do more with us to draw us to sin then Faith and Obedience do to keep us from sin ordinarily this is no true Faith or Obedience If Christ have not the Soveraignty in the soul and his Interest be not the most predominant and potent we are no true Believers Now it is plain that the Interest of the world and flesh doth actually prevail when a man is actually committing a known sinne and omitting a known duty and then it is certain that Habits are known but by the Acts. And therefore it must needs be that the soul that most sinneth must needs be most in doubt whether the Interest of Christ or the flesh be predominant and so whether his obedience be true or no and so whether he did sincerely take Christ for his Soveraign and that is whether he be a true Believer For when a man is enquiring into the state of his soul Whether he do subject himself to Christ as his only Soveraign and whether the Authority and Love of Christ will do more with him then the temptations of the world flesh and devil he hath no way to be resolved but by feeling the Pulse of his own Will And if he say I am willing to obey Christ before the fâ—â—sh and yet do actually live in an obedience to the flesh before Christ he is deceived in his own Will for this is no saving Willingness A wicked man may have some will to obey Christ principally but having more will to the contrary viz. to please the flesh before Christ therefore he is wicked still so that you see in our self-examination the business is for the most part finally Resolved into our sincere actual obedience For thus we proceed We first finde He that believeth and loveth Christ sincerely shall be saved Then we proceed He that believeth sincerely taketh Christ for his Soveraign Then He that truly taketh Christ for his Soveraign doth truly resolve to obey him and his Laws before the world flesh or devil Then He that truly resolveth thus to obey Christ before all doth sincerely perform his resolution and doth so obey him For that is no true resolution ordinarily that never comes to performance And here we are cast unavoidably to try whether we do perform our resolutions by actual obedience before we can sit down with setled Peace much more before we get Assurance Now those that are diligent and carefull in obeying and have greatest conquest over their corruptions and do most seldom yield to temptations but do most notably and frequently conquer them these have the clearest discovery of the performance of their resolutions by obedience and consequently the fullest Assurance But they that are oftenest overcome by temptations and yield most to sin and live most disobediently must needs be furthest from Assurance of the sincerity of their obedience and consequently of their salvation 2. God himself hath plainly made our actual obedience not only a sign of true Faith but a secondary part of the condition of our salvation as promised in the New Covenant And therefore it is as impossible to be saved without it as without Faith supposing that the person have opportunity to obey in which case only it is made necessary as a condition This I will but cite several Scriptures to prove and leave you to peruse them if you be unsatisfied Rom. 8.1 to 14. They that are in Christ Jesus are they that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of Life and may enter in by the Gate into the City Heb. 5.9 He is become the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Matth. 11.28 29 30. Take my yoak upon you for it is easie and my burden for it is light Learn of me to be meek and lowly c. and ye shall finde Rest c. John 16.27 Luke 13.24 Phil. 2.12 Rom. 2.7 10. Joh. 15.12 17. 14.21 Mat. 5.44 Luk. 6.27 35. Pro. 8.17 21. Matth. 10.37 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 2 Tim. 2.5 12. Matth. 25.41 42. Jam. 2.21 22 23 24 26. 1.12 2.5 Prov. 1.23 28.13 Luk. 13.3 5. Matth. 12.37 11.25 26. 6.12 14 15. 1 John 1.9 Act. 8.22 3.19 22.16 Luke 6.37 1 Pet. 4.18 1.2 22. Rom. 6.16 with abundance more the like Now when a poor sinner that hath oft fallen into Drunkenness Railing Strife Envying c. shall reade that these are the works of the flesh and that for these things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience and that every man shall be judged according to his works and according to what he hath done in the flesh and that they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God it cannot be but that his Assurance of salvation must needs have so great a dependance on his obedience as that these sins will diminish it When he reades Rom. 6.16 His servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sinne unto death or of obedience unto Righteousness he must needs think how such a time and such a time he obeyed sinne and the oftner and the more wilfully he did it the doubtfuller will his case be Especially if he be yet in a sinfull course which he might avoid whether of gross sinne or any wilfull sinne it cannot be but this will obscure the evidence of his obedience Men cannot judge beyond evidence and he that hath not the evidence of his true obedience hath not the evidence of the sincerity of his Faith 3. Moreover Assurance and Comfort are Gods gifts and without his gracious aid we cannot attain them But God will not give such gifts to his children while they stand out in disobedience but when they carefully please him Paternal Justice requires this 4. And it would do them abundance of hurt and God much dishonour if he should either tell them just how oft or how farre they may sin and yet be saved or yet should keep up their Peace and Comforts as well in their greatest disobedience as in their tenderest carefull walking with him But these things I spoke of before and formerly elsewhere You see then that though some obedient tender Christians may yet on several occasions be deprived of Assurance yet ordinarily no other but they have Assurance And that Assurance and Comfort will rise and fall with obedience And for all the Antinomian objections against this as if it were a leading men to their own righteousness from Christ I referre you to the twenty Arguments which I before laid you down to prove that we may and must fetch our Assurance and Comfort from our own works and Graces and so from our own Evangelical Righteousness which is subordinate to Christs Righteousness which he speaks of Matth. 25. last and in fourty
certain to perform Answ 1. I suppose you have read the many Scriptures and Arguments which our Divines ordinarily use to prove that the true Believers shall not fall quite away And I know not how the opposers can answer that text which themselves use to alledge for the contrary Mat. 13.6 21. Those that believe for a time and in the time of persecution fall away it is because the seed had not depth of earth the word never took rooting in their hearts Whence it seems that it may be well inferred that those shall not fall away in time of temptation in whom the word of God hath taken deep rooting And that is in them in whose hearts or wills Christ hath a stronger interest then the creature or those that have a well-grounded unreserved habituated or setled Resolution to be for Christ 2. However your present Resolution and your Covenanting with Christ is no more but this to say I do Consent or this I am Resolved to do by the help of Gods Grace 3. Else no man should be Baptized or become a Christian because he is uncertain to keep his Covenants For all that are Baptized do Covenant and vow to forsake the world flesh and Devil and fight under Christs banner to their lives end Understand me therefore that you are not to promise to do this by your own strength but by the strength of Christ as knowing that he hath promised his Spirit and Grace for the aid of every true Believer 14. If your Resolution at present be hearty you ought not to vex and disquiet your minde with doubtfull tormenting fears what you should do if you be put to it to forsake all and suffer death for Christ For he hath promised to lay no more on us then we can bear but with the temptation will make us a way to come forth 1 Cor. 10 13. either he will not bring us into trials beyond our strength or else he will increase our strength according to our trials He hath bid us pray Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and he hath promised that whatsoever we ask in the name of Christ according to his will he will give us So that if once you can but truly say that it is your full Resolution to forsake all for Christ if he call you to it and that on the forementioned grounds you ought not then to vex your soul with fears of the issue for that is but to distrust God your father and your strength Only you must be carefull to do your duty to the keeping up of your present Resolutions and to wait obediently on God for the help of his Spirit and to beg it earnestly at his hands 15. Much less is it lawfull for men to feign and suppose such calamities to themselves as God doth never try men by and then to ask themselves Can I bear these for Christ and so to try themselves on false and dangerous grounds Some use to be troubled lest if they were put to long and exquisite torments for Christ they should renounce him One saith I cannot endure the torments of Hell for Christ Another saith Could I endure to be roasted or torn in pieces so many weeks or daies together or could I endure to die so many times over These are foolish sinfull questions which Christ never desired you to put to your selves He never tries mens faith on this manner Tormentors cannot go beyond his Will Nay it is but very few that he tries by death and fewer by an extream tormenting death All this therefore proceeds from errour 16. Observe from the fifth Mark That the present Prevalency of your Resolutions now against those Temptations which you encounter with may well encourage you to expect that they should prevail hereafter if God bring you into greater trials Can you now follow Christ in a holy life though your flesh repine and would have its liberties and pleasures and though the world deride or threaten you or great ones turn against you and threaten your undoing Can you part with your money to the poor or to the promoting of any work of Christ according to the measure of estate that God hath allotted you notwithstanding all temptations to the contrary Some trials you have now if you can go well through these you have no cause to disquiet your minde with fears of falling in greater trials But he that cannot now deny his greedy Appetite in meats and drinks so far as to forbear excess nor can deny his credit with men nor bear the scorns or frowns of the world but be on the stronger side and decline his duty to avoid danger whatever become of conscience or Gods favour this man is not like to forsake and lay down his life for Christ and his cause Object But though I break through lesser trials I am not sure to overcome in greater for the same measure of Grace will not enable a man to forsake All which will enable him to forsake a little Many have gone through smaller trials and after forsaken Christ in greater And Christ makes it the property of temporaries that are not rooted in the faith that they fall when tribulation and persecution for the Gospel ariseth and therefore it seems they may stand till then and if trial never come they may never fall and yet be unsound in the mean time Answ 1. If your trial now be considerable the truth of Grace may be manifested in it though it be none of the greatest and though in striving against sin you have not yet resisted unto bloud 2. If you carefully observe your own heart you may discern whether the spirit and your resolutions be prevalent by their daily subduing and mortifying the flesh and its lusts Nay let me tell you the Victory of Gods Spirit over the flattering enticing world in prosperity is as great and glorious if not more then that over the frowning persecuting world in adversity And therefore finde the one and you need not fear the other Though I confess that hypocrites do not fall so visibly and shamefully alwayes in prosperity as in adversity for they have more pretences advantages and carnal shifts to hide the shame of their falls And for that in the Parable in Mat. 13. I pray you mark one thing Christ seems to speak of every several sort of Hearers by a Gradation speaking last of those that go farthest The first sort are the common ignorant negligent Hearers in whom the word takes no root at all The second sort are those that give it a slight and shallow rooting but no deep rooting at all these are they that fall away in tribulation By falling away is meant the plain deserting Christ or the substance of his Cause These men till this falling away though they professed Christ and heard the word with joy yet no doubt did not crucifie the flesh the world whereby they might have discovered their unsoundness if they would before tribulation came
The Right METHOD For a settled PEACE Of Conscience and Spiritual COMFORT In 32 DIRECTIONS Written for the use of a troubled friend and now published By Richard Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcestershire 1 John 4.16 God is Love Luke 14.17 Mat. 22.4 Come for all things are now Ready London Printed for T. Vnderhil F. Tyton and W. Râ—ybould and are to be sold at the Anchor and at the Unicorn in Pauls Church-yard and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1653. MAT. 11.28 COme unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest Take my Yoke upon you and Learn of me for I am meek and Lowly in heart and ye shall finde Rest unto your souls For my Yoke is easie and my burthen is light GAL. 5.17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ROM 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye Yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness ROM 13.14 Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof ROM 8.13 For if ye Live after the flesh ye shall dye But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live 2 PET. 2.19 While they promise them Liberty they themselves are the Servants of Corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage EZEK 33.10 11. Thus you speak saying If our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them how should we then live Say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye O house of Israel 2 COR. 2.20 Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God PSAL. 37.3 4. Trust in the Lord and do good c. Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the Desires of thine heart Sound Doctrine makes a sound Judgement a sound Heart a sound Conversation and a sound Conscience To my much valued beloved and honored friends Col. John Bridges with Mr s Margaret Bridges his Wife and Mr. Thomas Foley with Mr s Anne Foley his Wife THough in publishing our Writings we intend them for the good of all yet custom not without reason doth teach us sometimes to direct them more especially to some Though one only had the original interest in these papers yet do I now direct them to you all as not knowing how in this to separate you You dwell together in my Estimation and Affection One of you a Member of the Church which I must Teach and legally the Patron of its Maintenance and Minister The other a special branch of that family which I was first indebted to in this County You lately joyned in presenting to the Parliament the Petition of this County for the Gospel and a faithful Ministry When I only told you of my intention of sending some poor Scholars to the University you freely and joyntly offered your considerable Annual allowance thereto and that for the continuance of my life or their necessities there I will tell the world of this whether you will or no not for your applause but for their imitation and the shame of many of far greater estates that will not be drawn to do the like The season somewhat aggravates the Goodness of your Works When Satan hath a design to burn up those Nurseries you are watering Gods plants when the greedy mouth of Sacriledge is gaping for their Maintenance you are voluntarily adding for the supply of its defect Who knows how many souls they may win to Christ if God shall send them forth into his harvest whom you have thus assisted and what an addition to your comfort this may be When the Gospel is so undermined and the Ministry so maligned and their maintenance so envied you have as the mouth of this County appeared for them all What God will yet do with us we cannot tell but if he will continue his Gospel to us you may have the greater comfort in it If he will remove it and forsake a proud unworthy false hearted People yet may you have the comfort of your sincere endeavors you with the rest that sincerely furthered it may escape the gnawings of Conscience and the publique curse and reproach which the Historie of this age may fasten upon them who after all their Engagements in blood and Covenants would either in ignorant fury or malicious subtilty or base temporizing cowardize oppugn or undermine the Gospel or in perfidious silence look on whilst it s destroyed But because it is not the work of a flatterer that I am doing but of a friend I must second these commendations with some caution and counsel and tell your selves of your danger and duty as I tell others of your exemplary Deeds Truly the sad experiences of these times have much abased my confidence in man and caused me to have lower thoughts of the best then sometime I have had I confess I look on man as such a distempered slippery and unconstant thing and of such a natural mutability of Apprehensions and Affections that as I shall never more call any man on earth My friend but with a supposition that he may possibly become mine enemie So I shall never be so confident of any mans Fidelity to Christ as not withal to suspect that he may possibly forsake him nor shall I boast of any mans service for the Gospel but with a jealousie that he may be drawn to do as much against it though God who knows the heart and knows his own decrees may know his sincerity and foreknow his perseverance Let me therefore remember you that had you expended your whole estates and the blood of your hearts for Christ and his Gospel he will not take himself beholden to you He oweth you no Thanks for your deepest engagements highest adventures greatest cost or utmost endeavours You are sure beforehand that you shall be no losers by him your seeming hazards increase your security Your losses are your gain your giving is your receiving your expences are your revenues Christ returns the largest usury The more you do and suffer for him the more you are beholden to him I must also remember you that you may possibly live to see the day when it will cost you dearer to shew your selves faithful â—o the Gospel Ordinances and Ministers of Christ then now it doth and that many have shrunk in greater tryals that past through lesser with resolution and honor Your defection at the last would be the loss of all your works and hopes If any man