in that we are said to be married to God in Faith Hos 2.30 and by it come to be one with God and God in Christ with us that we may be saved even as two married persons by marriage come to be one See John 20.21 where this Oneness or Unity and Believing are so conjoyned But here I must resolve a great Question Quest Suppose we should be perswaded by you to force our selves thus to believe will Christ have us if we will have him Sol. O yes for you have his Promise for it which brings me to the principal thing that * begets Faith and without which we cannot * To expect Faith without a Promise is as if we should expect a crop of Corn without seed For the Promise is an immortal Seed whereby the Spirit begets Faith The Author of the Poor doubting Christian drawn to Christ expect any true Faith even the Word of Promise Quest Where is that Promise Answ In the Prophet Hos 2.9 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever And ver 20. I will even betroth thee unto me in †Understand the Grace of Faith bestowed upon us Jun. Tremel in loc Faithfulness Do ye hear this O poor souls In the Uses premised I suppose ye were startled and troubled not a little for for that end they were fitted that thereby you might be * For none can prove or shew president that Faith was wrought in an instant at first without any preparation going before Rogers of Dedham in his Doctrine of Faith p. 63. prepared for this which puts you upon believing But now be comforted and now be perswaded that Christ will have you if you through the Riches of his Grace will have him O Sirs you may believe him that what he promises he will do for it is impossible son God to lie Heb. 6.18 Now here you here and see his Promises here it lyeth in this Book here I shew it to you shewing you the Book the Chapter the Verse wherein it lyeth and shineth and sparkles above the brightness of any Ruby or Diamond O believe believe only for why should ye not If a woman have a mans promise that he will marry her she believes him because of his promise and will ye not believe God having his Promise Man may lie and often doth lie but God cannot therefore give credit to his Word and be married to him in Faith and so make an end once of that great match which hath been so long hanging betwixt Christ and you O cry to him and say Lord I see thou wilt needs have me and therefore I will have thee and no other for my dear and everlasting Husband O come Lord Jesus and marry me this day in Faith and for ever O for ever for so thou hast promised me Here give me leave to give you a Caveat about the Lord's Promise The Promise is likea Staff and you know the back-side of a mans hand cannot take a Staff but let him turn the palm of his hand to the Staff he may take it so turn the right-side of your souls to the Lord's Promise forcing them to believe as Abraham against hope Rom. 4.18 that is though you have but little or no hope when you look upon your selves and upon your great unworthiness yet in hope when you look upon God's unparalellable Goodness and his by you undeserved Kindness and you may take it but we turn the back-side of our hearts to the Promise when the heart saith O my stubbornness and O my unworthiness this is the wrong-side of the heart and this will never let you take Christ but rather be a let to you which will ever hinder you from marrying Christ and from believing in Christ therefore beware of it But I desire to use one artifice more to draw you unto Christ so as that this very time you may by God's Blessing come to believe in Christ I 'll deal with you as they dealt with Rebecka when Eleazar was come to her to have her married unto his masters Son they called for the Damsel and asked her Wilt thou go with this man Gen. 24.58 So will I call to you now being come for you to marry you to my Masters Son even to Christ that heavenly I saac will you go with me will you follow me Will you come after me to my Masters Son Christ I mean the Son of God Formerly I did but perswade you but now I come nearer home to your hearts and bosomes and ask you what you will do expecting an answer answer therefore O ye men of T and all you that hear me and answer every one of you in his heart what ye intend to do loe I give you time what say ye will ye go or not believe or not believe be married to Christ or not be married if you have a mind to it indeed by an over-ruling hand and Power of God upon you though flesh and blood be utterly against it and say nay to it yet do you say as Rebeccka now after all this every one of you I will go I will go ver 58. come what will come though all my friends be against it though my unbelief do gain-say it though my sluggish flesh do diswade me from it and though sin and devils do as much as they can oppose me in it O sweet Jesus loe I come though it be long first yet now at last I come to take thee for my most dear and only Saviour Lord and Husband O take me sweet Saviour and let me be thine and be thou mine as it is written My Beloved is mine and I am his yea and feed me among the Lillies that is with thy Lillies or celestial Consolations which for their cooling refreshing are like Lillies Cant. 2.16 O souls souls is this your mind your purpose your resolution this day if it be then say all of you Amen to it in your hearts I intreat you and bespeak you about it once more O my God if this people have such an heart given them this day then blessed be thy holy name for it now and for ever if not give them such a heart now before I leave them that by believing and loving they may be in thee and thou in them I humbly and heartily obsecrate and beseech thee II. Repenting that is sorrowing for sin and confessing and forsaking of sin which parts of true and sound repentance in this place I chiefly aim at the one making us lower then we were the other better both are bitter but better it is for all to tast of their bitterness now than to suffer for the want of them hereafter 1. Force your selves therefore to mourn to grieve for your great and grievous sins now in this world according to that in Joel 2.12 13. that ye may not suffer for them in the world to come nay come let us all weep and lament together as we have all sinned together that God may comfort us at
sweet promise Gen. 3.15 The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head which our first Parents so relished and esteemed after they had once tasted it as that they wrote it upon Pillars as * Josephus and Melancthon in Chron. Char. Josephus relates it and from time to time resorted to it and them as to their Meeting-place for their Souls refreshing Or Shall tread down Satan under your feet as the Elders of Israel upon the Necks of the Cananean Kings as Conquered Again Shortly ye fear ye shall never be freed from such and such Temptations and from such Blasphemous Thoughts as are injected by him It was my case once for I thought so too that I should never be delivered but you shall saith God and I found it so Make much of this promise therefore and prize it above fine Gold and above Rubies and above Pearls for it is more worth and more then all England is worth and embrace it and be perswaded of it Heb. 11.13 2. By the Word Promised I mean Christ the Word Substantial and God blessed for ever for he is that Seed of the Woman which shall bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 He it is that hath spoiled Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly Triumphing over them in his Cross Col. 2.15 He it is of whom it is said that those which are now in Heaven which they have won by force have overcome him by his Blood Rev. 12.10 12. And he it is which covers us in our Warfare against Satan from top to toe even throughout with himself as with an Armour of Proof Rom. 13.14 It is said of †Xiphilin in vita Trajani Trajan the Roman Emperour that he would cut in pieces his own Garments rather then his Soulders should want a rag to cover their Wounds Semblably whereunto Christ our Emperour so covers his Souldiers with himself lest they should want an Armour to cover their Souls in the day of Battel Take therefore dear Christians and fellow Souldiers the Lord Christ along with you as you go to encounter Satan and go sprinkled with his precious Blood and when he tempts you and tells you that ye shall be damned and also entices you to uncleanness to lasciviousness to wrath to envy to malice to revenge to swear to lye Oppose him with Christ and shew him his Precious Blood Saying Lo here is Christ who will bruise thy Head Lo the Blood of Christ which doth wash away all my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 And lo the mighty Power of Christ whereby I trust that I shall overcome all thy power having put about me that strong and mighty Lord that I may vanquish thee and conquer all these thy Temptations in the power of his Might Ephes 6.10 O Sirs after 〈◊〉 mode and method deal with Satan and he will slee from you For he cannot endure the sight of that precious blood but must needs pass by us and let us alone when he seeth it as that destroying Angel passed by those Houses whose door-posts were sprinkled with the blood of the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12.23 It is reported that Satan one time came to a poor sinner diguised as if he had been sent by God and told him that he must confess to him all his sins and that he is to write them down and to carry them up to God whereupon the poor man confessed as many as he knew but told him withall Write this too underneath The Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 which when the Devil heard he vanished immediately So powerful is that Precious Blood to profligate that potent Adversary which caused me therefore to write that very Sentence upon my Desk when I was under great trouble of mind that I might alwayes view it in my Studies and be comforted by it in my distresses 2. The World The whole World lies in Wickedness 1 John 5.19 which in Latine is rendered thus In Maligno positus quasi in * Royard hom 2. in Eph. 6. malo igne positus that is Is placed in an evil Fire set on fire by the Devil here called Evil and therefore we must needs oppose it and by no means agree with it though we must pass through the fire as it were to overcome it As some brave Warriors have charged their Enemies through the very Fire in Towns set on fire Object You will say That the World is strong and mighty and that you find it so by woful experience what a mighty enemte it is and that therefore you know not what to do to overcome it Sol. To this I answer 1. Remember what was said by Christ John 6.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the World So that you have to do with a conquered slave and therefore fear not little Flock for you shall overcome it because Christ hath conquered it already for you to make your conquest easie to you 2. Ponder the words of St. John This is the Victory which overcometh the World even our Faith 1 John 5.4 Mark He doth not say it will but it doth overcome the World O the Power O the Strength O the Puissance of Saving-Faith which is so victorious saith he as that it is a Conquerour over the World wheresoever it is nay is Victory it self If then you have Faith fear not but use it and use it against this vast this vile this vain this false this wicked World believing verily that it shall not prevail against you because that Faith which is in you is stronger than the World which is against you 3. The Flesh For O what an Enemy is it to all Flesh O how it wars how it combates and how it fighteth against the Spirit that the best of us cannot do as we would So that needs we must fight against it and break by force through all the allurements and oppositions of it Object You will say Why then saith the Apostle We wrestle not against Flesh and Blood Ephes 6.12 Sol. I answer His meaning is as †Zanchius in loc some say not simply or as others not * Petr. Lombard Thom. Aquin. only for then one Sword should be as long as an †Marlorat in loc other and one man so strong as an other The Flesh then must be conquered as well as Satan for it is as great an Enemy to the poor soul as he if not greater which caused the Apostle Peter to write thus Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from Fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 O the poor soul how it is pestered with it For when it would fast and humble it self before God the Flesh saith I must feast eat drink and be merry when the Soul would sill it self with Heavenly Meditations the Flesh saith I must fulfill my Lusts I must fill mine eyes with Adultery and fulfill my desires with this
be not yet come as it is said of those Figs Mark 11.13 For the time of Figs was not yet then you must even wait till that Gospel-Angel shall come which shall move the Waters that is your affections so powerfully as that you may stir as those blind and lame and impotent ones at the Pool of Bethesda John 5.3 4. and till the Spirit of God himself shall come and move upon the waters of your affections effectually as he did Gen. 1.2 to produce and to bring forth a new Creation even your Regeneration which God in mercy grant 2. Case The second Case is this But suppose there be a stirring amongst us since you preached thus so as that many of the things which you pressed have been done among us may not all that be in vain and if so what shall we do in such a case I answer three wayes 1. Granting 2. Discovering 3. Advising 1. Granting that you may stir and do many things in vain for Many shall seek to enter and shall not be able saith Christ in Luke 13.24 And did not Herod stir and perform and reform many things in vain Mark 6.20 2. Discovering namely the Causes why you may stir and do many things in vain For first You may build without a foundation that is you may want a due deep and sufficient Humiliation so much required Joel 2.13 Jam. 4.9 10. 1 Pet. 5.6 Secondly You may refuse to go thorow-stitch As Herod who kept his Herodias Mark 6.22 Thirdly You may trust to your doings as the Pharisee did Luke 18.12 Which you may know by these two Signes 1st If you be proud upon your doings as the Pharisee who so boasted of his fasting twice a week and of his paying of tithes duely Luke 18.12 2d If you presume upon your doings so as that you make bold thereupon with one sin or other as the Pharisees who trusting in themselves despised others Luke 18.9 That sin of despising others went with their trusting to their doings and in themselves Beloved if a base fellow abuse a Kings Son men are apt to say Surely some body upholds this fellow and he trusts to that else he durst not do so So we may say of men and women that abuse the Son of God with one sin or other whether it be some base lust or passion or usury or pride or wrong thereby doing despite to the Son of God Heb. 10.29 and and to the Spirit of Grace certainly those men trust to their doings to their prayers to their going to Church that upholds them and upon that they are so bold to do as they do else they durst not they hope that these their doings and duties will bear them out as doubtless Herod thought so too when he kept his Herodias Mark 6.22 Fourthly You may depend upon your sayings As for example Because you can say and have said Lord we believe help our unbelief and our Beloved is ours and we are his As I taught you in the foregoing directions to say you may think that therefore you do believe when you do not but only say that you do believe This is notably set out by St. James What doth it profit my Brethren though a man saith that he hath Faith Jam. 2.14 Mark Though he say Which sheweth that as it is now so it was then there were men who thought that they had Faith because they could say and did say that they did believe That was their Faith and that is most mens Faith now ‡ The World is now as it was in Ages past Rel. Medici p. 12. And therefore O the infinite Deceits and Fallacies of that old Serpent O the unfathomable Mazes of his Devices O the abyss and depth of his Subtilties Thousands have been so deluded by him and millions there are now in Hell suffering the Vengeance of eternal Fire because they have hearkened to him 3. Advising I say Advising you that It 1. You want Humiliation and have not yet been duly deeply and sufficiently dejected and so have built without a good foundation you lay such a foundation yet for else how can your building stand If a House or Castle be not founded upon a sure Foundation we know it cannot stand but must needs totter and come down And so must all that which you do come to nothing if this Foundation be wanting lâ—ke that Seed which wanted deepness of earth whereby we may understand depth of Humiliation Mat. 13.5 and therefore be humbled nay deeply and sufficiently humbled for all the evils of your wayes nay for the evil even of your holy things and doings and be not quiet till you be unquiet nor rest till you cannot rest nor give over I mean humbling your selves till you be come over to that depth of sorrow which your horrid miscarriages and misdemeanours call for In a word as David and his men wept till they could weep no more 1 Sam. 30.4 So do you grieve till you can grieve no more for * Nam ultra posse fiery Non vult lex ulla requiri then God will require no more See 2 Cor. 8.12 2. If you never went thorow-stich yet then go farther and thorow yet for how many have come short of Christ and Heaven because they would not do a little more even as some miss sometimes and go without a good bargain or purchase because they will not give the other pound or piece nay sometimes some part for a groat O do not you so too but if any thing be yet wanting add it if a little more be required do it if a little more must be given for Christ and Heaven give it O do not go without it for a smal matter give the other groat I pray you let it not be said of you that you left Christ Life and Salvation for a groat that is for a smal matter because you would not do a little more and go a little further pray a little more meditate a little more and do somewhat else more which ye never did yet O Sirs I must needs press you to this for so runs my Commission Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Mat. 28.20 So that needs you must do all that which in my former Directions I have taught you and which Christ our Saviour hath any where enjoyned you though it be never so cross and contrary to your depraved natures if you would be saved 3. If you formerly trusted to your doings do so no more but say as Israel was taught to say Ashur shall not save us Hos 14.3 So Prayer shall not save us Fasting shall not save us could we speak with the tongues of Men and Angels could we set open our eyes like Sluces with weeping could we soar up in the pensiveness of our thoughts like Eagles and thereby even peep into Heaven yet should we not be justified thereby And therefore we trust to be saved only by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and
2. Grieve the Spirit that should comfort them Whereas careful providers for death rather 1. Blow up the good motions and workings of the Spirit as much as in them lyeth by their careful and holy walking and applying of the Lord's Promises so that needs they must feel more joy and comfort then others that do not so even as one that bloweth up Coals doth feel more heat then he which suffers them to go out 2. Please the Spirit of God and cherish his motions by their conformity to his Nature in that they labour to be as Spiritual as possible they may and so consequently to partake of his Nature so as that the Spirit being pleased and cherished cannot but please and cherish them again as they please and cherish him for if we that usually are very unkind and ungrateful yet cannot but be kind to those that be kind to us and make much of them as they make much of us how much more will that most kind and holy Spirit of God chear up those that cherish him and make much of them as they make much of him See Acts 9.31 how therefore they that walked in the fear of the Lord are also said to walk in the Comforts of the holy Ghost 2. Such are most fit for comfort and joy For 1. The muchness of Grace which is in them and procedeth from them cannot but be evidently seen and observed by them and cause them to joy in it and to be even exceeding glad for it like a man that hath and finds a treasure that was hid in his field see Mat. 13.44 Now the finding of such a Treasure will chear up the heart 2. The enlargment of their holy desires and endeavours cannot but procure joy which is an Laetitia quasi latitia enlargement of the Heart Psal 119.32 and is given to holy and careful walkers as a gracious remuneration from God Psal 97.11 3. Holy walkers and careful providers for death cannot but attain to a most happy consecution of that good which they desire even the enjoying of Christ by Faith a cognition or knowledge of the same consecution which is * Delectatio requirit consecutionem boni convenientis et consecutionis cognitionem Tho. Aquin. 1.2 q. 32. a. 1. required unto delectation as well as the consecution it self so that they cannot but rejoyce more or less sooner or later with that joy which is called Unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. or at least with a lesser degree of joy if God for causes best known to himself be pleased to suspend and to deny that higher degree of rejoycing 4. They are in a manner in Heaven already and Heaven is in them in that they mind nothing almost but Heaven as I shewed that men ought so to do so as that they cannot but joy in that which is so full of joy enjoying the very same objective Happiness with the Saints in Heaven though not the same subjective Happiness as not being yet capable of it for if he that is but in a Goldsmiths shop cannot but receive some splendor from the Gold that is in it how much more shall they that mind nothing but Heaven and so have their conversation in Heaven partake also more or less of that Joy Blessedness which is in Heaven and which the true Believer seeth as it were and beholds by his Faith and seeing admireth and admiring in a manner possesseth for by Hope we are saved already saith the Apostle Rom. 8.24 * Arist 2. Rhetor 11. Aristotle saith expresly That Admiration is the cause of Joy and Delectation because it maketh us hope that we shall acquire something which is delectable and joyful And therefore conceive ye what Joy the vision taking possession of Heaven it self which is so rare and so full of admiration must needs cause in a truly serious savingly believing mind For your greater delight and encouragement I 'll here set down some of those triumphant passages which some careful Providers for Death have uttered to this purpose a little before they were by Death unmanned I feel a light said * Fox Justus Jusbery one of Christ's blessed Martyrs which refreshes me with joy far above that which I am able to express desiring nothing more now then to be dissolved and to be with Christ So Adolphus Clarebachius Martyr at his death I believe there is not a merrier heart in the world at this instant than mine And for my part said Mr. Deering as concerning death I feel such joy of spirit that if I should have the sentence of lise on the one side and the sentence of death on the other side I had rather chuse a thousand times seeing God hath appointed the separation the sentence of death than the sentence of life So Mr. John Holland a fruitful Minister of God's Word having the day before he dyed continued his Meditation and Exposition upon Rom. 8. for the space of two hours or more said on a sudden O stay your reading what Brightness is this that I see have ye lighted any Candles No said one it is the Shunshine Sunshine said he No it is my Saviours Shine Now farewel world welcome Heaven the Day-Star from on high hath visiced my heart O speak it when I am gone and preach it at my Funeral for he spake to a Minister c Mr. Leigh in his Sermon intitled The Souls Solace against Sorrow p. 17. who relates it God deals familiarly with men I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God he knows but I see things unutterable O what a happy change shall I make from night to day from darkness to light from death to life from sorrow to solace Thus joyful holy Walkers and true Believers have been at their departure and therefore be ye perswaded to trace their steps and to follow as ye ought those most needful Directions and Rules which were formerly delivered that so living and so dying by with and according to Faith you may also be mounted as the said Believers were upon the wings of Joy and feed as they did on those ravishing and transcendent Comforts which God like Manna is wont to rain down upon his holy Walkers in this men devouring Wilderness the World I mean from which God in mercy bring us all in the end of our dayes to a World of Joy and Glory which shall never have an end Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS