Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	grace_n	lord_n	6,870	5	3.6136	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79474	The man of honour, described in a sermon, preached before the Lords of Parliament, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, March 26. 1645. The solemn day of the publique monethly-fast. / By Francis Cheynell, minister of Gods Word. Die Jovis, 27. Martii, 1645. It is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament, that this House doth hereby give thanks to Master Cheynell for his great pains, taken in the sermon, he preached on the 26. of this instant March, in the Abbey Church Westminster, before the Lords of Parliament, it being the day of the publique fast. John Brown, Cler. Parliament.	Cheynell, Francis, 1608-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing C3812; Thomason E279_3; ESTC R200026	64,263	74

there is nothing amiable or lovely in Hell therefore there is no use of love there is no joy or delight no good to be hoped for there onely the tormenting affections of grief shame despair and the rest of that black crue remain to vex and torture the soul though they cannot devour or consume it Let us then so place our affections here as that we may enjoy the comfort of them in another world let our love and confidence be placed on Christ let us delight and rejoyce in him and his service that our souls may be for ever satisfied with his goodnesse and even ravished with his love Remember that Faith and Love are both Active it is Faith working by Love you have heard of the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. And if ye Love me keep my Commandments Joh. 14. 15. Consider that Jesus Christ is the Authour of eternall Salvation to all them and none but them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Beloved in the Lord Jesus If you will learn to perform all your duties in faith and out of love trusting onely upon free grace and aiming onely at Gods glory My soul for yours you will be of the Christian circumcision you will worship God in the spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh You will be justified by free-grace acted and lead by effectuall Grace into all necessary Trueths and Holinesse of Trueth Faith and love will finde out their way to Heaven Faith and love will establish your hearts and mindes These graces will make you not onely patient and constant but zealous also For zeal can never boil high enough unlesse it be raised by Faith and enflamed by Love Zeal is the strength of affection and heighth of grace it is the heighth of knowledge the heighth of prudence and therefore not to be ordered by discretion as they talk who mistake policie for wi●dom and subject matters of Religion to reasons of State nay zeal is the heighth of Faith also When we read that something was imputed to Phinehas for righteousnesse Some say it was Justice others say Zeal but I say Faith for I know nothing else imputed for righteousnesse in any Scripture notion And Faith is said to be imputed for righteousnesse because the object of Faith the Lord Christ is Jehovah our righteousnesse Come then let your Faith and Love and Zeal kindle burn rise flame higher and higher Beleeve it you 'l be but uselesse men without zeal for your parts and gifts will be uselesse As a knife without an edge a ship without sails sails without winde a bird without wings wheels without oyl an horse without mettall such is a man any man a man in Honour without Zeal But a word or two more my Lords and I have done You must shew your selves noble Christians in your places relations correspondencies and improve all your Interests for the Honour of Jesus Christ and if you Honour God he will Honour you and your house 1 Sam. 2. 30. Honour God not onely with outward but inward worship honour him with your soul and body and substance Perform Honourable actions do not disdain to anoint the feet of our Saviour the lower you do stoop to serve Christ the higher you will be preferred for your humble service You may smell the perfume of that womans ointment that anointed the feet of Christ even to this very day wheresoever the Gospel is Preached Salvator noster faeminae monnumentum curr● triumphali vel Statuâ Imperatoris illustrius erexit Study Honorabilia legis The great and honourable things of the Law and Gospel Consider that vile affections base lusts will dishonour your bodies and damn your souls Rom. 1. 24 26. O possesse your vessels in sanctification and honour 1 Thes. 4. 4. It will not be for your honour to be guiltie of those sins which ye ought to punish Jehu was a murtherer in the sight of God for slaying of Idolatours because he was an Idolatour himself Mordecai was next to the King great among the Jews and accepted of the people by doing what was right in the sight of the people Hester 10. 3. You shall be near to Jesus Christ and accepted of God if ye do what is right in the sight of God Glory and Honour and Peace shall rest upon you for to them who by Patient continuance in wel-doing seek for glory and honour and immortalitie God will give immortall honour eternall life Rom. 2. 7 10. You know that they are good men who are good in their places and they are men of Honour who keep a good conscience in places of honour My Lords I do not desire to deal with you in a full Body as you make an House of Peers but I consider you as you will be considered and dealt with at the day of judgement then Christ will take you out every Lord single by himself one by one and say Sir you had the honour to sit in the House of Peers why did you hold correspondence with my utter enemies the Antichristian faction and commonly give your Vote against me when the welfare of three Kingdoms the building up of my Church and the making of a new heaven upon earth did much depend upon your Vote When it was put to the Vote in the Senate at Rome Whether Christ should be worshipped as God in the Romane Territories It was carried against him by a major part of Votes But my Lords I hope nay I know better things of your House then of the Romane Senate for the House of Peers hath passed a Vote lately much conducing to the Honour of Jesus Christ and the Reformation of particular Congregations Be pleased to proceed and perfect the Work let the ignorant be better instructed and the scandalous better disciplined the Liberties and Priviledges of Gods people restored Heretikes Blasphemers Seducers severely punished Oh that you could form and new mould our Armies into Churches also Is it not possible that there should be a spirituall Militia a powerfull Ministery and some Ecclesiasticall as well as Military Discipline set up and countenanced amongst them I must acknowledge That when I had the honour to serve the Sate and attend the Army I received all encouragement from His Excellency the Noble Generall in the work of my Ministery But I beleeve the want of Ministers was one defective cause or at least occasion of many disorders in that Army and how highly God was provoked by those disorders we have all cause to acknowledge yet give me leave to say That your sins had an influence into that sad defeat as well as ours and notwithstanding all the faults of that Army Surely my Lords That Army which had borne the heat and burthen nay carried away the glory of the day in so many set-battles and solemn victories should not have been so much neglected but timely relieved You see my Lords I know not how to flatter you but I beseech you I beseech you That

Ph●losophicall Honour of which I shall give you if not a more rationall yet a more punctuall account The Philosophers shew a necessity of supporting that Civil Honour which is setled upon Noble Families by the Laws and Customes of Common-wealths Aristotle laughes at them as ignorant Politicians who divided a Common-wealth into Souldiers Husbandmen and Artificers because those Dignities which are necessary for the support of a Common-wealth could not be all conferred upon men of that quality unlesse you made all the rest slaves to those Souldiers whom they themselves maintain and then it would be no Common-wealth I finde a great deal of good Philosophie in Historians Poets and Oratours as well as in professed Philosophers they all agree my Lords that Nobility took its first rise a from Vertue and some of them are so strict as to maintain that sowre principle Vertue is the onely true Nobility and therefore they take their novus homo who can onely shew a broken spear a torn Ensign some Military Donatives and famous Skars to be truely noble Marius and Pompey were such Noble-men The soul of every man is in their judgement as nobly descended a● the soul of any man and they do not attribute much to the body nor will they give any man leave to arrogate the vertue of his Ancestours to himself They tell him sadly that unlesse he hath vertue of his own he doth dishonour his Ancestours discredit himself and shame his Posterity all at once Though he may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet he is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and Philosophers will not count him truely noble who is welldescended unlesse he be well-affected It is confidently affirmed that if Noble-men look farre enough back upon their Progenitours they will finde some of them ignoble and if the ignoble look back upon their Progenitours they will finde some of them noble The Philosophers conceive it more noble for a man to give Honour to that House from which he received none then to eclipse that Honour which he received for this is to make the Sun go down at noon to make all the glory of his House fall into the Socket and die in a loathsom Snuff The Conclusion of all therefore doth amount to this He that is born well must either live well or die well that is It is far better to die honourably then live basely in sin and slavery by unworthy Compliances corrupt Arts and ignoble Flattery So much shall suffice to be said of Philosophicall Nobility I must go higher and open the rich treasure of Christian Nobility which to your Coronets of Nobility superaddes a Crown of glory 3. Christian Nobility is Nobility in the highest for never was the Humane nature so highly honoured as when it was assumed and hypostatically united with the Divine nature in one person the Person of the Lord Jesus the second Person in the holy Trinity and therefore they are ennobled in the highest degree according to the Christian account who are united unto Jesus Christ by a lively faith and made one Spirit with him I have done with the Civil account and speak now of Spirituall Honour and Christian Nobility Be pleased to consider that we are all Gentiles by nature and the more we have of the Gentile in us the lesse we have of the Noble-man We are not Jews by nature but poor miserable sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. 15. and as Gentiles we can never be justified we must therefore turn Christians and believe in Christ that we may be justified by the faith of Christ as the Apostle goes on vers. 16. No man can be truely and justly reputed to be in an Honourable estate unlesse he be in a Justified estate for all those Priviledges and Immunities whereby a Christian is ennobled are peculiar to a justified estate Noble-men are distinguished from other men by their long Robes and he is no Noble-man as yet in the true Christian account who hath not the long white Robe of Christs Righteousnesse girt about him by a lively faith If a Noble-man be condemned to a shamefull death for some ignoble and capitall Offence What priviledge or comfort hath he by all his Titles of Honour none of his Titles can purchase his Pardon or procure his Release My Lords we are all in a damnable estate till we are translated into a justified estate and the greatest Noble-man in the world must fall down upon his knees and cry out Lord I am guilty of base servile sins most ignoble practices and I am justly condemned by thy Law and my Conscience to a base and ignoble death to an accursed and tormenting death to an hellish and eternall death I have forfeited all to thee I have forf●ited my Temporall estate my Civill honour my precious life my more-precious soul Give m● Christ Lord whatever thou deniest me give me Christ give me Christ or I perish and that eternally This is ingenious this is noble The greatest Honour that we can attain to is To be of the off-spring of God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Acts 17. 28. All men indeed are of the off-spring of God by Creation but the speciall peculiar Honour and therefore the highest Honour is to be his off-spring by Regeneration to be his sons by Adoption for then we are truely noble highly descended indeed more noble then the proudest of them that were termed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for every regenerate man is born of God and bred of God and therefore it must be granted that he is well bred and born My Lords you may be more ennobled by a new-birth by a second-birth then you were by your first birth for in your second birth ye are born to an heavenly Kingdom and ye are born not of blood mark that nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God Joh. 1. 13. Be pleased to consider that you may be noble after the flesh and the flesh shew its frailty You may fall from all your Honour and become like the Beasts that perish The most noble Plants amongst us Gentiles are but Plants of the wilde Olive we must be engrafted into Jesus Christ the true Olive by a lively faith that we may partake of the sap and the fatnesse the noblenesse of Christ who was not onely the Off-spring but the Root of David Revel. 22. 16. We are but the degenerate Plants of a strange Vine we are not a Noble Vine wholly a right seed till we are engrafted into the True and Noble Vine Joh. 15. 1. Faith is a noble grace for it teaches a man to deny himself to crucifie his lusts to sacrifice his Estate Honour Life and All in the Service of Jesus Christ Faith doth exceedingly raise the Spirit and ennoble the Soul of man A Believer looks upon all the

God be not too hasty He that beleeveth maketh not haste Isai. 28. 16. Waite Gods leisure and God will in due time exalt you to such a degree of honour as will make most for his glory and yours God will do it in due time saith the Apostle but remember that God is the Judge and therfore that is the due time which he appoints Your time is in Gods hand Psal. 31. 15. If the time of your pref●rment were in your enemies hand it would be deferred too long if it were in your own hand it would be over-much hastned and come too soon Such green fruit would breed worms It is well your time is in Gods hand leave all to him beleeve and pray w●ite and pray pray to him that disposes of Honour and Power Victory and Glory make your acknowledgements in the words of David 1 Chro. 29. 11 12. Thine O Lord is the greatnesse and the power and the glory and the victory and the majestie for all that is in Heaven and Earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted a● head above all both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thy hand is power and might and in thy hand it is to make great We humble our souls before thee we cast our care upon thee Exalt u● in due time that we may exalt thee give us grace to serve thee with all our power wealth and strength and honour thee with all our honour that thy power majestie and glory may be made known unto men This this is the way to recover all your honour Sixthly It will make exceedingly for your Honour to do most service when you have least encouragement because then it will appear that you do service upon Noble principles and do not intend to serve your selves But it will be objected That the greatest triall to a man of noble endowments is to be laid aside for that doth not onely reflect upon his Honour but deny him opportunitie of doing farther service This is indeed the saddest objection but I hope to return a satisfying answer First then consider That every man is not laid aside who is not constantly employed in Military affairs In other Common-wealths it doth not reflect upon any mans Honour if the date of his employment expire within an yeer or two Such was the wisdom of the Roman State that they seldom gave any long leases of Honour unto men that were deeply entrusted in eminent places of authoritie and command When the State was even surprized by some unexpected danger the Senate or Consuls did create a Dictator or in the absence of the Consuls in after times the people named some Pro-dictator and a Magister Equitum who by the Senates approbation were to take care of the Common-wealth But the same person continued not Dictator above six moneths unlesse his lease were renued and that was rare But it was more rare that there should be two Dictators at once Sylla would ●ain have been Dictator for five yeers and pleaded that Lex Valeria would justifie his desire but the Oratour denied that there was any such Law It is safer in places of such great trust and command to limit the time becansc you cannot so well limit their power Secondly All that have performed considerable service heretofore have cause to blesse God who did them the Honour in times past to make use of them in any Noble and renowned atchievements All that are Emeriti have made the State nay the enemies of the State sensible of their worth and therefore they do not lay down their Arms but hang them up as Ensignes of Victory Thirdly God hath an absolute Power and Soveraign Command over the greatest men in the World and they owe Absolute subjection to the will pleasure providence of the God of Heaven Come acknowledge your subjection God is not bound to use the same Instruments still Instruments are no helps to him for he helps his Instruments and works all i● them and for them God loves to shew his Prerogative and make great ones know that he is not beholding to them to do his work he will let them see that he can do his work without them My Lords I dare not flatter you there are enough can do that who are onely men in black and no Divines I speak to you in the name of the mightie God who breaks in peices mightie men without number and sets others in their stead Job 34. 24. God having varietie of Instruments doth delight to use them by turns If any are unfaithfull they have been used too long but all that have faithfully performed their part of the service will not or need not repine if men of meaner abilities take their turn the meaner they are the more should God be glorified and you humbled Fourthly When God hath tried men in the duties of active obedience he doth usually call them to honour him farther by passive obedience and it is no easie matter to come off with honour in the passive part Great spirits will finde it task enough for to be patient they will have work enough to keep themselves humble in such a case and therefore they need not complain for want of work My Lords It is a Work indeed to mortifie self-love it is no easie matter for great men to take themselves off from self-confidence self-conceitednesse and self-ends that their hearts may be wrought unto a self-deniall which is the foundation of Christianitie and at this time the onely means in sight of our safetie Can you imitate David in one of the most royall services that ever we read of it was a self-denying service a royall and magnanimous but sweet submission to the Will of God If I finde favour in the eyes of God he will bring me back again and employ me farther that was his meaning But if he say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do unto me as seems good in his sight 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. My Lords Suffer me to deal freely and honestly with you It may be God sees that your hearts are like to be lifted up by too high an opinion of what God hath done by you in former times and therefore God would have you breath and rest a while that you may be sufficiently humbled and so fitted for some higher and nobler peece of active obedience and then you 'l shew more bright and glorious after this seeming sad eclipse At low water you have him to tread the banks whilest the ship is in the barbour you may dresse it and trim it and make it able to endure storms and tempests They that are employed will shew themselves men they adventure far and you have a full employment your votes have an influence into all affairs of high concernment Be not displeased but rest assured That your active spirits and inlarged hearts will by the blessing of Heaven have fairer opportunities and

between both Houses of Parliament Lords and Commons may avoid contention and preserve Libertie Honour Religion all And let me once more remember you That you had need be quick and nimble in these Active times Cunctatione non opus est ubi perniciosior sit quies quàm temeritas All the danger in Civil Wars is in not being active enough Tyrants saith the Politician do miscarry because they are not Tyrants enough let us make an Antidote of this poyson and conclude That honest zealots may miscarry because they are not zealous enough He was no fool that said Inter ancipitia deterrimum esse Mediasequi The strength of our Kingdom would be seen in the Field if every true hearted man would take the boldnesse to declare himself Every magnanimous person hates n●●tralitie and is as Aristotle hath it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} open-breasted in his love and hatred If he be your friend you shall know it and if he be your enemy he will make you feel it Brave souldiers love to follow professed Patriots Qui aperte in causam descendunt tanquam Culpae vel gloriae socii Come come my Lords Honesty is the choicest policie Come then and shew your Wisdom your Justice shew your Zeal your Valour your Magnanimitie your Pietie for God and your Countrey This this is the way to encrease your Honour with more ease and preserve it with lesse envy But stay stay saith some much Honoured Silk-worm If I should loose my life in the quarrell what becomes of my honour then Alasse when I am gone all the world is gone with me Why then look after another world and a better life look after it in the first place though I handle it in the last and so I passe to my Third Quere How may one gain an immortall glorious Honour in the highest Heaven This Quere concerns all estates and degrees of men The poor and the Noble may be Peers in Heaven I have in part answered this Quere already for I have shewn you cleerly That we must be justified regenerated converted or else the greatest is not truely noble in our Spirituall and Christian account My Lords If you desire this new honour you must lead new lives and you 'l never do that till you have new natures new-bearts by a new creation Ye must be new creatures in Jesus Christ For God in Christ is the Fountain of all Christian Nobility and glorious Honour And if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Now Christ puts forth his creating power in his Ordinances and therefore you must all high and low attend upon the quickning Ordinances of God that ye may be made new creatures in Christ by the effectuall working of the Holy Ghost Oh that this day might be that happy working-day the day of Christs power transforming all our deformed souls into the beauty of holinesse that we might become the willing subjects of Jesus Christ as it is written Psal. 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holinesse Oh that whilst I am directing what ought to be done our Lord Jesus would put to his Fiat and say Let it be done it shall be done this very hour My Lords I am affectionately desirous of you as the Apostles speaks and willing to impart unto you not onely the Gospel of God but that very Character which the Gospel by the Spirit hath stamped upon my own beloved soul because your pretious souls are dear unto me My Lords Remember your selves You are not now in your Robes sitting in State to passe sentence upon that Word whereby you must be judged But you and I and all here present are holding up our hands at the bar Come open your bosomes the Spirit is now about to set the Word home upon your conscience the Spirit of God tels you plainly That notwithstanding your great birth you were born in sin and we have too many of us nay too many of you lived as if you and we had been born to no other purpose then to sin My Lords What do you mean Brethren what do you mean not onely to live in sin but to die in sin O it is a dangerous thing to live in sin but it is a desperate thing to die in sin for he that dies in his sins perishes in his sins and is damned eternally It is no matter of what strain or complexion your sins are or how they rellish when the pallate is distempered be they sweet or sowre sins of pleasure or malice nay ignorance sins of gain shall I say sins of Honour Yes this ignoble age hath plotted how to dishonour God in an honourable way In a word Be your sins old or new sins received by Tradition from your forefathers and therefore received with honour as if they were some noble vices which ought to be standers to your noble Families yet consider and sadly consider it He that resolves to live in any sin but till to morrow morning may for ought he knows die and perish in his sin the Divell may come and fetch away his soul this night and he may be in Hell ere morning The God of Heaven set that consideration home to your hearts you must fall down upon your faces and acknowledge That God is in this Meditation of a trueth The Lord Jesus did presse this point home in his powerfull preaching you may read it thrice in one Chapter John 8. 21 24. It is one of the most fearfull threats in Scripture for it doth indeed contain all threatnings in it My Lords Will nothing touch your hearts yes I beleeve your hearts have been touched to day and touched to the quick Now then my Lords what say you now Why sure you are come to this resolution ye would not die in your sins that were to die basely to die dishonourably Why then my Lords If you would not die in your sins ye must not live in them Oh but how shall we be saved from all our sins our ignoble sins Why though Joshuah be called Jesus Heb. 4. 8. and the people were wont to bow every time that Text was read yet there is but one Jesus the Lord Jesus who can save us from our sins Matth. 1. 21. Oh now your hearts relent and give a little Now now consider how you have abused and undervalued how you have crucified and tormented this Jesus who alone can save you from your sins How you have made a sport and pastime of those sins which let out the heart blood of Jesus Christ What are your hearts like Nabals dead within you Or are you cast into a trembling fit are you fainting and even swowning under the weight of Gods wrath and your sin why now now you are in this agony and bloody sweat the Lord Jesus offers himself to be your Saviour upon fair and honourable terms do you deliberate whether you should be saved Why then

take him Jaylour clap some bolts upon his conscience and let the iron enter into his soul let him taste a cup of brimstone and see how he likes it before hand let the Law thunder curses upon him and the spirit of bondage flash some lightning into his soul Oh base unworthy wretch doest thou capitulate with thy Judge and scorn thy Saviour is thy minde preposessed with prejudice against Christ and are thy affections preingaged to the flesh the world the divell dost love thy sin better then thy Saviour Why then thou art mad upon thy pleasure thou art drunk with honour and bewitched with gain enjoy thy sin and hug thy damnation the Lord Jesus will not bestow himself on such a sot Yet once more I le ask the question for ought thou knowest it may be the last time of asking Wilt thou have Jesus Christ for thy antiquitie for thy nobilitie for thy husband thy King thy Prophet thy Priest thy Saviour thy All Jesus Christ will binde Kings in chains and Nobles in setters of Iron he will powre contempt upon Princes if they contemn him What say you then my Lords and what say you Brethren will you submit your necks to the yoak and your shoulders to the burthen of Jesus Christ Will you deny your selves take up your crosse daily and follow him Will you beleeve him trust him love him obey him Give me leave to insist a little upon those two speciall duties of Faith and Love and I pitch upon them the rather because Faith and Love are Radicall Graces and you can never prove your selves to be new creatures in Christ but by Faith and Love Be pleased to compare two Scriptures together for the cleering of this truth the Scriptures are not far asunder one is in the sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galathians the fifteenth verse In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Would you know what this new creature is Read the fifth Chapter of the same Epistle and the sixth verse In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith working by Love Mark I beseech you it is worth your observation Nothing avails but a new creature in one place Nothing avails but Faith working by love in the other No man then is a new creature but he whose Faith worketh by Love There is the sum of the Gospel the substance marrow power spirit quintessence of Christianitie First Then examine whether you have any knowledge of Christ or Faith in him any heart and well grounded assent to the Gospel of Christ with the heart man being convinced beleeves Have you any pretious Faith If you have no true Faith you cannot understand the Mystery of Godlinesse after a spirituall and saving manner Now man that is in honour and understandeth not saith my Text you know what follow● Faith is the eye of the soul Reason is blinde without Faith Except a man be born from above except his reason be raised elevated by Faith inlightned by the Spirit he cannot see the Kingdom of God as our Saviour told that Ruler of the Jews when he catechised him John 3. 3. Every true beleever hath so much understanding as to assent to the truth and so much ingenuity as to consent to the goodnesse of all the promises Secondly The pretious Faith of Gods elect is an holy Faith nay Saint Jude exhorts Christians to build up themselves on their most holy Faith Jude vers. 20. True Faith ayms at the highest degree of holinesse it is ever labouring to build up the soul one story higher in holinesse that we may be every day nearer Heaven He that thinks he is holy enough already hath neither true Faith nor Holinesse of Truth They are unbel●eving men that are afraid they shall be come too strict in dutie and too precise in abhorting and declining sin they say they have holinesse enough to carry them to Heaven though there are many that were as holy as themselves gone to H●ll already Remember that though Jesus Christ be King of all the world in a providentiall way yet he is King of Saints onely in a spirituall and saving way Christ will save none but Saints such honour immortall honour have all his Saints and none but Saints none but his Saints whose consciences Christ hath purged from the guilt and allowance of sin and whose hearts he hath purified from the Love and their whole man from the power and dominion of sin by a lively Faith that they may serve the living God Thirdly True Faith is a resting and relying grace Faith doth support the feeble soul the sinking soul by leaning upon Gods arm and Christs bosome because thou didst relie on the Lord saith the Se●● to Asa Help us O Lord saith Asa to God for we rest upon thee Doth thy soul rest upon Christ not onely for pardon of sin but power against sin Dost thou relie upon the free grace of God the all-sufficient satisfaction compleat righteousnesse and perfect merits of Christ for justification Then it is well but a beleever must likewise live in a constant dependance upon God for perseverance in grace and then he is right Fourthly Faith is a radicall grace and therefore as the root of a tree sucks nourishing moisture from the earth fo a ●●leever sucks and draws nourishing vertue fresh vertue and new supplies every day from Jesus Christ Faith doth not onely depend upon Christ and adhere to him but suck from him it hangs upon the Ordinances of Christ the Breasts of Christ as the Infant hangs upon the Mothers breast Fifthly Faith is a mortifying and quickning grace Because it draws vertue from Christ to mortifie our lusts and quicken us to a lively performance of all duties in their due place and season Upon dayes of Humiliation the beleever draws much power from the death of Christ to mortifie his lust and sets upon all tasks of mortification in the strength of Christ Sixthly Faith is a victorious grace it overcomes the world and the Divel and it doth both by purifying our hearts and mortifying our lusts For if our hearts be purified and our lusts mortified the world and divell are not able to prevail against us We shall come of with honour in the main battle at the latter end of the day though we may be foiled now and then in a skirmish and give ground a little when we are too hotly charged and over-borne by violence The divel cannot throw a fiery dart at us but faith will quench it If our lusts do not fire us the dart cannot wound us Take the shield of Faith saith the Apostle That ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the divel Above all other pieces of Christian armour take the shield of Faith Ephes. 6. 16. The least degree of true Faith doth in some measure overcome the world because it doth perswade the

full b●gs Read and consider the four last verses of the 144. Psalm Is not the loving kindnesse of God better then life Psal. 63. 3. Can a man gain any thing though he gain the whole world if he loose his own soul Or is there any thing to be given in exchange for the soul Canst thou set thy heart upon that which thou beleevest to be drosse and dung Phil. 3. 8. And art thou not ashamed to prefer the ●asest trash and dung before Jesus Christ It is impossible that our affections should for any long time together stand in aequilibrio even-ballanced between Christ and the World Because every little trifle would turn the scales there being so many cases in which a man must either renounce Christ or the World and if there were but one thing in all the world which a man loves better then Christ if that come to stand in competition with Christ he will as basely deny and betray Christ for that one thing be it profit honour pleasure be it what it will as if he preferred many other things before him Beloved I propound these considerations to you That you may ponder them well in your cool blood and morning thoughts and so come on to firm purposes and stedfast resolutions to settle your affection upon Jesus Christ for beleeve it such thoughts as these must go before purposes and consultation before resolution or else all your good purposes without counsell will be vain they will be frustrated and disappointed as the Wise-man for●-warns you Prov. 15. 22. Go home then and read nay peruse the love-letters of Christ in his glorious Gospel and review all the love-tokens which he hath sent to thy dear soul and then fall in love with him nay before thou goest home let me gain a promise from thee That thou wilt have no other Saviour or Husband for thy soul but Jesus Christ that thou wilt receive him for thy Lord with the thankfull affections of Love and Reverence that thou wilt take an unmixed delight and compleat content in him as thy Treasure thy Happinesse thy All Suffer me now then even now whilest thy judgement is convinced and thy heart warmed to cast thee into a lovetrance into the Seraphicall flames of conjugall affections Come art thou ready is thy spirit raised thy heart enlarged thy minde fixed thy soul in tune to say after me O my blessed Lord I have been too proud and pervish heretofore but thy free-grace and undeserved love hath beaten me out of all my pride and naturall enmitie I fall down at thy foot-stool and lay my self flat before thee At first I wondered to hear Preachers talk so much of Christ and I was bold to ask thy friends What their beloved was more then another beloved But now I wonder that I could endure to be so long without thee my fervent desires of thee were at first grounded on a thorough sence of the extreme misery of all my happinesse without thee But now I have renounced all my self-love and abhor all self-ends as base and mercenary being fully convinced that thou hast bought me out of my selfe and all that I called mine and therefore out of a well-advised dislike and disesteem of all worldly profit honour pleasure or any other admired vanitie I make a full and absolute Resignation of my self and make over all that is dear and pretious to me in the world to thee my Lord and Saviour For truely Lord I am thine onely thine ever thine all that I am is at thy command and all I have is at thy disposing be pleased to command both it and me With all humilitie and thankfulnesse I accept thy pretious offers of grace and mercy and do confesse them to be offers worthy of all acceptation because I know that whatsoever I adventure or loose for thy sake I shall receive with infinite advantage in thy blessed Self I dare trust my dear Lord with the best thing that ever he gave me my pretious soul Oh my bleeding heart and broken spirit doth languish in a thirsty love panting and gasping after thee my beloved Saviour Oh let me taste how gracious thou art by some reall experiments in mine own heart smile upon me from Heaven answer me with some assuring whispers of the Spirit of Adoption Kisse me with the kisses of thy mouth for thy love is sweeter then the taste of wine or the love of women Oh let me bathe my soul in the delicious intimacies of a spirituall communion with thee my God and Saviour that I may for ever adhere unto thee with a sincere constancy and rest in thee with a love of complacencie for I feel I finde my soul cast into a longing sweat for thee and nothing can satisfie the importunate longing of my perplexed soul but thine onely Self for thou art my Lord my love my life and thou art altogether lovely And now Lord I have found thee whom my soul loves I will let go any thing in the world to take better hold of thee Now I have embraced thee I will not let thee go untill thou blesse me nay I will not let thee go then but hold thee fast for ever that thou maist for ever blesse me If thou killest me I will trust in thee nay I will love thee for thy love is better then life therefore my lips shall praise thee If I live I will live serving thee if I die I will die praising thee Whether I live or die let me be ever thine and then I know thou wilt be an advantage to me both in life and death To this effect the soul that is in love with Christ doth usually expresse it self for such souls are commonly cast into an agony into pangs of love and therefore the Scripture hath describ'd the out-goings of such a soul by severall similitudes By the gasping of the parched ground the panting of a chased Hart the longings of a teening woman by the fainting and swowning of one that is in good earnest sick of Love What say you then beloved Christians are you willing to live to him who died for you Will you indeed live to him and if he calls you to it die for him Beleeve it He dies the noblest death who dies a Martyr And if you talk of Honour you cannot be preferred to an higher degree of Honour then to be esteemed the Friends of Christ here and made Coheirs with Christ in glory Beloved Such as our affections are such are we It our affections be right set on things above we are Saints if they be set on the things below we are Beasts or Devils Come then ye men of Honour come set your affections upon the noblest and most honourable object the highest chiefest good God in Christ If you do not set your affections upon Christ you will have no place with Christ in glory and in Hell men loose the sweetest and comfortablest part of their affections or at least the use and exercise of them