Therefore if thou hast no assurance of the love of God but that which thou hast gotten from the sight of thine own works and from the conclusions of thine own base and deceitfull heart as the ordinary way of some hath been thou hast no assurance at all When thou shalt lie under a great temptation thou wilt finde no comfort in this assurance And thou shalt finde at the great day when thou shalt appeare before God and Christ that this assurance will not be worth a Rush This building upon thy love to God and not upon Gods free love to thee is to build upon a sandy foundation and not upon Christ by faith And if the Lord convince thee of thy folly thou wilt lay a better foundation of joy and comfort then this can be unto thee For other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. Though a spirituall man can make a good use of marks and signes as of love to God and Saints when he seeth them in the light of the Spirit as fruits proceeding from faith as the roote yet by drawing a conclusion from the sight of such things which we apprehend to be in our selves of our happinesse and good estate before God wee shall not so truely comfort as certainly deceive our selves Fourthly This is for the reprehension of blind ignorant Formalists who place Religion rather in conformity to outward formes of Government and submission to externall Ordinances then in the faith of the Gospel which is operative by love Justification doth not lye in our obedience to the Ordinances of Jesus Christ but in Jesus Christ Wee are not made Saints by being made members of any Church or Congregation but by faith in the head of the Church Woe to him that maketh his obedience and submission to any Ordinance the ground of his comfort as too many zealous Formalists do who run from Congregation to Congregation from one Ordinance to another to get solid comfort to their soules apprehending that they are undone creatures and cannot be true Saints unlesse they be under the true practise of all Ordinances whereas it is a plaine truth revealed in the Gospel of truth that neither submitting to an Ordinance can make a true Saint nor the want of Ordinances un-saint any man that is made one with Christ in beleeving He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. So he is a true Saint who is not a visible member of a Congregation but he whose life of faith is hidden in Jesus Christ He is baptized not whose body is washed with water but whose soule is washed in the bloud of Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 He is a good Communicant and breaks bread who doth not breake bread

by the preaching of the Gospel that the eternall grace of the Father in the Sonne is made known to us And this grace is called sometimes the Grace of God the Father Rom. 1.7 Sometimes it is called the grace of Jesus Christ and sometimes the grace of them both because Jesus Christ is God one God in one divine essence with his Father And as God in his grace is said to forgive sinnes Mica 7. who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth sin saith the Prophet So Jesus Christ is said to forgive sinnes the Apostle bids us to forgive one another as Christ hath forgiven us Col. 3.13 As there is grace in the Father to forgive sinnes so there is the same grace in the Sonne The Apostles doubted not but that they should be saved by the grace of Christ as well as those that were circumcised Act. 15.7 And by this grace we are saved God discovering now his grace to us in his Sonne Jesus Christ the eternall Sonne of the eternall Father This grace in Scripture is made known to us as the sole cause of our justification and salvation Grace is so held forth for justification that all things besides grace are excluded Wee are justified by grace exclusively all other things being shut out When God justifieth a man he eyes that man onely in his owne grace and when God justifieth a man in the Court of his owne Conscience he strips him of all his own workes of his owne love to him and to the brethren and gives him onely a sight of owne grace This grace doth exclude all merit if there were any merit in the creature man could not be saved by Grace the Apostle cleares it to us by that passage Rom. 4.4 To him that worketh the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt If a man could worke or merit any thing toward his justification and salvation then it were not of grace saith the Apostle the reward is not of grace but of debt If a man worke then he expects wages as due to him he may by right and justice clayme what he deserves so if wee did worke for salvation wee might require God to bestow and give us what wee had wrought for But true grace shuts out all merit and workes in the creature if we could bring any merit of the creature to joyne with his grace grace should be no more grace as the Apostle Rom. 11.6 If wee looke upon Grace as it is in God so before God wee were saved in his eternall thoughts he in his own purpose and Grace having elected us to justification and eternall salvation in Glory by his Sonne Jesus Christ Yet he never holds forth his Grace to us but in the countenance of his Sonne Jesus Christ in whom the glory of his justice shines bright with the glory of his grace He shewes us that he hath laid all our sins on his Sonne that his justice hath received full satisfaction from the sufferings of his Sonne for all our sinnes and so comes to discover his grace to us in the pardon and forgivenesse of our sinnes Thus Christ and the Apostles constantly in their preaching discovered the grace of the Father in the Son As our Saviour to Nicodemus God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish Joh. 3. And the Apostle to his Corinthians God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe 2 Cor. 5. God doth not make knowne his love for the forgivenesse of sinne but by Jesus Christ I confesse that wee are saved by grace in respect of God before wee know the Grace of God in Jesus Christ But wee cannot see this grace untill wee behold it in the face of the Lord Jesus Wee behold the love of God in giving the Lord Jesus to be the atonement sacrifice and propitiation for our sins before wee can read the everlasting love and favour of the Father to us in his Sonne Eternall love is the primarie cause of our salvation and justification but it cannot be apprehended by us untill we apprehend in the first place our Redemption in Jesus Christ And when Christ is embraced as a Saviour in the Armes of Faith wee rise higher in our thoughts by the power of the Spirit and are brought to look upon the eternity of love And have liberty to read every line in his eternall volume which doth concerne our eternall life and salvation and are fully confirmed in the point of Gods eternall election without the prevision of good works which should be wrought by the Creature As the Apostle doth prove at large in the 9th to the Romans And if any man will dispute or rather cavill against this truth I shall say with the Apostle Rom. 9.20 Oman who art thou that repliest against God who hath mercy on whom be will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth And though men unacquainted with this truth may account this rather a shift or evasion then an answer to their carnall objections against election and reprobation yet I shall not be ashamed of my answer It is an excellent Speech of Augustine Christs great Champion against Antigratians in his time Absit ut pudeat nos hoc respondere quod respondisse videmus Apostolum Far be it from us to be ashamed to give the same answer which was given by the Apostle Who art thou that repliest against God c. In the next place wee are to consider that in Scripture salvation is taken either negatively or affirmatively And take salvation in either of these acceptions And it will be evident that wee are saved by grace In the first place if we take salvation negatively as it is a deliverance or freedome from all evill and in this sence wee are freed from evill onely by grace It is a true rule Gratiam Christi nihil praecedit humani Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the Grace of God The light and beames of Grace do dispell the clouds of our sins Not for our sakes but for his Name sake he covereth our sins It is Gods prerogative to free us from sin by Grace and to remove them far from us Psal 103.12 As far as the East is from the West so far he removed our transgressions from us He onely can remove sin against whom it is committed He onely can cast sin into the depths of the Sea who hath an Ocean of Grace in himselfe in which he swalloweth them up Micah is spiritually transported beyond himselfe in admiring this incommunicable prerogative of the God of Grace Micah 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity c And who can think that he will part with this priviledge which is his delight For so it followeth in the same verse He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Secondly If wee take salvation affirmatively for the instating of men into a condition and enjoyment of all happiness and felicity

comforted by the great salvation Heb. 2.3 which is for the greatest and cheifest of sinners by Gods grace in Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 1.15 If the Divell shall still assault a man to perswade him that he is a damned soule having mispent his time and strength in the service of sin having no good workes to commend him unto God that he may finde favour from him The beleeving soule will be easily able in the strength of God when it is upon the mountaine of his Grace to silence the Accuser by lying downe in the lap of that God who maketh him the object of his Grace who worketh not for justification Rom. 4. but beleiveth in God who justifieth sinners in his Grace without workes And because wee are justified and comforted in the Court of our owne Consciences by grace The spirit which is given forth in the Ministry of the Gospel is called a spirit of grace It being the worke of the Spirit to reveale the grace of the Father for the comfort of his children according to that of the Apostle 2 Thess 2.16 17. Our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts Heere the Apostle sheweth us that the Saints have consolation and that this consolation is everlasting and that this everlasting consolation is only by grace Goe to all the true Saints in the world and aske them how they received the Comforter whether by the observation of moral precepts or by the doctrine of grace they will informe you that they received him by the Gospel of grace and not by the law of works Some Saints are able to acquaint you with their own experience can tell you how they laboured for holiness to bring them to happinesse to love God that they might assure themselves that they were in the love of God and that they found darknesse instead of expected light death instead of life horrour bondage instead of joy and liberty untill they were enabled to come unto God as sinners without workes disclaming their owne righteousnesse deserts and endeavours and laying the head-stone of their peace and happinesse in the free favour of God crying Grace Grace Zech 4 7. Exalting the free grace of God in their justification and overthrowing overturning their own works and legal righteousnesse It is grace and grace alone which bringeth salvation Tit 2.11 and therefore not our workes Grace and workes are inconsistent in this point of justification they can no more stand together then the Arke of God and Dagon Let grace stand up in its glory workes will quickly be overthrown and set up works and yee destroy the doctrine of grace By eternall grace wee were elected and made vessells of mercy from eternitie by grace we were saved before God in heaven in the presence of the Lord Iesus by grace wee were saved in the person of Christ before faith By the revelation of grace unto us through faith wee are saved in foro conscientiae in the Court of our owne consciences By grace salvation is inchoated here and compleated and perfected hereafter Rom. 6. ult The gift of God is cternall life through Jesu Christ our Lord. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a gift flowing from Grace or free favour In these severall acceptations of the word grace we are saved by grace I might now lay downe many reasons for the proofe of this poynt but those which I gave to proove that wee are not justified by workes will bee sufficient for the confirmation of this And when I shall handle the doctrine of belelving some reasons will fall in which will more fully illustrate this truth I shall therefore for the present onely present unto you a reason or two and hasten to the use 1 Reason First it being supposed that man is a sinner it is impossible that man should bee saved by any thing but by the knowledge of Grace The Law in this particular would not deale with us considering what good hath bin done by us but what evill And therefore when the Apostle had proved Rom. 3.23 that devout Jews as well as prophane Gentiles had sinned and come short of the glory of God he takes it for granted as a thing undeniable and unquestionable that wee are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ And if we could bring our selves into a state of perfection after we have once sinned wee could not be justified by that perfection in us which is required by the Law but should be condemned for our sinnes and imperfections in breaking of the Law If a man have done good service for the Common-wealth and yet be found guilty of high Treason against the State the Law will condemne him for the Treason his good service not being availeable to make satisfaction to the justice of the Law for this Treason So if it were possible for us to keepe the Law for a time wee should be condemned if it can be proved that wee have broken it at any time Acts of obedience will not make satisfaction for acts of disobedience We cannot satisfie the justice of the Law by doing what the Law requires if we have once broken it If we could sometimes doe what the Law requires us we should not be able to free our selves from the guilt and punishment for doing that which it forbiddeth us at all times because it requireth obedience from us at all times And it is unreasonable to thinke that God if he deale with us as under the Law and not under Grace should give us a pardon of our disobedience in consideration of our obedience If a wife live honestly as becomes a wife some few yeares if her huband finde that she committed Adultery some yeares before the time of her honesty obedience the Law takes no notice at all that she hath lived in her latter time as became a wife but condemnes her she must be divourced from her husband for her adultrous act committed before her obedience So if it were possible that wee could keepe the Law and doe what is required in it and live under the obedience of it in every branch and point of it yet if we have once broken the Law the Law taking no notice of our obedience would condemne us for our disobedience What the Roman hystorian saith of the Roman Law that it is dura et inexorabilis severe and inexorable it is true of Gods Law The Law heareth no cry or begging for mercy No man shall finde favour or pardon from the Law by any acts of obedience to the Law who hath once disobeyed the Law The paying of a new debt will not make satisfaction to a man to whom an old debt is owing so if wee could pay the debt that the Law requires for the present it makes no satisfaction at all for our breaking it before for our old

ungodlinesse wordly lusts He doth not say that grace in the first place teaches us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts but in the first place it brings justificatiō salvation through beleeving then secondarily the same grace teacheth us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts After we have believed for salvation the holy spirit is given Ephes 1.13 In beleeving we enter into our rest Heb. 4.3 keep the yeare of Iubile see our selves instated in happines and keep a christian Sabbath It is only in beleeving that wee are brought to the enjoyment of that felicity which is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ The Apostles in their Epistles doe not hold forth any truth more frequently then this Gal 5.6 In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by Love And Ro. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the Keeper of the Prison asked Paul Silas what they should doe to be saved suppofing salvation was only attainable by working they did at one discover unto him his error blindnesse acquainted him with the soul saving truth of the Gospel assuring him that if he beleeved on the Lord Jesus he should be saved Acts ●6 31 We find not rest in our spirits by the ●●ght of our works love sincerity labours envours but by the sight of Gods grace in Christ Having by these places of Scripture confirmed to you this truth I shall now amplyfie it by shewing unto you more fully how it may be in truth affirmed that we are saved through faith In the first place it is by faith and by faith alone not by faith joyned with workes but by faith without workes I deny not but where true faith is workes will follow yet salvation is through faith without workes When wee are brought into the bosome of the Lord Iesus wee enter not into the bosome of his love by our love and faith together but by faith which produceth Love Our eyes are shut to the beholding all things in our selves and the eyes of our spirits are enlightned to behold what is in Gods Grace and the Lord Iesus Consonant to this is Pauls sweete and comfortable conclusion Rom. 3.28 Wee conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Love to God and his people is a worke commanded by the Law but according to Pauls conclusion of truth wee are justified by faith without the deedes of the Law therefore we are justified by faith without love to God or his people When God discovers his Grace to a man for his justification hee shewes him that as his evill workes cannot bring damnation unto him so his good workes cannot bee availeable for his justification That assurance of Gods love which some professors have got by the sight of their owne workes being never illuminated in their understandings to behold Gods Grace in the light and beames of Grace is not the true assurance of the gospell but the deceit and lying divination of their owne spirits concerning their owne happinesse for salvation is by faith without workes God doth not require us to doe good workes for salvation in the conscience but doth positively and absolutely exclude them as things which have no influence at al upon that first assurance which he doth give unto his people of his love which is by a pure simple unmixed act of faith The spirit of Grace is never given to comfort us untill God hath stripped us of our owne righteousnesse workes and performances and hath brought us to the Throne of Grace to bee justified by free Grace without any thing in our selves that may make us fit for justification and salvation The Apostle doth lay downe this as a truth seconded by his owne experience and the experience of all true Saints Gal. 2.16 asserting that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Iesus Christ even wee saith he have beleeved in Iesus Christ that we might bee justified by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the Law for by the workes of the Law shall no flesh bee justified It is not as the Papists say that faith which hath love joyned with it which they make the forme of faith by which wee are justified but it is by faith without any workes at all by which wee are justified and have peace of conscience Augustine doth plainely lay downe his judgement in this point according to truth Noli presumere de operibus ante fidem quia peccatorem te fides invenit etsi te fides data facit justum impium invenit quem faceret justum Presume not upon thy workes done before faith because faith findeth thee a sinner faith hath made thee just it found thee wicked whom it should make just The second reason why it is thus by faith alone is because it is by grace unlesse we were justified by faith we were not we could not be justified by Grace This reason the Apostle lays downe Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by Grace As if he should have said unlesse you hold that there is a justification by faith alone without workes you deny Grace if you will bee justified by faith and workes conjoyned you destroy Grace Therefore it is by faith alone that it may be by Grace When we have a true sight of Grace wee see a sufficiency in that Grace to doe us good for our justification and salvation soe that there is nothing needfull necessary besides grace In which respect Luther saith that workes are not necessary to justification but pernitious to salvation the gospell requiring faith only according to that of the Apostle Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of faith the law hath nothing to doe with beleeving that doctrine which bids a man to beleeve that he may bee saved that is the doctrine of the gospell the law biddeth us not to beleeve but the man that doth it shall live in it The law bids us worke but the Gospell bids us beleeve not worke and beleive but beleive only We confound the Covenant of workes and the Covenant of Grace if wee presse an absolute necessity of doing good workes for justification This was the Divinity of the blood-sucker Bishop Bonner who in a Sermon propounding this quest How grace is to be applyed to us for justification doth answer by beleeving rightly and living uprightly joyning faith and holinesse for justification by grace whereas by the Scripture of truth it is manifest that faith alonedoth lay hold of Christ and doth appropriate him unto us And that holinesse doth flow and streame from the apprehension of our free justification by grace through faith alone though faith is not alone but is accompanyed with other fruits of the Spirit which follow it This must be well understood or else we shall nullifie the grace of God wherefore God enableth true beleevers

to see this truth plainly and clearly Vilesceret redemptio sanguinis Christi nec miserecordiae dei humanorum operum praerogativa succumberet si justificatio quae sit per gratiam meretis precedentibus deberetur Ambros Redemption by the blood of Christ would be vilified the prerogative of mans workes would not stoop to Gods mercy if justification which is by grace were due to preceding workes A man that truely beleives he sees not any holinesse or qualification in himselfe that makes him more worthy of salvation then another man he sees that he hath deserved damnation as well as any one who is now in the place of torment and yet hee sees that such is the Grace the unspeakeable grace of God to his poore soule that though he deserve to lye as low in hell as Iudas for his sin yet he shall be raised as high as heaven by the grace of the father made knowne to him in Iesus Christ Brethren if upon examination you finde that your joy comfort and assurance have in the first place proceeded from any workes which you have in your selves which make you conclude that you shall rather be saved then another man your assurance is not a right assurance But if your assurance be right it is by beleeving that which is reported concerning the grace of God that so salvation may be by grace It is possible for men to deceive themselves in obtaining an assurance of Gods love and their happinesse therefore I will a little digresse to open this to the ignorant It may be thou takest comfort to thy selfe by looking on workes wrought by thy selfe and not by looking on Christ it may be thou conceivest that thou lovest God and from thence concludest that God loveth thee though thou hast not seen his free love to sinners this is a bastardly assurance brought forth by thine owne lying spirit and not the true assurance of the Spirit of grace in beleeving In a true assurance by faith God hath the glory of his grace But in this kind of assurance God hath not the glory of his grace therefore it is not a true assurance Another deceiveth his soule and thinketh hee is in a good condition because he resteth upon a promise of God Christ saith Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest A man doth apprehend himselfe to be heavy laden and from the sight of his burthen doth conclude hee hath rest and is in a good condition but hee deceiveth himselfe with a false perswasion for the promise is not made to the qualification of wearinesse but the promise is made to the commers to Jesus Christ Cain was heavy laden with his sin and it lay so heavy on him that he concluded that the punishment was greater then he was able to beare or else that his sin was greater then it could be forgiven and yet died miserable without mercy Wee find that the sin of Judas lay so heavy on him that he repented that he had shed innocent blood yet for all this hee went to his owne place Therefore if thy comfort and assurance come from a sight of what is in thy selfe and not from the discovery of grace as it is layd forth in the Spirit of grace thy assurance will not advantage thee in the day of wrath Though God hath convinced thee of sin and there may be some legall repentance reformation wrought in thee and something which thou mayst miscall a true love to God thou canst not from the sight of these things rightly conclude that thou art in the love of God before a discovery of free love be made forth to thee a sinner For God doth not apply his grace or his Sonne to any man for justification but through beleeving that justification may evidently appeare to the sons of men to bee by his owne grace Which will appeare if in the third place we doe more fully consider that God doth save us through beleeving that hee may have the glory of his grace God as hee is glorious in his grace by which hee justifies sinners so he will be glorified in the hearts and consciences of those who are justified by grace that he may have the ful glory of his grace when he hath justified them Non est quò gratia intret ubi jam meritum occupavit Bern. There is no roome for the glory of Gods grace where the worthinesse of our workes hath filled up the place Where the creature may have glory in his owne workes there God loseth the glory of his grace Where God doth any thing for the creature by grace there it is not of our works otherwise grace is no more grace If it be of workes then it is no more of grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 Therefore God will not justifie us in doing the workes of the Law in giving us a sight of any thing that may make us more worthy of justification then other men but he makes knowne his grace to us in a way of beleeving The property of faith is to emptie the creature and to discover the fulnesse of the Creator Our owne workes they puff us up but faith empties us If wee could be justified and saved by that which we have done we might boast and rejoyce in it before God Rom. 4.2 But because God will humble us bring us low lay us upon our backs and tumble us in the dust that we may see our selves nothing and see his grace all in all to us for our justification therefore God justifies us onely in beleeving Faith layes the creature low and sets the grace of God on high that wee may goe to heaven admiring the grace of God to such sinners such base and vile wretches as wee are therefore God will not justifie and save us in the court of our owne Consciences by the sight of our owne workes but onely by the sight of his owne grace thus it is said of Abraham that he staggered not at the promise of God by unbeliefe but being strong in faith he gave glory to God Rom. 4.20 When God comes downe upon us and works faith in our hearts and wee stagger not at the promises of Grace by unbeliefe but give credit to what he hath spoken and promised God hath that glory from us that he will have from all those whom he intends to save Unbeleife robs man of his comfort God of his glory By faith the creature is comforted and the Creator exalted through faith man is emptied of selfe-confidences and filled with God and his praises therefore for this reason are wee saved through faith Againe Fourthly it is by faith because it is onely by beleeving that wee behold the grace that is in God by which he forgives sin Mans happinesse for the present doth not lye in the not having of sin but in the grace of God not imputing sin Nostra justicia est dei indulgentia Gods favour and

indulgence is our righteousnesse Thus the Psalmist doth describe the Blessed man Psal 32. Blessed is the man whose iniquities are paraoned and whose sinnes are covered Hierome doth sweetly paraphrase't upon those words Quod tegitur non videtur quod non videtur non imputatur quod non imputatur non punietur that which is covered is not seen that which is not seen is not imputed that which is not imputed shall not be punished But by what is it that man beholdeth himselfe in this happinesse It is onely by beleeving and therefore wee are saved through faith Wee cannot see a nonimputation of sin by the grace of God but by the work of the spirit in an act of beleeving by which wee are assured that it shall goe well with our soules to all eternity And the great controversie is decided and determined in the spirit of a man whether he shall be saved or whether he shall be damned No other foundation can be laid then the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 3.11 And we cannot see this foundation that wee may be built upon it but by beleiving Moses by faith saw him that was invisible Abraham by faith saw the day of Christ and was glad As by the eye of the body wee see materiall objects so by the eye of faith wee see spirituall objects The Philosopher saith that prudence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eye of the Morall man so faith is the eye of the spirituall man By which alone God and the things of God are beheld 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr The Sun was not changed when the blinde man in the Gospel that never saw before received his sight and beheld it It was the same before and after his blindnesse so Jesus Christ the Sun of righteousnesse is the same yesterday and to day and for ever in himself and unchangeable in his love in reference unto us The change is onely in us by faith whom now we see though formerly wee beheld not his beauty and because the righteousnesse and salvation of God is revealed by faith Rom. 1.17 therefore wee are saved by faith Fiftly wee are saved by grace through a worke of beleeving because if it were not onely in an act of beleeving the people of God could not have that firme constant and unquestionable assurance of their salvation which now they enjoy in a way of beleeving When a man is to goe unto a place by many severall wayes which are not found out without some difficulty he doth often doubt whether he is in the right way or whether hee is out of his way but when he is to goe in one plaine way he is confident that he is not out of his way So when a man goeth by the way of the Law and workes for justification he is in doubt whether he is in his right way for justification the Law pointing out many wayes and requiring many duties of him that would be justified under it but the Gospel pointeth onely at Christ and faith in him for justification so that those who walke in this way for justification are confident that they are in the right way The Apostle doth lay downe this plainly Rom. 4.16 where he saith it is by grace and that by faith to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that onely which is of the Law but to that that is of the faith of Abraham the Father of us all God hath not made the promise of salvation to the seed under the Law or that doe any workes of the Law But he hath made the promise to be gracious to poore sinners in beleeving without the workes of the Law to the end the promise might be sure If there had been any thing else required beside faith the soule would be alwayes restlesse and unsatisfied If God should tie justification to workes men would be unsatisfied because they would doubt whether some workes were not undone and then they would doubt of their justification Therefore God hath not promised justification to any man who doth good workes or submitts to any outward Ordinance but onely unto him who closeth with his grace in a pure act of beleeving For God knowes that so long as there is any thing joyned with faith for justification wee shall be ready to question our justification wee may observe that such professors who are not acquainted with the Gospel are unsetled in their spirits when they doubt which is the true Government or externall Ordinances of the Lord Jesus If they doubt whether they are baptized in a right way or manner they doubt whether they are justified their comforts and assurance doe vanish away when they are not fully assured that they know and are obedient unto all the Commandements of the Lord Jesus The cause of this legallnesse in their spirits is because they doe not see salvation firmly setled upon him that beleeveth The spirituall man beholdeth justifing grace in beleeving without his obedience to commands for externall worship and good workes and doth live joyfully and comfortably in the sight of his justification though he knoweth that it is possible that he may be ignorant of many things which other Christians may have the knowledge of And in these dayes of darkenesse contention confusion and disorder what man can have solid and lasting joy who is ignorant of free grace for justification If it were necessary to the assurance of justification to know whether the Episcopall Presbyteriall or Independent Government were the Ordinance of the Lord Jesus whether sprinckling of Children or dipping of professing beleevers were the institution of Christ in the Labyrinth of the controversies of our times how few would attaine to an assurance of their justification How would poore creatures be perplexed and disquieted in their consciences not certainly knowing in which of these wayes they should walke for their justification and salvation But that the promise might be sure to all the seed Rom. 4.16 To those who lived in the times of the Law as well as to those who live in these times of the Gospel salvation is promised not to workers but beleevers to all true beleevers in all ages and places to us who live in the time of the Babylonish Apostacy as well as to those who were hearers of the Apostles and Members of those Congregations which were gathered and governed by them Sixtly By faith the grace of God in Christ is applyed unto us and we are justified by it as the spirituall instrument formed by God in the Spirit for the application of Christs benefits to our consciences A man that lived in the time of the Law looking upon the blood of his sacrifices did behold himselfe purged purified and sanctified in his flesh by it Heb. 9.13 So a sinner looking upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is applyed unto him and his conscience is purged from dead workes to serve the living God ver 14. Faith though it

justifiing grace through Christ as the cause of that faith by which he is justified and saved And doth know that his juificaticaon is perfected by grace and in the person of the Lord Jesus before it is completed and effected in him by faith Hee well understandeth that Christ and the soule are betrothed by faith and yet he is not ignorant that he is betrothed to God for ever in righteousnesse and in loving kindnesse and in mercy Hosea 2.19 He is enlightned to see a reconciliation by grace in the person of Christ before God before his reconciliation by faith in his spirit He considereth that when he was an enemie he was reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom 5.10 Which reconciliation was before his faith and yet denyeth not reconciliation by faith He knoweth that what he beleeveth concerning Gods grace and his redemption and justification by the blood of Christ was true before hee beleeved it and yet hee beleeveth that faith is his righteousnesse for justification Hee confoundeth not the righteousnesse of faith with the righteousnes of God in Christ by whom he is justified But giveth unto God Christ what is to be attributed to God Christ for justification likewise attributeth to faith what is due to faith not looking upō faith as his righteousnes without the object of it but alwayes looketh upon faith for his justification as it hath reference relation to its object which is the favour of God in Jesus Christ And if he shall be asked whether hee bee more righteous by grace and Christ or by faith He will acknowledge that hee is rather justified by grace and the blood of Christ Ro. 5.19 Seeing more righteousnesse for him in the object o● faith then in faith by which he beholdeth the object and yet still maintaineth that faith is his righteousnesse for justification according to the mind of the Apostle We are saved by faith Eightly We are saved by faith not for the purity and holynesse of it as it is a gift of the sanctifiing spirit For then upon the same ground we should take in Love and other fruits of the spirit which the Apostle doth shut out as having no influence upon us for our justification which the Apohle doth prove in the following words where he saith that we are saved not of workes Because we are Gods workemanship created to good workes Good workes are not the causes of our new creation and justification but the consequents of our new creation through faith So that it is clear that we are justified before sanctification is wrought in us or good workes done by us We are justified by faith without them By which it is evident that faith as an holy gift or quality doth not save us We are saved therfore by faith as that righteousnesse by which we do at the first lay hold upon his grace in his Son for justification by which wee are united unto God and are made one with him Ioh. 17.21 are puryfied from the guilt of sinne in our hearts Act. 15.9 And have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Rom. 5.1 Whom we see imbrace by faith as the Apostle setteh forth the nature of faith Heb. 12.13 And he that thus beleeveth shall be saved he that beleeveth not shall be damned Ninthly We are saved by faith Because by faith we are not onely enabled to beleeve the generall truth of the gospell concerning his grace to those who beleeve in him but because through faith we are enabled to give credit to Gods truth and to rest upon it in reference and relation to our selves Thus Abraham who for the excellency and exemplarinesse of his faith is worthily stiled the father of the faithfull did beleeve what God did speake unto him not onely as a truth which might be beneficial unto others but hee looked upon Christ in reference to himselfe Gen 15. And saw his day and seeing of it was glad Hee looked upon God not onely as a shield and great reward but his shield and great reward By true faith we receive Chrst and his benefits for our selves Paul doth informe us that his life in the flesh was by faith in the Lord Jesus who loved him and gave himselfe for him Faiths sweetenesse doth lye in this that by it we doe not beleeve Christ to be a Saviour and righteousnesse but our Saviour and righteousnesse Therefore Luther affirmed that the sweetnesse of Christianity lay in pronounes When a man can say my Lord and my God and my blessed Iesus This was the faith which the Apostles preached which will be manifest unto us if we consider their intentions when they exhorted men to beleeve They did not intend that their hearers should beleeve in generall that Christ was the Saviour of the world but that hee was a Saviour to them Thus Paul preached to the keeper of the prison Act. 16.31 Beleeve on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thy house As when they preached the doctrine of repentance or changednesse of the mind their meaning was that every man ought to be changed so when they urge beleeving for salvation their meaning is that wee should beleeve for our owne salvation in particular The generall truth of faith and repentance is to beleeve by a power enabling us in particular for our selves to beleeve and repent Lastly We are saved through faith Because by faith we heare the inward word of salvation The word which soundeth to the outward eare without this inward word bringeth no salvation As the Philosopher told him who reprehended him for publishing and divulging a booke of philosophy that he had published it and he had not published it his meaning was this that it was so darke and mysticall that though it were published yet it was not published to the ignorant and unlearned so the Gospel in the letter is published to men and not published they heare and doe not heare they see and doe not see But by faith wee so heare that our soules live by hearing Isa 55.3 The dead saith our Saviour shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live Fidei oculi sunt spiritus per quem spiritualia videntur Cypr The Spirit is an eye to a beleeving man by which he seeth and enjoyeth spirituall things wee receive not the Spirit by hearing the Law or doing the workes of the Law but by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Eternall life and Salvation is by hearing the inward word of life salvation and grace God bids the Prophet Ezech 38.5 to prophesie over the drie bones that they might live The Lord Jesus is the great invisible Prophet who prophesieth over drie bones and dead-hearted sinners and by hearing inwardly the inward word of this Prophet they live in hearing and believing And therefore it is said that wee are saved by faith Having by these particulars acquainted you with my Judgement concerning our salvation through faith I shall now by

against his heart and the whole bent frame streame strength and current of his spirit to be desired entreated and beseeched to give entertainement to Christ He is rather contented to live as a slave with Satan then to rule as a King with Christ He is an evill tree and cannot bring forth fruit to make himself good Homo extra Christumest mala arbor Hier. As an evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit to make it selfe good so an evil man being an evill tree all his thoughts words and actions are evill fruits by which he cannot make himselfe good He cannot therefore of himselfe bring forth the good fruit of faith Again the Scripture riseth higher in spirituall expressions to set forth unto us the sad and wofull condition of an unbelieving man He is not only a lover of darknesse and seated in darknesse but he is darkenesse it selfe in the abstract The Apostle speaking of the Ephesians before their conversion saith Ephes 5.8 Yee were sometimes darknesse Consonant to which words is that speech of John John 1.5 The light shined in darkenesse that is in the dark hearts of unbelieving men but the darknesse comprehended it not There doth lye more in this expression then in the former It is more to be darknesse then to be darkned now wee are not only darkened in our understandings but our understandings are nothing else but darknesse Men without Christ may think that they have a great deale of knowledge wisedome but truely the holy Ghost tells us that all their light and understanding is nothing but darknesse There is as much contrariety between the spirit of God and the spirit of a naturall man as there is betweene light and darknesse By reason of which the naturall man cannot of himselfe obtaine the knowledg of Christ Rom. 8.7 The carnall mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither can be The Apostle doth not only say that it is not subject but he saith that it cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee maketh it a thing impossible According to that which he himselfe delivereth 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse to him The word is very emphaticall in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man that hath a soule looke upon him in his best part in his rationall soul which he hath as a man and in that and by that he cannot receive the things of God Look upon the rational man with his morality with humane learning Arts Sciences with his literall knowledg of the Law Gospel look upon him as he is sublimated in his intellectualls and as he hath made the highest improvement of his learning parts gifts and endowments as hee is the worlds delight for his worldly wisedome as he is admired by men for his prudence and eloquence with all this he is blinde to the all-seeing eye of God and cannot receive or aprehend the glorious things of Gods grace in Jesus Christ Hee is a foole with his wisedome an ignorant man with his learning a wretched sinner with all his good works morall vertues And no more able to open the blind eyes of his soule that he may see the sun of the Gospell which shineth in the spirits of the Saints then a man who is borne blind is able to give himself sight and bodily eyes to hehold the Sun which shineth in the world He is not able by the acutenesse of his reason the sharpenesse of his understanding nor the largenesse of his parts gifts endowments naturall or acquired to attaine unto the saving knowledge of things of the Gospell but they are meer foolishnesse unto him So that by this consideration it will be evident that if we looke on faith as it is a light in the understanding that then a man is not able to bring this light into his owne understanding but whatsoever is in his understanding opposeth the glorious light of Gods grace and that therefore it is impossible upon this account for a man to beleeve of himselfe But in the second place if we looke on faith not only as it is the light of God in the understanding but if we look on it as it is the work of God upon the will so we shall find that we believe not of our selves and that no man ever in his owne power and strength or improvement of his free will was ever able to believe what God hath reported concerning his owne grace in his Sonne Jesus For as a man is darknesse in his understanding so hee is nothing but rebellion in his will As the darknesse in his understanding opposeth the light of Christ and the beames of Gospell-truths so likewise the strength force prevalency of the rebellion in his will fights against all the discoveries that may be made of Jesus Christ to him This is set forth most plainly to us by John John 1.13 where speaking of the Saints he saith They are borne not of blood nor of the will of flesh not of the will of man but of God It is not of the will of the rationall man spiritually truely to wil his owne regeneration Let a man make the best use he can of his will let him put forth himselfe to the best resolutions he can make let him resolve to doe nothing but seeke Christ and study to know him yet if a man be only in the strength of his own resolutions he shall never be able to find out the Lord Jesus Christ The Apostle Paul is plaine in this point Rom. 9.16 It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy A man may have some weake resolutions of himselfe and to seeke Christ and the things of Gods Kingdom but unlesse hee be carryed out with a higher principle and a greater power then his own wil to Christ he will never be able to effect what he seemes to desireto have effected and wrought in him In libero arbitrio nulla est libertas sed servitus Free wil is not free but a slave there is nofreedome but slavery in it It is not free to good unlesse it be freed from sin by grace si stare non potuit humana natura adhuc integra quomodo potest resurgere jam corrupta Bern. If man in the state of integrity could not stand of himselfe how shall hee of himselfe in his state of corruption be able to rise now hee is fallen Unlesse God come downe with a mighty power and force us against our naturall will to receive Christ wee shall never bee made partakers of Christ No man saith Christ can come to mee except the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 Nolentes trahimur you know when a man is drawn he is drawn against his will I need not draw a man that is willing to come after me If we were willing to goe after God in our conversion wee should stand in need

exalting mans free will is deceived with an ●aereticall spirit Haeretico fallitur spiritu Aug. And who will suffer himselfe to be so farre blinded as not to see that magnifiers of free-will doe overthrow the Doctrine of Gods grace and mercy which Paul preached when they shall hear him plainly concluding against all the free willers in the world Rom. 9.16 That it is not in him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy The free grace and mercy which the Scripture acquainteth us with is inconsistent with mans free will to doe good of himselfe As Dagon was tumbled down when the Arke which was a type of Christ and Gods grace in him was brought into the place where Dagon was set up so when Gods grace by the power of the spirit appeareth it tumbleth downe and overthroweth the dagonish conceits Idolatrous apprehensions which men have of the strength which is of themselves to make themselves happy The spirits of men truly perswaded of the strength of grace and their owne weakenesse disclaime their owne strength and sel●e-confidences for the making of themselves good And crye out with those in the Prophet Lam. 5.2 Turne thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned But that these men may not say that wee deale unjustly with them in condemning them and not hearing what they can say for themselves let us heare what they doe usually thinke for themselves that so their mouths may be stopped by the truth of God And thus light may shine more gloriously by the dispelling those mists foggs and clouds of errour which would darken it The Scripture that some of them object against this truth is Revel 22.17 The spirit and the Bride say come And let him that heareth say come And let him that is a thirst come And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely From whence they conclude that there is a power in free will to take Christ and that if a man will he may take the water of life freely To this I thus answer that they draw more from the words then the words do hold forth The words say whosoever will may take the water of life freely but the word doth not tell us that any man is able to will this of himselfe It is true whosoever will may take the water of life freely but it is as true that a man of himself is not willing God alone enabling us to be willing to take this water of life freely Phil. 2.13 And thus yee see that if this argument be well weighed in the ballance of the San ctuary it will be found too light to prove that for which it is alleadged But they are ready to reply againe and to demand of us the reason why God doth finde fault with men for unbeliefe reproving them for not comming unto Christ if they are not able of themselves to believe and come to Christ Answ Why should these men thus cavil against the goodnesse of God May not God with good reason and without offence inform us of our sinne though we are not able of our selves to forsake it It is a conclusion spiritually irrationall to say that we have power to amend our fault because God doth reprove us for our fault In these reproofes and the like God sheweth unto us his goodnesse in reproving us for our conviction he doth not inform us of our ability savingly to believe for our conversion But me-thinkes I see them returning upon us againe and making a new assault by another argument with which they thus oppose us or rather the truth and power of Gods grace Why doth God command entreat beseech the creature to beleeve if the creature have no power of himselfe to beleeve Ans Passages to this purpose which wee fiind in Scripture do acquaint us with Gods goodnesse to the creature in his revealed will and the creatures duty towards God they do not acquaint us with the secret effectuall and irresistable Rev. 9.19 will of God concerning the salvation of a creature nor of the creatures power in himselfe to believe of himselfe The conclusions of these men from such precepts exhortations and entreaties are very absurd and irrationall If wee shall seriously weigh them in the scales of right and sanctified reason God say they doth command exhort and entreat men to believe therefore men are able of themselves by some power in themselves to believe May they not upon as good grounds conclude that a carnall man may sulfill the whole Law and be saved by doing of the Law seeing hee is commanded in Scripture to fulfill the whole Law and exhorted and intreated to doe it I shall shut up this use with a sweet speech of a devout and spirituall man seeing man without the grace of God could not keep that salvation which hee received how shall he be able without grace to regaine that salvation which he hath lost Cum igitur sine gratiâ dei salutem non posset Custodire quam accepit quomodo sine gratiâ dei potest reparare quam perdidit Aug. in Epist Secondly It may be for the convincing of men of their disability to will their own justification and salvation What God accounts wisdome that when man lookes on it by the eye of reason he accounts it nothing but folly and madnesse How can a man be desirous of Christ who apprehends that the things of Christ are nothing but foolishnesse A prophane Pope sporting himselfe and rejoycing in the great riches he had gotten by professing the Gospell in a carnall way uttered these words What great riches have wee gotten to our selves by this fable of lesus Christ Quantus divitias lucrati sumus ex hac fabulâ Christi So men that are not enlightned by the spirit of truth to behold the word of truth doe conceive the truths which men preach concerning Christ are meere fancies fables madnesse and that foolishnesse and that there is no truth at all in which is spoken in the word of truth I will instance but in one or two particulars to shew you how carnall reason opposeth grace Grace telleth us that God will have mercie on whom he will have mercy and whom be will he hardeneth Rom. 9.18 Consider how carnall reason opposeth this truth of God suppose saith carnall reason that a King would hate some of his Subjects because hee would hate them and love others because he would love them and should give no other reason of his actions but his owne will were not such a King more fit to live among beasts then to reigne over men And shall wee then thinke that the wise God doth love and elect some because he will love them and hate and reprobate others because he will hate them Thus carnall men measuring the actions of God by the rule of their own reason they see nothing but folly and madnesse in that by which God discovers his greatest wisdome to those that are enlightned to behold

I shall prove unto you affirmatively that true faith is the gift of God Lastly where the grace of the Father in the blood of his Son is apprehended for the covering of sin there is a forsaking of sin When God doth discover this that he will heale back-sliding love freely and turne away his anger Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with Idols Hos 14.8 When God pardoneth sin by his grace he will subdue sin by his grace Mic. 7.8 19. That man who hath true faith wrought in his heart he shall seele the power of grace apprehended for his justification ingaging his spirit to deny ungodlinesse according to that of the Apostle Tit. 2 11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soberly in reference to our selves 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justly in our relation towards men 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 piously or religiously in reference to God Grace will not suffer us to live gracelesly because we are justified by grace but will throughly acquaint us with our duty towards God towards men and towards our selves If the grace that thou professest teach thee not to deny ungodliness but thou livest in a gracelesse way dishonouring Christ discrediting the Gospell by thy wicked scandalous and evill life thou dost not in deed and in truth apprehend the Gospell If God discovers himself to Abraham as Alsufficient he will command him to walke before him and be upright Gen. 17. Sin shall not have dominion over us if we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. Christ will present himselfe unto us as the pattern for sanctification if hee reveale himselfe as the object of our justification Every man who hath a sure and lively hope of salvation by Jesus Christ purifieth himselfe as he is pure 1 John 3.3 He that truly expects happinesse hereafter studies purity here True Saints do desire not only to know but to doe the will of God Psal 143.10 Teach mee to doe thy will O Lord saith the man after Gods own heart thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightnesse The spirit of the Gospell will not lead us into the land of prophanenesse but into the land of uprightnesse Gods goodnesse to us will make us in love with holinesse They shall feare and tremble for all the goodnesse and for all the prosperity that I procure unto them saith the Lord Jer. 33.9 The golden chaine of mercy let down from heaven to draw us up unto God doth binde us and oblige us to the service and obedience of God If thou art an old professor of the Gospel and doctrine of grace and livest gracelesly unacquainted with the sanctifying spirit yet hast a strong perswasion that God is thy Father and Christ thy Saviour thy perswasion is not worth one farthing it will doe thee no good Where there is no desire of purity there is no work of true faith for when thou hast a true and a lively faith and thou seest God gracious loving and merciful believe it thy spirit will be carried forth in desires to be made like unto Christ in holinesse Wee all saith the Apostle with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 I thou by the lively operation of the spirit hast seene the glory grace beauty and holinesse in Christ for thy Justification thy spirit will be so enamourd with the beauty of holiness perfection in Christ thou wilt desire to see the image and picture of holinesse perfection which is in Christ to be drawne forth upon thy own heart and spirit There may bee some that may thinke that this is strange Doctrine which I have delivered to wit that a man may have strong perswasions concerning his interest in God and Christ and boast much of it and yet be but a hypocrite and reprobate all the while I shall therfore adde one place of Scripture to those which I have delivered for the proofe of this and so for the present I shall conclude Yee shall find it in Micah 3.11 The heads judge for reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets divine for money yet for all this will they leane upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us See here a base vicious and covetous people that sell Justice and the Word of God and yet are confident that they belong to God they would not preach without money in their hand like many of our Priests no penny no pater-noster no money in hand no Sermon no preaching that will not open their mouths further then it is opened with a key of gold or silver yet they professe they are the people of God and make a great shew of Religion and blinde the eyes of poor ignorant people that conclude they are the only zealous holy men in the world though their covetousnesse basenesse and vilenesse in running after Livings and great preferments may appear evidently to children Ye see by this that people may lean upon God desire to be accounted his people and be confident that he is their Father Ioh. 8. And yet may have no true faith but may be self-imposters deceiving themselves with the perswasions of their own spirits whereas true faith is onely from God bestowed upon us by him as a free gift which let the good God worke in our hearts by his grace through Christ Amen SERMON V. Faith is the gift of God EPHES. 2.8 By grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God THere is nothing doth lay the creature lower in the presence of God then a cleare apprehension of the Creators favour and goodnesse in giving all things freely to the creature The Apostle to beat down the pride of man in spirituall gifts doth make use of this quaere 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received As if he had said if thou dost but seriously consider that thou enjoyest no spirituall gift but it hath been freely given unto to thee thou wi●t not see any cause why thou shouldst be proud of it And in these words for the humbling and abasing of man and for the exalting of Gods grace in Jesus Christ he doth set downe this in the last place That true faith is the gift of God I shall illustrate this two manner of wayes First I will shew you that it is the gift of Gods power For this the Apostle drives at here when he opposeth faith as the gift of God to what he had said before maintaining that it was not of our selves Man being not able to believe of himselfe it will necessarily follow that it is onely the power of Almighty God that is able to enable a man

propositions hath beene already proved the second is evident from 2 Tim. 1.9 So that it is evident that faith floweth from eternall grace and therefore it is not of our selves but it is the gift of God Fourthly There is nothing can merit or deserve faith in man before faith is wrought and therefore it is given as a free gift This is plaine by Rom. 9.16 It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy John 1.13 There may be as much in one that shall be damned as in him that shall be saved before his conversion Peter did no more to merit or deserve his first faith then Iudas did Gods grace is his rule by which he worketh in giving faith unto any man and therefore faith is the gift of God Fifthly Gods designe in justifying a sinner through faith as hath beene formerly proved is the magnifying of his owne free love unto the creature in Christ and therefore hee doth acquaint us that faith is the free gift of his grace that so hee may devest the creature of glorying in himself or in any thing from himselfe If the Father should justifie us by grace through faith and wee should apprehend that our faith were of our selves there would bee some glorying in our selves And therefore he doth justifie by grace through faith as a fruit effect and free gift of his owne grace So proud we are naturally that though wee were convinced that we were saved by grace as a gift given unto us as almes unto a beggar yet we should be proud if wee knew that of our selves we had an hand to receive it and therefore God doth not only in his grace give us the gift of eternall life but the hand by which we receive it Thus wee are saved by grace through faith which is the gift of God Sixthly The Apostle saith that no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 12.3 But by faith we confesse that Jesus is the Christ and therefore it doth plainly follow that it is from the holy Spirit of grace The Spirit doth shew that all things are freely given us of God 2 Cor. 3.12 And therefore faith is freely given us of God If every thing then faith Every good and perfect gift commeth downe from the Father of lights if we will believe James Jam. 1.17 And therefore we must grant that faith is given unto us of God or else deny it to be a good and perfect gift Obj But some may say if faith be a gift why doth our Saviour bid us to buy gold tryed in the fire that we may be cloathed that the shame of our nakednesse may not appeare Rev. 3.18 Answ This word buying is taken properly and so it signifieth the purchasing of something by some considerable price which is given for it There can be no buying of a thing without some price Nulla exemptio sine pretio esse potest Justinian in stit lib. 3. Tit. 24. And in this sence wee cannot buy faith or Christ having no considerable price to pay for Christ before we enjoy Christ 2ly Buying is taken improperly Isa 55.1 Buy wine and milke without money and without price And if faith be to be bought it must be thus bought by us we have no money or price to part with for faith And what is thus bought by us is freely given unto us So that this objection is too weake to weaken the truth which hath beene delivered It standeth still unshaken and unmoveable upon its owne Basis Faith is the gift of God Having proved it sufficiently by these considerations that faith is a gift I shall draw some usefull conclusions from them and put a period to my discourse First This overthroweth the meritoriousnesse of the righteousnesse of our owne works qualifications or preparations before faith for the deserving any thing at the hand of God to ingage him to give us faith What we receive as a free gift cannot be given us in consideration of our merits or deservings I shall but touch this because I have formerly taken paines to beate downe the Antichristian monster of Free-will and merit of workes which like two twinnes of the same wombe doe live and dye in the same moment It is the Lord Jesus must seeke us before ever we can finde him And we cannot as we ought desire faith untill faith be freely bestowed upon us Gods free grace doth prevent mans free will And if God leave us to our selves and to our owne labours endeavours actings duties and performances and doe not come in by the power of his grace upon us we shall never be able truly and spiritually to understand any thing of free grace Away then with the foolish conceite of those who cry up the strength of mans will and his precedent qualifications of righteousnesse and holinesse for the making of some men worthy to close with Christ in a promise of free grace rather then great sinners 2ly This may informe us that such shall certainly believe whom God will enable to believe through grace Acts 18.27 An infinite power is of such strength that a finite power is not able to resist it but whatsoever power there is in the creature by which it may resist the worke of Gods grace it is but finite and the grace whereby we are enabled to believe is infinite therefore we are not able to resist the infinite power of the grace of God by which we are enabled to believe Take the Devill and all the powers of hell with all that is in the heart of man all his sinnes ignorances and corruptions conjoyning their forces to hinder the worke of faith in the spirit of a man all these together are but a finite power but when God comes hee comes with an infinite power to enable us to believe Therfore I conclude that wee are not able to resist the power of God when hee is determined to give us faith Faith being the gift of his Almighty power But some may here object with the Arminiaus that place of Stephen Acts. 7.51 Ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and eares yee have alway resisted the holy Spiri Here say they you see that men have resisted the holy Spirit therefore God doth not so worke upon men by the power of his grace that he leaves them altogether unable to resist To this I answer that there is a two-fold power that God puts forth An ordinary power in the preaching of his Word when by intreaties beseeching and promises and the like he allures and enticeth men in the preaching of the Word and knocking at the doores of their hearts for entrance This common worke of the spirit may be resisted and so all wicked and ungodly men in this sense resist the Spirit of God and reject the Lord Jesus Christ But there is another power of the spirit and that is that inward spirituall power by which God comes on those whom

the Scripture by which errour is hewen down and truth exalted Wherfore I shall give you more fully my plaine and naked meaning in this point and then shall shew you what Scripture will come in to beare witnesse to the truth which I have received from the Lord. First We are to take notice that man in Scripture is considered physically as he hath a rationall spirit joyned to an humane body And when we thus speake of man wee doe acknowledge that every man sinneth Lot David Peter Paul and the like according to that of James Jam. 3.2 In many things we offend all Secondly We may looke upon man theologically And if we thus consider him 〈◊〉 shall finde that in a spirituall sense every Christian man hath two men in him a new man and and an olde man and these two of contrary natures and operations And as sometimes we speake of a man as having two physicall beings in him and doe attribute unto him what is proper to his corporall and spirituall part as when we say a man heareth seeth walketh understandeth and the like And then again doe distinguish these two attributing to the body what is proper to the body and to the soule what is proper to the soule So somtimes the Scripture doth speak of man as having two contrary natures and then doth againe attribute that to the new or divine nature which is proper unto that and that unto the sinfull and fleshly nature which is proper unto it In the olde and unregenerated nature there is nothing but sin and the seed and spawn of all filthinesse and uncleannesse And in the regenerated part or new man there is nothing but purity and holinesse In this nature he doth not sin nor cannot sin as he cannot doe good in the other nature So that I apprehend that the man borne of God is not sinfull in his nature or in any of his actings workings or operations Hee is light in his understanding holy in his will pure in his thoughts sanctified in his affections It is well observed by Bullinger That God doth allude to the nature o● seede the nature of which is retained by those things which spring out of it Alludit ad seminis naturam quam ea referunt quae ex eo nascuntur The seed being holy that which ariseth from it is likewise holy as our Saviour doth informe us John 3.6 That which is borne of theflesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit i● spirit Not that the new-born man is wholly turned into the eternall spirit and is nothing else but the spirit as some deluded and deluding soiries have affirmed but the abstract is taken for the concrete which manner of speech is very frequent in Scripture That which is borne of the Spirit is said to be spirit because it is made spirituall by the presence of the holy Spirit in it Having acquainted you with my meaning and given you the spirituall interpretation of the words I shall draw the marrow and substance of the particulars which I named into one Conclusion which I shall endeavour to make good by spirituall arguments which I shall draw from Scripture and spirituall reason The conclusion is this The spiritual man or the man born of God in his spirituall and godly nature motions actings towards God in Christ doth not nor cannot sin Arg. 1. His seed is holy in him therefore his fruit is holy this is the argument of the Apostle His seed abideth in him and therefore he cannot sin Christ is the seed in us 1 Pet. 1.23 Every true Christian can say with Paul Gal. 2.20 That Christ liveth in him and Christ in us doth not suffer us to live sinfully but maketh us to live holily he becomming the principle of an holy life and sanctification in us A Christian is powerfully acted by an holy principle and therefore his actings are holy Christ is a pure fountaine of holinesse in us as well to fill our souls with the streames of holinesse by the Spirit as to wash away the uncleaness of our souls in our Justification And this fountaine cannot send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Jam. 3.11 The streames doe retaine the pure nature of the fountain from whence they flow Reader I must inform thee that since I Preached this Sermon I received objections from my learned friend Mr. R. L. against my arguments which I thought good to print with my Arguments Ob. Against this argument this is objected The argument from the seed to the fruit wil not follow unlesse the soyl be also answerable otherwise sorry fruit may come from good seed Answ As there is good seed so there is a good soile the spirituall heart and therefore the argument will follow This I prove Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walke in my Statutes and ye shall keepe my judgements and doe them The new heart of flesh is a good soile And because God doth promise his Spirit and a new heart therefore see what shall follow the good fruit spoken of We shall keep his judgements and doe them Arg. 2. God cannot be the Author worker of that which is sin but God doth professe himselfe to bee the Author of good workes wrought in the Saints and therefore these workes are not sin Isa 26.12 The Saints doe profes that God hath wrought all their works in them And this likewise is the argument of the Apostle who doth prove that doing of evill is sinne because it is of the Devill and that working of righteousnesse is good because it is of God Object These things are not sinne in their whole morall nature but per accidens by accident through the defect of some circumstance Answ Every morall action commanded or forbidden of God is either good or evill If these are good and no sinne then I have what I contend for If evill acquit God from being the author of evill who doth professe himselfe to be the Author of these things in opposition to Satan and his workes If you say that they are neither good nor evill or both good and evill and prove it by Scipture I shall hearken unto you But you say they are sin by accident and if they are so by accident they are sin and still you make God the Author of sin but I affirme that they are neither sin in their nature nor by accident but good and therefore untill you prove what you say I doe not see but that my argument is unshaken by this objection Object 2. Faith and love in their whole morall abstract nature are not sin but considered in the Concrete and acted by us Answ The Apostle doth speake of them in the Concrete as acted by us and doth bid us try

be enabled to doe those works which we are not able to doe by vertue of morall commands The covenant of grace and Gospel-promises should be as ineffectuall for sanctification as the law if all that were wrought in us under that covenant were sin or sinfull And therefore it will follow that a man under grace hath a purity of sanctification in him God brings us from Moses who was the Law-giver and delivers us from the Covenant of works in giving us to Jesus Christ who is the giver of grace that he may make us holy in a gracious life and conversation The Apostle sets this forth unto us Rom. 7.6 But now wee are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter We are freed from the service of God in the law of works under which wee serve as slaves till wee be brought to Christ that wee may serve as sonnes in obedience to all morall commands under the sweet gracious glorious government of the Lord Jesus Christ who is as well a Law-giver Isa 33.22 to write his lawes of faith and love in our hearts Hebr. 8. As a Saviour to save us from our sins And to cut off all objections against this argument wee may take notice that the fruits of the spirit are not onely called good and holy as they are in the promise or command but they are good and holy and called fruits of righteousnesse as they are wrought in us and by us with the omnipotent help and assistance of the holy Spirit We are called the trees of righteousnesse Isa 61.3 and feare and love are fruits of righteousness as wrought in us Jer. 31. Hebr. 8. The 14th Argument may be drawn from the oath of God If God should not performe this for the Saints God should be perjured which is blasphemy to speak The oath of God binds him God in his word which is the character of his mind hath discovered his hatred of perjury and false swearing we cannot think that God who hates perjury in others should forsweare himselfe but we have not only the promise but the oath of God for this so that unlesse we will say that God for-sweares himself we must subscribe to this truth to witt that God gives his Saints his Spirit and in the Spirit holinesse and righteousnesse I will give you a place for this Lu. 1.73 74. The oath which he sware to our Father Abraham What hath he sworne That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies here is our Justification we are delivered out of the hands of sin death and the Devill But is this all No He hath delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve him without fear that is without slavish fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Some acknowledge that the people of God shall live holily and righteously to men-ward as they speake but that the righteousnesse of sanctification is not to God-ward This place overthrowes this distinction he saith not that wee shall walk holily and righteously before men only as hypocrites may but he saith that we shall serve in holinesse and righteousnesse before him We shall not do such works which Luther and others have called vices vitia affirming that all the works of the regenerated man are vices nor such works which are sinful vitiata as some others speak but such workes which God who cannot lye cals righteous works nay righteousnesse in the abstract we shall serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse not only in the sight of men for oft-times they look on good works as though they were bad but good in the sight of God they come from a sweet fountain therefore the water cannot be bitter or brackish from the fountaine of his owne Spirit in his Saints If the works of the Saints were nothing but sin or sinfull how could the Oath of God be fulfilled that they shall serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Object Before him in this place as in other places doth meane under his protection Gen. 17.1 Answ Though it may be granted that sometimes before him may signifie under his protection yet it doth not appear that it should be the meaning of the holy Ghost in this place But he doth rather informe us how Saints doe approve themselves before God by sanctification As Paul laboured in godly sincerity to have his conscience void of offence towards God and towards men According to that speech of Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight But suppose wee should grant you this it doth still stand true that our service is in holinesse and righteousnesse And can any man be so blinde to thinke that a man shall serve in righteousnesse under Gods protection that hee should not see the righteousnesse which is wrought under his protection and if it be righteousnesse which he seeth then it is righteousnesse before him or in his sight Arg. 15. To deny the purity of the man born of God is to deny one end for which Christ dyed for Christ dyed to bring us to be partakers of a pure Divine nature in which pure nature we are to live move and act holily The place by which I shall confirme this is in Heb. 9.14 The blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God shall purge our consciences from dead workes to serve the living God We are therefore washed from sin in our Justification that we may serve God by Sanctification And what spirituall man will call that the service of God which is sin or sinfull For to doe that which is sin or sinfull is to doe the Devils service or else I am to learne that which we need not be taught to wit what it is to doe the Devils service Arg. 16. The resurrection of Christ doth teach spirituall men to act purely in their new nature to the glory of their Father Rom. 6.4 As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should walke in newnesse of life To walk in newnesse of life is it to walk in the oldnesse of that which is sin or sinfull let any Spirituall man judge Arg. 17. We may draw another argument from the Kingly office of Christ He as a King hath a command over his Subjects but he hath not the command over us when we doe that which is sin or sinfull and therefore wee doe something good as his Subjects in obedience to his commands bona bene Good things must be done well And therefore Christ doth not onely enable us to doe that which is righteous but hee doth enable us to doe it righteously Why is Christ King but that we should

sanctification at the resurrection and yet you will not say that we shall be acquitted from our sinnes by it which wee have committed upon earth but by the grace of God in the blood of Christ 2. We are justified before sanctification and therefore it will not follow that we are justified by it Because that is done before the other is wrought in us 3. That a man may be justified by his sanctification It is necessary that a man should be so wholy sanctified that there should be no sin in the man Our good works will not make satisfaction for our bad works A Traytor for an act of treason might be condemned by his Prince though he hath done him much good service If a man would seeke justification by the law who is sanctified in part the law would condemn him for his sin in his unregenerated part taking no notice of any sufficiency in his sanctification to free him from condemnation for his sinne in the unregenerated part Arg. 19. This opinion that the good works of the justified man are sin or sinfull do make divers places of Scripture irreconcileable Men shall never be well able to reconcile many places of Scripture who swallow this as a trueth that whatsoever workes are now done in the Saints are nothing but sinne or sinfull For instance in one place we are bound to disclaime our works and to account all our righteousnesses as filthy ragges to believe in him that justifieth the ungodly And in another place we are said to be redeemed from all iniquity that we might be zealous of good workes Tit. 2. And we are the work-manship of God created in Christ Jesus to good workes Eph. 2. By what I have delivered they are easily reconcileable To wit by distinguishing as the Scripture doth concerning good works thus That all the works of man under the Law are but splendid and shining sins and that the spirituall workes of a spirituall man are good and not sin or sinfull in their nature Not that the Scripture makes these good workes that flow from the spirituall man the cause or the matter of our justification but the fruits of the Spirit and the consequents of our justification It is a speech of Luthers worthy to be written in letters of gold that the whole world with all the riches of it are of no worth in comparison of good works flowing from faith and wrought by the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people Which how it can be made good I know not if that be true which he and some other Protestant Writers affirme that Omne bonum secundum judicium dei est mortale peccatum every good worke of a regenerate man according to the judgment of God is a mortall sin That which is morally evill is not so good as any thing which is not morally evill That being the greatest evill which is morally evill I have known some professors of the Gospel who have fallen to Familisme and Atheisticall opinions and being asked why they did leave the Gospel they have answered that they could never reconcile the Scriptures concerning works to other places while they were professors of the Gospel Their meaning is while they were professor upon these principles by which they were taught to look upon the works of the spirit in them as sin and sinfull That which is frequently afferted by some Mr. Eatoon Honycomb and others that they are good to men-ward will not make up the breach The Apostle Peter speaking of a meeke quiet spirit which is the ornament of the hidden man of the heart saith that it is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3.4 The Apostle speaking of his fincerity in preaching the Gospel is not affraid to bring it into the sight of God 2 Cor. 2.17 And John saith 1 Joh. 3.22 That whatsoever we aske we receive of him because wee keepe his Commandements and doe those things which are pleasing in his sight And that he doth not meane believing only is plain by the next verse where he saith That this is his Commandement that wee believe on the name of his Sonne Jesus Christ and love one another And to stop the mouth of the objection which is usually brought against this truth to wit that he speaketh of doing as in Gods precept or command and not as done by us He saith that we receive what we aske because wee doe what is pleasing in his sight I must professe to the glory of God that this distinction hath given me a great light in the understanding of the Scripture And by this I am informed that I am justified without holiness or sanctification and yet that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 Arg. 20. This opinion that the good works of a man born of God are sin or sinfull doth overthrow the distinction which is warranted by many thousand places of Scripture between good works and bad works and doth draw a curse upon the doer of it Can evill be good or good evill Woe unto them that call evil good and good evill that put darkenesse for light and light for darkenesse that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa 5.20 What else doe they doe who plainley averre that every good work is evill Object Doe we deny the difference betweene white and blacke because we say that in most white bodies there is a mixture of some blacknesse with the whitenesse c. Answ If it could be proved that there were a mixture of that which is of the spirit and that which is of the flesh that that which is spirituall should be made fleshly by it there would seeme to be some strength in this objection But untill that such a mixture bee proved by plaine Scriptures we shall think it sufficient to affirme that such similitudes which have not their foundation upon a principle of truth do prove nothing Arg. 21. It taketh away the difference between a sanctified and unsanctified man which is a distinction which doth stand firme upon the basis of the Scripture of truth The Apostle doth plainly lay downe this distinction 1 Cor. 6.11 Where hee informeth us of the condition of the Corinthians before conversion to wit that they were thieves adulteresses and the like such were some of you and then setteth forth their blessed condition after conversion But ye are washed but ye are sanctified And doth second this truth with his owne experience acknowleding that there was a real change wrought in himself after conversion by sanctification 1 Tim. 1. I was saith he a persecuter a blasphemer injurious but the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with 〈…〉 love which is in Christ Jesus not with 〈…〉 but love also If God hath pulled you out of the fire of sinne and drawne you as fire-brands out of Hell and brought you into the glorious kingdome of his Son ye are able to professe the same sanctified change in your selves It is a dead

dwelleth in God dwelleth in love 1 Ep. John If I should preach the Doctrine of Justification and write volumes of it yet if I find after all this that I am without this love I am nothing If I speake with the tongue of men and Angels If I could prophesie and had all faith to remove mountaines yet if I have not love I am but as sounding brasse and a tinckling Cymball Hee that loves God by apprehending Gods love he cannot but love God again and his neighbour yea enemy for Gods sake Therefore if a man say I have been a professor of the Gospel but finde not love to God Christ and my enemies for Christs sake It is as if hee should say Sir I have been a professor of grace many yeares and have been looked on as one that knowes Christ but I know him not for I have not true love that accompanies true faith Arg. 26. God speaking of faith love fear zeal the like as in us doth promise to be the worker of them in us and therefore if these should be sin the fault would be chargable upon him I would have this argument to be wel weighed because it answereth the ordinary objection to wit that these fruits are good and no way faulty as in the precept of God but not as wrought in us God is the Author of them by promise as they are wrought in us which will make him the Author of sinne if they be sin or sinfull If faith and love is sinne then he hath Covenanted to work sin in thee for hee hath covenanted to worke feare and love in thee But farre be it from us to have such a thought of our holy God If God work feare in our hearts that feare shall not be sin or sinfull We know the excellency of the Artificer or work-man by the aedifice or building and doe judge what worke-man God is by his glorious work in the spirits of the Saints and if God worke onely sinfull things in us what worke-man would we conclude him to be Paul saith by the grace of God I am what I am 2 Cor. 15. It is by grace that I love it is by grace that I feare with a filiall feare it is by grace that I am zealous for God If this love were sin if this feare were sin if this zeale were sinne wee might lay the fault upon the worke-man It is Gods work not ours but his Non mea sed tua sunt Aug. speaking of good workes saith They are not miue but thine Unlesse we will disparage and undervalue the grace of God wee may not looke on these things as sinne or sinfull but ought to looke on them with a spirituall eye and to see them as God doth to be spirituall and good Object Our workes as they are from God are good but as they are from us so are they sinfull and defiled As walking as it comes from the soule it is upright and free from lamenesse but as it is acted by a lame leg so it is lame and halting Answ This objection will appeare to be a lame objection if it be made evident unto us that the holy foote given unto us by God is not a lame foot Was it with a lame foot that David will runne the wayes of Gods Commandements Is it with a lame legge that God hath promised we shall runne and not be weary and walke and not faint Isa 40. last Vse 1. This may be sufficient for the confutation of those who doe not distinguish betweene the regenerated and unregenerated part in man as the Scripture doth distinguish laying the bastardly brats of the flesh at the doore of the Spirit confounding the workes of the flesh with the good and perfect gifts of the spirit Jam. 1.17 and not considering that though there is the flesh and the spirit in the same man that yet they are distinguished in their natures workings and operations The spirit and the things of the spirit like oyle swimming upon the surface of the waters doth not change it selfe into the nature of the flesh Their usuall similitude doth not prove what they would maintaine to wit that the worke of the spirit is like cleare water poured into a dung-hill which though it be clear and pure in the bason yet running through the dung-hill doth become as impure and filthy as the dung-hill it selfe For though these two are in the same man yet they doe not mingle themselves the one with the other that any of them should lose their own beings But because these men are furnished as well with arguments by which they desire to prove what they contend for as with objections by which they endeavour to weaken the strength of the arguments which have been laid downe for the confirmation of the truth Give mee leave to give an answer to their arguments as I have already presented unto you answers to their objections Arg. 1. Paul was a regenerated man yet he confesseth that he was not able to performe that which is good Rom. 7.18 Therefore no regenerate man is able to performe that which is Answ Paul doth give a sufficient answer to this objection in the preceding words of the same verse where he saith in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing by which it is evident that he speaketh of himselfe in reference to his flesh And this is a truth which with all the faithfull I willingly subscribe unto But when he plainely speaketh of a man in the spirit freed from the clouds of temptations and power of the flesh in the last verse of the same Chapter he saith With the minde I my self serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin It is good to serve the law of God but Paul in the Spirit had attained unto this and therefore Paul was enabled to performe that which is good According to that of the Apostle Phil. 2.13 It is God wh worketh in us to will and to doe of his owne good pleasure Arg. 2. There is none that doth good no not one Rom. 3.9 10 11. which is meant aswell of the regenerate as unregenerate as is evident by vers 23 24. because it is meant of all who are justified freely by his grace as appears further by the instances of Abraham and David which were regenerated Ch. 4.2.6 Therefore no workes of the regenerate are without sinne Answ It is plain that the Apostle speaketh here of a man under the law and of an unregenerate man by the things which are spoken of him Hee saith that none seeketh after God can you affirme this of a regenerated man when the same Prophet who in the 14. Psame doth give us a character of a wicked man out of which this is taken in the 24. Psalme doth give us this character of a man truly godly that hee is one of the generation of those who seeke God 2. The Apostle saith that there is none that understandeth But blessed be God the

by the law of holinesse which is in the new covenant we should plainly perceive that it is by the Spirit of grace that his workes are freely wrought in him and by this means all legall glorying and carnall boasting is taken away According to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it By which you may plainly see that the argument will not hold good to say that if a man work perfectly under a covenant of grace that his reward is not of grace but of debt I shal therefore give you a short answer to the first part of this argument by distinguishing of a two-fold working 1. under a law of works and there it is true that if a man worke perfectly his reward is of debt 2. Under a covenant of grace where a mans sin is freely forgiven him and by free grace he is enabled to worke righteously and there his reward is not of debt to speak properly but of grace Secondly Though we deny that God giveth any reward to a spirituall man as a debt due unto him for his merits and deservings yet wee affirme that God giveth rewards to a spirituall man who doth good works And therefore it is said that Christ commeth with his reward with him to give every man as his worke shall be Revel 22.12 And Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward Hebr. 11.26 And this reward may be called a debt not in reference to mans merrit but in reference to Gods promise of grace as a man by his promise may make himselfe a debter to a beggar And therefore the Apostle speaking unto the Saints Hebr. 6.10 saith That God is not unrighteous to forget the worke of the Saints and labour of love And John exhorteth us that wee lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward 2 John And in this sense something may be given unto us as a reward of that work of grace which is given unto us before it Our confidence in Gods grace may have a great reward in this respect According to that of the Apostle Heb. 10.35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward And this may be an answer to the second part of this argument Arg. 10. If the workes of the regenerate be not evill because the holy Ghost worketh them Then the works of the unregenerate as his love and obedience to his parents are not evill Answ There is a generall concurrence of God as the prime cause in the doing of some things by wicked men and thus God may concur to the doing of a thing yet the thing as done by the wicked man may be evill because not done in faith And it is no solid argument to conclude from hence God did concur in the doing of this thing and therefore it is not sin or sinfull 2ly There is a speciall concurrence of Gods grace and Spirit in the doing of a thing as hee is the principall agent in working good spiritually in the Saints who are under a covenant of grace And when God doth concur w th the speciall powerfull assistance of his grace for the effecting of a thing in a Saint it is safe to draw a conclusion to prove the goodnesse of the thing from the considering of the principall agent which did concurre in the doing of the thing As John doth in these words maintaining that a spirituall man considered as a spirituall man and acting as a spirituall man cannot sin because his seed remaineth in him By which distinction you may see the weakness of your argument with which you would prove the unsoundnesse of my arguing from God considered as the principal agent to the effect And the disparity of Gods working in the regenerate and unregenerate When God doth work in a spirituall man that which is spirituall it is not only good substantially and materially but formally and circumstantially by the grace of God as I have proved at large And therefore this argument is not strong enough to overthrow what hath beene delivered Arg. 11. Either the holy Ghost workes the works of the regenerate man wholly as the sole cause and then it is not wee but the holy Ghost that believes that loves that fears God that repents that prayes for the forgivenesse of his sin c. which were absurd to imagine or else we also work with him in some kind of causality to the producing of those workes that so the works may be said to be ours our loving our fearing our rejoycing our praying If so then are we in this working either perfect or imperfect Agents If perfect agents then is there no ignorance in our understandings no depravation in our wille no perversenesse in our affections The contrary whereof all the truly faithfull find by experience and the Scripture abundantly testifieth But if we be imperfect agents then cannot perfection come out of imperfection no effect can be better than its cause Ans 1 The efficiency of the first cause doth not take away the efficiency of the second cause In God we live move yet it is not God that moveth he though he moveth all things cannot be moved himself immobilis movens omnia Aug. So it is not God that repenteth but we repent The ignorance of which truth hath been the cause of the wicked mistery of Familisme which my soule abhorreth And therefore we shall agree in the truth which is implicitely laid down in the first part of your Dilemma 2ly Whereas you say that all the faithfull grant that man is an imperfect agent I answer that if we take perfect here in this point as it is opposed to that which is sinfull so many Saints doe grant and all should and will as more light is beamed into their soules grant it that the sanctified and spiritual man considered as farre forth as he is a spirituall man doth work as a perfect Agent not as an unholy but an holy man And therefore according to your rule his action must be spirituall and holy And this may give an answer to that argument which is brought from Job Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Job 14.4 3ly Whereas you say that no effect can be better than its cause c. This is not universally true A man imperfect by the want of his armes or legs may beget a childe which is perfect and hath its limbs But this not being much to the purpose I shall not contend about it Arg. 12. If the new man never sin Christ came not to save the new man for he came only to save sinners Answ The new man taken in this spirituall and theologicoll sence is not the object of salvation but an elect person guilty

the false perswasions and workings of your owne humane spirits A faith of your selves by which ye have been perswaded of those things which ye have received by the relation of thing to the eare will not save you but that faith which is wrought by the Spirit giving an heavenly revelation of Christ to the heart Therefore try whether your faith be from your owne humane spirits and naturall understandings or whether it proceed from the power and spirit of the most high God mightily working in you for the salvation of your soules But you will say How shall we be resolved in our spirits that our faith hath not proceeded from our owne spirits but that it is a work of God in us 1. When God works faith he gives an evident light by which wee see the truth of our faith and thus the faithfull are in the first place assured of salvation in believing The just doth live by faith Heb. 2.4 and hath his life and righteousnesse by faith If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 The speciall presence of Christ in the soule doth make a man a new creature and by faith the new creation in us is discovered unto us and therefore Christ is said to bee formed in us by faith Gal. 4.19 So many as receive him by faith are born not of flesh nor of the will of 〈◊〉 but of God and have power to be the sons of God 1 John 12 13. By faith wee are the children of God Gal. 3.26 and know that we are the children of God 1 John 5.10 Hee that believeth on the Sonne of God hath the witnesse in himselfe By which words it appeareth how true faith differeth from a wavering opinion unde apparet quantum differat à fide fluxa opinio Marlor It is the office of faith to beare witnesse to the certainty of our salvation and to give in a testimony of our happinesse by Christ Jesus The blood of Christ doth purge the conscience from dead workes Heb. 9.14 By faith we drink this blood of the Sonne of God Iohn 6.53 and look upon him who is invisible to the eye of reason by this eye of faith which is the evidence of things not seene Heb. 11.1 Christ is set forth as a propitiation and object of our justification by the Father Rom. 3.25 And by faith wee looke upon him who is set forth us to us to be looked upon It is life eternall to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17.3 And true faith is nothing else but the true knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ Fides quid aliud est quam vera de de● cognitio Cyr. Hee that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not shall not see life John 3.36 In which words our Saviour doth seeme to put a difference between a believer and an unbeliever The unbelieving man seeth not eternall life but the believing man seeth eternall life and hath eternall life abiding in him by which he knoweth that he is freed from the death of sin and from the temporall and eternall death for sin and shall not come into condemnation For when a man truly believeth heaven is opened unto him and he hath a spirituall discovery of Christ made unto his soule But it is not so with a man who hath a perswasion formed in himselfe by himselfe As John said that what hee had seene hee declared unto them 1 John 1. so every spirituall man may say that he hath seene Jesus Christ With Stephen by faith he seeth God and his Son Jesus standing on his right hand Christ is so perfectly presented to the eye of faith that the believer doth by faith looke upon a crucified Christ as though he were present before him Gal. 3. The Apostle to prove the effectuall calling justification of the Thessalonians doth affirm that the Gospell came unto them in much assurance 2 Thes 1.5 Enquire now in thy owne spirit whether thy faith is such a faith as this which the Scripture doth call the unfeigned faith of the elect and if it be such a faith it is not of thy selfe but it is the gift of God 2ly The Kingdome of God being not in word but in power thou that dost truly believe hast found the word of salvation to come unto thee with a mighty power This was an evidence to Paul of the truth of the conversion of the Thessalonians because the Word came in power unto them 1 Thes 1.5 Thou that hast trusted to a perswasion of the grace and favour of God to thee in Christ wrought in thee by thy own spirit thou hast had no heavenly power in this perswasion But he that hath faith wrought by the spirit of God there is a mighty power of God comes downe upon him when hee is enabled to believe Thou that hast a false faith apprehendest it an easie thing to believe because thou didst never feel a power from above comming upon thee to enable thee to believe Whereas the true believer knoweth that it is a difficult thing to believe Because the work of faith is the work of omnipotency According to that of our Savior Io. 6 29. This is the worke of God that ye believe in him who he hath sent Therefore if upon examination thou dost find that thou art only perswaded concerning the mysteries of Christ and the grace of God as thou art perswaded of naturall things in a naturall way and hast not felt the power of heaven enabling thee to believe thy faith is a false faith For where there is true faith a man feeles the power of God enabling him to believe the testimony that God gives of his Son Christ I will give you a plain place to confirm this Ephes 1.19 20. where hee praying for them that they might see the mighty power by which they were enabled to believe doth make use of many very emphaticall expressions that ye may know saith he what is the exceeding greatnesse of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead There hee speakes not only of a power but the greatnesse of power and not only the greatnesse of power but the supereminent greatnes of his power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as though hee had not spoken enough to set out the Almightinesse of the power by which we are enabled to believe hee doth inform us that such an operation of the power of the vertue of God for so the words may be translated by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and declared to be the Sonne of God is put forth for the enabling of us to believe Thou that hast not this power in thy soule thy perswasion is wrought in thy spirit not by the spirit of grace truth but it flowes from thy own naturall and carnall spirit and it is a perswasion

that will never doe thee good it will never bring thee true comfort A man that hath not a better perswasion than this shall never see the face of God with joy 3dly Faith which is not of our selves doth carry us out of our selves A faithful man hath his life not in himselfe but in Jesus Christ He liveth not by the principles of the first but second Adam He hath his spirituall being in the Father and in his Sonne Jesus Christ He is joyned to the Lord and is one spirit Hee seeth the Father in the Son and the Sonne in him and the Father in him through his Son According to the promise of our Saviour John 14.20 Ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Paul speaking of the spirituall Thessalonians affirmeth that they are in the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.1 By faith we enjoy the glory of union The glory which thou hast given me I have given them that they be one even as we are one John 17. Though we have not the glory of equality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet we have the glory of likenesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though we are not united to the Father so immediately as Christ is by himselfe and in himselfe yet we are united to him mediante Christo by the meanes and mediation of Christ Jesus This is the honour which is given to those who trust by a lively faith in the name of the Sonne of God 4ly Faith which is not of our selves doth carry us beyond the world A believer looking upon Christ overcomming the world for him doth through faith overcome the world by him 1 John 5.4 Whatsoever is born of God overcommeth the world and this is the victory that overcommeth the world even your faith Therefore the Saints are said to be cloathed with the Sun and to have the Moon under their feet Rev. 12. Because being through faith cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ who is called the Sun of righteousnesse Mal. 4.2 They trample upon all sublunary things as worth nothing in comparison of Jesus Christ Fifthly He that truly believeth in Christ is anointed with the spirit of Christ and assured of his abiding for ever in Christ 1 John 2.27 The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him God should lose his earnest if it were possible for us to miscarry to the losing of our soules after wee have this earnest from him which bindeth him to bring us to heaven and happinesse This spirit perswades us that we are the sons of God that God will lose none of his sons Hee that hath this spirit knoweth that no man that hath the spirit can speake what he feeles from the work of the spirit of adoption in his owne heart Hee admires grace when hee lookes on God reconciled in Christ to sinners lookes on himselfe reconciled to God in believing and when he feeleth the spirit of God witnessing with his spirit that he is the childe of God hee can goe boldly to the Throne of grace knowing Christ as his elder brother God his Father in him Selfe-deceiving hypocrite dost thou not begin to be convinced that thy faith is not the true faith of the Gospell by that which hath been spoken concerning this faith which is not of our selves but the gift of God 6. As I told you even now There is never true faith but true love follows it Love is an ndividual companion of faith Therefore such as have faith and never have love accompanying of it may be confident that their perswasion concerning the grace and goodnesse God in Christ is but a carnal and not a spirituall perswasion True faith worketh by love therefore if mine work not by love it is a false faith this is an undenyable argument Brethren mistake me not in this point unto which I now am speaking mis-apprehending my meaning as if I bid you love God the brethren that you may believe be justified no but I tell you now that where true lively and justifying faith is there love will follow When we doe in the light of the spirit apprehend Gods love to us and the love of Christ in giving himselfe for us wee cannot but love God againe and love Christ who hath loved us and given himselfe for us So that where there is no true love there is no true faith If it be truth that where fire is there will be heat it will necessarily follow that where there is no heat there is no fire So if where true faith is love will follow it will necessarily follow that where true love doth not follow there true faith did not precede 1 John 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us He that loveth not God hath not apprehended Gods love to him As farre as thou believest in a spirituall way the love of God shall constrain thee to love God Tantum diligimus quantum scimus love is answerable to the measure of our faith or knowledge Hee that hath Pauls faith shall have his love We say that love is the load-stone of love magnes amoris amor So Gods love doth draw forth our hearts in love to God God in Christ when he is presented unto us for our justhification doth appeare to us as such a lovely object that we cannot but love him The greek proverb is that loving is wrought by seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so when by faith we see the love of God in Jesus wee cannot but love God And therefore John saith 1 John 4.8 That he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love Wherefore that faith by which thou art perswaded of the love of God to thy soul which carries thee not back again in love to God I dare speak it in the presence of God that that perswasion is not wrought by the spirit of grace but is the worke of thine owne carnall and naturall heart If any man saith the Apostle love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 Let him not be accounted as one inalbo fidelium in the list of the faithfull Let him be excommunicated look not upon him as a true Christian Peter though hee had denyed Christ not long before yet he was confident that he loved that Christ whom he had denyed when Christ asked him Simon sonne of Jonas lovest thou me he saith unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee John 24.15 When Christ the second and third time proposed the same question unto him he remained still confident of his love And appeals to Christ the searcher of all hearts as to one who knew the truth of his love v. 17. Hee said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee I shall but adde one thing more because I shall God willing have an opportunity to enlarge my self in this point when