potestas a power in the Soul to do something peculiar in calling things to remembrance carries a flaming Torch in its hand over all the chambers of the Soul â—nuert Instit and by Physitians and Philosophers is reckoned one of the three inferior senses Now in this as in all other powers Faith hath its residence and acts in and from them upon its most noble and spiritual objects I shall not recount many Scriptures Some trust in Horses and some in Chariots Psal 20 7â— but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God even what he hath done for us of old and trust him still Saints use to call to mind former mercâ—ies to encourage Faith I will remember thee from the land of Jordan Psal 42.6 and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizzar the little hill Mizoar before Zoar. In which and the like places David escaped the violence of Saul Memory helps Faith in a gracious person recalling the ancient benefits of God to his Church and his wonders of old Help a Holy mans Memory as to former actings of Faith in his straits and you comfort him presently with the sweet hope of continued deliverances till he arise to the great deliverance in the Heaven of glory But lest I be tedious I shall prosecute no more but descend to the second Section of this Chapter SECT II. Of the Primary Efficient Cause of FAITH AS to the efficient Cause Author or Worker of Faith in the heart we know that every good gift comes down from Heaven And hence Faith is sometime ascribed to the donation of God essential being called the gift of God the Faith of the operation of God. Again Jam. 1.17 Eph 2.2 Col. 2.2 Phil. 1.29 â— Thess 1.11 Phil. 2.13 t is said to be given to the Saints to believe and the work of Faith is said to be the effect of his mighty power In which and in all other heavenly gifts and graces to will and to do are both wrought of God. As t is in true repentance a grace that 's alwayes conjoyned with Faith and leads out of our selves by the hand of Faith into Christ the former being given of God so is Faith. â— Cor. 3.5 All our sufficiency to think but a good thought slides down from Heaven Q. If you ask then How thoughts come into the heart A. I Answer They flow into the head or heart by the power of imagination thru the windows of the senses or from concreated ideas or by some instillations and special infusions from God as it is in all curious Arts and Sciences Prev 8.12 He is the finder out of all witty Inventions as we read in the case of Bezaleel for the Tabernacle and in Hiram for Temple works If you ask whence holy thoughts come I answer from the infusion of the Spirit Gen. 1.2 and his warming the waters of the Soul as it is exprest by Moses in the first Creation so it is in the new Creation from the breathings of the Spirit on the garden of spices which â—e himself hath planted in our hearts Isa 26.12 Psal 33 22 1 Chro. 29 18 1 Joh 2 27 So it is in the work of Faith as the Church expresses it Thou hast wrought all our works in us and for us he causeth us to trust or hope in his Word He begins and inspires good thoughts into us and keeps them in the imagination of our hearts He teaches and anoints us with the oil of the Spirit He makes all new within us and puts hearts of flesh into us Jer. 31 18 Ezek. 36 26 and turns us unto himself because he is the Lord our God having accepted us into covenant relation with himself Sometimes the work of Faith is ascribed to the Father as in that to the Ephesians Eph 1 19 20 we are made to believe by the exceeding grâ—atness of the mighty power of the Father even the same power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Joh. 6 4â— And otherwhere it is said that no man can come to the Son that is by Faith except the Father draw him by the golden chain of his electing love and teaches him from his chair in Heaven Besides the work is oftentimes ascribed to Christ who is said to be the Author and Finisher of our Faith and that he is exalted to give repentance and forgiveness of sins Heb 12.2 Act 5.31 both which are intimately connexed with Faith as in the case of the Father of the tormented Child Mark 9.24 praying to Christ to help his unbelief But more especially and immediately it s attributed to the holy Spirit who works in our understandings to think of heavenly things and puts holy motions into our hearts which are the original of those sudden thoughts by darting of Scriptures and precious Promises into our memories Rom. 8.5 9. â— John 14.26 and kindling sparks of light and comfort in our hearts yea the witnessing of our spirits to him are wrought by him He inclines our wills to embrace himself and Christ our Lord. For if we have not the spirit of Christ Rom 8.9 we are none of his Yea Faith it self even as all other graces are given by one and the same spirit Again one of the fruits of the Spirit is recorded to be Faith 1 cor 12 9 and to speak with reverence it is from his implantation and inoculation in the new paradise of the Soul. Gal 5.22 Yea and after that we have believed we are also sealed up in the Faith by this holy spirit of promises He seals all his own gracious workings upon our hearts Sometimes Believers are said to receive the Holy Ghost presently upon the first work which evidently shews the connexion of Faith and holiness by the same spirit Eph 1.13.13 19.3 16 17 Hence t is observable that tho Prophecies be never so perspicuously and radiantly fulfilled and tho admirable miracles were performed to illustrate the presence of the Deity yet they wrought not the least grain of Faith without the energy of the spirit he must add thereto an inward miracle upon the heart Thus it befel the Israelites in the Arabian Desart Deut. 29.3 4. For God sayes Moses gave them not a heart to perceive unto that day Just so the Capernaites they saw Christs blessed person and his eminent Miracles but believed not as not being given to them by the Father Joh 6.36 37. John 12.37 and so it was with the Pharisees and other Jews tho he had done such great works before their eyes yet they believed not on him There must be therefore a working power of the spirit concomitant with the Ministry of the outward call of the Word else none shall believe the report of Christ by Isaiah Isa 53.1 unless the arm of the Lord be revealed within Hence it is that some have professed to have heard a kind of voice at their
heirship and all the priviledges and liberties of the children of God Sanctification to mortifie the power and dominion of sin and to quicken our graces and duties to support us against and under all fiery tentations to eularge and fortifie our spirits under dificult services and to persevere to the end Phil. 1.6 1â— that at last we may attain the redemption of our bodies from the dust and the resurrection to glory But these resort more properly under the tenth and last chapter and therefore here I forbear 7. The next place sets forth Faith by our cleaving to the Lord with full purpose of heart Aâ—s 11 23. Isai 28.16 When the soul is glewed by an holy love to the mercies and goodness of God it will then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stedfastly abide with him It makes not haste out of the mountains of Zion as if full of bogs and quakemires Deut. 10.20 Josh 2â— 8 1 Cor. 1.17 2 Cor. 11 2 but as being setled on the strong and lofty rock of ages This closing of the soul with God is often set down in Scripture by that trust and assiance which a true believer hath in God adhering on cleaving to God is a term also which sometimes attends upon conjugal relation wherby true and faithful persons having the yoke of that union lined with the soft velvet of love 1 Cor. 6.17 become one as in person by the law so much more in spirit and delight To the same purpose the Apostle affirms that true believers being united to Christ by a true and lively faith become one spirit with the Lord and long daily to be more sully espoused by larger affections of the unction of Christs spirit in order to the solemnity of that glorious marriage-day of the Lamb. Rom. 7.4 Rev 19 7 Phil 3 20 And this is true faith indeed when persons long for the appearance of Christ in glory 8. Next follows that term of embracing of Christ as the Saints of old being first perswaded of the truth and goodness of the promises Heb 1â— 13 then at length embraced them utrispue ulnis with all affection and what are the promises but the precious fine linnen wherein Christ our sacrifice was involved after his death at his funeral which is the principal object of our saith even Christ in his sufferings This act of embracing notes our ardent affection to him delight in him and heavenly communion begun betwixt Christ and the heart of a believer Love is Faiths Agent and factor Faith worketh by love a true lover of Christ is certainly a true believer in him and this love increases by faith and faith by love For the soul determines it The more I know of his Excellencies the more I believe in him Rom. 5.4 5 and I love him more because I have the experience of Christs love to me In this very state of the valley there is a mixing of hearts and spirits but in heaven the soul is swallowed up in his love for ever 9. In the ninth place a Believer arrives at this reverent freedom with the Lord in all its streights and dificulties to cast its cares and burdens upon him being both commanded and encouraged by him to do it Whenever I am afraid saith David Psal 56.3 He trust in thee If the heart safely trust in a friend Prov. 31 11. there follows a mutual unvailing and disclosing of the most secret and bosome counsels Psal 71.3 Jer 20.12 Psal 142 2 So does the soul pour out its sorrows and open its whole cause before God. Three things make a friend or relation desirable power to protect wisdom to advise and love to comfort and mingle joys sorrows together All these are eminently and transcendently found in heaven There 's a heart large enough to entertain thy moans Jam 1â— wise enough to guide thee in the dark turns of Providence and so good as not to upbraid thee and can command Legions of Angels at a beck for protection â— Pet. 5 7. Let us therefore cast our care upon him for he careth for us and 't is worth notice what the Apostle terms thy care the Psalmist terms thy burden promising that the Lord will sustain thee to shew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividing cares Psal 55.22 heart-rending cares are great burdens But divine sustentation and support of the soul in trouble plainly shews that God takes a fatherly care of thee and will not suffer thee finally to be moved as Davids song in the end of that Psalm since thou art a righteous man and hast cast all thy soul-battering cares upon Gods promise which are but so many tentations to try thy faith and trust in him Besides this trust is exprest by casting anchor within the vail Heb 6 19 When the ship of the soul being turned up-side down as to the world though too near the earth in this bodily estate yet in spirit sails above the firmament and makes all its sails upward still Rev 11.19 and if any storm arises it then rides at Anchor upon the Ark in heaven within the vail beyond the starry Canopy as upon the rock of life the Lord Christ himself 10 In the tenth and last place faith acts by Resignation giving up all its comforts into his heavenly hand when a true believer both living and dying commends his spirit into his divine manutenency during this frail life in all the mighty turns circles or helixes of providence full of intricate meanders and mazes past finding out is led by a hand coming down from heaven So that all ends well with a Saint his stormy dayes do always end in a sun-shine evening He gives up himself to the guidance of his counsel and as to death both for time place way and method yields up all to his safe conduct and yet sometimes breaths out with a most humble and reverent motion his soul still lying in the dust of submission before him to grant him an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an easy departure out of this life if it may be his holy pleasure and still quietly hoping and waiting for his salvation Thus Jacob in the Old Testament in the midst of his last languishments cries out I have waited for that Salvation O Lord gen 59.18 Luke 2.30 23 46. and good old Simeon in the New Let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen and mine arms embraced my Saviour and thy Salvation This did our most blessed Lord Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and so did blessed Stephen Lord Jesus receive my spirit testifying to the Deity of Christ Acts 7.59 the immortality of his soul and the resurrection of his body in the same prayer of resignation There may be found in Scripture some other passages exhibiting the nature of Faith and Trust as fixing the heart choosing of Christ waiting for his coming and expecting the blessed day much to the same effect
God permit And likewise the fifth about Entring into Covenant by Faith and shall now proceed to the sixth Chapter neither shall I handle that in the full Latitude I had prepared but speak more succinctly in some things under that Head for the same Reasons CHAP VI. The necessary and inseparable connexion between Sanctification and true FAITH WHat I may at present exhibit on this Subject may be comprized under these Heads 1. Let 's treat a little of the nature of Sanctification 2. Shew the undivided connexion between that and Faith. 3. Intermix some complaints about formal Professors 4. Answer a Case or two and end As to the first we may peremptoryly determine the point that wherever true Faith dwells there must and will be true holiness both in heart and life and where it is not that person who pretends to Faith without it is a self-deceiver and in his attendance upon Ordinances without life-obedience is but the servant of base hypocrisie Hei. 1.12 c Will any dare to tread Gods Courts on sacred dayes and lift up crimson hands in prayer that are full of blood and stain'd with bribery and oppression God loathes to smell any perfumes in such assemblies mixt with the unsavoury stench of their defiled bodies and putrid lives True Sanctification does not lie in outward solemnities and the gaudery of Temple-worship Jer. 7.22 as the Prophet treats the Jews in the Name of God that he commanded them not concerning Burnt offerings and Sacrifices or the Incense of Sheba 6.20 or the sweet Cane of Arabia that is comparatively no nor principally as he did moral duties of piety and honesty To obey is better than sacrifice 1 Sam. 15.22 and to hearken than the fat of Rams Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of fed Beasts Mich. 6.7 or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl or the children of our bowels to smoke upon his Altar no no! But to to do justly love mercy Psal 50.17 and to walk humbly with God this O Man is good in his sight Will God eat the flesh of Bulls Psal 69.31 or drink the blood of Goats no! he requires the offerings of praise and thanksgiving this will please him better than an Oxe that hath young horns and hoofs Hos 6.6 Jos 5.7 10 Amos 5.25 Act. 7.42 Mat. 12.7.9 13. Mnrk. 12.33 Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 and therefore in cases of mercy God dispenses with Ordinances as he did with Israel in the Wilderness both as to Circumcision and the Passeover for about forty years together but with Moral duties never Our Lord bids us therefore to go and learn this point more diligently For a Pharisee may be huge ceremonius with his white linnen about a platter but yet neglect the weighty matters of the Law Justice and Judgment and Mercy Whereas true Sanctification is a work of Gods Spirit renewing the whole man after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness whereby he is instructed and inabled in all wayes of Scripture obedience to mind the weighty and principal things of love to God and our Neighbour and not leave undone those lesser points which belong to any institution of God and not of man. By this inward work upon the heart the sanctified person immediately begins the practice of Mortification in dying to sin and of rising to newness of life but yet this work is not perfectly and compleatly wrought in any person during this life therefore we must interpret the Apostle in his prayer 1 Thess 5.23 that the Thessalonians might be sanctified throughout not in the highest pitch of degrees but of soundness and sincerity in every part 1 Cor. 6.17 and member of the new Adam There is a habit of holiness infused and wrought in the heart by the holy spirit of promise by which means we are joyned to the Lord and become one spirit with him We do not of our selves first believe and so receive the spirit of God this were to ascribe the actings of faith to the power of man before the infusion of grace but first the inspiring and inclining motions of the spirit descend into us â—oâ— 3.3 Eph. 2.22 whereby we are enabled to believe on the Son and to become by one Spirit united to him as our head All habitual graces are wrought in us feminally at first and at one time yea Faith it self as to the order of time is infused together with the rest in the same moment of our regeneration and sincere conversion to God. Habitual holiness therefore in the production of its blessed fruits and faith among the rest does antedate all the particular acts of Faith or other Graces As in natural Generation all the powers of life are in semine concepto animato formed at once Aristot d. gen animal l. Pecquet de venis lacteis but the heart having implanted within it the true sanguifying virtue becomes the primum vivens movens the first living and moving principle which is discerned by its pulsation like the desires of the Soul in the beginnings of Faith yet all sensation attraction digestion excretion sanguification formation of nervous juices and spirits with locomotion and the rest are all settled at once but display their operations afterward at the command of the rational soul Much like hereunto is the work of the new conception formation and exertion of spiritual and vital acts In the first actings of the Spirit we are passive being found of him after whom we sought not at first but after Isa 65.1 that by a connexed power and concourse of the holy spirit we act and rely on Christ in the promise of life Eph. 4 16 Col. 2.9 10 and receive all the supplies of nourishment from the glorious head of influence thru ' the spirit Even as the head of the natural body conveys the animal spirits thru ' the several conjugations of the nerves into all parts of the body to manage both sensation and motion Isal 44.3 Mat. 3.11 1 Cor. 6.11 As the Scripture expresses it we are sanctified in the â—ame and power of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our GOD. As to the Author of Sanctification it is no other than in all gracious works even God essential and the spirit of God in his more particular Operations and Applications As for preparations to grace in any spiritual way before the influences of the spirit Eph 2 1. they are insignificant and unsavoury notions for by nature we are dead in sins and trespasses T is the same holy Spirit who inclines at first to the use of means and warms the heart in and by them as appointed and sanctified of God. There are 't is true various degrees in moral habits and their actings by the common work of the Spirit in his ordinary efficacy but in many moral persons in the state of nature these moralities produce as of old in the Scribes and Pharisees strong and very
vigorous resistance against the more spiritual operations of the holy Spirit of God. 2. I proceed now to the second point premised which is to shew that Faith and Holiness are inseparable companions like Jonathan and David native twins coming up from the washing of regeneration both together which may be evident as follows 1. Because Faith is a part of holiness or the new creature in the renovation of the image of God whom to believe on his Word was the duty of Adam in Innocency and is indeed a branch of the first Commandment and part of that blessed pourtraicture is restored again by Christ under the new Covnant By nature since the fall 't is true we incline to distrust God and believe Satan before him and in not obeying him in trusting to his Son upon his Word we give God the un truth as to the method of salvation by anothers righteousness But indeed Faith is a prime part of our holiness whereby we trust God as to his promise of eternal life by his blessed Son Jer 17 7 Act. 26.18.15.19 and is the very critical and discerning character between a true convert and a carnal man We are said therefore to be sanctified by Faith in Christ and the heart to be purified by Faith not from it self as an efficient cause of holiness but as it daily fetches and derives holiness from him as head of the Church Gal. 5.6 So that Faith in sanctifying us after the first infusion of grace is a power or vertue co-operating with the spirit of God and enjoys a constant concourse of the same holy Spirit in all our spiritual actions 2. Another ground may be taken from the conjunct work of the spirit John 3. who in his very first impulse and motion to true and saving conversion at his coming down into our hearts for that purpose works both Faith and Holiness at the same moment 3. Because our blessed Lord came into the World 't is the end of his advent to us not only to be the object of our Faith but to save us from our sins Mat. 1.21 Tit. 2.14 1 John 3. â— and Faith must act upon him for that end to purifie and deliver us from our iniquities not only for salvation from hell or wrath to come but also from the guilt and filth of sin For we are chosen in him to be holy and created in Christ unto good works Christ gave himself to redeem us from all iniquity Eph. 1.4 2.10 Tit 2.14 to purifie us for a peculiar people zealous of good works I where we may observe justification and sancttification riding together in the same Chariot If then all gracious habits be wrought at once the too much nicety of arguing about the precedency of this or that grace is to be rejected as not agreeing to the uniform work of the new nature nor the inward experience of saints whose graces work according to influence opportunity of providence 1 Cor. 12 11 the good pleasure of the spirit in his assistances who divideth to every one severally as he will. We may admit somewhat as to congruity of the seeming order of nature or time but not press such conceptions over strictly for various experiences will contradict the curiosity of such notions But we may firmly determine that the understanding cannot spiritually discern the excellencies of Christ 1 Cor 2 14 nor the will of man stedfastly believe in him nor the affections savingly embrace him till we are first regenerated by Gods most holy Spirit who is powred out into every faculty and power of the soul at the very first initials of Conversion 4. Because the Commandments of holiness are part of the object of our Faith in its doctrinal foundation Rom. 7.12 Therefore Paul in his conflict sets down this as a maxim that the Law is holy and the Commandment holy just and good 5. Besides the truth of our Faith is demonstrable by holiness as its genuine effect It s vain for persons to pretend to Faith where this is wanting tho' it may not appear so evidently at the first Jam. 2.17 The Apostle James spends a large discourse upon this Argument to prove that Faith without the works of holiness is but a dead Faith. Indeed our holiness being imperfect does not justifie the person before God but it justifies the faith of the person to be true and the Apostle Paul conjoynes Faith and Holiness together and thence proves our eternal life 2 Thess 2.13 Blessing God for having chosen the Thessalonians to glory and proves it because they were sanctified by the Spirit and did believe the truth of the Gospel 6. Lastly Because the application of Faith or the working or actuating of our Faith upon Christ in the promise doth not only sweetly and clearly manifest our being justified but assists us also in the obtaining and increasing of holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 They walk and work together For how do the precious promises of the covenant purge us from sin and all filthiness of flesh and spirit but by the acting faith in Christ and so do embrace Christ for our sanctification 1 Cor. â— 30. and in his name and power derive holiness from those precious promises which are the golden Pipes or nerves that convey it from our glorious head Whence it comes that our belief of the inheritance promised and of Heavens aimiableness revealed by the Word and ratified on and by the verity of God helps us daily to walk more holily and to be made more meet for that Kingdom with the Saints in light And thus it is Act. 15.7 Lev. 4 20 33. that Faith purifies both the heart and life for glory Even as under the Levitical Law the action of the Priest in his offering the Bullock and sprinkling the blood before the Lord is said to purge away sin Rainold praelect vol. 1. p. 123. or make attonement for their sins that is instrumentally So may Faith be an instrument in deriving the sense of our justification and the sweet influences of our sanctification from our blessed Lord in believing the sanctifying promises made in his Name and actuated by virtue of his holy Spirit Now then according to that common and useful sentiment there be two works that attend Sanctity the first is to mortifie sin and the second to vivifie and quicken Grace Pet. 3.11 that we may be holy in all manner of conversation and this not of our own power either to begin carry on or finish but wholly by the work of the Spirit at first and then by his gracious concourse with every holy action of the new creature to the last being carried on by the power of God thru ' Faith to Salvation This is so great a Scripture truth that t is to be admired that the impugners of it who stand upon their own power so much both as to conversion and as to perseverance should be so noted for looseness
bitter root of all this Wormwood and Gall and being very desirous to deal in compassion as having been under some tentations I spake with several and found upon conference these following to be the principal causes of this Bondage of Spirit The 1. Was great ignorance of the true nature of Faith and of the main fundamental Truths of the Gospel which did amaze me to find upon search in so many glittering talking but indeed shallow Professors 2. Another was the great Levity Vanity and Laxness of their lives trifling out their precious time in fidling querks tales and jests to please some whose Trenchers they hang upon like the Parasites in Theophrastus not liâ—e the blessed People of the former age who far outshined us in the purity of Conversation and therefore in the brightness of their assurance 3. Others I observed to be of a froward perverse ill-natur'd ill-conditioned sower humor full of prate and unprofitable multiplicity of words censures backbitings hollowness of true friendship often murmuring at God and quarrelling with their Superiors 4. Others I perceived to be naturally of a fearful timorous wavering inconstant suspitious spirit ever learning and never coming to the knowledg of the Truth 5. And to end most people extream worldly couvetous full of sordid over-reaching tricks and cunning cheats in dealing and unless for a show basely backward to any excellent works of charity and strict in examining the poor to find an evasion which Jerom so complains of in some of his age Such as these eat out the very power of godliness and rob themselves of the season of meditation Periclitatur religio in negotiis Piety is lost in a crowd of worldly business with these and the rest I must declare that the holy Spirit of God delights not to hold communion as being fiery or miry Spirits Hereupon in my retirements I hope by the Grace of God I pitcht my thoughts when I could not be so publickly useful as formerly upon the composing a small Treatise of the genuine nature of Faith and in a peculiar Chapter to shew the individual connexion of Sanctification of heart and life in every gracious Believer In the management whereof I thought it might not be inexpedient to lay its foundation upon the Doctrine of the verity of the Scriptures in one Chapter and of the Deity of our blessed Lord in a second after the Preface the former being the Doctrinal object of Faith the latter the personal Now forasmuch that in all Sciences there be certain Principles on which their Theoremes and Maximes are built we may consider of the like in Divinity that the Holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.15 16. being able to make us wise to Salvation are the only true Basis and Foundation on which all the great Doctrines of Holiness and Happiness do most firmly insist In particular that great point of Faith which bears it self on the new Covenant of Grace revealed in those sacred Pages I thought meet therefore briefly to endeavour the proof of this high point that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the undoubted Word of the living God and thereby to be received with all veneration imaginable as the solid fundamental of true Christianity in special of the weighty Doctrine of Faith And this I have the more willingly performed at the entrance of this Tract that good Christians may not I hope need to go otherwhere to draw but have sufficient to settle their Faith on this Foundation tho it be more amply enlarged upon abroad Now whereas it may be said that Principles are indemonstrable as in Mathematicks and other Sciences Suarez 5 to Mettaph L. C. we must understand that Maxim of the Principles of Essence and not of cognition or knowledg It is so as to the verity of Holy Scriptures we cannot demonstrate them any further and t is enough than that they are founded on the glorious Authority of the infinitely wise true and most holy God as consentanious to the verity and excellency of his nature and published by his injunction as the rule of life and means of communion with himself in eternal happiness The Lord hath spoken and who shall not tremble Amos 3.8 Oh that Majestick stile Ezek 14.4 c. Thus saith the LORD makes Men and Devils to quake and rottenness to enter into their Spirits when God sets it home upon their Consciences My Design then is to shew that at the Revelation and Exhibition of the holy volumes that I may both satisfie and confirm weak Believers and convince if possible scoffing Atheists that there were such mighty Testimonies of their divine original attending the dispensing of them to the Church and the World that may convince all of their Heavenly Off-spring if persons put not on the veil of wilful ignorance 2 Cor. 3.15 detaining the truth in unrighteousness And in the close it will appear that Hystorical Faith well grounded is useful to true and saving Faith. There are then two principal points which did await their sliding down from Heaven into the hearts of the illuminated Pen-men inspired by the Holy Ghost and the uttering of them to the People in their distinct Ages which may be comprehended in the first Chapter 1. The wonderful Oracles and Prophecies mentioned in those sacred leaves which have been punctually fulfilled in the several Generations of the Church 2. The Divine Miracles above and beyond the power of nature exhibited at those two great junctures the delivery of the Law by Moses and the promulgation of the Gospel at Mount Zion In the conclusion of this first Chapter I intend God willing to treat somewhat of the consignation of the Canon of Holy Scripture a Point much desired by some and may be of use to others In the second Chapter let us speak to the Deity of our blessed Lord which indeed is the grand point of Christian Religion the very Foundation of the Church of God as Nicephorus Callistus reports a Story of a deep Cave discovered at Jerusalem under the ruines of the old Temple when the Jews by the permission and instigation of Julian to contradict the Prophecy of our Lord would needs attempt to build it again but were beaten off by Thunder and Lightning where they found within it upon a Stone Pillar the Gospel of the Apostle John fairly laid and preserved Let the Patriarch protect the truth of the story I mention it allusively to this great Truth that lies at the Foundation of the true Church that the Deity of Christ the principal design of John's Gospel is the only Rock laid by the Father in Zion Isai 28.16 without which our Faith sinks and all our hopes vanish If that be a nullity all is gone Christianity is a vain Profession and our Bibles as to Christ and the new Covenant of Grace of no value Wherefore O Professors of this true Religion hold these two points inviolable as your lives The verity of the Scriptures and the Deity of
conversion as holy Austin declares expresly concerning himself under a fig tree in the Garden at Millain Confes l 8. c 1â— not difformous from that of the Prophet Isa 30.21 They shall hear a voice behind them saying this is the way walk ye in it Q. But some may say If Faith be wrought by the Holy Ghost Gal. 3.2 how is it said that we receive the Holy Ghost by Faith A. I Answer Tho the Holy Ghost work Faith in us at first that Faith which was wrought in us by him is further augmented and increased in us by the fame holy spirit and acts together with him in prayer for a further addition of his gifts and graces Besides in the primitive times it was the method of mercy that when persons had declared their Faith upon that they received the Holy Ghost in his dona ministrantia or gifts for good of the Church I might treat further of the adjuvant suborninate and instrumental causes the various and wonderful methods the seasons and times of divine working As Naaman was excited by a poor captive Maid at home and by his Servants abroad to believe God for his cure by the Prophet it is in thousands of cases and notable circumstances wherein God produces this blessed work but I must surcease and end with a deduction that since the work of Faith is supernatural and our conversion birth from the spirit then are we not the sons of God begotten by the will of man Joh 3 6 Joh 1 12. but of God and are breathed upon with the breath of spiritual life by that free agent the spirit of God. Not where and when the heady list and free will of man pleases that great Idol of a perishing World Act 18 29 Prov. 1.19 Eph 2 1 rejecting the free grace of God. Faith is of Grace There 's no power in nature to believe nay the very preparation of the heart is from the Lord. We are by nature dead in sins and trespasses and can no more believe than the old feigned Atlas can support the heavens or an inconsiderable fly with her impetuous hummings can shove a Mountain into the Sea. But I pass to the six Sections belonging to this Chapter whereof briefly hasten-to the Chapters I chiefly aim at SECTION 3. The next thing to have toucht was the more immediate and peculiar Object of Eaith and that 's no more than the person of our blessed Lord in his sufferings our beloved Saviour on the Cross viz. to believe on his Name to look up to the Antitype of the brazen Serpent John 1 12 Act 16.31 Rom 5 11 3 25 when lifted up upon the pole of the Gospel As Paul told the Jaylor If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved a Lord to Rule a Jesus to Save and a Christ to Anoint us and so we shall receive the attonement For God hath set him forth for a Propitiation through Faith in his blood without blood there is no remission Heb 9 22 and without blood of an infinite value there can be no expiation to infinite Justice Now if any be so bold as to dispute with their Maker why this way and no other I Answer Rom 9 20 Who art thou that repliest unto God being thy self but a defiled shiver of a pitiful Earthen Vessel ready to be dasht in pieces every moment I shall rather turn off to answer the caril of a Jew who being askt how they can expect now to be saved since their magnificent Temple and the brazen Altar of Sacrifice lie in the dust whereas they are commanded not to presume upon Sacrifice but in that place at Jerusalem since also they can legally pretend to no pardon without blood and yet will rest upon that place misinterpreted of a poor mans Offering of a handful of fine Flower Lev. 5.12 and Moses his saying from the Lord that his sin should he forgiven him To which may be answered that the Temple was dâ—dicated and the Priest and the Altar were Consecrated with blood Mat 23 19 which gave a vertue to all the Sacrifices and offerings but I rather reply that this handful was to be offered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as we translate it according but upon the Offerings of the Lord made by fire This being joyned with the Lords Flower which was continually burnt with the Lords Lamb of the morning or evening Sacrifice and so had its vertue from that bloody offering But alas there 's now no place to offer either Lamb or Incense or Wine or Oyl or fine Flower according to Gods Institution since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and Hadrian the Roman Emperors Let us pray therefore that the poor Jews might be enlightned to come to theâ— blessed Altar of the Cross of Christ and to this Priest of the Tribe of Judah Heb. 7 28 who is Consecrated for evermore But le ts remove to the fourth SECT 4. The fourth section should exhibit wherein the true and genuine essence of Faith consists The formalis ratio or that which gives to it the force and power to unite us to Christ and thereby to receive influences from him Of this having said somewhat already in this Chapter and intending God willing to dilate upon it in the next and shew that it lies in recumbency or relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ as he is set forth in the Gospel promises I shall strike off to the fifth SECTION 5. 5. The fifth particular concerns the great ends of Faith. The first and more immediate is the forgiveness of sin and justification of our persons by the imputation of the meritorious Blood of Christ Acts 13.38 39 As Paul in his Sermon at Antioch in Pisidia preacht the forgiveness of sins and that all which believed in him were justified from all things as to which they could not be by the law of Moses according as the Evangelist exprest it Mat. 1.21 He came to save his people from their sins A second is the Salvation of our souls according to Peter receiving the end of your Faith the salvation of your souls 1 Pet 1.9 The last and ultimate end as of all both persons and things is the glory of the wisdom justice and mercy of an infinitely holy God. Rom. 4.20 Johc 17.23 For he that believes on the son glorifies the Father also As Abraham being strong in Faith gave glory to God so Christ professes in prayer that he was glorified in his believing Disciples and when all the Saints shall triumph together in heaven their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or song of victory will be with blessing and honour and glory and power to him that sitteth on the Throne Rev 5.13 and to the Lamb for ever and ever even the Lamb that was slain even the same that taketh away the sins of the believing world SECTION 6. In the sixth place it 's of great use to amplifie
Lordship and drunk down the royalty of fishing in many Rivers As 't is easy to see in the turns of estates from the old to new upstart races in the antiquities of many counties described by diligent men of late But what is worst of all they are ready to sink into everlasting burnings in flaming pitch and brimstone in that direful and bottomless lake Quest 2. If true holiness be so rare a Jewel and always connexed with true Faith then help us to know whether we are indeed truly sanctified Answ 1. I answer we may know that we are truly sanctified if we have been exercised in godly sorrow and repentance for sin joyned with an holy hatred against it True penitent tears like salt-waters do purge and cleanse the soul Bitter sorrows and an inward sense ef Gods wrath with an holy awe of Gods precepts and threatnings Zâ—ch 12 10. and a sincere desire of a mendment fit the souls pallace for the carrying on of grace Holiness of life and reformation of our ways does alway follow inward and sincere Repentance 2. An inward satisfaction with and some delight from the heart in a convincing Preacher that searches his heart to the bottom and le ts out the old corruption and then pours in the Samaritan Oyle of the Gospel upon the acute wine of the Law yea he reverences and loves him for his work sake and faithfulness to his Patient Obj But may not an unfanctified person shew outward holiness and have some inward dogmatical Faith as Herod and others A. Their Obedience is neither universal nor permanent Luk. 8.13 Heb. 6.4 10.24 2 Pet. 2.20 and their Faith not rooted in an unfeigned love to Christ No more here to this intending a further measure in the eighth Chapter To conclude about Sanctification with the words of that holy and reverend Person Bp. Vsher in his little sheet about the two Witnesses Being askt by a Lady of Honour what Sanctification was after some modest diversion brake out into this expression That it was the offering up tho whole will to God See Brit. Divinâ— at Dort. p. 11â— which was more than all burnt offerings and Sacrifices To which I may subjoyn that none need to dread or fly back from the flames of affection in this free-will Offering tho' it be difficult to â—â—esh and blood for t is perfumed with the Frankincense of our Lords passion-offering at the brazen Altar and the fragrant mingled Incense of his intercession at the golden Altar So that in conclusion all the holy wayes of wisdom are pleasantness and all her paths are peace Thus much at present to explain a little the nature of holiness in this Chapter together with a sad lamentation dropt upon the Herse of vain Professors in these dayes But le ts add Let him that stands take heed lest he falls be not high-minded but fear for thou standest by Faith Rom. 11 20. 1 Cor. 4.7 and that grace of God alone makes thee to differ Let us now finish this excellent and useful Subject of Holiness tho' mixt with some warm reflections for the good of souls and come to a very comfortable Subject about the Beauty and joy of Faith in the Throne of assurance tho' I should interweave a shorter Chapter about the infirmities of Believers to prevent stumbling at the threshold of Assurance and now I hope somewhat to change my voice in more sweet lessons of comfort for the use of broken and mournful Saints The Foundation indeed is laid in the Doctrines of Faith and holiness if faithful Souls will diligently build gold and precious stones upon it they may erect the most stately and Imperial Temple in the whole World not like the Pygmy Pyramids of Egypt up to the Clouds and Vapors but like the Cedar-Temple of the second Solomon all wrought with Saints and Cherubims whose Pinacles reach within the highest Heavens nec habent umbras all shadows and mists are flâ—d away Still remember that all must pass thru ' the Temple of vertue and grace before they can enter the Temple of heavenly glory CHAP VII THis Chapter about the infirmities of Believers for the same fore-written causes I lay aside at present and proceed to the Eighth about the Doctrine of Assurance CHAP. VIII Of the Assurance of FAITH THe nature of Assurance and Method to attain it is the Subject of this Chapter In former times Faith was represented under the notion of assurance or a Saints particular certainty that Christ died for his own soul among the rest of Believers Like to that special priviledg to which Paul prescribes Gaâ— 2. â—0 that Christ loved him and died for him But now more diligent observation of Holy Scripture and experience hath cleared up this point that assurance is the belief Rom. 5.1 that we are justified by Faith in Christ and so have peace with God. It is the application of Faith or a perswasion of our hearts concerning the love of God. Joh. 3.19 When the Spirit of God sets his seal upon our hearts with the impression of the image of Christ as in wax or as the Antients graved the effigies of their Princes on a Cornelian or Opal or such precious Stones Eph. 3.12 Joh. 14.23 It produces a confidence of access by Faith in Christ and is daily more and more evidenced by the abode of both Father and Son with us when the ripe Grapes of Eshcol are cast into our bosoms and Christ himself comes in to sup with us Rev. 3.20 Assurance shines by a reflex beam of the souls eye upon it self When a Saint sitting down in the closet of his own heart takes a clear view of his face in the glass of Faith. I may term it a Saints belief of his own Faith. Assurance is the cream of Faith when t is settled it s the joy of Faith springing in the Soul from the warm healing beams of the Sun of righteousness rising upon its humble valleys Some take Faith to be a trust on the promise for remission of our own sins in particular or conjoyned with reliance dependance adherence and affiance When having cast all our hope and expectation of heaven and happiness into the arms of Christ alone and thence infer the promise to have been made to us in particular by an immediate consequence drawn from our special and personal application of the indefinite or more general promise and taking it as a divine Oracle to us in particular and therefore call it special Faith the promise being thereby assigned to me immediately as certainly as to any in the world because I have set to my seal that God is truth and accepted him upon his Word When this is done to wait with joyful expectation that God will perform it at the day of Christ But what is all this any more than Faith and assurance tied up together in a bundle of sweet smelling Myrrhe Psal 1.6 drest up in various words to
when thou hast wisely and deliberately weighed the various phrases in the promises then examine the frame of thy heart and if finding them suit in some sweet measure tho not so clearly as thou longest to have it yet fear not delay not to joyn thy heart and the promise together And this moreover I 'll say to thee for thy comfort that tho the hand of thy Faith should shake with some tremblings at present be not dismayed Mat 9.2 Mark 2.5 our blessed Lord who spake to the palsie man both can and will in due time for thy inward hope is an evidence of it speak that great strengthening word to the relaxed nerves and sinews of thy Faith Son be of good cheer 2 Tim. 2.13 thy sins be forgiven thee for if thou hold but the head nay if touch but the hem of his garment virtue will proceed and thou l't perceive it by some sweet settling quietings of Spirit as when the dew of heaven falls in a still evening For he will abide faithful tho we do not in so full and triumphant a manner act Faith upon him Psal 149.4.50.23 yet he will continue to be gracious and will shortly beautifie the meek with salvation If you order your conversation aright he will shew and make to shine the face of your Saviour and the Sun of his salvation upon you his beloved ones That person may certainly conclude himself to be in Christ who walketh in this World as he did all to our proportion and continue in acts of contemplation and adherence 1 Tim. 4.8 Heb. 12.6 embracing the promises Hitherto I have spoken somewhat to the application of the promises whereby we may argue true Faith and thence lay a strong foundation for assurance but before I relinquish this Subject I would touch upon the several Arguments used by the Apostle John which he insists upon in his Epistles written on purpose foâ— the comfort of Bâ—lievers 1 Joh. 1.4 5.13 1 John 3.23 that their joy may be full and that we may know that we have eternal life To which end it is Gods Commandment to believe in the Son and to love one another Let us then mention the chief in Order 1. The first evidence of eternal life is drawn from our walking in the Light that is of holiness 1 John 1.6 2 29. 3.6 9. walking in the truth Epist 3.3 in obedience to his Commandments 1 John 2.3 5 3.24 5.2 3. Epistle 2.6 In imitation of Christs holy walking 1 John 2.6 4.17 and in purifying of our selves according to his pattern 1 John 3.3 and yet all this must be qualified in respect to our infirmities and weaknesses 1 John 1.8 9 10. 2.1 2. 2. The second Argument to prove the truth of grace and assure our selves before God is love to the Brethren 1 John 2.9 10 and chap. 3.11 14. 4.7 12 20. and in his Gospel Joh. 13 35. 3. The third Argument is from our not loving the World nor the things thereof 1 Joh. 2.15 as the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes or the pride of life ver 16. That is 1. Pleasures of all sorts as luxury in Diet Habit Houses Gardens rambling about the World without special ends and all inordinacy and intemperateness in the body as Jerom uses to express it iâ— ventre sub ventre For they that love Pleasures and Riotings shall not be rich in purse sayes Solomon nor in grace Prov. 21.17 sayes the whole current of Scripture 2. The lust of the eye which is as to all sorts of covetousness to get and retain by right or by wrong in an excessive appetition of the things of this World which must be left behind us and do not can not fill the heart of man no nor the eye with satisfaction Eccles 5.11 Nor 3. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Pride of Ambition Fastuousness Honour and advancement into great places and to be alone in the Earth These things eagerly pursued eat out the heart and power of godliness 4. The fourth Argument is assumed from the anointings of their Spirit 1 Joh. 2 20 27 3.24 4.13 whereof more by and by God willing 5. The fifth Argument is taken from a holy and reverent hearing of Gods Ministers 1 John 4.6 we may know what spirit we are of by this if we receive Christ as Hilary expresses it Qualis ab Apostolis praedicatus est as he was preached by the Apostles and submit to him in all his Offices and Ordinances such a one belongs to the spirit that is of God that keeps the Doctrine of Christ as the Apostle expounds himself Epistle 2. ver 9. 6. The last Argument arises from our love to Christ 1 Iohn 5.1 and in him to the Father Now if these things be found in us we shall then overcome the World 1 Ioh. 5.4 and shall not be touched virulently or fatally by Satan 1 Iohn 5.18 shall have access to God in prayer 1 Iohn 5.14 and shall have boldness in the day of Judgment 1 Iohn 4.17 and this will so settle our sense of the love of God to us that it will by degrees cast out the torment of fear For it will allure us to a holy familiarity with divine love 1 Iohn 4.18 and so sweeten our thoughts and affections of and to him that we may begin to enjoy a kind of heaven upon earth which the Father of his great mercy in Christ grant unto us by the Spirit Having hitherto treated about Argumentation I proceed now to the second Head about attaining Assurance which is by the irradiation of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of Believers For all is in vain as to gaining of solid and permanent comfort unless the Spirit of God come in and confirm us against the innumerable doubts and cavils that will arise upon us under all our Arguings because of the subtlety of satan the natural diffidence of our own hearts and the clouds that arise from the unholiness of our lives and the dread of eternity I design therefore to treat a little while about the witness of the spirit his immediate breathings his bright shinings and as it were speakings within our hearts when a holy soul hath this witness in himself 1 Iohn 5.10 2 Cor. 1.3 Act. 10.44 For in and upon believing the Father of Lights and of all consolations sends in his own due time this his holy spirit like a dove of peace into our hearts who helps us to discern the truth of the work of grace After ye believed sayes the Apostle ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Eph 1 13. He is sometimes set forth by a Seal and a Witness to the bond of the Covenant by a Seal and an Earnest to the contract about the inheritance 2 Cor. 1.22 by a Seal and a Love-Token or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used of old to note
River Kishon that ancient River or River of Antiquities or great battels of old but now swelling to a great overflow swept away the Host of the Canaanites How did the Lord tame the pride of Egypt by locusts hail fire and frogs and darkness that might be felt thick fogs as black as pitch and many other ways How did God subdue the proud Pope Hadrian by a fly c. There 's no age but ecchoes and cries aloud to all people to prove and make all to acknowledg the Soveraign Dominion of the Lord of Hosts in the Heavens Earth and Seas and over all Creatures nay under the earth in Mineral Caverns if Paracelsus and the Learned Agricola write true stories of multitudes of Spirits and living creatures in the bowels of the earth All testimonies trumpeting aloud how God at times arms what of his Hosts he pleases for the protection of his Church and the ruine of his enemies Famous is that memorial of the cloud which presented its dark side to the Egyptians but gave light to Israel when the Red-sea stood up in heaps and the depths were congealed or frozen in the heart or midst of that sea Exod. 15.8.14.22 so that the waters became as a wall to his people which the Egyptians essaying to pass thorough were drowned Nay the wonderful motion of the tides which is so great a mystery Heb. 11.29 Exod. 15.10 Psal 147.18 is managed by Gods Wisdom and the inconsiderable sands are a boundary to the Ocean determining how far his waves shall toss themselves and go no further Jer. 5.12 They have their stated and fixed limits by the laws of Creation which has settled their channels into which they shall subside at his command Some there be to mention it a little that would inferr the sea to be higher than the earth from such a Text. But 't is a mistake and misapply of Scripture Jonah 1. Exod. 20.4 Psal 24.2 Psal 107.23 which expresly sets the waters under the earth and that it is establisht upon the floods and mentions mens going down to the sea in ships If the sea were not lower comparatively to the ordinary surface and globe of the earth besides the mountains how can all the Rivers râ—n down into the sea if the earth out of which they spring Psal 42.10 Eccles 1.7 Jer. 51.42 were not higher wherefore the Prophet alluding to the natural situation foretells that the sea should come up upon Babylon and more to that purpose But this belongs not properly to our present work only so far as to shew that God rules the raging seas and the stormy winds fullfil his pleasure Let 's step to Land and end our voyage with one note more Psal 1â—8 8 to observe how that God injoyned Israel to plow and sow for six years but must trust him for the seventh and part of the eighth till the harvest came living for the while on the blessed providence of God sending them the greater plenty in the foregoing years 4. Fourthly and Lastly le ts touch a little upon the mysterious government of the Church by his most Holy Spirit swaying his golden scepter in the hearts of Converts and ruling them by his rod out of Zion But this refers to that great point of communion with the Spirit of God Psal 110 2. which this treatise only considers in the doctrine of assurance Chapter 8th and in one further consequence following which is the seventh 7. We may learn from the preceding tract that the knowledg of our Faith and the attainment of assurance flow principally from the influences of the Spirit of God. He is the profound teacher of all mysteries and the worker of Faith and therefore gives the clearest evidence without the necessity of arguing when he is pleased to speak to the heart Joh 16.13 He shall teach you all things our Lord promises and guide into all truth He glorifies the Son receives of his shews it to us and manifests things to come Where he teaches any doctrine he works the knowledg and sense of it into the heart and causes us to believe He is the former of faith he commands and inclines us to trust and imprints the image of Christ upon us Epist Gassendi de motu impresso c as the vis impressa sends out a power from the hand or instrument upon the ball arrow or bullet which together with the air that 's gathered by the force into an impulsive vortex behind the body as in the ignis lambens carries on the motion to the end of its vigor 'T is more abundantly here when the spirit becomes the arm of God to break the stone in the heart he moves works in the most intimate recesses of the soul he shapes and forms the new Adam within us and inspires it with fire from the throne between the wheels of the cherubims Ezek. 10.7 He is the skilful architect of the Temple of the Church cementing the living stones together which were cut out of the mountain of the divine Decrees to make a glorious Habitation for God by the Spirit Eph. 2.22 Let 's then never forget to be earnest in prayer for the gift of the spirit since the influx of all grace and the beautiful enamel of our hearts with heavenly gifts flows from this holy spirit of Vrim and Thummim And the truths in Scripture can only be settled and confirmed upon our hearts by him He is like the master of Assemblies that fastens the nail in a sure place Eccles 12.11 like the great shepherd that knock's in the paxilli in caula the stakes about the hurdles of the sheep-cotes to keep the harmless creatures from the Wolves close and warm together in a dark and stormy night 8. Another deduction from the former treatise may be that the number of true believers is very small for the generality of the world knows not God in Christ The Turks indeed own him for a great Prophet but disdain his banner The Jews confess there was such a person at Jerusalem but contradict his message blaspheme his Deity and stumble at his sufferings Among the various nations bearing the name of Christian what wild confusions and absurdities are practised in Muscovy by the testimony of the ingenious Olearius Marriage and what rude mixtures and barbarities are found among the Abyssins south of Egypt as we are taught by that learned Writer Ludolphus or what ignorances blind Customs and perverse worshippings are notified among the Armenians Ludolph Edit 1684. Fol. Maronites or Thoma-Indians as are related by Breerwood Paget and in the collections of travels in Purchas and several others What shall we say to the corruptions among the Pontificians nay in the Reformed Churches of God in the world and how are the lives of most grown degenerate and prophane insomuch that one has adventured to pronounce that 't is hazardable whether above one in a million may be saved I remember also to have read somewhere Dr. Mouliâ— that Chrysostome should say to
ΧαÏα ' τηζ Πιζεωζ THE Joy of Faith OR A TREATISE Opening the true Nature of FAITH its lowest Stature and Distinction from Assurance wiâ—â— a Scripture Method to attain both by the Influence and Aid of Divine Gâ—â—â—â— with a preliminary Tract evidencing the â—â—â—ing and actings of FAITH the Deâ—ty 〈◊〉 Christ and the Divinity of the Sacred SCRIPTURES 2 Cor. 1.24 We have no dominion over your Faith but are helpers of your JOY for by Faith ye stand Phil. 1. â—5 I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and JOY of Faith c. Augustin Confess L. 6. C. 4. De Deo Medicamenta fidei confecisti aspersisti super moâ—bos orbis terrarum By Samuel Lee. M. A. Sometime Fellow of Wadham Colledge Oxon. Bosâ—on Printed by 〈…〉 To his highly Honoured Friend Sir John Thomson Knight and Baronet and his most pious and vertuous Consort the Honourable Lady the Lady Frances Grace and Peace Honoured Sir IT pleased the Lord in his holy Wisdom to afflict me with a Fever in the moneths of July and August 1684. and in his own due time to command its departure As an offering of praise and thankfulness to the Majesty and Mercy of God I thought of composing this Tract though under the remaining weakness derived from an autumnal distemper yet thereby I humbly hope some benefit may arrive to broken and tempted Spirits For though my mouth be shut and silent as to Publick Service yet I should greatly rejoice if my heart could be opened in Print to help and towards heaven The Dedication is proper to your most noble person if you please to accept what would be an infringement of dutâ— not to present to you who have so often refreshed me and mine in my privacies and retirements kindnesses not to be burâ—ed in the grave of ingratitude but to be acknowledged before the Sun. Your Library was also most kindly opened to my use wherein stands many an ancâ—ent Author calling aloud for converse and reaching out his auxiliary hand and pointing at the state of Câ—ristianâ—tâ— in former and purer ages There did I first consider of the consignation of the Canon of Scripture which is toucht upon in these Papers but might be much more amplified and adorned had I more constancy of abode and supplies of the yet remaining Records of the first five hundred years that have happily survived the flaming fury and rage of the barbarous Goths and Vandals and other wasters of both the East and Western Empire which might have conduced to the compleating of such a work But we must wait the times of Divine Wisdom in appointment of any such happy seasons to view those desirable monuments But why print and why on such a subject and why now I answer to the first and third because being interrupted in my greatest work I would gladly be some way useful in my generation It may be some that mourn in secret and others that are as yet not called but under the Election of Grace may attenâ—d and meditate on these things Tho Preaching or Printing prevail but little with this degenerate age Jer 6.29 though the Bellowes be burnt in the fire and the lead consumed which was appointed to purify the drossy Oare yet with Jeremy and Esay and Pau we must in our several ages keep on where God opens the door of opportunity for us tho Israel be not gathered let the Labour of faithful Workmen wait for its reward from the Lord of the Harvest Tho we for our Labour of love be accounted as the shavings and off-sconrings of all things to this day t is but for this life 1 Cor 4.13 tho all the filth and garbage of the tongues in the streets of Ashdod be flung into our Carts we must carry away the burden patiently and meekly wipe off the soile from our names and faces Tho our presence be a burden to many houses and our testimony less minded than the piping of Children in a Market place Luk 7.32 yet our Lord commands us to persist till he relieves us But that which I must every where own Worthy Sir give me the favour I pray and leave to testifie that your reverence in hearing and accepting of their messages as of the Lord's Embassadors hath been alwayes very exemplary and I hope will return into your bosom with a Prophets reward who have been an Obadiah to them in the time of spiritual Famine But Secondly Why on such a Subject I Answer Tho many have written yet t is inexhaustible besides methods may vary and variety breeds delight if joyn'd with brevity If I have laid the foundation of such a Discourse in the beginning a little deeper than usual upon the Divinity of Scripture and the Deity of our blessed Lord I hope and beg that the Learned Wise and Pious would not count that or any part a digression too improper heartily wishing it may succeed like Austin's going providentially out of his way in a Sermon and beyond his intention Posidonius in ult Augustin Cap. 15. p. 869. Tom. 1. as if he were sent on purpose to find out and convert Firmus from the Manichees as it proved There be many that understand not the nature of Faith tho so often writ upon still afflicting their Spirits as not having that Grace because they feel no assurance To such I principally direct and bend my stile hoping and praâ—ing that no Soul toucht with inward sincere remorse for sin but reading and ruminating on so many dâ—rect and positive promises both to beginners and back-sliders Isai 57.18 will dare to despond but come in freely to lay hold on the golden Scepter of mercy and thereby of eternal life As for the Basilisk of Envy I commend it to the piercing eâ—e of Heaven under whose protection I wrote these lines Plin. l. 29. c. 4. And now worthy Sir not to be prolix I most huâ—â—bly beg all the mercies of the new Covenant to be your portion and that the noble vine on your house side may spread Branches like Josephs Gen. 49.22 Ps 128.3 by the well run over the wall that your Sons may be as Olive plants grown up in their Youth Psal 144 12 that your Daughters may be as those Marble corner Stones polisht after the similitude of Solomon's Palace That you may see your Childrens Children walking in the Truth and peace upon Israel 2 Ep. Joh. 4. and after these daâ—es in the valle be received to the mount of transfiguration in Glory So Prayes Honoured Sir Yours in all Gospel Service Samuel Lee. Abbots Langly Jan. 16. 1685. The Preface HAving Observed that many Christians spend their Dayes in the Valley of Sorrow and walking up and down very pensive being full of Fears and Doubts about their eternal Estate can perform no chearful Service to God bring litâ—le honour to their Profession or comfort to their Relations or any sweet quiet to their own spirit I often pondered what should be the
Christ Then may we safely and comfortably proceed to the main subject of this Discourse the nature of true saving Faith which I have divided into ten Chapters but shall inlarge principally on three or four being the drift and scope of my writing to help the Joy of FAITH in those poor hearts who tho truly gracious yet like young Samuel cannot well discern the voice and presence of Christ And this my undertaking I beg the divine help and Grace to assist and prosper extending my time and health after my late sickness according to his blessed will affording the savourable influence of his loving countenance This Tract divides into two parts The first containing the Foundation the second the more visible superstructure about the nature of Faith. The first concluding with two Chapters and the second with ten But whereas some may question what need any further on this Subject wherein several have already travelled I may rejoyne that Holy Luke thought meet in his pure Greek as to his handling that heavenly Subject of our Lords Life Luk. 1.1 that though many had taken it in hand before yet he would set forth some things not mentioned by other Evangelists Yea how many in almost all ages have prosecuted the same points in Divinity with benefit and use to the Church both in Commentaries and Controversies This consideration incouraged these Lines to appear having observed some further need of these Chapters on which I mainly insist and were the great motive of my writing and are but little toucht heretofore and yet are very useful to chosen Vessels yea the far greater number of the truly gracious Servants of God. To whom if you draw near and can have the happiness to come within them for their good for they are shy aware of every approach you may find their lives to hang in an anxious suspence between fear and hope and feed only upon some few gracious glimpses like the Beams from between April Clouds let down out of Heaven into their hearts to sustain their Spirits from sinking and to preserve from dying under grievous Fits of the palpitation of their hearts To these I chiefly bend my Souls desire and humbly beg the dewes of Zion upon these Meditations and Labours that neither they nor I may saint under lost expectations of Mercy And so I finish the Preface and come to the Treatise it self S. L. The JOY of FAITH PART I. Of the Fundamental points necessary to build a sound and vigorous Faith laid down in two Chapters The first referring to the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures The second demonstrating the Deity of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ CHAPTER I. The Authority of the Sacred Scriptures THat the Holy Scriptures wherein we daily read and meditate for our instruction in order to Eternal Life are the very words of God there are many weighty arguments to evince it upon the hearts of all sober and well-inclined persons nay which by the good conduct of Gods Spirit may influence the minds of Heathen and Atheists would they but improve the common light of reason that Candle of the Lord. Prov. 20.27 James 2.19 Mat. 8.29 Mat. 4 2 4. Mark 5.7 Nay Devils themselves who believe and tremble at the Judgment to come and desire of our Lord not to torment them before that time do quotâ— them in argument against our blessed Saviour in his tentations and acknowledge his Deity as being the Son of God. But I shall not dwell upon the several Heads to clear this truth so often insisted upon by thâ— Pious and Learned in their Systemes and Bodies of Divinity but I shall only touch some of them and inlarge upon one or two which are the chief design of this Chapter 1. One Argument that some mention is their venerable Antiquity which though it be no cogent proof yet allowing that of an ancient quo quid antiquius co verius that Truth is elder than Error I would not lay aside the pains of Clemens Alexandrinus and others who prove that the writings of Moses are ancienter than any the Heathen world can pretend to To which I would annex their stupendious preservation through the fury of all ages especially the raging flames of Antiochus and Dioclesian those cruel Persecutors of the Church of God neither would I be silent as to the invincible pains â—uxtorfji â—iberias and toile which the Jewish Masorites underwent to preserve the Hebrew Original With such exactness did they manage that Affair that they had in numerato punctually set down every word and every letter in the whole Bible and did also set down which was the middle word and middle letter of the whole and I think of every individual Book which was indeed a high providence of God towards the conservation of those happy leaves and I could heartily wish the New Testament had been so guarded by industrious and holy persons in the primitive times Nay it were well if yet at this day some pious Rectors of Vniversities and Schools of Learning would take up the ancientest and purest Copies and perform it at this time The Masorites did the work long after the first penning of them on purpose to preserve it in their dispersions But I proceed to other Arguments As 2. The Majesty of their Stile that might justly make the Vniverse tremble and all the powers of darkness to hide their heads in the dark Chaos of confusion 3. The Heavenly Harmony of their distinct parts tho written in various Ages and distinct places 4. The self-denial of the Pen-men discovering their own sins and heart corruptions with the follies and weakness of their nearest and dearest relations which is not done by other Writers as Thucydides Xenophon or Plutarch or Livy but especially by Law-givers which might disparage their Government as the compilers of the twelve Tables or Theodosius in his Codex or Justinian in his Pandects or other his Sanctions of the Civil Law. 5. The Sublimity and Spirituality of the Mysteries therein discovered far beyond the invention or comprehension of men or Angels They may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they please and pry towards them 1 Pet. 1.12 but none except the Lion of Judah can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both open the Seals and expound the mystical depths of this admirable Volumne So far is it beyond the brains of the most fine spun Philosopher that Amelius the Platonick in Clem of Alexandria confessed of the first verses of the Apostle Johns Gospel This Barbarian saith he hath comprized more stupendious matters in three lines than we in all our Volumns I might adjoyn to this the purity and holiness of its subject matter and the glorious scope and design for our everlasting communion with God in heaven 6. In the sixth place a principal argument may be deduced from the Imperial Power and Efficacy on the Souls and Consciences of men both as to conviction of sin sustentation
of wounded Spirits and their consolation under the darkest clouds and deepest confusions while we are in this valley of Dragons which is the reason why truly gracious persons wade and dive through Sicknesses Troubles and strong anxieties when wicked and ungodly men languish and perish a thousand times over and over because the former enjoy the sweet influences of the Spirit of God in the promises of the Gospel to cool their consciences and calm their spirits into a halcyon serenity and sometimes tread upon the Asp and Dragon without any fear By these and the like meanes the Scriptures confirm and ascertain themselves like self-evident principles when the Spirit of God strikes aside the Curtains and Vailes of Ignorance and purges the Corruptions out of the minds of men Let all the world rage in Storms of contradiction and like him in Laertius affirm Snow to be black or another that there is no sense in pain or boldly assert the Sun shines not when I see it or a cordial comforts not when I feel it Job 6.4 Psal 38 2. or that a troubled conscience is but a melancholly fancy when the Terrors of the Lord drink up the spirits of men These should be sent to Anticyrae to purge with Hellebor for madness Pray what Energy or power can he in a printed paper in the reading of a Chapter wherewith Austin and Junius were converted from sin to God or what powerful charm in hearing a mean Preacher perhaps none of the Learnedest like the blessed Fishermen of Galilee to change the heart if so many proud haughty and rebellious sinners who of direful Persecutors have sometimes turned tender cherishers and protectors of the Church of God Jer. 22.29 Psal 19.11 Heb. 4.12 Ezek. 2.4.3 11 17. were it not for the fire of the Word of the Lord of Hosts that melts the Stone of the heart and the hammer of that Word that breaks the rocks of the sturdy Zanzummims all to powder insomuch that bitter scoffers have been changed into witty Tertullians and turned their Satyrs into Panegyricks Some morese Philosophers have proved quick and acute disputants in the primitive times to defend the Christian Religion What can that be imagined to be that works so strange effects upon whole Nations from the East to the Western-Indies whitened the Black-Moores civilized the hearts of Scythians more ferine ragged and bruitish than the Rocks and Hyrcanian Tygers that gâ—ve them suck and beautified the barbariously painted Britains far beyond the Oratory of the Gaules It could be no other power than the awful dread of the Divine Majesly and the melting sweetness of his mercy concomitant with his heavenly Word Wherefore such are justly to be suspected for strangers to the work of grace like Nicodemus at first tho a great Doctor in Israel yet a great dunce in the excellenc point of the New-Birth Or like that Doctor at Oxford sometime since that searcht his Dictionary for the word Regeneration and could not tell what to make of it because he found it not there I say we may greatly fear that they never felt this mighty power of the Spirit of God to change their hearts Rom. 1.16 that dare talk so proudly and irreverently against the self-evidencing power of the holy Scriptures on the consciences of men when the Majesty of God shines ten thousand times brighrer in the Meridian of that Book than the Sun without clouds at noon-day in the Zenith of Africa I shall intreat my ingenuous and pious Readers kind leave to descend into the bowels of two arguments to give evidence to the truth of the Holy Scriptures and so conclude this present chapter Which are drawn from the Oracles and Miracles mentioned in this sacred Book The fulfilling of the one and performing of the other to the consternation and amazement of such as had the happiness to be spectators of either are in some part attested and confirmed by Heathens themselves and cleared off by several Writers of unquestionable authority confessing the matters of fact which were accomplisht in the successions of several ages with great exactness and punctuality SECT I. Of Scripture Oracles FOr this purpose it must be laid down for a standing rule that the certain and determinate foreknowledge and prediction of future events long before they come to pass is an undeniable evidence of infinite Wisdom and Power and compatible to no created being Hence the Lord challenges this glory to his own name that former things foretold by him did issue in the time predicted Yea further Isai 42.9 to lift up the people into the mount of observation tells them He would declare new things before they should spring forth of the Womb of Providence Nay Isa 43 9 10 calls to the Heathen to bring out their Witnesses if they had any to justifie their Idols as to the verity of their predictions and then appeals to the Jews as his own Witnesses that they might know believe and understand that he was God and before him there was no God formed nor shall be after him Which argument is amplified and prosecuted in the forty fixth and forty eighth chapters asserting the Divinity of his Essence and the verity of his declarations and prophecies Citations might multiply in which the silver Trumpets of the holy Prophets sound harmoniously in the ears of all Nations 1 Pet. 1.25 proclaiming this mark and character of his eternal Deity and that his words endure for ever and are filled up to the brim with veracity and run over the banks of all ages in chrystalline streams of accomplishments while in the mean time their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Delphian and Dodâ—nean Oracles have filled the Heathen World with crooked serpentine lies and cheats Mat. 5 16. Whereas the very Ordinances of heaven shall sooner be involved into their ancient dismal Chaos then any of these blessed sayings shall in the least tittle be dissolved or made void I shall now enter upon some of the famous Oracles of Scripture which have bin so plainly verified before the eyes of many Nations that several Philosophers and Historians of the Gentiles have confessed this truth and born witness to their eventual fulfillings and doubtless honoured and embraced those Divine Parchments with great veneration when many of them travelled into Syria and had the great happiness by the leave of some Rulers of Synagogues prece pretio using gifts and intreaties to behold and read those heavenly prophecies and 't is more than likely that many notions among the ancient Platonists are corruptions of and Compositions with the matter of those profound Writings But before further procedure I must premise that for want of my Library at hand since my sad recess from my most desired services I am forced to make the best use I can of my memory and therefore cannot make my Citations so perfect and exact as I else would and partly from the defect of Historians in barbarous ages we
the spirits instigation and inflexion then does God impute the righteousness of his beloved Son to that soul being now become a true believer and by inward intire love in the heart espoused to him Hence it follows that whatever the son hath the Father makes over to a Saint who by vertue of those espousals enters into a right and title to Christ Wisdom â— cor 1.30 righteousness sanctification and redemption and becomes a co-heir with Christ of the same inheritance in the kingdom of glory and as it is here in the kingdom of grace so much more in heaven above fulget radiis mariti the Church shineth not by reflected but by infused or implanted rayes of her husbands glory being one with Christ in mystical union the same spirit and the same glory being in them as our Lord sets it out I in them and thou in me John 17.22 23. Ezek. 16.14 John 1.12 and the glory which thou gavest me have I given them that they may be one even as we are one In his comliness we are made perfect For on them that receive him the Father bestoweth a powerful and magnificent priviledge to become the adopted sons of God. Having discoursed a little largely with thanks to the stronger christians for their leave and candid forbearance of time as to the weaker Saints about the nature of the will as being the principal seat of Faith and the seminary of its fruitful effects Let us now proceed In the third place to the affections of the soul which are indeed but several emanations or streams from the Will and may be compared to semidiametral lines that flow from this center and run out into the spacious circumference of actions For when the heart or will inclines this or that way or to their opposites it then shines forth in those extensive eradiations by the passions and several affections of the Soul. As for instance Isa 26. the church of God in the Prophet cries out with my soul have I desired thee in the night season So in respect to fear holy persons are said to fear God in the singleness of heart Col. 3.22 Dâ—ut 13.3 Judg. 16 152. Song 1 4 7 and others are recounted to love and trust in the Lord with all their hearts and love is stated to be from the heart In this love of our hearts to Christ lies the quintescence of our union and thence a spouse like reverence and a sweet holy fear to offend or displease him in the least Eph. 5.33 The like whereof is commanded in Scripture to be the holy deportment of all Wives to their Husbands Let the Wife sâ—e or look to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she fear or reverence her Husband Insomuch that Solomon brings in the Spouse with such a reverent care when her bridegroom was asleep that she charges all persons in and about the place to make no noise that may disturb or awake her beloved till he please â—ong 2.3 She is filled with an heart-ravishing joy in communion with him though here but through the lattesse of Ordinances takes sweet complacency in an holy rest in his fellowship â—ong 2.5 and feels a delicious faintness in the sick agonies of love is always satiated in his society but never satisfied always filled to the brim with pleasure and running over in his praise to the daughters of Jerusalem while the fountain of love pours out of the heart of Christ into the bosome of a Saint by a true perpetual motion this glorious person 〈◊〉 5.7 delighting in his goodness and rejoycing over us with singing These and many more are the pure unstained sanctified motions of the will so far as renewed rectified by grace and acting towards its native and genuine objects at first concreated with it as fit proper and qualified for it 'T is the will then â—sal 42.1 8.25 which desires loves thirsts longs and pants after the living God and is never quiet or settles its full complacency on any person or thing besides God alone but there 't is satiated with all manner of delight and joy for evermore 4. In the next place conscience comes in to act its part and having lookt round about upon all the pre-actings of the soul subscribes to the new creation with this eulogy Behold all the work of God is very good It is a mixt act of the soul flowing from the understanding and will together and proceeds from an inward work Simplicius as a philosopher expresses it if I remember right When the soul makes dialogues within it self It is the reflexion of the soul upon all its precedent acts whether radical or deduced wherein conviction is mainely concerned As the Evangelist speaks of some Pharisees that they were convinced of their own consciences John 8.9 which do accuse or excuse according to the nature of the light and integrity within and so helps the soul to assurance by a diligent intuition into the actings of Faith. Conscience is the souls looking-glass Rom. 2.15 wherein it beholds all the red flashings upon its face when others talk behind them at a distance This inward redness more especially rises from the immediate rebukes of this vicegerent and happy are such who have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience nil conscire sibi Heb. 10.22 nullaque aubescere onlpa To be conscious of no guilt and to have no faults staining vermilion upon the cheeks of conscience I might enlarge in the next place upon the power of fancy and imagination that anvill and hammer of thoughts in the work-house of the brain But I rather proceed to the last that I shall touch upon and that 's the Memory that wonderful faculty which Austin in his confessions does so extreamly and deservedly admire and the Platonists are so deeply affected with it that they thought the souls science to be little else then reminiscence or a recognition of what it had before its delapse from heaven into the body Memory is the souls christal cabinet replenisht with diamond cells or Loculi so termod by Tully wherein things heard and learned are safely retained and who is able to expound the reason of its rehearsals It is the recollection of the soul upon it self acting over and reviewing every thing at its pleasure and thereby hath a great influence upon the affections to excite them with delight or dolour meminisse juvabit dolehit When we lay up memorials in our hearts the end is to bring them forth of the treasury of a good and honest breast Luk. â— 66 Psal 139.18 63.6 like wise Scribes fitted for the Kingdom of God. Thus David remembers God sometimes to his comfort and when awake was still with God. At other times he remembred God and was troubled comparing his present dolesome state with his former more delicious times This faculty so we may term it Galen being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a faciendi
upon the foundation or ground-work of our encouragement in the management of this great affair aright by the strength and co-operation of the spirit and that 's no other than by the divine promises laid up in the covenant of grace 'T is the promise allures us the voice of the word calls us the faithfulness of God secures us the motion of the spirit prompts incites and hastens us to come to Christ who most graciously accepts us kisses us and lays us down to rest in his most fragrant bosom And here it is worth our time if every minute were more precious than the whole universe turned into a massy diamond to expatiate upon the freeness the unsought and unforethought love of God in making them the certainty of their accomplishment as built on the essence and veracity of God their riches and preciousness as being equivalent to the Crown of glory encompassed with the golden ring of eternity When we have obtained like precious Faith we shall be made partakers of like precious promises 2 Pet. 1.1 4. Heb. 13.7 6.12 as if we follow the Faith of Saints we shall at last with them inherit the same promised Kingdom In the seventh Place I might trace a little the time of Faiths first infusion SECT 7. and first operation in the heart which is undoubtedly at the new birth when ever it is But how to prescribe and when precisely to determine that in the soul of a Believer is more difficult than to state the quickening or animation of an embrio in the womb of her that is with child or for any Naturallist so set the moment of the first separation of night from day at the initiating crepusculum or ascent of the first attom of the morning raies of the Suns body or the primogenial fermentation of the vegetative soul in the seed Corn in the Earth when it begins to chit or the first vapors in Mineral beds that procreare Mercury into a running liquid body which afterward is congealed by Sulphur into Gold. Its much more difficult to set down the first punctual workings of the Spirit in our hearts Q. But you may ask me Cui Bono To what end were it to be so accurate if it were possible A. I Answer In all humility tho we never attain the precise and nicest time yet as far as we may and with what holy modesty we can attain to dive into these heavenly secrets the sooner we discern the work by so much the sooner may our spiritual joy spring which animates our services and anoints the wheels of our Souls to become like the Chariots of Aminadab For which purpose I refer my Discourse to the third Chapter of this Treatise SECT 8. In the eighth Place I might shew the inseparable union and connexion between Faith and Holiness they are individui comites sweet companions never divided but delighted in each others smiles lovely twins brought forth by grace The heart of a Believer is purified by Faith and his life most orient and beautiful in holiness Act. 15 9 Whoso then pretends to be a Believer and walks not in holiness of life is a self-deceiver and wrongs his own soul But le ts reserve this to a peculiar Chapter below Chap. 6. I should now issue this Chapter but that I desire in the close of every one to answer one or more practical Questions for our spiritual improvement referring to what precedes in the same Chapter Q. 1. If any trembling soul should ask Have I this sound Faith of Gods Elect I should Answer briefly 1. Christ is precious to every one that believes 1 Pet. 2.7 the joy of his heart and delight of his soul when but under this sweet hope and when a little quickened and enlivened in communion I sat under his shadow with great delight Song 2.3 Faith and Love alwayes ride together in Solomons Chariot which is paved with love for the Daughters of Jerusalem 3.10 2. The promises of the Covenant are precious to such a soul they are ornaments of grace about his neck and aetherial Cordials in all its fainting Fits I had fainted Psal 27.13 sayes David had I not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living It values them above a Kingdom Q. 2. If we fear our state how may we gain Faith Rom. 10. I Answer briefly 1. By diligent attendance on the Word of God Faith cometh by hearing 2. By hearkening to the inward motions of Gods Spirit in hearing the Word Luke 24.31 When thy heart is warmed by some passage in a Sermon take special notice of that particular point It s a sign Christ is conferring with thy heart as with the two Disciples near Emmaus whose hearts burned while he opened the Scriptures 3. Ponder and meditate deeply upon that which warmed thy heart to bring Christs counsel into a resolution for obedience 4. Sacrifice these intentions upon the Altar of Prayer in the Name of Jesus Chrâ—st unto the Father But these things requiring little tracts Gerson Bonaventur Scala I le conclude with that of Gerson the Chancellor of Paris who treating of Meditation states that for the sweetest when the soul opens it self towards Heaven receiving in its precious dewes Psal 85.8 without forced and artificial methods as David I le hearken what God the Lord will say for he will speak peace to my soul Ariani perilpl mar Ery thraeâ— Benjamin itinerar which is like the mother shell of the Oriental Pearl at Baharem which Naturalists relate conceives those precious unions by the dew of Heaven But I must now retire to the second Chapter and t is more than time only I dilated upon this a little the more as being a substantial head in respect to the essential nature of Faith. CHAP II. Various Expressions in Scripture setting forth the Nature of FAITH THe beginning and carrying on of the work of Faith in the heart is set forth in holy Scripture by many pertinent and sweet expressions which tend to enlighten and comfort the souls of dark drooping and weak believers and helping them to discern the inherence of this grace in their hearts Metaphors Parables and Allâ—geries many times teach us when direct Precepts will not do the work Vpon some whereof I shall endeavour to treat in this Chapter and present them as a climax or a Jacobs Ladder whereby to scale the Palaces of eternal joy 1. In the first place Rev. 24.6 22.17 We find this grace set forth by thirsting and hungring after Christ and his righteousness which are strong and vehement appetitions after supply of proper food and moisture to refresh the Spirits and to preserve natural vigoâ— Which if not timely satisfied produce pantings faintness swoundings Psal 42.1 and at last convulsive motions the very harbingers of death Thus did holy David pant after God as the hunted Hart having lickt up a fiery Serpent pants after
the water-brooks Psal 27.13 And at other times he had totally fainted had not Faith fed his hope with a seeing of God in the land of the living The promises of mercy are made to such thirstings and strong desires after God. Isai 55.1 2. 26.8 9 12. Psal 97 12. The desire of our soul sayes the Church is to thy Name and at the remembrance of thine holiness do we rejoyce Again with my soul have I desired thee in the night when others are folded in the arms of the deepest sleep I am musing with deep meditation and am still awake with thee Then follows that holy confidence dropt in from heaven Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us whence it follows that when the breathings of the soul are inspired by God thâ—n his ordinance of peace shall issue from the throne of grace Besides The thirst of the soul through defect of the dewes of Zion sometimes proves so extream that it falls into a flaming Fever and lies tossing and tumbling and feeling after cool places Song 2.4 but finds no rest till it comes to the chambers of Christ and then with holy longings and bitter ejaculations cries out My heart and my flesh faileth Oh when shall I come and appear before him when shall I see bis face enjoy his love and rest in his bosom This is a sure act of Faith when the soul prises Christ above all delights in none but him as the incomparable object of his souls satisfaction if it take any comfort in sublunary things t is but in ordine ad Christum in subordination to him and in order to his glory The soul doth anhelare breath and thirst more after him than all the pleasures and treasures of Egypt the Gums of Arabia the Spices of India the Diamonds of Golcondah or the peculiar riches of Princes nay than the fragrant Rivers of Balsam in heaven it self besides him as the holy Psalmist flames it out Whom have I in heaven but thee and whom in earth in comparison with thee Psal 73.25 2. Sometimes Faith is represented by looking up to Christ with a stedfast eye and an earnful countenance till all the visive spirits pass the optick nerve and land in his bosom All the bowels of the Soul are wrackt and torn with convulsive motions and iliack passions the heart faint and sick with many a swounding fit the vital moisture having spent it self at the eyes Psal 38 10. Lam 2.11 is almost blind with the saltness of her tears and ready to give up the ghost in deep sighs and profound palpitations of heart â—ong 1 7. has only a few minutes wherein to cry out O thou whom my soul loveth hungers longs and pants after and being now set down under a Palm in the vally of tears and terrors sinks down and yet looks towards him when flying away like a young Hart upon the Mountains of Lebanon and leaving it in a desolate case forlorn and exposed to the mercy of Tigres and young Leopards Yet the Soul cries out as long as breath and life remains will I look to the place where thine honour dwells as the only one of my soul my Lord and Maker who hast commanded me to look towards thee and be saved Thy Word says Behold me behold me Isai 17.7 45.22 and my heart in obedience replies Thus will I spend my dayes and end my life This Looking to Christ is sometimes shadowed by the stung Israelites looking up to the brazen Serpent Joh. 3.14 In imitation whereof t is thought the Gentiles composed their Talismanical figures whereof the Learned often treat But letting them pass let us call to mind that Israel after their many murmurs in the Wilderness and refractary deportments toward the Rock of ages felt at length the dreadful wrath of God in sending upon them those Alati Serpentes the fiery flying Serpents of Arabia Plin. Epiyhan those angry venomous creatures which having once fastened their needle teeth and dropt their yellow poyson into the wound the stung persons tanquam a dipsade percussi were painted as said of some with various spots of the colour of Serpents and swelld immensely died with an insatiable thirst as in the deadly Calenture at Sea. But such as lookt up to the copper Serpent made at Punon Phâ—nnâ—sia metal la in Arabia and set on a Pole presently received cure as if the flesh of the adder had been laid to the wounds to extract the malignant venom Had they lookt any whither else but to this type of our Saviour all was in vain Had their eye been upon Moses in the moral Law or on Aaron in the ceremonial observances it would have performed no cure it was Christ alone who overcame the great Serpent of the bottomless pit and was lifted up on the cross for this blessed view of Faith. 3. This work of Faith is set forth by coming to Christ at his call Mat. 11.28 according to that sweet invitation of his Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden c. For the burden of sin the Law Gods wrath hell and eternity lie very heavy upon conscience and will prove unsupportable unless eased by his bosom When the soul is ready to starve pines away and lockes black with famine John 6.35 then to hear that blessed voice Whoso cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Where our holy Lord himself explains coming by believing pedibus fidei with the feâ—t of faith and affections 44 45 46 we come to him for salvation and so 't is used in the neighbour verses Psal 63.8 Sometimes 't is exprest by the souls following hard after God hebr cleaving that is following so closely as if it held him by the garment and drag'd after him In the times of fear and desertion it runs after God Song 1. â— 4. Bern being allured and drawn by the perfumed ointments of his name the rich odours of the promises as powerful attractives to needy and distressed persons othertimes this work is exhibited by the flying of guilty persons in old time to the city of refuge Thus David points at God as his refuge and high rock to fly to and be safe Of ancient times t is reported that the gatâ—s of these cities stood continually open that all the ways were made plain and even that every stumbling block was removed and the passages maintained with accurate care above all the high-ways in Canaan Isa 57.14 and some of the cities might be sâ—ated in plains as Bezer was that difficult ascent might not retard the speed of the flâ—er that so the soul guilty of bloody crimes Deut. 4 43. Numb 35 12 might scape the dreadful avenger that holy Law of God and having retired to the city of Christ might there continue so long as this Eternal High-priest after the order
of Melchizedeck shall continue in being and that 's according to the Law of an endless life for evermore Hâ—h 7.6.28 4 This acting of Faith is shadowed forth by our receiving of Christ and therefore must be an act of the will and affections when being sensible and convinced of his being the most adequate good for the soul stretches forth its hand like a ragged indigent beggar after a bag of gold when frankly held to him by some munificent prince or as a drooping sinking languishing patient holds out his cup for a physitians cordial For to as many as will receive him he gives out the right and priviledge of adoption to a glorious inheritance above the starry heavens John 1.12 Col. 2 6. John 17.24 Rev. 3.21 O Blessed Saviour wilt thou give thy heaven thy glory thy joy thy crown thy throne by mystical union to as many as do but accept of this motion of mercy grot de jure c. Will acceptation bring us into acquisition and a just perception of all the territories of this vast immense and eternal patrimony Who would not open his arms his heart the penetralia cordis the most intimate chambers of his soul according to all thy tenders in all thine offices and to all thy blessed purposes and cry out with vehement and ardent moans Are not the doors wide open come bright morning star come Lord Jesus come quickly True Prov. 22 16. Son. â— 5 Faith indeed is but the hand that turns the lock of the souls closet to entertain her blessed Lord But 't is the spirit of Christ who lays his powerful hand upon the hand of Faith else would continue shut and never open But this instrument of instruments as the Philosopher calls the hand acts and works in the power of that great efficient the spirit of God and is co-operative in him with him and by him Yea the spirit hath a co-essential communion with Christ himself who stands at the door and knocks by the call of his Ministers and leaves sweet smelling myrrh dropping upon the handles of the lock which like the famed oil of Lunaria beare with the comparison will eat throrow all and make the iron bolts to fly in sunder O then my soul since the Lord of glory is come to these everlasting gates take heed of a third knock lest he take unkindly depart and leave thee in the dark night of desertion 5. Another medium to set forth the actings of Faith is laying hold of him and his most blessed covenant This is called Isa 56.4.27 5. Isa 27.5.56.2 6. taking hold of Gods strength that is the ark of his strength that so we may make peace with him that dwells between the Cherubims The fame with laying hold on Gods righteousness and salvation in flying to the horns of the Altar of propitiation viz. the brazen by blood and the golden by incense Levlt 19.30 Isa 56 6.58.13 It is further deciphered by loving the name of the Lord Jehovah wherein is everlasting strength and in keeping the Sabbath from being polluted which is a special part of Gods covenant and a true token of a gracious and godly man in this his laying hold of God. Nay we find that the Lord complains of the church that few or none did lay hands on him a kind of holy violence in fervent prayers and Faith mixt with ardent desires and coming to him with earnest resolves to hang upon him as Mary did on Christ at his resurrection The Lord knew the soul of Mary would be clinging upon him and therefore with a gracious requital manifests himself to her and sends her with an errand of love to his Disciples There is a sort of holy violence and gracious impudence to be used in those cases as Chrysostome expresses it of the woman of Canaan that would have no denyal When we seek the kingdom of God Mat. 11.12 we must seek it with vehemence and take it by violence We are commanded to lay hold on eternal Iâ—se in allusion to the swift courses at the Olympick stadium in Greece 1 Tim. 6 12. who coming near the prize or garland stretcht out the hands and leapt up with some violence to take hold of the crown of victory 1 Tim 6.12 Heb 6 18 So the Apostle exhorts us lay hold on the hope that is set before us as Jacob held the Angel fast and would not let him go before he was blest Yea the Spouse in the song having found whom her soul loved Song 3.4 held him close and let him go no more 6. In the sixth place When we are now come to him and have laid hold of his strength and are sweetly solaced with his favour then begin we to relie Prov. 325 leane and rest upon him with some holy confidence For leaning and trusting are in Solomons language terms equivalent A posture this is of great sweetness and satiates the soul that it seeks no further All sublunary relations and enjoyments leaves a windy emptiness in the soul but here 's Jacobs enough which indeed contains all things and so indeed should be translated Jer 33 11. Song 8.5 Such high contentment of spirit fills the soul in her walking out of the wilderness towards Canaan leaning upon her Beloved The same posture we find the beloved disciple in John 21 20 Psal 37.5 22.8 leaning upon the bosom of our blessed Lord Thus are we encouraged in our streights to rowl our selves and our affairs upon the Almighty revolve te tua Vsher Divin p. 161. Lond. 1677. To the same purpose that holy man Bishop Vsher is much pleased with the term of the souls hanging upon Christ for life and salvation when he is setting out the nature of Faith Isai 10.20 Sometimes the Scripture useth the expression of the souls staying it self upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel in allusion to the support of a staff imployed by weak or aged persons to preserve from stumbling and falling Accordingly they find a holy rest and repose of spirit with a sweet recollection from the trembling of heart and quivering limbs by an happy settlement in his arms Yea when the feet have been swelled and blistred with rambling up and down in a weary and thirsty land Dan 8 4 here they find the shadow of a high rock with pleasant chrystal streams powring out of its cavernes to revive the faint and recal their flying spirits But now le ts search what are the great ends of the souls recumbency innitency resting and quiet reposing it self on this blessed Lord in the Arhâ—retum sacrum or paradise of his love why certainly such things that asswage its vehement thirst quell and subdue its fears compose its trem blings and allure its confidences and are no other than these following viz. Remission of all sin Justification by free grace peace of conscience when sprinkled with the blood of atonement adoption into Sonship
beginners insist a little according to what I may by the help of grace and ponder on the first discoveries and discernings of this work in the heart under the beginning work of Regeneration that is under the present agitations and breathings of the holy Spirit To which purpose I may genuinely compare the sense which the mother of an Embrio begins to feel when discerns an inward conception by some secret pulsations â—s of a little wind in her bowels and some nauseous ebullitions from her stomack Ferneli de c. Weckerus de Secretis l. 4. P. 85. Bas. 1629.8 thereby perceives there is a new work of impregnation formed with in bevond all observations of the state of body since her birth and begins to give a right judgment that in Gods due time she may become a happy Mother indeed of some beautiful creature Or give leave to behold it in the glass of another Emblem It fares here as when persons by some unobserved and unforeseen emanations of spirits from the heart Plin. l. 11. c. 37 Song 6.5 4.9 and pressing through the optick nerves flow into their mutual eyes and dart themselves into one anothers breasts whence they become suddenly taken and as it were inkindled by certain lineatures in their feitures and are rapt into deep admiration of somewhat in each other which neither themselvâ—s nor the wifest Philosopher in being can give reason fagacious enough to unfold the surprizing influence when they are constellated to conjugal union So true is that I think of Lucretius Multa tegit sacro involucro natura neque ullis Fas est scire quidem mortalibus omnia c Nature with sacred mantle things does hide Nor can Man's wit such mysteries decide Much more deep shall we find it to be in spiritual and divine concernments when the Soul having heard or read of the admirable and unparallel'd incomparable excellencies of Christ begins by the powor of heavens influence to hearken to Gospel motions whence the first beginnings of grace are coucht in faint and weak though sâ—eet and pleasing inclinations to hear more of that precious and excellent person Then the Soul proceeds with the Daughters of Jerusalem to enquire further of his dignities and the blessed disposition of this kingly Saviour Next after intelligence received it never rests seeking for him with the lovely Spouse In Niceph call and when once come to a sight of that glorious countenance in which Majesty and Love sit upon their Throne as 't is reported of his external hiâ—w then does the soul by this interview break forth into holy Ardors after the enjoymâ—nt of his everlasting kindness and the bottomless bowels of his infinite mercy and affection This is the point which I would endeavour yet further to exemplifie in the sequel of this Chapter and labour to state the first beginnings of grace to lie in secret motions holy wishes and inclinations of the will to Christ this Princely Saviour of the Elect. The desire of a man sayes Solomon is his kindness thâ— he cant accomplish his will yet t is acceptable with God for the deed Prrv. 19.22 2 Cor. 8.12 When some spiritual good is presented to the newly sanctified will by the light of a heaven-born judgment it draws the soul to think ponder and study how to attain that happiness and this volition or extension of the spirit is found in different persons at various times Some feel a blessed inclination from their very child hood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Religious courses and the holy wayes of God. 2 Tim. 3.15 You may observe in some Children at four or five years old a love to the sacred Bible and the wise instructions of godly Parents It would do ones soul good to see how prettily and earnestly the little hearts will lean their heads to the wall or hangings and suck in the sincere milk of a mothers instructions as Solomon did Only let Parents be prudent and heedful in pressing too much or powring too long into little Venice Glasses lest it nauseate or run over Gen. 33.13 Remember Jacob would not drive the little ones too fast lest they died Children are like a Chicken or little Birds feed them too much and by night and you endanger killing them Be wise towards such Isai 28.10 and sow here a little and there a little and the work of God may prosper sweetly In Persons at the first workings of the Spirit of God you may observe 1. First There appears some savouring of the things of God which shews there is a new palate formed by the spirit of God in the soul â— Cor. 2.14 Rom. 8.5 suited to the Manna of heaven they begin to mind the things of the Spirit with a disrelish of vain and frothy company a happy inclination to virtue and wholsom infusions with some reverent awe to their Teachers and instructors which when once taken off from the heart all the Argument or Rhetorick in the world shall never fasten any good maxim upon such a person but now you shall see very young ones love to have their heads in a Bible and the tears ready to spring at some sweet passages in that blessed Book intimating to us that the same spirit who penned it hath begun to write the faithful counterpart on the fleshy tables of their hearts 2. They find and feel the inward bent of their soul to be towards God the byas of the will alwayes inclined Heaven-ward tho some rubs and hillocks may divert a while They are like the Sun-flower ever turning to that glorious Lamp or as the needle pointing to the Northern Pole. It may suffer some variations and supervariations and misteries of Declination not hitherto fully determined to heip the longitude but in the main its course bent and delight is toward that point of the compass The soul no otherwise having received an affrication or touch from divine love evermore bends the motion towards God and is enamoured upon the goodness and Excellency of our blessed Saviour Vain things like vinegar upon nitre gives an odious hiss Prov. 25.29 Eccl. 2 2. and fumes away in a Stench so does this gracious soul pity carnal mens laughter as a touch of madness and sayes of foolish mirth what does it 3. Again There is in this new heart of flesh this covenant heart an inward sweet sensibleness of that great stone of impenitence that as yet remains unbroken in pieces which with its ragged points and angles wounds the tender fleshy part and makes it bleed with joyful sorrow The holy new convert is greatly sensible of its proud flesh and that heavy lump that hangs like a talent of lead at the feet and the worlds bird-lime that sticks to the wings of the soul when it would mount up to heaven in holy duties Or as persons after a great autumnal fever labour under a squeazy stomack with a mass of baked humours at the bottom So does the
soul and weeps in secret and often bewailes it before the throne of God. 4. There is also found within it a secret joy in the discovery of light It takes inward pleasure in the launcing of the tumors of pride to lâ—t out the corruption of nature The lamp of Gods word is more precious and joyful to it than the dawnings of a Spring-morning out of the East It 's a sign of an unsanctified heart and a very proud spirit to snuff and snarl at godly reproof But this is a certain note of grace begun when no corruption is too dear no secret sin so delectable but it will part with it at the conviction of the Spirit Yea and the more searching any Ministry is the more it delights to sit under it dares not call that a legal preaching which drives men out of the School of the Law into the Temple of Christ 5. Besides the tender soul grieves under its fears of the want of true Faith and is never quiet till it gain some lively hope of its implantation into Christ which it cherishes and nourishes by the application of promises But till then it wrings its hands runs up and down mournfully through all the Streets of New Jerusalem being desolate in spirit as not having a comforting sense of any faith at all It cries lamentably from watch-man to watch-man bears many affronts and injuries in the tearing of her vail and smiting upon her bead Song 5.7 till at last she finds her beloved embraces him in the armes of Faith. Then the soul continues in the use of all prescribed means to attain the vision of his divine love in the glass of affiance 6. Again This troubled soul flies far from the land of excuses hates palliations and self-conceited applauses and layes all the fault upon it self heaps accusations and layes snares and tentations for its own feet and so great that the holyest minister and one skilful in cases of conscience can hardly sometimes answer and resolve Whereas the hypocritical Pharisee is commonly full of talk hath little or no solidity is confident and boasts of experiences with a false tongue and a deceitful heart But our gracious young convert is as sensible of the least sin as the tenderest hand hath a quick and immediate sense of the sitting of a flye or the gentle breathings of a Western Air. It laments over In-dwelling sin bewails its residence and sounds continual alarums against it For it cannot bear the domination of that proud Vice-roy of Satan to fullfil it in any lusts thereof If it prevail though but a little the soul triumphs as if its conquering flag were entring the gates of heaven For although its motions and impulses against unholiness be yet but weak tender and low yet are they the fruits of integrity and grow forward in Strength This is a true sign of grace and that the new life is in good earnest begun in that heart for it finds repentance towards God and true sorrow for sin conjoyned with real inclinations resolutions and workings in its gradual turning from it and an holy hatred of all thoughts of reversion to it 7. The soul feels within it self an holy inclination to sincerity in all its actions which like a fragrant perfume in every chamber of all its powers and faculties gives a grateful scent in every duty Psal 139.23 and delights to be unfeigned in every good word and work It hates painted garments of hypocrisie and therefore with great humility requests of God to search its heart and begs to be what God would have it and prays withal Psal 143 2â— 130.3 that he would not enter into a severe judgment and mark what 's done amiss with an urgent scrut iny for then no flesh can stand in his sight but intreats forgiveness of God that so he may be feared and worshipped From hence springs that solid sweet and comfortable doctrine of the Reformed Churches That the true desire of grace is true grace On which Basis sound consolation will stand inviolably when all the proud towers of Pelagius and Arminius shall moulder into dust at the fall of Babylon For now the soul in this humble and holy frame lies at the foot of God mourns for sin as committed against God thirsts after the righteousness of Christ alone and praves for the spirit of God to allure and draw it into fuller communion having taken God in the new covenant for its God alone 8. Lastly it studies the increase of holiness by all holy means and methods in meditation self-examining and conversing with old disciples and experienced believers For in such-like God communicates his gracious presence â— cor 7 1. and in these mountains of Zion commands the blessing and life for evermore In these and such particulars if serious Christians would please to go down the stairs of humility Psal 133.3 into the closet of their own heart and ponder more upon what they read with holy meditation they might better observe the motus primo primi the first infant motions of their hearts towards God and heavenly objects but cursory reading spoils all Some indeed advise an hours meditation to an hours reading I think a set quantity of time is not necessary but so much as may cleare and warm the motion upon the heart By experience it will be found that the spirit of God works by vacious methods and very different yet so that by one or other token any poor broken trembling soul may in some measure be comforted as to a true work begun in the heart Psal 51.6 and may learn to know divine wisdom in its secret formations of grace within its utmost recesses and retirements To conclude I take this to be one of the lowest sentiments of a true work when there are found continually secret inclinations motions thirstings and desires after God and holiness which by strict and careful observation may be perceived to grow and increase year by year and this note is common to all believers though in their weakest estate who would not change their slender hopes for all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them This work flows from the first breathings of the spirit of God and may be discerned as to truth and sincerity by these two notes 1. If conjoyned with patient continuance in well-doing Rom. 2.7 though weakly yet with the face toward Zion 2. If growing in spiritual strength tho' at present by small degrees and for a while scarce discernable 2 Pet 3.18 like the growth of a child or the augmentation of a plant or the motion of a shadow of the Style upon the Sun-Dial But so much of the first Let 's treat a while on the second branch of the chapter about a deserted soul and then come to an end 2. Of the lowest acts of grace in a deserted Soul. Here such as are inwardly for the main work truly gracious yet through vain walking and too
your feet in the way to bliss and happiness 3. Stop up the casements of thy senses at any approaches of vanity Prov. 4.25 Let thine eyes look right forward and take heed to thy going Wax up thine ears as Vlysses in Homer from the Syren-songs of fools that may split thy soul upon the Rocks of Charib dis The five senses are as so many rushing flood gates to set open the heart to all iniquity 4. Beg of God a quickned heart to secret and family-duties Cry to the Lord Psal 80.18 Jer. 10.25 Quicken me and I 'le call upon thy name and tremble to be among those families that for not calling on Gods Name shall have his fury poured out upon them Family-prayer is like some Elixir or morning antidote in pestilential times and like some anodyne or cooling cordial julep in an evening to procure beloved sleep in the bosome of God. I was told a notable passage from a holy man a native of Lancashire Mr. Hilton that a witch being to be turned over confessed at her Execution that she could never bewitch the person or family as I remember of a certain godly man in that country because she could never find him come out of his doors without prayer in a morning Again I beseech you let us take heed of Omission-sins and beg pardon for and assistance both of memory and strength against them yet be not too much discouraged if age sickness or weakness or some sudden disappointments hinder or impair thy work Nay if sometimes the sweet wind of the spirit do not breath so fragrantly upon thy garden of spices with the same benigne influences as to melt thy heart in holy ardors and flames of love remember that relentings and mournings under such apprehended absences of the spirit do manifestly infer the inward presence of the same holy spirit in the compunction and brokenness and languishments of heart for Christ do shew a sickness for want of communion visible by secret invisible touches of his love Behold he stands behind the wall Sâ—ng 2.9 and will by and by look forth at a window and shew himself through the lattesse to thee Let me here interpose an humble and earnest request to all persons who may light upon these lines to set upon a speedy and sincere reformation of all things displeasing in his sight that the Lord may bless us and restore and preserve our mercies and especially to conserve the Gospel among us Le ts ' also mix prayer with holy thankfulness for the least of mercies which reminds of a passage of Mr. John Ball when occasionally at a very short and mean dinner with Adams Ale as the Author terms it he breaks out into these words It would cost a man many a years labour to be truly and throughly thankful for one piece of bread and cheese Clearks lives p. 176. Oh how many poor persons in this land would leap at the crusts parings and offals which many lewd persons and wastful servants fling away presumptuously against the command of our Lord who could make bread by a word out of stones out of nothing and yet bids that nothing be lost while as they consider not what bitter poverty they may howl under John 6 1â— nor the dreadful judgment of a famine of bread and water But then how much more abundantly thankful ought we to be for the festival-days of the Gospel which we have enjoyed that so we provoke not the master of the feast to remove both his flourishing table and such ungrateful guests Since many people are even weary of their faithful and painful Ministers who are so disheartned grieved and wearied with abuses offered to them that we may justly fear lest God should prove weary of us all as we are weary of him and provoke him to take away the golden and put brazen candlesticks in their room as that holy man Dr. Owen exprest himself with much sadness to that purpose a little before his ascent to the spirits of just men made perfect Le ts earnestly implore the divine love and patience to forbid these dangerous symptoms and return in mercy to us again 5. Look well to the flocks of your families that no sin break forth without rebuke restraint and punishment as the matter requires study and beg for prudence in government Take heed of multiplying over-many especially impertinent words in family-prayer lest worshippers prove sleepers and disturb that duty by snoring Remember that God is in heaven and thou upon earth Eccles 5.2 therefore let thy words be few It often makes the ways of Religion tedious and irksome to young persons and sometimes hinders their looking towards heaven In all points labour to keep servants and children in full work and business and keep them from gadding with Dinah For womens chaste behaviour gives a flatter denial than their saying of no to wanton fellows They come too near a grant to airy women that would seem to deny it Let the reins of government be held in a gentle hand moderata durant Let not little faults be the object of severe chastisements yet wise correction is most necessary tho now fled from this dissolute age which is the true cause of many enormities 't is hard for good persons to retrieve it while wicked persons are so rampant and powerful but do what thou canst in the wisest way for a good mans paths are ordered of the Lord. Ill and sordid breeding and evil communications affects many thousands with corrupt manners all their dayes Good education helps to sweeten ill-tempers betimes as a new vessel that 's scented with a vinous liquor And although under bad influences at birth and in nursing by a froward milk as Plutarch points it yet wise parents by the blessing of God may greatly form and lick their conversation into some smooth civilities It s a weighty work to fashion young ones to religious habits it tames the heathen fierceness and barbarism of some natures and brings them up by degrees to advance in some measure the glory of God their countries benefit and their own peace Eph. 1.2 within and ornament without Whereas others who are hurt by bad presidents and examples in the ungraceful carriage of Superiours who care not to prune or lop off the wild luxuriancies of youth they often prove quarrelsome and contentious wretches in age disturbers of families the instruments of mischief in cities and towns and if many then they prove firebrands to whole Nations 6. Deliver your souls from this wicked generation fly youthful lusts Acts 2.40 fast away tentations beat down the flesh that great Ass as Hilarion terms it by moderation and abstinence especially from wine and strong drink and all excesses Shun as a serpent or a flying dragon the dreadful madness of these days which tends in the end to shame and beggery here to the ruine of many ancient and famous families who have swallowed many a park and many a
combustible matter and purifie the Air. Artificial implements as Locks Saws and Handles c. are made brighter by mutual affrication attrition and use So do the chariot-wheeles of the soul kindle fire by swift rotation and motion in the ways of holiness and run flaming towards heaven 4. We may argue it from the good-will of God towards us according to that in the Angelical Song peace on earth and good-will towards men peace of conscience on scripture-ground is a certain token of Gods good-will towards us Luke 2.14 But if you ask But will God pardon me in particular I Answer 2 Cor. 5 20. John 3.33 why doubt it When as God exhorts commands and sâ—nds his Embassadors to beseech us to believe him and rest upon his promise and not to make him seem to be a deceiver by our unbelief Nay thou and I and every one to whom the Word of Life doth come are commanded in particular to believe Obj. I but says the timorous soul how can I know that be means the promise of life to me Answ I Answer if thou trust him it will certainly prove so For thy accepting and then relying and resting on him to perform his promise makes up the agreement between God and thee More of this anon God willing 5. An interest in the prayer of Christ is an assured help to evidence that we are in Covenant and under electing love To clear up this we must take our Lords own reasoning before the Father I have given them the words thou gavest me John 17.8.6 verse 14. and they have received them and have kept thy word and they are hated of the world because they are not of it So that if we keep the words or commandments of Christ and are therefore hated by the world we may conclude we are his verse 9. and under the efficacy of his divine prayer He prayes for them whom the Father gave him out of the world and not for the world And lest we might say this concerned the Apostles only our Lord subjoyns I pray for them also that shall believe on me through their word verse 24. Wence we may inferr that all true believers in Christ upon the hearing the word of Apostolical Doctrine are the Subjects of Christs prayer The great end of all is that at last we may be with him and see his glory 6. Learn the blessed art of applying promises this is a sure and certain way to argue out the point of Faith and to infer assurance He that can spiritually apply a promise has the Spirit of God and acts in and by his vertue and influence A promise in the reading sparkles and shines but a promise applyed comforts and warmes Some noble cordial as Alchermes or that of Tycho or some great Elixir if charily set up in a closet or a cabinet of chrystal is an help to the thoughts but drunk or taken down in a proper vehicle makes it by divine blessing to become actually restorative Could we repeat all the promises in the Bible forward and backward and reduce them upon occasion to proper heads and use and service yet 't is special application gives the signative vertue and therefore I shall endeavour by the help of grace to give in a little aid to this purpose First Vniversals contain particulars of the same kind Indefinite and unlimited promises are equivalent to universal in a necessary matter Gods invitation is universal his proclamation extensive to all quarters of the world to all Regions and Ages 2 Pet. 3.9 Mark â—0 49.16.15 col â— 23 Isa 55.1 Rev. 22.17 John 3.16.2.37 1 cor 5 2 cor 6 17. John 6.37 God would have none to perish Ho every one that thirsteth and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely and whosoever believeth shall not perish Wherever the sound of this Gospel-Trumpet rings Into whosoever's ears this blessed news descends from heaven he is the person invited The Lord excepts no person in the proclamation that will but receive the promise of life and although a God yet beseeches us to come to him and hath promised if we will come to accept and receive us I will receive you saith the Lord if you will come out from among them If you l come to me I will in no wise cast you out No time quality number or other circumstance of sins set barrs to free-grace The promulgation declares the mind and good-will of God and that if thou in particular accept the proffer of mercy thou mayst conclude it to be thine Because the inclination of thy will within comes down from God out of heaven and plainly determines that he is willing to save thee because thou art willing to close with his grace upon Gospel-terms of holiness and new-obedience Luke 2.14 Thy will is the effect and therefore the token and evidence of his will to thee good-will towards men Whence thou mayst collect that thy name is written within the parchments and coverings of the general promises which when thus accepted they are then particularly applyed Obj. If any inwardly object their own unworthiness Answ I answer it is a most frivolous and impertinent cavil against thy self For Christ came to save not the worthy Pharisee but the miserable sinful and unworthy Publican Rev. 3.17 Rom. 7.8.11 The Sick need the Physitian and not the whole and therefore come the rather because poor miserable blind and naked Sin took occasion by the commandment to slay thee do thou take occasion by sin to run to the promise Therefore come to Christ because lame tattered torn and wounded and sick and creeping by the hedg-side The more miserable the more acceptable when under the sense of misery thou comest to so merciful an High-priest and Saviour The promises of the Gospel are made to no other if thy case were not miserable thy coming were to no purpose The very reason which thou objectest is the only reason why thou shouldst be encouraged to come to run and flie to this bosome of mercy God has made his promises without any previous foresight of any holiness Ezek. 36.32 grace or Faith. It is for his own sake alone that he blots out our iniquities not for yours Indeed he sends his Son Word Ministers and his Spirit along with them He is graciously pleased to call invite beseech and command us to believe he promises rewards threatens punishments proffers the use and help of all imaginable means proper to this end He also by his holy Spirit moves upon our wills softens turns and bends them as he pleases and by his quickning work stirs up and guides our consciences in all its offices So that I may say Acts 13.26 as the Apostle to some of old To you is the Word of this Salvation sent O languishing trembling soul wouldst thou gladly â—embrace the promises and implore his help to do it What canst thou desire more finceâ— 't is his promise to do
Tokens sent before Marriage and to be sure God will not lose his earnest nor be defeated of the fore tokens of his contract of love to souls sometimes the Spirit is compared to fire and yields both the light of joy the heat of love and influences or quicknings for service And 't is this lively Faith which works by love effectually thru ' the Spirit But I would speak a little more distinctly for the observation and the experience of holy men hath set to their seals that they do find and feel sometimes a most illustrious irradiation upon their hearts from the Spirit of God which I take to be of two sorts The 1. We may call an irradiation of concurse with our spirits The 2. An irradiation of incidence upon our spirits Give leave to use the terms and explain them to the meanest The First or the irradiation of concurse is then dispensed when he shines upon our Argumentation when we have laboured with our spirits used scripture mediums and upon examination suited them to our hearts in their most inward sincere and humble searches then comes the spirit of God and witnesses with our spirits that we are the children of God. When we have toiled and sweat many a time in our closets and brought things as we hope some times to a pritty good issue then thru ' one tentation or another our unbelieving hearts fly off from the Conclusion and all our comfort vanishes But now when our arguings by evident Scripture tokens are finisht over and over and yet still we demurre to lay hold on the Tree of life and while we stick in the mire of fear doubtings and hesitancies and wander under dark clouds in the depth of midnight then comes in the spirit of God Rom. 8.16 as the Morning Star glittering over the Horizon and clears all This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the co-witness of the Spirit of God. 2. The other is that which I beg leave from a term in Opticks to call the irradiation of incidence and is then illustriously performed when the Spirit of God in his most free and glorious agency is pleased to shine personally upon our spirits without and apart from all argumentation whatsoever This comunion with the spirit draws nigh to that of Angelical intuition where by acts of volition and luminous emanation they converse mutually together in a higher degree than we do here by ratiocination with mediums and consequences This is the point we are now upon to shew that the Spirit of God when he pleases without any previous foregoing arguments doth testifie by a secret still heart-ravishing voice Acts 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth sweetly and suddenly as 't is said in the Acts dart in a ray perswading and satisfying the soul in an instant that thou art a Child of God that sin is pardoned and that thou shalt be saved page 147. Which I reâ—ember the British Divines at Dort call the â—pirits speaking to the heart and even in darker times there were some of the Ilâ—uminate both of Spain and Germany and France that had to do I am perswaded with many distrssed souls in their secret confessions were acquainted with great worâ—nigs in the hearts of penitents but few of â—hem had skill to manage those inward methods Of which things we may find some â—otable footsteps in Bonaventure Gerson Thanlerus and sundry others So that of this inwaâ—d clear and bright perswasion of Gods love to the heart we have no solid reason to doubt but that some holy persons have enjoyed it Austin at his conversion in the garden at Millain had a voice though he had no vision as Paul had in the fields by Damascus I shall be sparing and touch but an instance or two Dr. Manton spake it in my hearing at Oxon of one that being in conflict in prayer had a beam shining into the chamber and being desired by him to have a care of delusion answered O Mr. Manton little do you know what God may do for his poor distressed children or very like words But the caution was wise and grave I know one also who being for almost a week deeply distressed about Eternity had an impression as like a voice within as if he heard it comforting in these words I will give thee rest and so iâ— followed speedily and joyfully and at another time I will not leave thee noâ— forsake thee I might also hint at the beam upon the wall in prayer to Dr. Winter in his life and the voices of Angels to Mr. Patrick Simpson I must confess they are great priviledges and sweetnesses which God may it his divine good plâ—asure and I am perswadâ—d doth sometimes instil and drop in to gracious when timorous hearts anâ— whose constitutions the great former oâ— hearts and spirits knows full well to bâ— naturally over subject to fears and inwarâ— commotions he like a most gracious and Tender Father full of pity and bowels discerns our frames See Mr. Maâ—hers prevalency of prayer Psal 103. p 17.14 at the end of his Tract of N. E. troubles Psal 40.17 By his loving eye and remembring that we are dust is mindfull of us in our low condition whereas many proud and disdainful persons set light by the inward sorrows of broken and contrite souls And are like lamps despised in the thought of him that is at ease But says David though I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh upon me and with how many precious thoughts his goodness is pleased to embroider and enamel upon the hearts of his holy humble meek and trembling children For your high exalted boasting persons tho' it may be have some few grains of grace at bottom are seldom visited with these inward joyes But the meek will he teach his ways Such blessed thoughts of grace David could not number Ps 139.17 18 they were more than the Sands of the Sea or the stars of heaven for multitude But now if these or such like lines should fall under the view or knowledge of any prophane or scoffing Ishmael that may vilifie the works of God and like bruits speak ignorantly of what they know not would advise them to forbear presumptious speeches 2 Pet. 2 12. Jude 10. lest their bonds be made strong lest the Terrors horrors of the almighty should one day drink up their spirits So that when Gods Servants shall rejoyce and sing for joy of heart they shall cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit Isal 65.14 But yet because there may be such things as Enthusiasines and transformation of Angels of darkness among some that call themselves Sweet-singers and among others that have more need to mourn over their follies and delusions in the dust of shame I would speak somewhat to that question of an humble Soul. Quest How may I comfort my heart that this irradiation you speak of is a true and immediate work of the Spirit of God and
no delusion Answ In answer to this I must first in all manner of humble modesty declare that I would not dare to meddle too far with such deep and mysterious workings and influences only professing with all thankfulness to the Majesty of divine mercy that having had some glimpses of hope a little sometimes and thirsting after some further and clearer helps from heaven we faint not utterly but striving after to attain towards the resurrection of the dead crave leave to set down somewhat that hope may be a clue to conduct us out 〈◊〉 the Labrinth and maze of delusion The first and best token that these aâ—â— no deceits can only arise from the spirt himself According to that saying of â—oy Iohn It is the Spirit that beareth witness that the Spirit is truth 1 John 5.6 Whitak de sacramentis p. As I remember thâ—â— learned Whitaker in his book of the Sacraments says it should be translated I have forgot the page my books being laid upâ—â— But this is a great truth as no better light to see the Sun by Psal 36.9.34.5 than his own light So 't is of the Spirit as David expresses In thy light we shall see light and they looked to him and their faces were enlightened This is the apprehension of learned gracious persons that the spirit of God never speaks by this his inward heavenly voice but that he graciously helps them to know that it is no delusion but that it is he even the spirit himself that speaketh to them This phrase of speaking to the heart and in and upon the heart is more visible in the Original Hebrew of the Old Testament and was well known to the Prophets of old and is much treated upon among Jewish Antiquiaries Out of whom I must not here stand to enlarge but call to mind what the Apostle Peter mentions of the Day-star arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 so that it is as clear when the spirit of God does thus shine and testifie yea and more radiant than the Sun at Noon-day without clouds I shall say no more to this but what our Lord to the Angel at Pergamus of them that have a new name written in the white stone Rev. 2.17 which none knoweth saving he that receiveth it 2. I need say little more but that wherever the Spirit doth so illustriously speak and shine it is concomitant with growing in holiness For this most holy Spirit of God is still a building and increasing in such the works of holiness they are of a heavenly frame rivers of holy discourse flow from their lips in prudent seasons they are not vain and trifling spirits but grave and serious and yet chearful For the joy of the Lord is their strength and they have inward delights and value not the cracklings of fools Divine joy is a weighty thing and yet greatly upholds the spirits and sustains their griefs and infirmities If you come into their company by a blessed accident as they say of the Adepti in Philosophy there 's a glittering star shines from their converse society 3. They are the most humble persons living For the humble he will teach his way and shew his Covenant Psal 25.9 I know they may fall sometimes and othertimes have need of a little holy courage against despisers But the main of their conversation is like them of whom the spirit of God says they took notice of them that they had conversed with Jesus Acts 4 13. who was meek and lowly if we imitate him we shall find this rest and remember that Moses the meekest man had the greatest interviews with God in the Mountain Such as are given to much prate and length of idle impertinent discourses are seldom and little or never acquainted with the Spirit of God. 4. They are also the sweetest persons and fullest of love though sometimes provokt by fierce evil spirits about them but if their natural tempers had been before somewhat eager and sharp yet now they are washed purged whitened and sweetned by the Spirit of God. Tender to the Tempted kind to the afflicted pitiful to all bear every ones burden with a gracious frame onely they are taught by the holy Spirit 1 cor 23 4.5 as to such as prate with malicious words against them to imitate hole John not to succumbe under a prouâ—â— Diotrephes 3 John 9. but loves a child of God as such with the full stream of his Spirit And this love to the brethren is much more to Christ himself being filled with the love of the Spirit which by degrees casts out the torments of fear 1 John. 4.18 and gives a blessed confidence as to the Appearing of the Day of Judgment To end this we must remember that the holy Spirit of God doth never witness or illustrate apart from the Word Isa 8 20. 〈◊〉 any light in you try it by the Word and Testimony and hence that as Tentations and afflictions sanctified so the manifestations and communions of the Spirit help us to understand holy Scriptures and promises by experience Let us then be sure as far as possible that the person that pretends to be thus illustrated prove himself to be an holy person in heart and deed or else all 's like a puft and swoln delusion and such an onâ— must lie down in sorrow For the Spirit of God is a most holy spirit and never seals but as he is the holy Spirit of Promise upon the holy heart of an holy child of God. Well then to end this second part of the Spirits illustration Eph 1 3. Rom. 8.16 1 John 4.13 I say it is not meant of the Spirit of God concurring or witnessing with our spirits in the point of assurance clearing up our doubts dispelling the mists and clouds uponour spirits But it is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or like an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bright shining Ray a most illustrious beam streaming down from heaven into the inmost chambers of our hearts and is an act distinct and apart from his former blessed concurse with our spirits in time of argumentation or the gracious application of the promises for our peace and comfort it is an irresistable evidence of divine love See Dr Owen of the spirit 167. scattering all the clouds of diffidence and distrust in that very moment and when this immediate irradiation flows in though it may be a distinct act from that upon argumentation yet it cannot be totally severed from it because in this glorious light though we may see further yet cannot but see any argument we think meet to touch upon to be also illustrated by it as the Moon in her increases may be seen in the heavens like a cloud in the day time which also has its light from the Sun while he is yet shining bright within our hemisphere at the same time and when these come together they make heavenly work indeed That these blessed
visits have been somtimes tho rarely afforded yet to some few besides Patriarks and Apostles I have no cause to doubt whatever some Pontisicians have said to the contrary to darken it The Holy Scriptures clear it experience doth witness it and seal it in the hâ—arts of some meek humble self-denying mortified and holy walking persons who haâ—ing lived a while in the light of Gods countâ—nance have afterward gone to heaven in a Chariot of Triumph Having now spoken what concerns this excellent point and observing that these Orient Jewels are such grand rarities and having placed them in the middle like a Diamond set in ouches of Gold give leave to descend again from the Spouses Tower of Lebanon into the Plains of Damascus Song 7.4 and walk again in the pleasant Gardens at the foot of the hill where streams flow with the comfortable Doctrines of Assurance A priviledg of high Dignity which tho it attain not to the first of David's Worthies yet does attend and that more frequently many of the children of God if they will labour to be holy and study this high point of Arguing and observing the accesses of the Spirit of God and in their diligent working and prying into it they may learn and perceive it thus 1. First We may obtain some sweet knowledg of this point by the Spirits interceding in our hearts helping to form and frame our Prayers both for matter and manner Rom. 8.18 teaching us both what and how to Pray 2. By His sweet pleading our evidences within us when we find a kind of divine holy force put as it were upon our spirits to determine comfortably and witness to the Spirit 's work not being able to deny some grace to be in us when strongly urged and put to it by some intimate and gracious faithful Friend 3. By His discovering our graces to us in times of tentation and conflict yea 1 Cor. 2.12 and in Communion at the Lords Table and in Meditation 4. By His cogent Apologies for us in our Consciencies upon our Reptenance and Humiliation in the sight of God Psal 51.12 proving and clearing up to us our love to God so that weak Believers who at present have but little glimmerings of joy yet finding true love in themselves by his light may by degrees thru ' his happy testimony arrive to further clearness both in love and joy III. Now by the order prescribed in the beginning of this Chapter I should proceed to the third Branch and that is to treat of some Rules to clear up our Assurance I Answer to this that herein I have even prevented my self and therefore shall at present only add that these Particulars following may be of use 1. A watchful care of a holy heart 2. To observe the inward workings and issues of it 3. To be careful in cleansing and washing of the first risings of sin in the Laver of Sanctification 4. To labour a holy attendance upon and a spiritual delight in the addresses incomes comforts and sealings of the Spirit that we may discern and rejoyce in them 5. An earnest invoking the Father to send the comforter in his assuring work upon a sanctifying progress John 14.24 for then he proves a comforting Spirit after he hath been a sanctifying Spirit He first comes to us as the Holy Ghost and then as the Comforter tho the foundation of both be laid at once yet the appearances are successive But I hope to add more in answer to the Questions by and by only I would first set down a passage about assurance out of that grave Writer Hooker in his Polity in his Life before it P. 17. Mr. Hooker which I hope may be of use to some of his perswasion as well as others and 't is to this purpose There 's a certainty of Evidence and of Assurance grant that the weak in Faith enjoy not certainty of Assurance because they feel it not but are they not grieved for it wish and strive it may be otherwise Whence comes this but from a secret love and liking that they have to those things which they believe to have Because no man loves those things which in his own opinion are not c. Therefore love and desire to believe is Faith. For no man thinketh that things believed are that is have a being without Faith. Which Arguments sayes he all the subtleties of infernal powers will never be able to dissolve Thus far he to which let me joyn that since Faith of evidence as being the foundation work is therein more excellent than the Faith of Assurance as being the superstructure tho I had rather call it in Scripture terms the Assurance of Faith since Assurance properly as I have often said is a distinct thing from Faith tho common speech hath prevailed to make such a distinction as if they were proper Members or Branches of true Faith. But let that pass I say if Christians would arise to high Assurance they must lay their foundation strong and deep in the rock of evidence upon Christ himself Evidence flows from a direct act Assurance from a reflect the one is like the view of the Suns body in the heaven the other like his reflection in the water or on a Looking glass Now all reflect rayes are weaker than the direct and the reverse than the incident But I speak not here of the Spirits work and its most illustrious evidence but of our workings upon the actings of our Faith. As to which the stronger our applications are to Christ the stronger and more comfortable will be the reflections upon them For both rayes the nearer the reverse and incident are in union as in the depth of Summer the heat and influence is the more strong and fervent and so 't is here But now it is high time to hearken to some Questions which troubled Souls may bring in Quest 1. The first Question may be How may I be assured of the pardon of my sins and consequently of Salvation Ans In answer to this I shall lay down some Rules to clear it which was the third thing premised in the beginning of this Chapter 1. Forsaking of sin with a holy endeavour to mortifie and subdue it Prov. 28.13 Mic. 7 19. Rom 8.13 is a special sign of mercy 2. When after darkness and conflicts a begun renovation of life with a sincere care to continue it is attended with some springings of peace in conscience with God this will prove an excellent token For the blood of sprinkling upon the conscience speaks better than Abel's blood Heb. 12.24 That cried out for condemnation this for reconciliation with God. 3. When we find some sweetness in our admissions to the Throne of Grace When our eye up to the Throne affects our heart at the threshold of Gods Sanctuary When a bended knee and a melting heart work together Then we may ask of God what ever we will if according to his will the
in his study upon an high hill near Padua he enjoyed the bright and warm beams while it rained all day in the vally and he himself saw the dark and heavy clouds under the hill Few be like to Moses to whom it s granted to walk on tho top of Pisgah till they dye Wherefore such as have once obtained Assurance and a lively hope of glory 1 Pet 1.3 blame them not if they are very desirous to preserve increase and imbellish it more and more For since Assurance may be lost for a season as it was in David Heman and Peter and as in the case of that wounded deserted soul that askt Mr. Dod once Was ever any soul in so dreadful a case as I Yes says that great and skilful comfortor of a wounded conscience Christ on the Cross was in as sad a case Clars Lives when he cried out of the Fathers forsaking him I think it therefore most meet to subjoyn some rules with divine help to maintain and preserve it 1. Take heed of what impairs and darkens assurance as the defect of quickning influences against that pray for the supplies of the Spirit Phil. 1.19 If it rise from a weakness of judgment read more meditate more and cry after knowledg as for hid treasure If the seriousness of your spirits be hurt by minding vanities and the rattles of pride and finery and over-valuing the trifles of this world Pray for a more noble and judicious and generous frame and judg of all wordly mens Jewels as indeed the word jocalia imports as so many whistles and hobbies for children to play with If thou hast lost thy comforts by neglect of holy walking take heed hereafter of damping thy joyes by froth and foolishness Take heed of a vain heart of vain and manifold words Prov. 10.19 and especially fiery tongues wherin Solomon says there wants not sin and of vain converse with their apish and childish tales and jests which are not convenient and tend to corrupt the mind by deceitful lusts Eph. 5.4 These things will blot thy evidences and quench the Spirit of God. Pray that God would not lead thee by his providence into tentations If thou wouldst have the Lord to know or acknowledge thee for his depart from all iniâ—uity and that will prove the foundation to be sure â— Tim. 2.19 Keep the divine commands though you find mixtures of weakness yet in an holy fear and love to the purity of the precept labour to walk in your house with a perfect heart Psal 101.2.112.1 2 Tim. 1.17 â— John 2.3 â— 13 For we may be sure that we know him and be humbly confident that he is our God in Covenant if we keep his Commandments 2. When under great darkness for every stitch we must not run to a Doctor repair to your faithful Interpreter that may reveal and open to a man his righteousness Jâ—b 33.23 some blessed soul that 's higher in acquaintance with heaven then your self as you may humbly judg some experienced christian some faithful grave and prudent friend no babler nor revealer of secrets nor scoffer at the workings of the Spirit as if enthusiasmes he is an unjudicious person and if you cannot well wrestle out the point your self but still your soul droops and drives in the mire and no light of joy comes in then open your soul to some prudent friend and give him leave nay intreat him to search out the coare and conscientiously follow his advice and it may prove a most happy day to your soul by comparing mutual experiences yet remember in matters of weight that might prove a scandal if he should not be wise and faithful be very cautious of discovering what thou shouldst only pour out before the Lord. Psal 142.2 For if he be of a weak envious spirit and once used to speak evil of friends behind their backs use him not he 'l prove a foolish serpent and double your misery 3. Judge not thy grace always by its flowers but search out its sap and root One may be a well spread and weighty christian and yet not flower in much discourse The flowers of some trees fall off quickly and never set in to much visible fruit and some have no flowers at all as the fig and yet yields a wholsome and pleasant fruit 'T is so with some choice and serious christians you shall not hear them talk much unless you pump and draw out the spirits by questions I like them the better For the little they produce is usually much to purpose and of good weight Yea further you may if critical observe that the graces of good men may vary in fruit and have their different seasons but never alter their grain or root Grace may lie hid as the corn under ground after first Sowing yea after 't is come up may bow and hide its green head under a flight of snow And when there 's least of sense or present experience yet the root of Faith like strong winter-corn may grow more inward and downward being covered and kepâ— under by pinching North-east blasts and sharp black frosts till it recover head by an early Spring So indeed the power and strength of grace is best seen and discerned when it persists and stands its ground under a shock of tentations and adversities At length the Sun will return Northward and the sharper the past winters were they l make the new spring the pleasanter Comforts their proper nature lies in being restoratives from bitter troubles and a sweet May-morning is most delightful after a dark and thunder night 4. Take heed of denying the works of the Spirit within thee and labour to discern the gracious fruits of the Spirit as distinct from moral actions and vertues and principally observe your conflicts againâ—â— sin when followed with success Godly jealousie not to be deceived is good therefore search and try thy heart and if thou find sound footing for grace then bless God and honour the Spirit and grieve him not by froward and foolish self-accusations which savour of the spiritual pride of humility but in all meek and humble modest manner own free grace adore divine mercy and testifie to it when thou judgest by the best of thy wisdom that thou art called to give in thy testimony as the Apostle Peter requires and David performs in telling what God did for that poor mans soul as he calls himself Or as Ambrose cited by Mr. Philpot Take away the Law Tolle legem 〈◊〉 fiet certamen See Ambrose as he is cited By Mr. philpot in Fox Martyrs vol. 3. p. 542. 2 Pet. 3.15 Psal 34.6 and then we will dispute against you 5. Assurance should be earnestly prayed for and diligently wrought out by holy labour and it will come Give diligence to make it sure says Peter Surely 't is blessed working in these golden mines It proves with the diligent hand like the works of Chimical Phisitians who
crucifie them to the world more and more You begin to grow up and some into years It s high time as the Apostle exhorts to put on the Lord Jesus and to make no provision more for the flesh and the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 5. Fifthly The Doctrine of Faith infers it to be great wisdom and duty to keep your consciences undefiled For the mystery of Faith is held and preserved in a pure clean and serene conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 like a chrystal Venice-glass tipt with gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that runs like a clear sweet stream not conscious of any sin wilfully committed 1 Tim. 1.19 It s sometime termed a good conscience whereof wilful sins make sorrowful ship-wracks A good conscience is a continual feast gave Paul a Banquet every night and composed him to a better rest 2 Cor. 1.12 than in a bed of Roses But why is a good conscience such a golden vial for Faith Because holiness of life feeds conscience with joy and thereby testifies and comforts about the truth of Faith. 6. Sixthly We may observe from the former tract that Faith is an excellent engine to discern and observe the wise Government of God in the World and in the Church It s a Telescope to discern afar off in the heavens and a Microscope to pry into minuter accidents in the earth Had we no other Argument Heb. 11.3 yet by Faith we may know it and that more fully and punctually how the worlds were framed and by Faith we understand the divine dominion and management of the world by Spirits He maketh his Angels Spirits Psal 104.4 his Ministers a flaming fire of some whereof le ts speak in order 1. First God manages many things by the ministration of Angels They are the seven eyes of God that joy to see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel for rebuilding the Temple Heb. 1.7 Zech. 4.10 Dan. 9.21.10 13 20. Gen. 19.1 2 Kin. 1.9 15. Deut. 32.8 We read in Scripture of the Prince of Persia and Graecia of Michael and Gabriel tho the third is judged to be meant of Christ the other of created Angels which were imployed in divine works and messages and what were the Chariots of Mahanaim and near Samaria and at Elijah's rapture and other times but the holy Angels of God. There is also a place in Deuteronomy which the Septuagint read thus When the most High divided the inheritance to the Nations when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the Angels of God. Tho I do not justifie the Translation yet it shews that this notion was current among the antient Jews And altho the Pseudodionysius in his Hierarchy of Angels sets down many frivolous fancies and curiosities about their orders yet that God is pleased to execute his pleasure by the administration of good and sometimes evil Angels is consonant to holy Scripture As in the Psalmist Psal 78.49 he sent evil Angels among the Egyptians and so made a way to his anger whom some interpreters judg to be good Angels but called so from the evil of punishment which as instruments they inflicted However that be yet t is a Scripture truth and an object of Faith and known by experience in several ages And altho the methods be unknown yet the matter is certain and indeed may be joy and comfort to Saints to know that they encamp about them that fear him and are the valiant ones about their beds by night Psal 34 7 they are the holy Watchers in Daniel and the comforters and aiders of Saints by day and why may not they suggest some heavenly ill apses as well as evil Spirits tempt when God permits It s ground of sweet joy and praise for the Saints to have such society and communion with these holy Sons of God these Morning Stars that sang before him Ioh 38 7 Zech 6 8 It s said of them that they quieted the Spirit of God in the North Countrey that is Gods wrath was satiated by the execution of justice upon Babylon in the ministry of these holy Angels They fought against the Assyrian in Sennacharibs Camp 2 King 19 35 Zech 1 8 2 Chro. 35.21 they were in Battel aray against Babylon among the Myrtle Trees What may we divine of the visions to Pharaoh Necho when commanded to go up against Carckemish the Cercusium in Ammiano or of that to Alexander in Josephus or of that voice to Totilas commanding him to go against Italy and making him the flagellum Dei Gods Scourge to the Nations were not they secret impulses and instigations of Angels upon their Spirits to do the work of God 2. Sometimes by the spirits of men God turned the Egyptians hearts to hate his people and deal subtilly with his Servants after a while Ps 105.29.37 Eâ—od 12.36 he gives them favour in the sight of the same nation so that they lent them what they required both Jewels of gold silver and raiment sometimes a Pharaoh that dealt kindly with them all the days of Joseph and then other Pharaohs that were very harsh and cruel to them Sometimes a Grecian Alexander shall favour them and after him Antiochus one of his Successors deal barbarously with them When Israel was come into their own land God promised to restrain the Spirits of the Neighbouring Heathens at the three times a year when they went up to worship yea to bridle the inward desires of the adjacent nations Exod. 34.24 that not a man of them should so much as desire their Land. In after-ages the Prophet Daniel treating of the times of the silver breast Dan. 11.27 Prophesies there should arise two Princes scil Antiochus Epiphanes and Ptolomaeus Philometor who should speak lies at one table but it should not prosper that is make feigned shews of amity when they feasted together but it should not avail them To name no more there is a wonderful Praediction in Ezekiel that in the latter days not yet fulfilled things shall then come into the mind of Gogâ— that is the Turk or Tartars as the learned judg He shall think an evil thought Ezek. 38.10 even to come into the Land of Israel ver 18. ver 22. after the Jews are re-entred into it But the Lord will plead against him to his utter destruction and he shall be finally ruined when the Lord will raise up the Sons of Zion against the Sons of Greece Zech. 14.3.9.13 that is against the Turk or Tartarian in that day having fixed his seat at Constantinople in the old Imperial Pallace of the Graecian or Eastern Empire and being the Successor of the Graecian Alexander in his East Dominions 3. Sometimes by the heavenly bodies and their influences by the spirits of meteors and many other natural exhalations out of the sea and bowels of the earth as from Vesuvius Aetna Hecla and the Vulcanian Islands How did the Stars in their courses fight against Sisera Judg. 5.20 causing great inundations in the
This is true Faith. 2. Where is the solace and delight of thy soul Is it in things and persons of Christs delight The things of the spirit and the excellent persons upon earth Rom. 8.5 Psal 16.3 Rom. 5 1. is thy soul at rest and under holy quiet because in some measure satisfied that thou art at peace with God. This will breed true joy for peace is the alma parens the happy Mother of joy Whereas contention and grief quarrel in the yoke together Now when the storms of Gods wrath are calmed by the sprinkling of Christs precious blood upon the Mercy-Seat there will gradually follow joy unspeakable and sull of glory And where this peace is there 's true Faith be sure 3. By the souls continuance in the daily actings of faithful recumbency whereby the habit is fortified Yet always remember to add thereto a continuance in well-doing Stedfast Christians are perserverers The Stony-ground brought forth spâ—eâ—ily Rom. 2.7 and that with joy at the first hearing it was but flashy and endured not having no firm root the rock lying too near under it but the good ground brought forth fruit with patience Luk. 8.15 continuing under winters frost and summers he at till the joyful day of harvest This is true Faith Indeed and commended by our Lord himself CHAP III The least or lowest Degree of FAITH HAving Discoursed of some various Expressions of Scripture painting out the true Nature of Faith to the life Let us now proceed further in our design to comfort shaken and contrite Spirits To which end since we find Scripture mentioning some persons as strong in Faith giving glory to God and others but infirm and weak accosted with this compellation O ye of little Faith why do ye doubt and fear the Faith of the former being very visible and apparent to themselves and others Mat. 6.30 8.26 the latter tho true Believers yet exceedingly fill'd with fears sorrows and jealousies over their own hearts It would be expedient for their erection and comfort to considâ—r what may be the Criterions or tokens of a true Faith tho in the lowest degree and upon that account to dilate a little on these two Branches 1. What may be accounted the lowest meanest weakest estate of new Converts or young beginners in the School of Christ And 2. To how low an Ebb secure souls may be reduced in time of desertion An answer to either of these may yield mutual satisfaction to both Le ts begin with the first Q 1. What may we enstate and determine to be a critical token of a true Believer in his meanest acts of Faith A. In Answer to this lets consider First in general that the commencement or beginning of this grace is sometimes represented by conception or quickning of a Câ—ild in the Womb Eph. 2.2 John 3.3 sometimes by the new birth or visible appearance in the light of this World. Sometimes the work of regeneration and therein Faith its principal ingredient is resembled to the wind in its invisible original from mineral Exhalations out of the bowels of the Earth and Sea Mark 4.27 Luk. 13.2 to its motion and progress in the air Otherwise 't is likened to a grain of Mustard-seed the least of all oleracious Seeds that grow to so great an extension at last It s likeâ—ed also to a little leaven that ferments and works it self into the whole mass To Seed-Corn under the glebe or mould that swells by the impregnation of nitrous Rain and sulphurious Earth concurring to their germination first chits and breaks the membranes and then sprouts above the ground Or it may be compared to the budding and flowring of Trees in the Spring or to the grafting of a Cyon into the cleft or a Bud inoculated into the bark of a Tree which by degrees conceives both by the warmth and moisture of the Stock But still the precise time or modus of the curious transactions in the vegetable Kingdom the secret transfusion or percolation of Liquors and Spirits is not easily discerned or accounted for by the most accurate Naturalists Yea when all is done and written by Roger Bacon of Oxford or Sir Francis of Verulam or the Learned Harvy or any of the new Philosophers of Brittain France or Germany or Borrichius that Learned Dane there 's none in the whole quire can yet determine the admirable mysteries of Generation None can fathom the works of God in wise productions and the various textures and needle-works of his diving power as the Psalmist hath exprest it But much more abstruse intricate and unfathomable is it in spiritual cases Psal 139.15 Opere Phrgianico For how and at what time grace is inspired or sown in the heart and how it works ferments and by warm influences becomes like a Spiritus intus agens an inward working Spirit it s neither discerned by persons themselves much less by others sometimes during the space of several years For it grows we know not how nor can delineate the motion of its growth Gen. 2 6 Col. 2.19 but being watered from heaven by a living mist sent by God upon this happy Plant in the Eden of a gracious soul it encreases with the encrease of God. Hence it follows that 't is impossible for thousands to fix the time of these first heavenly workings or irritations these irradiations or impregnations of the Spirit of God. Neither needs it sufficient it is to discern it when sprouted a little from its seminal Principles Wherefore to urge the preciseness of time as to regeneration in persons that draw near to Ordinances is timerarious and rash and he is too busie a person that strictly requires it of tender Consciences and makes it an inflexible rule of Communion I may then say of this more than of all other works of divine Wisdom and Power in this lower Orb that the eye of the Vulture hath not searcht it out it is too high and too wonderful for us Job 28 77 Psal 139.6 As holy David having treated of his being secretly fearfully and wonderfully made as to the curious fabrick of his body in all its vessels ligaments veins arteries nerves and juices in all the repositaries sings in harmony and consort to heaven how vastly melodious beyond the hymn of Galen and stands at length upon the brink of an Ocean of Extasies as to the precious thought ver 17. that God had to and in his soul I shall therefore not venture into these Arcana Imperii and Magniala Dei these stupendious secrets of divine wisdom and mercy nor sail too far in deep waters near this terra incognita nor treat too close of the first initial formation of grace and faith in the heart by the operation of the spirit of God. A labour wherein we may sweat and toil till faint and dive so long till the damps in these golden mines extinguish our Spirits I shall then only for some comfort to sincere