not beleeve that is apprehend and apply and rest upon Christ as my Saviour We speak not of Faith as it is an infused habit and the gift of God to us but as it is an inherent grace and operative in us Now then we will 1. Enquire what the causes of such complaints in gratious souls may be 2. We will consider how to satisfie the soul in such troubles and scruples For the first complaint I cannot I dare not rest upon Christ and beleeve in him There are many causes of it which I shall speak to One ordinary cause of it is Scrap 1. The souls to much eying of preparatory qualifications I do not say the souls eyeing but the souls too much eying of them Hence it is that if you ask a poor soul under that trouble what 's the reason thou darest not rest thy self upon Christ Faith is a pretious flower that grows as well in the poorest beggars as the greatest Princes garden The meanest arm may as boldly lean on Christs shoulder as that which is gayed with gold-lace Alas saith such a poor soul Gods justice proceeds according to method First he useth to pull down and then to exalt First to lay the soul low licking the dust then to say to it I am thy salvation Alas I was never enough humbled I never saw hell yet would God rend my heart in pieces I could beleeve he would bind it up would he humble me c. Now in order to the satisfaction of a soul under this trouble it would be first enquired 1. Whether humiliation goeth before Faith or no. 2. If it doth what may comfort a soul under this affliction of spirit and what it ought to do in relation to its peace For the first it is a question variously tossed and determined understood and concluded in these times in which God hath cast our lot some utterly denying any such work some too eagerly contending for measure some limitting Gods dealings others misinterpreting if not wilfully mistaking the terms It will not therefore I trust be a lost labour first to enquire the truth of that question which is ordinarily thus termed Quest Whether Faith goeth before Repentance or Repentance before Faith Now for the fuller determination of it I shall first explane the terms Then conclude the truth and prove it by Scripture and Reason And lastly answer those Objections ordinarily made against it First I will spend a little time to open the terms which when rightly explaned I am confident will put the question out of question to those Christians that have any experience of the Lords dealings for the ambiguity of every term hath onely darkned the clearnesse of this truth First let us understand what is meant by Faith both in the kinde and in the act There are divers kinds and divers acts of Faith There is an historicall Faith which consists onely in the knowledge and assent to the truth of an History There is a Faith of miracles There is a temporary Faith and there is a true justifying Faith The question is onely to be understood of the latter which hath also severall Acts. First 〈◊〉 Secondly Relyance Thirdly Perswasion The question is to be understood of the second Act Whether God gives the soul power comfortably and truely to relye upon Christ and the promises for salvation before he hath wrought repentance in the soul Secondly the term Repentance is subject to ambiguity too Repentance is sometimes taken largely for the whole work of conversion and so Godly sorrow is an effect of it sometimes strictly and when we speak of Repentance in the question we onely understand the first parts of it consisting in conviction contrition and humiliation by which the soul is carried out into a loathing of it self both for its sins and in its righteousness And the question is Whether God doth not work in a soul a sorrow of heart and loathing of it self for sin before the soul hath power to rest upon Christ for salvation and relye upon him as its Saviour Lastly we must safely understand what is also meant by going before First we do not understand by going before a precedency in Gods hidden operation he at once infuseth the habits of grace into the soul But secondly by going before we understand a going before in a gratious Act and in a comfortable apprehension Neither farther is the question to be understood as if we thought Humiliation went before Faith as a work wrought by our own strength We acknowledge Humiliation to be a work of Gods speciall grace in the soul And the question is plainly thus Whether God ordinarily gives a poor soul power to act Faith by relying upon Christ and the promises of life and salvation before in some measure he hath brought the soul to be sensible of its lost and undone condition We say he doth not We will grant to our Brethren that are unsatisfied concerning this truth First That a man must beleeve before he can mourn But how not by any saving act of justifying Faith He must beleeve there is a sin-pardoning Saviour that hath fulnesse and freenesse of mercy and enough in his fulnesse for him and that though he hath sinned yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Then he puts his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope Secondly we will easily grant that a man must have saving and justifying Faith before the work of repentance and humiliation will be perfect in his soul As we maintain it to be a precedent work so we denye it not to be a subsequent effect Thirdly we will grant that it is not a work to be done by our own strength it is Gods work onely our dispute is concerning Gods usuall order in working The same spirit that works a power in the soul of dependence upon Christ takes also away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh Fourthly we will grant that the habits of these graces are both together in the soul We onely question which God gives the soul power to act first Fiftly We dispute not concerning the measure but concerning the thing We do not question whether the soul must be thus far or thus much or thus long humbled before God will give it power to act Faith by a comfortable reliance on Christ We onely say it must be humbled Sixtly We do not limit the workings of God and say it is so necessary on Gods part that he cannot give the soul power comfortably to apply Christ and the promises but we say it is not his usuall course and ordinary may of dispensing grace to do it Yet his dealings are various he works not alike to all he may and sometimes doth go out of his beaten road The question is not concerning a necessity on Gods part but onely concerning a necessity on our part not concerning his miraculous power but his gracious will nor concerning any extraordinary operation but concerning his ordinary way of dispensations
and preach what need men in naturall condition have of Jesus Christ what a wofull condition they are in without him what a readinesse there is in Christ to save them and upon this presse faith doe you think it is not possible that some soule may be startled and run out of it self and rest truly upon Christ and yet not be for the present so well instructed as to give you an account of the Trinity of persons And yet without question it is a truth and a fundamentall truth too Acts 19. v. 2. Paul came to Ephesus and found certain men that were Disciples v. 1. He asks them if they had received the Holy Ghost they ingenuously confest that they were so farre from receiving the gifts of the Holy Ghost that they had not so much as heard whether there was an Holy Ghost or no I know most of expositors construe it of the gifts of the holy Ghost but for my part I cannot subscribe to their opinion but think the latter clause hath more then the former and that there is an emphasis in their answer and so Ioh. 20. v. 9. we find the Disciples of Christ ignorant in the point of Christs Resurrection from the dead and Christ chides his Disciples for their ignorance in this point The Disciples were ignorant concerning the Father Ioh. 14. 8. Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Luk. 24. v. 5. The very Apostles were ignorant in the point of Christs Kingdome and rule and dreamt of Christs restoring the temporall Kingdome to Israel Act. 1. v. 6. This is the case of many a poor Christian it may be it cannot read or it hath not lived where there hath been any faithfull powerfull soule-enlightning preaching but when Gods time comes he brings the soule to heare and it doth possibly heare of its poor naturall undone condition and that there is none other name by which the Christian may be saved but onely the Name of Jesus yet this now being the work of Gods Spirit the spirit carries on its own work and creates faith in the soule brings the soule to trust and rely on Iesus Christ There may be divers fundamentall points that the soule all this while hath not heard a word concerning as how many yeare sometimes doth a Minister preach and not directly meddle with the Doctrine of the Trinity c How many weeks and not preach the Doctrine of the Resurrection But here is now the condition of such a Christian after the Spirit of God hath enlightned him and convinced him c. the poor soule that regarded not instruction before now begins perhaps to learn to read pray now he heareth the Word more enquireth concerning God more c. and every day discovers more truth then other to which the soul by nature was blinded then begins Satans work the soule reflects upon it self and begins to say now Wo is me I have my work still to begin I have made my self beleeve I have been a beleever so long and alas I have been a poor blind ignorant wretch blind to the truths of Iesus Christ c. how could I beleeve while I knew so little Yes Christian thou mayest be a Scholler though thou beest but in thy Accidence there are some truths which are the Credenda ad salutem the very foundation upon which salvation standeth Now true faith is not consistent without these I cannot rest upon Christ and Christ onely for salvation and yet not know that there is a Christ nor what this Christ is how proportionate a Saviour for me without question the knowledge of the Doctrine of faith in Iesus Christ the Son of God and the Saviour of man what he is what he hath done what need we have of him what a fulnesse there is in him what a sufficiencie of salvation for every soule that beleeveth c. is so much knowledge as is absolutely necessary and without which no soule can be saved yet this must not be understood without some caution as I shall shew you anon for though it be truth such a blind soule may be enlightned so far as truely to beleeve yet if so it will deny no truth but labour and thirst after the knowledge of every truth A man may be a Grecian and yet not know every word in the Greek tongue no not every Radix Beleevers shall not bee saved by their Book Secondly A Beleever may be ignorant in many circumstanciall points of Religion and yet be a true Beleever this is clear from many examples in Scripture Peter himself did not know he might eat those birds and beasts Acts 11. which to the Iewes were unclean The beleeving Romanes did not know their liberty in point of holy-dayes Rom. 14. and eating of meats first offered to Idolls Gal. 4. which maketh the Apostle take a great deale of paines for setting Rules to strong Christians how to carry themselves in relation to their weak brethren Gal. 5. whose consciences were stumbled at their eating both in the 24. Chap. of his Epistle to the Romanes and also in his Epistle to the Corinthians he harps upon the same string again The Churches of Galatia and Colosse were ignorant about the point of Christian liberty The indulgent Master will not throw away the childs Exercise for want of a Comma Christ rejects not the Christians Faith because it is not fringed with a knowledge in every circumstantiall in Religion I call no truth circumstantiall as by a slighting and neglective terme for it is a beame of God but as comparatively though they be truths to be known embraced loved practised yet they touch not the vitals of salvation as I may say They are not necessary to be known ad esse to make a true beleever Thirdly a Christian may be ignorant in the History of the Bible and yet have true justifying faith Every Scholler is not a Chronologer nor an Historian no more is every beleever I may know what Christ was though I know not what Moses and Aaron were I may know which way Christ took to bring my soule out of darknesse into marvellous light though I do not know which way Moses took to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt I may know there is but one King of Kings though I do not know how many Kings there were of Israel and Iudah The Disciples did not know all the Prophets had spoken Luk. 24. 25. Fourthly a Christian may be a true beleever and yet not know the meaning of many places in Scripture God would never have appointed expounders of the Law if every Christian qua Christian were to have been a generall Commentator That Well is deep and every one hath not a Bucket to draw There are that tell us that â—e Spirit reveales the meaning of Scripture to the beleever and would thence evince that whoso hath the Spirit must needs bee fit to unty every knot and unriddle every mystery of Scripture but every one that hath
as crimson they shall be as wooll But now the Christian not clearly understanding the nature and vertue of these promises cannot make a particular application of them to its soule it stands off and cannot make a particular application Alas saith the Christian these are made upon condition of a wearinesse and an heavy load of hungring and thirsting of comming of washing and cleansing of putting away the evil of my doings of ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Hard sayings Who can heare them I cannot get my heart to hunger and thirst I cannot get my heart to be weary and heavy laden A Leopard can as well cleanse himselfe of spots and an Ethiopian as well wash away the blacknesse of his skin as I can wash my black soule c. One that hath no legs can as well walk to Rome as I can come to Christ But know Christian thy particular applying faith here is hindered by a meer misunderstanding of the promise for though those promises require conditions yet they require not conditions to he fulfilled in thy strength but those required conditions are as well parts and branches of the free covenant of Grace as those promises which thou desirest to apply therefore you shall find promises for the fulfilling those conditions in thy soul God requires a wearines of sin and a loathing of sin and a sorrow for sin as a condition Mat. 11. 29. Is 55 1 3. God promiseth to give this self abhorring frame of Spirit and to work this loathing in his peoples soules Ezek. 6 9 20 43. 36. chap. 31. Zach. 12. 10. God requires washing and cleansing as a condition Isa 1 16. â—7 18. He hath promised to work this in the soule Christ tels Peter he would do it â—oh 13. 8. And David prayes that God would do it for him Psal â—1 2. 7. which prayer was grounded upon a promise and this washing is attributed to God as the working of his spirit Isa 4. 4. v. When the Lord shall â—ave washed away the filth of the daughteâ—s of Sion and shalt have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning God requires turning and comming and learning and leaving sin as a condition but he hath promised to fulfill these Hosea 14. 8. but he hath said none can come unlesse the Father draw him Ioh. 6. 44. and the Spouse without question grounding her prayer on a promise saith draw me Cant. 1. 5. He hath required turning as a condition Ezek. 33. 11. Ier. 3. 14. but he hath promised to work this in the soule Mat. 4. 6. and upon this the Church prayes Ier. 31. 18. Turn thou me and I shall be turned So that this is a certaine rule God requires no condition of a promise which he hath not promised to fulfill in us And whatsoever spirituall action is anywhere required of us as a duty he hath somewhere promised to bestow upon us as a dispensation of free Grace Therefore I would have the soule in such a condition when it stumbles at the condition of a promise seek out those promises where God promiseth to fulfill those conditions in it and particularly apply them and rely upon God for making them good and direct its prayers accordingly So I have done with the first thing required in the Soule for the particular application of the promises viz. a cleare understanding of the promises for which I have given three Rules Now in regard that at all times there may be in a true beleeving soule a clear understanding of the promises I conclude there may be true faith in the soule that at all times cannot make a particular Application But I hasten to The second thing which is requisite in that soule that doth truly rely or that can particularly apply the promises and that is a cleare understanding of its own condition for how can I truly and particularly apply a promise to the wound of my Soule when I do not understand truly what wound my soule hath Now a true believing soule may have a very false estimate of its own condition Thus had David and Asaph and the Church they thought they were cast off Psal 43. 2. Psal 44. 9. Psal 60. 1. Psal 7â— 1. 77 7 89 38. Now if I think that a part of my body is gangrened I will never apply Physick to it because I know it is in vaine so so long as the Soule conceives that its condition is irrecoverable its sins unpardonable that applying promises to it is but applying warm clothes to a dead man it will never apply Now such a temper may be in the beleeving Soule occasioned by the violent temptations of Sathan by dark clouds of melancholy or the like it apprehends its sinns nor pardonable or at least not pardonable as yet to the soule O! sayes the soule I have sinned against the holy Ghost what good will it do to me to apply promises I am dammed It is a temptation which Sathan ordinarily first or last troubles beleeving soules with I have answered that case of Conscience particularly and therefore shall not enter into a particular discourse of it now Now till the soule be brought so farr truly to understand its own condition that its wounds are curable and to cry unto God for the healing and cure of them it cannot be expected that it should particularly apply any Promises as plâ—isters for the healing and in regard I say that there may be some misjudging of the soules true estate in a gracious soule there may also be a want of this peculiar faith It is true it is given by all sober Divines as the least degree of Faith to beleeve that my sins are pardonable and to run and fly and cry unto God for a pardon of them but yet through the distemperature of the soule even this thing that the soules sins are pardonable which is generally beleeved and is the soules foundation upon which ground it humbles it self and cries and prayes may not be beleeved by the soule that yet hath true Faith or at least beleeved very darkly and with a great deale of doubting The third and last thing which I will instance in which must be found in that soule that shall particularly apply a generall promise as its particular portion is a constant wonderfull working of the powerfull Spirit of God upon the soule For let a soule never so truly understand its own condition and never so truly understand the vertue of the promise and never so fully conceive that the promises have an adequate proportionable vertue for the healing of its particular wounds yet unlesse the spirit of God by a wonderfull powerfull worke of grace doth lay the salve upon the sore and apply the promise unto the soule it cannot be done as it is with a man that hath lost his hands or the use of them and suppose him to have a sorein his back let him never so truly understand the
Aug. 16th 1648. I Have perused this Booke entitled A Cordiall for a fainting soule wherein I find many cases clearly resolved tending to the consolation of afflicted consciences and wounded spirits which are so judiciously and piously handled and so effectually and fitly applyed that I thinke them very profitable and through Gods blessing availeable for the comforting of poore weak Christians and the curing and removing of their doubts and scruples which retard and hinder their progresse in the wayes of Piety and therefore very worthy to be printed and published John Downame A CORDIALL FOR A FAINTING SOULE OR Some ESSAYES for the satisfaction of wounded spirits labouring under severall burthens In which severall Cases of Conscience most ordinary to Christians especially in the beginning of their Conversion are resolved Being the summe of fourteen Sermons delivered in so many Lectures in a private Chappell belonging to Chappell-Field-House in NORVVICH With a Table annexed conteining the severall Cases of Conscience which in the following Treatise are spoken to directly or collaterally Preached and now published upon the importunity of divers Christians By John Collings Mr of Arts and one of the most unworthy of the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ for the preaching of the Gospell in that City Hostis noster adhuc in hâc vitâ nos positos quantò magis nos sibi rebellare conspicit â—amò ampliùs expugnare contendit eos enim pulsare negligit quos quieto jure possidere se sentit Contra nos verò eo â—ehementiùs incitatur quo ex corde nostro quasi ex jure propria habitationis expeâ—itur Greg. in Cap. 33. Job Isa 30. 40. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that sitteth in darknes and hath no light Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God LONDON Printed for Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible neare Pie-corner MDCXLIX To the Right Honourable and truely Noble both by the first and second Birth the Lady Elizabeth Countesse Dowager of Exeter Happinesse and Peace Madam AFter that I was perswaded to let the world see these Receits I thought it policy to give them as much allowance of advantage as they were capable of and to this end I have presumed to offer them to your Honour for your probatum est The Sermons never yet were made more publike then the private Chappel belonging to this Family where they have been offered to the ears of those that have importuned me to venture them upon a publike censure My designe from the first beginning of that private Lecture was to satisfie diverse doubting Christians in severall cases of conscience if God might but honour me so far as to remove strawes out of the way of their faith The most of those cases herein contained were such as in my little time I had gathered from the experiences of divers and possibly it was but my duty to endeavour to satisfie them in my Pulpit who had almost set me in my closet And had not I had their Imprimatur so much nothing is there of mine in them they had never been offered as a Sacrifice at another Altar If God hath sanctified them but to one soul I dare not call them common or unclean If what hath satisfied my own and possibly some others spirits may be honoured with further successe let the Physician of souls have the glory and I onely more of his work which is a wages to it self I am confident as your Honours eye passeth the several pages your Ladiship will espie some stone turned out of the way upon which your Honours own soul stumbled Let it minde your Ladiship to say with David Psal 116. Ah Lord Truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the childe of thine hand maid for thou hast loosed my bonds I shall be honoured if any thing in these Papers occasion but one meditation of praise Madam I am confident your Honour is past this rough stumbling way It will be yet sweetnesse for your Honour to remember the dayes of old though you have led captivity captive I have here but begun my work answering some few cases according to the ability God hath measured to me The greate part is yet behinde viâ—â— Such as arise from the miâ—judging the effects of faith If this be acceptable I may possibly hereafter venture a second part upon the publike Charity My single aim in this work hath been to prepare the way of the Lord and it is Madam an Honourable employment to be a Pioneer to the Lord of Hosts I have neither sought to enter line these plain Sermons with reading nor yet glaze them with Rhetorick I knew leaves of antiquity would make no plaisters for wounded consciences nor would it be the smell or look but the inward vertue of the salve which must heal the sores of a troubled spirit I have often wished that some man whose years had taught him more divine wisdom and experience in these secret cures might have prevented me in this work Alas Madam your Honour knows I am but an infant of dayes let not your Honour expect much but remember that he who writes hath not yet exceeded the twenty sixth yeer of his age and that as his days have been few so they have most of them been very evil too But my bowels yearned to see so many poor souls lye wounded and panting for life in the way of our Ministery and every one in the midst of this Pamphlet age passing by and but looking on if not possibly another way Many have handled notions and disputed niceties in Divinity Others more profitably have laboured in practicall paints in which God hath honoured this age in which we live to excell former Centuries of Time But few have made it their work except collaterally to remove the souls obstructions which soon put the whole frame of their spirits in a sad distemperature and upon the removâ—th of which depends so much for the Christians thriving and growth though he be fed at the daintiest tables This hath made me though the meanest of those that labour for the Lord to do the 〈…〉 in casting a directâ—r eye upon their woundâ— where I have failed my eyes are â—nto the great Physician to supply the deficiences of his poor creature who in this hath indeavoured to do nothing but for his sake and those on earth who are his Mysticall pieces How sweet Madam shall be the countenances of the glorified ones when the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ the highest flower in glory shall be fully transparent in their cheeks clarified from the duskish shadow that corruption casts upon them Me thinks it will be glorious to see and it is sweet but to think how beautifully David appears before the throne of the Lamb without the visible track of a tear upon his cheeks who here quartered so many nights amongst floods and billows of sorrow and was so often startled at so poor a
querie as Where is thy God become Let your Honour lift up your head The day of your redemption draweth nigh The Lord Jesus is pulling out his handkerchief laced with love to wipe all tears from your eyes and hastning to bow the heavens and come down to Gather his Saints together even those that have made a covenant with him vvith their lips and translate them from this valley of tears to that place where they shall hunger and thirst no more but be satisfied with his likenesse who is the brightnesse of his Fathers glory I humbly beg your Honours pardon for my presumption Your Honours former honouring me with the acceptation of some former labours hath emboldned me and I know your Ladiships spirit is so low that it can rejoyce in stooping to take a message from the Prince of glory though from the mouth of his meanest Embassador In which confidence I humbly offer these worthlesse indeavours to your Ladiships hands and with my humble supplications at the throne of Grace for your Honours progresse in Grace here and happinesse in Glory here after I rest Your Honors most devoted servant in the work of the Lord Iesus JOH COLLINGS From my study in Chappel-field-house in Norwich Aug. 17. 1648. To the Christian Reader especiallie such an one as walks with a troubled Spirit FOr thy sake Dear Heart were these Sermons composed preacht and now made publike The world this day abounds with treatises and excels former times in the Spirituality of the penmen who have written powerfull and practically Some there are that have made it their work to Plant These have led souls up the stairs to Iesus Christ shewing them the way to the land of Glory such have been our Shepheard and Hooker with divers others Others God hath set to build and as he used the other chiefly as his porters so he seemeth to have used these as the Grooms of his chamber appointed them to set out the excellency of the Lord Iesus Christ to them that are sick of love These have led souls from chamber to chamber shewing them all the chambers of free grace and making it their chiefest work to set out the Bridegroom in his glory and exalt the Riches of free mercy The work of the first was to dresse the Bride The second discover the Bridegroom in his wedding Robes A third sort have had their work allotted them to shew Christians how to keep house with Iesus Christ These have directed Christians how to walk closely with Iesus Christ of that number have been our Bolton and Burroâ—ghs and Sibbs and Downham A fourth sort have been Gods weeders making it their work to deliver poor souls from the snares of the Devil and the truth of God from those errours which this age hath brought forth And no wonder if in greater plenty then former times in regard we have had a summer so wet with showers of grace in the dispensations of Gospel-mysteries excelling the drinesse of former times A fifth sort there have been though a scanter number that have attended upon Christs hospitall indeavouring to heal the wounds of bruised spirits In this way have our Downham and Bolton and Sedgwicks and Sibbs laboured in part I have laboured to rank my self in the latter number offering to thee some Receits for the staying of thy soul if sick of love If there be any thing in this Treatise spoken to thy souls particular wants Let God have the glory and the Author thy prayers Sure I am to some of those in whose ears they were delivered they were As apples of Gold in Pictures of silver Think not there is any vertue in these lines they are but as Elishaes staff to the face of the dead childe Possibly thou mayest from hence discover how irrationall the temptations of Sathan are if once duly weighed Use these poor meditations with faith and prayer and possibly Christ may honour them so far as to make them instrumentall for the clearing the way of thy faith and establishing thy souls peace Truly Reader it was not my own but others opinion of them which hath made them publike If by removing a block out of thy way they but quicken thy pace to Iesus Christ if by removing or preventing thy doubts they adde but a dram to thy faith it shall be mâ—â—crown if they but discover to thee the evenues of Gods wayes which the Devil and thy and my base heart would make rugged I have my end who desire nothing from them but a giving glory to God in helping on the peace of thy soul My intention is to make a further progresse I have sent this but to usher the way and to see if this age can like any treatise that quarrels not in cholerick disputes nor smells of novelties It is a sad Age Christian in which we live while most of our time is spent in Tithing mint and Annis we neglect the weightier things of God law Disputing opinions hath eaten up the Religion of Christians we are all too apt to spend more time in examining our Brethrens Tenets then in searching our own hearts How much of our times How many of our Books are spent in quarrelling for the Ius Divinum of a Church-government which is but as the mint and Annis to the weightier things of Gods Law Yet am I not of so loose principles as to think The Government of the Church a meer circumstance nor can I think that form of Government worth taking up in a street that for the essentials is not to be found in the word of God Iuxta secundum are terms I understand not Every Truth of Christ hath the brightnesse of a star in its forehead but of these stars some differ from others in glory Reader thou shalt see here a great deal of the poor creatures weaknesse but his strength must be perfected in weaknesse whose work it is to stay up the hearts of them that relye upon him Search the Scriptures see if these things be true which thou here meetest with if they be receive them for truths sake and use them as an handkerchief to wipe the tears from thine eyes I have endeavoured neither to darken them with misty expressions nor yet to paint them with beauteous vermilion-language I had rather they should take thine heart then thine ear and be rather an object of thy meditation then admiration I remember that true speech of Hierom in his Epist ad Nepotianum instructing him how to preach Docente te in Ecclesiâ non clamâ—r populi sed gemitus suscitetur lachrimae auditorum laudes tuae sint Sermo Presbyteri scripturarum sale conditus sit Nolo te declamatorem rabulam garrulumque sine ratione seâ— mysteriorum peritum Sacramentorum Dei tui eruditissimum Verba volvere celeritate dicendi apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere indoctorum hominum est Nihil tam facile quam vilem plebeculam indoctam concione linguaeque volubilitate
19. 11. By the judgement of the Lord David was made circumspect And Thirdly if we consider that the Christian is not self-opinionated He cares not for false glasses and is more apt to behold his graces in a diminishing then a multiplying glasse the sincere Christian concerning himself is as ready to miscall a mountain a mole-hill as the hypocrite is to misjudge every mole-hill a mountain almost as ready to miscall his good evill as the other to nickname his evill good And for the third Branch of the Doctrine That as it is the duty of Christians to be sensible and groan under the defect of Faith so it is their duty and they will not stand still but strive and pray for an increase of it Much reason might be given for that too As First From the nature of the spirit of God that worketh and dwelleth in them Faith is the spirits work 1 Cor. 12. 9. Flesh and blood never revealed it Now the spirit is a quickning spirit 1 Pet. 3. 18. It is life Rom. 8. 10. Now where there is a principle of life there will be growth It is a working spirit that phrase we have often The spirit which worketh in you c. Now the spirits work is not to undo what it hath done but to work further and more Secondly If we consider The end of the Christian in the acting of all his graces Phil. 3. 13. The Apostle expresseth it fully Perfection is his butt he knows he must draw his bow with all his strength and his arrow to the head if he means to reach the butt and he shall not hit it neither The Christians voice is Heb. 6. 1. Let us go unto perfection It is the hypocrite sets himself bounds in Religion and sayes hither will I go and no further And to adde no more Thirdly The Christian knows that the more he hath of Faith the more he hath of Christ he knows that there is a depth of sweetnesse in Christ that can never be â—adomed something more to be understood when he understands as much as he can of him when the soul hath as much as its narrow hand can grasp of him whole Christ is too big to be enclosed in mortall arms Now the soul knows that Faith is the hand must squeeze that essence of sweetnesse the arm that must claspe him and he knows that the longer his arm of Faith is the more he shall graspe of him though he shall never be able to comprehend immeasurable Christ Eph. 3. 16 17 18. This makes him alwayes complain of his dwarfishnesse that his hand of Faith is not big enough and his arm of Faith is not long enough he cannot get in so much of Christ into his soul as he would do this makes him pray for an increase of Faith and so often complain of the shortnesse of his arm he cannot beleeve as he would This makes him say with our Apostle here Lord increase my Faith I come now to the application and here is matter of Consolation and Exhortation For all Christians 1. Cons especially those that are most sensible of the weaknesse of their Faith There have been and are more dwarfs besides thee Christian Perfection is a white was never hit the best archers come an handfull short It is indeed the mark at which every one ought to levell his arrows but all the souls of Christians like the arrows of Ionathan have flown some over into glory some short some on this hand some on that none hath hit the mark Be of good comfort Christian weak Faith is Faith little ones are true children of the Father that casts none away that comes though creeping to him Heaven hath room for babes as well as men A childe may pull the latch of heavens door and go in and be welcome to the knee of the King of Glory to the bosome of him Isai 40. 11. Who feeds his flock like a shepheard and carries the lambs in his bosome Jesus Christ hath his arms full of tender sucking lambs or at least that were so upon the earth The youngest Christian if he be an heir is of age to take up his land in heaven nonage is no bar The Garden of God hath more slips then old stocks in it now indeed they are become stocks but here they were but tender slips while Christ took them up out of the land of grace and transplanted them But Secondly Eâ—hor Is it so that the best of Christians have but a weak Faith in comparison of that perfection we ought to aspire to and that it is the duty of Christians to be sensible of it and pray and strive against it Let us all then look upon it as our duty Let us pray Lord increase our Faith Let us strive after that we shall never attain to even perfection Heb. 6. 1. Now here many directions might be given The first I will give shall be to remove those things which hinder the growth of it as scruples cavillings c. From hence shall I take my rise for a subject which with the blessing of God I do intend for some time to insist upon to satisfie the souls of some poor Christians in those scruples which may perplex them touching this grace of Faith The removing of which will not a little conduce to the increasing of this grace in their souls I will begin with the first And here though I spend many Sermons I trust I shall not be tedious having intended to make it my work in these Lectures to satisfie doubting Christians in cases of conscience and to begin with those which concern this radical grace at which the Devill bends so much of his force and malice Therefore wouldest thou grow in Faith Direct 1. remove those scruples which hinder the beginning and progresse of Faith in thy soul There are two notes of a weak Faith in a gracious soul 1. A sence of no Faith 2. A fear of a false Faith First A sence of no Faith Many a soul doth beleeve that perswades it self it neither doth nor ought to beleeve you shall often meet with Christians and especially in the beginning of their conversion that will cry out O they cannot beleeve nay what have they to do to beleeve Faith were but a presumption in their soul if they could hatch it up Or if not so Secondly Yet you cannot make them think that they do beleeve no Faith and they are strangers c. Now as it is in the diseases of the body the cure is scarce wrought untill the cause be first discovered and removed so it is likewise in the troubles and disquietments of the soul we shall scarce be able to remove them out of the souls way unlesse we first finde how they came there and if we can but truely understand the cause we shall easily remove the effect In generall we must know these complaints are to be understood concerning the Acts of Faith I dare not or cannot or do
merit of any graces which he hath infused into us 7. Obj. But when the Iaylor asked Paul what shall I do to be saved he doth not say mourn and be saved 〈◊〉 fast and pray and be saved but beleeve and be saved and when we read of the conversion of Lydia we do not read that she had any such humiliation as these Legallists talk of the text onely sayes that God opened the heart of Lydia Ans 1. To that of the Jaylor it is true that Paul doth not say mourn and be saved c. Paul had learned more wisedom then to afflict the afflicted the Text sayes He came trembling and fell at the Apostles feet Now the Apostle seeing him thus amazed with terrour bids him beleeve and though he knew not what to do yet he might be saved and how this proves that there is no need of humiliation let the discreet reader judge because when the Jaylor was so terrified that he was ready to dye Paul doth not bid him still be humbled but beleeve therefore there is no need of humiliation It is plain out of the Text that his humiliation although it was sudden and short yet it was strong First It made him tremble and fall down at the Apostles feet Secondly it wrought fully to its appointed end to beat the sinner out of himself Sirs saith he Wâ—at shall I do to be saved I know not what to do is implied for if he had known what to do he would never have askt what shall I do 8. Obj. But some will say his trembling and falling down was for fear the prisoners were gone Ans That is cleared out of the Text Paul had cried unto him Do thy self no harm for we are all here after all this cometh his trembling and crying what sall I do But secondly we may shape another answer to it Paul saith to the Jaylor only beleeve and thou shalt be saved beleeving doth here include humiliation Faith is an act of an humbled soul and no soul will or can beleeve that hath not been truly humbled therefore the great hurt that those do that preach down humiliation under a pretence of preaching up Faith is dealing too deceitfully with peoples souls First Preaching onely Faith Secondly Perswading them that a sinner as a sinner drunkard whoremunger c. is the subject of Faith and not a sinner as an humbled sinner For the example of Lydia and the Eunuch which is all that there is any pretence to boast of We answer First That God opened her heart without any knocking is easier for us to denye then for them to prove Secondly saith Master Shepheard These were examples of souls converted unto God before who did beleeve in the Messias but did not know that this Iesus was the Messias which they soon did when the Lord sent the means to reveal Christ so that it doth not follow she had never sorrowed because she did not theâ— sorrow vid. Shepheard Sound beleever p. 54. Thirdly In examples recorded in Scripture saith he of Gods converting grace do not think they had no sorrow for sin because it is not set down in all places and quoteth 1 Tim. 1. 13 14. Paul was a persecutor but the Lord received him to mercy doth it follow therefore he was received without humiliation see the contrary Act. 9. Fourthly Gods works are not alwayes alike in all therefore in stating the question I put in in Gods ordinary way of dispensations Elijah went to heaven in a fiery charriot but every one must not look to be coacht thither See Master Shepheards eight Rules concerning this in his Sound beleever a p. 48. ad pag. 57. And now I leave every Christian reader to determine by Reason Scripture and his own experience Whether Faith goes before Repentance or sorrow for sin or whether that goes before Faith SERM. II. LUKE 17. 5. Lord increase our Faith Cap. 2. The way of comforting a soul under that trouble of conscience I am not enough humbled c. THe last day you may remember I discust the question Whether humiliation goes before Faith or no which being premised I shall come now to speak something by way of satisfaction to such souls as labour under this perplexity of spirit Ah! saith a Christian I cannot beleeve I dare not rest my soul upon Christ nor upon the promises Alas I was never yet sufficiently humbled were my heart broken enough then I might be bound up by resting upon the premises World God lay me low enough then I might hope to be exalted but would you have such an hard flintâ—-hearted wretch as I think I beleeve what one that hath such a proud stiff-neck how is it possible that I should have any ground of Faith Faith they say is a flower that grows nowhere but just upon the brink of the lake that burns with fire and brimstone it must be bottomed upon the sense and pain of a lost condition the way to be found is to be lost could I be weary and heavy loaden once I might think to be cased by Faith This is the sad affliction that many a good but sadded poor soul groans under Now for my more methodicall proceedings in speaking something to the satisfaction of poor souls groaning under this trouble of spirit I will first speak a word by way of premise Then I will offer some considerations to comfort a soul under such a perplexity and distresse of spirit Lastly I shall speak something by way of direction and caution For the first of thâ—râ— by way of Premise Premise We use to say there is no errour but hath some truth in it no ore but hath something of gold as no field of wheat but hath some tares nor scarce a field of tares but there is some ear or two of wheat And so it is in this complaint of the soul here is something of truth as well as something of mistake upon what the complaint is grounded that therefore no soul might presume from what I shall speak by and by not to oil up a presumptuous soul but to establish a fainting soul Let me premise First That it is a truth and that which must stand if all the world be found liers to it That God seldom or never gives the soul power to apprehend and apply Iesus Christ and truly to rest upon him before that he hath first of all shewed the soul it s lost and undone condition God makes humiliation to act first in the soul in regard of our sight and hence are the promises made not to sinners as sinners but to sinners as humbled sinners I mean that God hath humbled and brought low I proved this sufficiently the last time Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance I say this is a truth and we must grant it yea and we must grant too that it is according to the ordinary dispensations of his grace and if any come
64. 6. good for nothing in his service c. Doctor Preston gives these directions vol. 4. 1. Labour to see the greatnesse of thy sin 2. To see the inability to help thy self For the first he propounds this 1. Fix your thoughts upon some great sin 2. Think of the number of thy sins 3. Make past sins present think of youth sins c. 4. Be not willing to exiâ—nuate or excuse any sin 5. Make sorrow abide upon your hearts 2. Consider the inability to help thy self 1. Think of Gods greatnesse and strictnesse 2. Of thy weaknesse and sinfulnesse And in another place he gives these directions 1. Every day search thy heart for the sins thou hast committed that day 2. Study the Scriptures they will discover your vile hearts more to you 3. Keep your hearts and wayes upright that is the way to keep them from haâ—dning 4. Bediligent in your calling 5. Remember times and sins past 6. Distinguish betwixt grace in thee and thy self of thy self Many other directions have been and may be given I will reduce all to these two or three heads 1. Consider the nature of thy sin 2. Consider the mercy of thy God 3. Run unto God Now these may be branched out into severall particulars 1. Consider sins in the filthinesse of them 2. In the greatnesse of them 3. In the multitude of them 4. In the aggravations of them 5. In the effects of them 6. In the dangerous consequence and guilt of them 2. Consider the mercy of God 1. That hath spared thee from hell so long 2. That yet will pardon thee 3. That yet will give thee heaven and glory 3. But when thou hast done all what thou canst this way these are but poor helps the surest way is to Fly to God by prayer and intreat him to work his own work So the Church Hos 14. 2. Here thou mayest plead with God First His promises Zach. 12. 10. Ezek. 11. 19 20. Secondly Thine own inability to do any thing towards this work though thou hast tried much and after all this rest upon God to such doubting Christians Now there are divers other things which lye in the souls way in relation to this also some of which I will speak something to being such as are more ordinary and as I my self have met with from some Christians either arising from their too curious inquisition into Gods hidden decrees or too much poring upon their own unworthinesse For the first of these I shall speak something to it at this time Cap. 3. How such Christians may be satisfied and comforted as think they have no warrant to beleeve because they conceive they are not elected or do not know whether they be elected or no. ALas saith a poor Christian why do you tell me of beleeving Sure I am none can be saved that is not elected I can see no ground to make me think that God hath chosen me to life before the foundations of the world nay I am confident God hath not elected me but past me over in his eternall decree Now to this trouble of spirit I will speak something first by way of promise secondly by way of consolation and direction First By way of promise It is an ill way of curing such a wound by breaking truths head to make a plaister as the Arminians Papists and Antinomians do Let me therefore first shew you what the truth is and then shew you with what considerations in a consistancy with the truth a Christian so unwarrantably by this scruple stopt in its way of beleeving may be set a going again and there will be left an even-path upon the road of truth for a troubled spirit to goe on in its way of beleeving and that both steadily and nimbly Know therefore First It is a truth That from all eternity God made choice of a particular and determinate number of persons to save them and none other nor can any be saved but those who were so elected and whosoever are so elected shall not fall away This is the truth of God which must stand firm against whosoever they be that either say there is no election or an election at random as the Arminians hold or a slippery one that is alterable as Papists hold or that it is made in time c. Secondly It is a truth That God never elected any because he foresaw they would beleeve and repent and walk holily but because he hath elected them therefore they beleeve and repent c. Thirdly It is a truth That those that are thus from all eternity elected may come to knew and particularly and fully and assuredly to know they are so elected and chosen of God Nay fourthly It is a truth That it is the duty of every Christian to strive to make his calling and election sure to labour to know that his name is written in the book of life It is that which the Apostle Peter calls for at Christians hands Nay fiftly It is a truth That there are but a very few elected and whosoever is elected shall beleeve and more then are elected neither can nor shall beleeve Many are called and few are chosen and those that are ordained to the end are ordained to the means they are created to good works These are those propositions which I desired to premise and those which the Devil and his instruments abuse to the unwarrantable perplexing of poor souls These are all the truths of God which do and shall remain true though all the world be found liars but what of all this I know none of these premises that will warrant such a conclusion as this Then I have no ground to beleeve except I knew that I were one of those few whose names God hath written in his book of eternity The Papist and Arminian and Libertines now take another course to cure the perplexed spirit and make no bones of it to stay a truth to heal a conscience To this end they have devised such charms to hang about the necks of sick souls as these are There is no such matter as any decree of election or God elects us for foreseen works and if there be an election it is not particular but the decree is entered thus at randome in the Court rolls of eternity All that beleeve shall be saved without a particular entrance of the number or names as if God had not said I know thee by name and if there be any elected they stand upon slippery ground Elected names may be blotted out or added in as if Gods book were more blotted then a Mercers shop-book Or if there be any elected yet it is impossible to know that I am elected nor can I have any assurance of my mansion-house in glory till I have taken possession of it But this is to bruise the head for a plaister for the heel On the contrary another generation maintain election to be the object of Faith and ignorantly maintain Faith to be the eye
yet at all times the soule may not be able to say this promise of Heaven and glory and happinesse belongs to me Psal 77. 7 8 9. Holy Asaph in a dark day with his soule may say Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy cleane gone for ever Doth his promise faile for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies The reason lies not that the soule doubts of the truth of God in his promises at all no it verily thinketh that if it had fulfilled the conditions of the promises the promises would remaine to its soule as stedfast as Mount Sion but it cannot see that It looks upon its sinnes in a multiplying glasse and upon its repentance in a diminishing glasse Every mountaine of good in its selfe now seemes a Mole-hill and every Mole-hill of sinnes seemeth a Mountaine unto it Thence it is that in the soules dark day of afflictions in the soule or in a dark day of afflictions to the body the soules faith is weakned it is ready to look upon its great affliction as an evidence that it wanteth that interest in God which it should have to apply promises It sayes with Gideon Iudg. 6. 13. when the promise saith like the Angel The Lord is with thee it answers O my Lord if the Lord be with me why then is all this beâ—alne me and where be all his mercies no the Lord hath forsaken me and delivered me to the hand of Satan now the soule must not take a judgement of its faith from hence but appeale abanima perturbata ad animam quietam to a calm day in the soule again Lastly In dark times the truly beleeving soule though it can give no reason for it may not be able to rest and apply the most absolute peculiar promises as its peculiar portion this I shall fully make out by considering what is requisite to be in the soule that shall appropriate any promise to it selfe as its portion upon which it will live in which and upon which it will dwell The Eleventh SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith I Am still treating concerning those doubts and weaknesses which may and often doe consist with true saving faith in a gracious soule My last Proposition I left imperfect it was as you may remember this That a gracious soule may truly rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ and upon his promises for eternall life and yet not be able at all times fully and truely to appropriate and peculiarize all the promises to its self This I shewed in foure Propositions premising first a distinction of promises and secondly a distinction of times my last Proposition was this That in dark times a truly gracious soule may not be able to rest upon and apply the most absolute free promises for salvation so far as to say These promises are my portion To make out this I told you I would shew you what things are requisite to be in the soule that shall appropriate any promise to it selfe as its particular portion whiâ—h is the work at which I then stopt and which I have now to take up for here is the busines with troubled spirits tell them of large absolute free promises as say they here are jewels in boxes but these belong not to us they are not our portion and from hence further they conclude that they have not any true faith because they have not for the present a particular full power to apply these promises as plaisters to their wounded soules and rest upon them but yet I shall shew you the want of this doth not null our faith and is not alwayes a negation of it I conceive there are three things that are requisite to be found in the soule that shall be able to apply any particular promise to its selfe as its portion 1. A cleare understanding of the Promise 2. A cleare understanding of its own condition 3. A mighty and particular working of the Spirit of God upon the soule inabling the souâ—e to make such particular application First There must be a cleare understanding of the Promise the promise must appear to the soule as a salve having a full efficacie and vertue in it for the healing of its sore otherwise the soule can never apply it now it may possibly be that thy non-application of the promise may proceed from thy not understanding the vertue or misunderstanding the intent and end and power and efficacie of the promise possibly thou mayest understand the promise to be made particular when it is propounded generall and such have I my selfe sometimes met with that being under afflictions of spirit when I have propounded a promise to them as a salve fit for their sore they have evaded that way Ah! but that promise was made to the Iewes or to such or to such a particular person it was a plaister spread for anothers wound and what have I to doe to lay hold on it Or it was not made for such a sinner as I am not for a backslider not for such an hard hearted wretch as I am c. and with such cavils have stood at a distance from the promise crying It is not meet that the childrens bread should be given to dogs or perhaps their non-application may proceed from a misunderstanding of the matter of the promises Now for this thou must cleare up thy understanding in the nature of the promise both in respect of the persons to whom it is made and in respect of the matter of the promise and for the more cleare and full understanding of the promise I shall give a rule or two The first is remarkable I find it in a reverend Author which I shall deliver in his words with a little limitation thus Generall promises for spirituall mercies are alwayes to be applyed particularly and particular promises for spirituall and temporall mercies are to be applyed generally I call those generall promises which are either made to Gods people in generall or concerning spirituall things in generall as for example God had made a generall promise to any that should pray toward his Temple 1 King 8. 37. 40. Iehosaphat being after in distresse 1 King 8. 3â— 40. applyed this generall promise to his owne particular condition 1 Chron. 20. 8. 10. 1 Chron. 20 8. 10. And without question it was from a particular faith in this generall promise that Daniel prayed with his windowes open towards Hierusalâ—m Dan. 6. 10. Dan. 6. 10. and so for those promises which are made to the people of God for spirituall mercies in generall Psa 84. 11. such is that promise Psal 84. 11. He will give grace and glory and no good thing will be with-hold from them that live uprightly ought to be applyed for any spirituall good thing Iam. 1. 12. or particular dispensation of grace So the Apostle Iames 1. 12. would have the
nature of his disease and the vertue of the salve with which the Plaister is spread that is to be applied to the sore hee is not able yet to apply it and lay it on for cure the hand of the Chirurgeon or some other for him must doe this Ro. 8. 16. So it is with the Soule Ro. 8. 16. The Spirit it self must beare witnesse with our spirits that wee are the children of God now unlesse that be witnessed we have nothing to do with the promise the children of the promise must be the children of God and in being his children they become â—â—ires of the promise as the Apostle disputes Gal. 3. It is a sweet and remarkable expression of David to this purpose Psal 119. Psal 119. â—9 v. 49. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope It is God and his spirit that must cause us to hope and trust in his word Now in regard that the Saints and Servants of God may though they alwayes have the spirit dwelling in them yet sometimes have the Spirit not so fully and powerfully acting in them the strong and powerfull actings of the Spirit it being the effects of Gods manifestive love which may be more or lesse in a Christian though his elective love admits of no degrees I say in this regard I conceive a Christian may have true saving Faith and yet not for the present at all times bee able to apply the promises with a particular Faith as its owne proper and peculiar portion And now you have heard the reasons which may be reduced shortly thus 1. Because there may be a misunderstanding or a cleare ignorance of the vertue of the promises which must be understood before they can bee particularly applyed 2. Because there may be a misunderstanding of the soules condition it may say there is no hope and judge its wounds incurable 3. Because there may want such a constant powerfull working of the Spirit of God in the soule as must be joyned with the soules peculiar application and yet there may be true faith For the first I conceive the particular applying of the promise with a confidence they are my portion doth argue a sense of faith which may not be in the soule and yet true faith be in it Secondly Because as a man must not be judged to be no man because he wants his power to act reason in a Feaver So the estimate of the truth of faith that is in the soule must not be taken in the distemperature of the soule when under heavy temptations or secondly dark and melancholy apprehensions or thirdly overpressing afflictions or fourthly sad desertions Thirdly Because there is a difference between resting out of a principle of hope which argues onely a relyance and dependance and out of a principle of certainty and perswasion applying The truly beleeving soule when out of desertions For hope which is seen is no hope and from under temptations and not burtheâ—d with afflictions and melancholy doth alwaeys apply the promises with an application of hope it hopes they belong to it Rom. 8. 24. though not alwayes with an application of perswasion now the application of hope and the resting out of a principle of hope But our hope must be lively provided there be an acting accordingly is enough to save Rom. 8. 24. â— Pet. 1. 3. 4 We are saved by hope 1 Cor. 15. 19. 1 Col. 27. But yet this we must not rest in but labour for a full perswasion the full assurance of hope Heb. 6. 11. Thou mayest apply thy selfe to the promse when thou canst not apply the promise to thee But of this more in the next Sermon The Twelfth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith CHAP. XII Concerning those weaknesses that may accompany the highest act of faith viz. Assurance And how to satisfie the soule that scruples its faith because it cannot be assured at all or weakly and unconstantly MY subject is to discover what doubts and weaknesse may be in relation to the last and highest act of Faith in a gracious soule for there is nothing more ordinary then to heare such complaints as these from a gracious soule Alas never tell me of faith I have no opinion at all that ever I shall be saved never did poor soule live at such incertainties I pray I look upward I desire I faint I groan I swoon and yet not a drop of cordiall water of perswasion that my Christ will afford me to revive my dying spirit or if I do sometimes catch up a perswasion in my soule and come to think that I have an interest in God it is but a bare thought and so weake that it is scarce able to â—â—â—nd a day sometimes indeed for a day or a week or a month together I could blesse my soule in a good condition but then againe I am as full of doubts and feares and is there any certainty in this faith am I not like a wave of the Sea tost about with thousands of winds One while I think I am sure of heaven and glory and am as it were wrapt up into a third heaven and the diademe of glory is fitting on to my head another while I am thrown down to hell and me thinks every Devill is tracing mee I will with the help of my God endeavavor to satisfie thee and shew thee what weaknesse may consist with this act and in relation to this act of Faith in these ensuing Conclusions Conclus 1. Thou wayst have a true and certaine faith and such a one as will richly save thee and yet have no assurance of thy salvation Indeed my severall Sermons that I preacht upon this Subject doe all concurre to the proofe of this truth for if a Christian may have saving Faith and yet so much weaknesse and doubting consist and be contemporaneous with it in the soule it will necessarily follow that Assurance is not the minimum quod sic the least degree of saving Faith But now it lying in my way I shall speak something more distinctly to it There are Opinions on the right hand and on the left concerning this sublime act of our Faith 1. The Papist denies any possibility of Assurance and reviles that pretious Doctrine as licentious and pleads only for a generall faith to believe the history of the Word and the Articles of Faith c. 2. The Antinomians on the other side deny any Faith to be true Faith that is accmpanied with any kind of doubting a full assurance they will make the minimum quod sic the least Faith that can help a man to heaven Some Reverend Writers living neare the time of the reign of that Popish Doctrine denying anything of perswasion to come into the nature of true saving Faith and setting themselves in full opposition to it have not a little though unwillingly contributed to the last opinion defining Faith to be a perswasion of the
drink Though I begd my bread and wanted water all the dayes of my life O that I had the robes of his righteousnesse to cloth my soul though I went naked O give me Christ O give me Christ above all for all instead of all or else I dye Here now be comforted the end is wrought again and thou hast no ground not to beleeve because thou art not enough humbled The cause must not destroy the end The end of humiliation is as you have heard What serves humiliation for but to bring thee to it If thou beest already by humiliation brought that thou art grieved for sin past that thou hatest sin present that thou loathest the thoughts of embracing sin for the time to come that thou art made willing to close with Jesus Christ that thou prizest him above all the earths contentments whatsoever thou hast no ground nay thou sinnest in letting thy Faith stumble upon this threshold 4. Consider that it is possible thou mayest mis-judge thy self in this point of the measure of humiliation too The fountain of humiliation is often so deep that we cannot fadom it the well may be deep though we see but a little of it First Consider that in thy humiliation you must measure length and bredth and all Secondly Consider thou must measure inside as well as outside Thirdly You must remember it is not done though it may be done enough for thee to apply a promise and rest upon Iesus Christ and receive and apply him to thy soul First Many Christians mistake upon this Principle Why doest thou think thy humiliation is not enough They will answer you alas I was never in such a depth of amazing sorrow as Paul was as I have heard such and such a Christian was they were even in the jawes of hell My work was a slight work to theirs Half so much broad-cloth of a great bredth will make a suit as well as so much again of some that is not half the bredth the bredth makes amends for the length of the other Others God hath given them deep sorrow but short perhaps he hath given thee long sorrow but not so broad and deep there may be as much water in a shallow pond that is broad as in a deep well that is straight It may be thou hast been divers moneths weeks years under thy sorrow though it was not such an heart-rending sorrow as others might be They had sorrow that even rent their heart in pieces but it lasted not so long as thine before they had joy God measured out their measure in depth and thinc in bredth Secondly Consider if you will measure your humiliation right you must measure both inside and outside Possibly you judge you are not humbled enough because you have not shed so many tears as others have you measure it onely in the outside alas many tempers are not so disposed to tears as others Suppose two men were wounded the one bleeds nothing or little at all the other bleeds that the blood stains all his apparell runs down the streets you see scarce a drop of blood come from the other but the wound closeth will you therefore say that the one bleeds not so much as the other nay surely you will say that he bleeds more desperately he bleeds inwardly The seat of humiliatiō is the heart not the eye Humiliation is not to be measured by wet handkerchiefs the swoln face is not alwayes the outside of a most broken heart possible your heart weeps your soul is ready to burst with groanings but you want the vent of your eyes they are tongue tied The measure of your humiliation for all this may be greater then the other Thirdly Possibly some may say O but can I think that God requires no more tears no more sadnesse for those thousands of sins that I have in my life time committed against him Consider therefore Christian that your humiliation is not past when you have apprehended and applyed Christ to your souls You must reserve some tears for the time to come you have humiliation-work after Faith Zach. 12. 10. Though the seven Devils be cast out and Mary be set by Christ yet she may wash his feet with the tears of her eyes and wipe them with the hairs of her head She may come again and stand behinde him weeping you have to do to look upon him whom you have pierced and mourn As the man that takes physick it works before he takes his broth but that sets it working again and more So though before you apply Jesus Christ there will be some humiliation yet your receiving him and resting upon him by Faith doth not stop up your fountain of tears you shall have a mourning time after that save an handkerchief to wet then Fifthly For thy comfort consider that humiliation ought not to be 1. A ground of Faith 2. Is not a ground of acceptation The first will depend upon the latter First Consider thy humiliation is not a ground of thy acceptation Thou art not therefore accepted because thou art thus and thus humbled If we watch not our nature saith reverend Sibbs There will be a spice of Popery which is a naturall Religion in this great desire of more grief as if when we had that we had something to satisfie God withall and so our minde still runs too much upon works If free-grace did not clarifie tears and the greatest sorrow we could have for sin those bitter waters would be more filthy then the puddles of the street If the blood of free-grace doth not cement a broken heart and accept it and merit for it hell is its desert and portion for all any merit in it It is a good piece of a prayer Psal 20. 3. The Lord accept thy sacrifice or make far thy sacrifice or turn thy sacrifice into ashes A broken and a contrite heart is the Lords sacrifice which he will never despise Psal 5◠17. But the Lord must 1. Turn it into ashes 2. Make it fat 3. Accept it And therefore this can be no sufficient remora in thy way of Faith For couldst thou make thy head a fountain of water and thine eyes rivers of tears they should merit no salvation heaven is not to be bought with sighes nor art thou therefore accepted because thou art humbled but even thy humiliation must have an acceptation otherwise God should save us not for his own sake and for his Name sake as indeed he doth but for our tears sake for our humiliation sake for our works sake for Christians must warily consider that God doth not save his people and accept his children for those works which his own spirit worketh in them This is a Doctrine of Popery who to wash their hands of the Doctrine of merits wherewith they are charged tell us they hold no such matter as that a Christian may be saved by his own works but God gives him grace to work good works and for them he accepts for
them he saves We say no for even the works of Gods spirit of grace acting in us are our works and salvation is not of works but of grace And this Evangelicall lesson is hinted to us even in the Ceremoniall Law The Lord commands a yearly day of atonement Levit. 16. for the sins of the holy Place To prove this I might instance in all those Text of Scripture of which the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians are especially full and so the Epistle to the Ephesians which treat concerning the Doctrine of Justification and clear it not to be of works neither internall nor externall but of grace But I will instance but in one Titus 3. 5 6 7. But after that the kindenesse saith he and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration Mark ye by it not for it Gods mercy and free-grace is the ground of the souls acceptation and therefore consider upon what principle thou runnest that concludest I have not yet been enough humbled for to be accepted as if thy humiliation were the reason and ground of Gods acceptation Indeed we ought never to think that we are enough humbled yet we ought alwayes to think that humiliation too much and that sense of our sins too much which hinders Faith for it destroyes its end Therefore why art thou thus troubled Christian with this conceit that your Faith is no Faith because before it you wept not just so many tears It is Faiths work to beleeve and apprehend the souls acceptation before God Now Gods acceptation as you have heard is never for the souls humiliation and therefore what should hinder thy Faiths working in apprehending thy acceptation before God because thou art not accepted for this work any more then any other Nay Secondly Thy humiliation is not a ground of Faith Thou doest not therefore apply Christ because thou art so and so humbled Put case that a great Prince should be willing to bestow his son in marriage upon a poor peasant onely saith he I will make this term or condition that when you come to marrie him you shal come in sackcloth to shew what ye are he shal give you a better garment afterwards wil any one say that this maids coming to the marriage arraied in sackcloth is a ground of her so rich mariage or will any say it is a meritorious condition that she deserveth such a match to come so attired Surely no the ground of all is the Princes delight in her this is the ground of his taking her to wife and yet the King commanded that attire So the Lord saith Poor vild wretch I will give thee my Christ in marriage but thou shalt come weeping to shake hands with him weeping for thy sins he shall afterwards take off thy sackcloth garments Can any say that this is either a meritorious cōdition or a ground of acceptation or Faith Consider Christian wert thou never so much humbled thou couldst not say I will therefore beleeve because I am humbled Humiliation is a necessary antecedent to Faith 〈◊〉 ground of Faith Let 〈◊〉 that therefore be a stumbling block to thee which cannot be a pillar and foundation to thee if thy Faith cannot stand upon it let it never stumble upon it And thus I have done with the second thing I propounded which was to propound such considerations to such souls as were under this temptation as might comfort their hearts and strengthen and stablish them Onely I beseech you remember to whom I have been speaking all this while not to hard-hearted stony souls but to broken and humbled souls not to those that regard not to get their souls humbled at all but to those that are humbled that they can be humbled no more and that groan under the hardnesse of their own hearts not to those that presume to apply their hot boiling lusts and corruptions to the blood and wounds of Jesus Christ flattering themselves with a notion of Faith and conceiting they do beleeve but to those that are humbled though they cannot have a good thought of themselves I would not be misunderstood to have spoken one word to slight the work of humiliation or to cherish that licentious novell Doctrine that there is no need at all of it and a Christian shall not need regard it but what I have spoken hath been not for dead men what should they do with cordialls but for dying fainting swooning Christians not for them that consider their sins too little but for them that so dim their eyes with poring on them that they cannot see the absolute covenant of God and the free-grace of Christ and lay hold upon the promises of life There is an extream on either side the sober Christian avoids either and keeps the mean So I have done with the second thing I propounded viz. to propound some considerations which might comfort the afflicted soul under this affliction and strengthen it to resist this temptation For without question as the Devil hath a designe upon many a soul to run it upon a rack of presumption and carry it on in a blind notion of Faith so he hath a designe upon some souls to wrack them upon the sands and sink them in a pit of despair The Devils devouring voice to souls is either There is no need of humiliation or there is no humiliation enough I come now to the last thing which I propounded which is to give some directions to such souls as are burthened with this affliction and groan under this temptation how to demean themselves and what to do I will reduce all that I shall speak by way of direction to these heads First Eye the nature of the covenant and grace and promises of God more Secondly Eye the nature and cause of humiliation more Thirdly Labour to get thy heart more humbled First of all Eye the nature of God declared in the free dealings out of his grace to thee This I shall enlarge in three instances 1. Eye Gods covenant and the nature of that 2. Eye Christs grace and the nature of that 3. Eye the Promises and the nature of them First Eye the nature of God in his covenant more The cause of this affliction is Christians too much eying and poring upon their sins and themselves the penitent beleever ought to have two eyes one to look downward another to look upward This is that which David comforted himself with when he considered his own unworthinesse and the unworthinesse of his house 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is my salvation and all my desire although he maketh it not to grow David though a man according to Gods own heart yet had a wicked house Absolom had slain his brother rebelled against his Father
Lord increase our Faith I Am discovering to you upon what grounds many Christians think they have no warrant to beleeve and rest upon Jesus Christ and labouring to satisfie such poor Christians in such cases and under such perplexities of spirit I have shewed you already two usuall causes First A too irregular eying of preparatory qualifications thinking that they are not humbled enough Or secondly A too unwarrantable prying into Gods secrets conceiving they are not elected and upon this score utterly refusing to obey that great Gospel command Beleeve to both these I have spoke something already to the latter the last day I am intended by the blessing of God and as he shall inable me to speak something this day to a third cause commonly alledged by Christians why they conceive they ought not to beleeve viz. Because of their own unworthinesse in respect of the greatnesse and multitude of their sins that have stained and possibly do yet pollute their soul Alas saith a poor soul would you have me lay hold on Iesus Christ what with my filthy hands what can such a rotten sinner that hath been so auncient in sin can I think you have warrant wheâ— I have given the Devill my youth to beleeve Iesus Christ will take the fag end of my life No no call to the young person to beleeve that is not yet withered and rotten with sin call to those that have lived honestly and civilly not to such profane wretches as I have been Now to answer this cavill Let me bend my discourse at this time and propound certain considerations which duly weighed may comfort a soul under this trouble and put it upon its work and duty of beleeving and convince it that it is its duty Cap. 4. How to satisfie a poor soul doubting whether it may beleeve or no because of its many and great sins past or its continuing corruptions and so deemeth it self unworthy FIrst of all consider Gods grace is enough for thee This scruple of thy spirit ariseth from scant streightned thoughts of rich incomprehensible grace Be convinced therefore that there is a fulnesse enough in the ocean of infinite grace to swallow up thy soul however loaded with a burthen of sin observe but how the Scripture setteth out infinite love take one place for all Eph. 3. 17 18 19. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and heigth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with the fulnesse of God Mark how the Apostle expresseth free grace by all dimensions are thy sins in the heighth there is an heighth of love are they in the depth there is a depth of love are they long broad are they all yet there is mercy enough in this Christ for such is his love that it passeth knowledge are they a mountain why who art thou O great mountain before Zerubbabell thou shalt be made a plain do thy sins cry up to heaven his mercies are above the heavens are thy sins more in number then the haires of thy head his mercies are more in number then the sand which lieth on the sea shore Now this is easie to be conceived if we do but conceive and know that the mercies of God are infinite God is an infinite God and every mercy of his is as inconceivable as himself is His love passeth all understanding saith the Apostle have no low thoughts Christian of the heighth of free grace which reacheth up to the heavens yea and above the heavens Is the filthy garments of thy wickednesse of a larger extent thinkest thou then the long white robe of his righteousnesse Who was made for thee righteousnesse wisdom sanctification and redemption Is the fountain set open for Iudah and Ierusalem for sin and for uncleannes so shallow that thou canst not bath in it Mistake not Christian it is a bath of capacity to hold all filthy souls be their uncleannesse what it will if they will but come and wash and be clean those that have the rottenest wounds the filâ—hiest sores the most unsound â—arkasses may fetch balm from Gilead enough to heal their wounds When Christ was upon the earth the Evangelist tells us Matth. 4. 24. They brought unto him all sick people that were sick of divers diseases and torments and those which were possessed with devils and he healed them When vertue went out from Christ to heal the poor woman 〈◊〉 â—ouched the hemme of his garment it went 〈◊〉 â—im as light goeth out of the sun that there is 〈◊〉 for what goeth out Christ never had any vertue went out of him so as by such emission he lost any How many Saints think you since old Abrahâ—m who was the father of the faithfull to this day have touched the hemme of his garment vertue went out and healed every one and yet his garments are all oily with mercy and grace still How many drops of blood have thirsty Saints had from Davids time to this hour and yet the fountain of cleansing blood hath not a drop lesse in it Grace in Christ is like the heat of the fire or light of the sun take how much you will of either you shall not rob either narrow not the breadth of incomprehensible love when thou hast measured for beleevers ten thousand yards there shall not be a nail lesse on the piece of free-grace The sea though a thing infinite will hardly be measured out by quills much lesse shall the unfadomable ocean of infinite love be measured by drops for the washing poor souls from the stains and filth of their sins The boy could tell the father he would have done emptying the sea into an hole with a spoon before he should have opened the Doctrine of the Trinity And sooner shalt thou get all the light out of the body of the sun and hear out of the fire then put Jesus Christ to pant for his breath of free-grace Oh that sinners had but as willing leggs as he hath capacious arms we see hands are washed every day and have been these thousands of years now how long can we think it would yet be should we get the dirtiest hands we could make before all the seas rivers fountains and streams in the world would be exhausted yea though they should wash seven times a day infinitely sooner Christian then the fountain of free-grace shall be exhausted with all the buckets that come to draw the water of life from it Seest thou a steeple as Pauls in London or the like of a very great heighth seest thou the highest mountain that seems to have married the clouds and sit in their lap Suppose now that mountain or steeple in the deepest place of the ocean how much wouldst thou see on it nay were another on the top of that there would not be a spier of grasse nor a
hearts of such Christians as yielding to this temptation have troubled and perplexed their own spirits First of all consider That as it is a certain truth that there is such a sin commissible that a creature may be guilty of yet it is as incertain what this sin is None ever could yet determine it or if they have done it it hath been unwarrantably I mean for the specificall â—in Innumerable almost have been the opinion of the Antients Some have thought it to be malice against the Brethrens-graces others Finall impenitency others despair of Gods mercy The Papists make six species of it 1. Impenitency 2. Despair these two seem to be but consequents of it 3. Obstinacy in wickednesse All obstinacy in wickednesse cannot be and how high what degree of obstinacy constitutes it they leave us to seek 4. The resisting of a known truth This comes nearest it but yet for the heighth and degree of resistance they also leave us in the dark and every resistance is not 5. The malice against our Bretheren for grace and goodnesse This hath something in it tending to it but reacheth not the full neither 6. A sinning out of presumption of Gods mercy That presumption is an ingredient in this sin is certain Aq. 22â— q. 14. Att. 2. and that the sin against the Holy-ghost is a sin of presumption but every sinning upon presumption of Gods mercy certainly is not unpardonable It is certain that blasphemy against the Holy-ghost may be variously taken First Lâ—terally when any blasphemous speech is spoken against the Holy-ghost As if any should maintain the Holy-ghost is not God c. So many of the antient fathers took it Secondly It is sometimes and so we take it to be meant here for a sin against the Holy-ghosts proper operations and workings as his enlightening grace c. Heb. 4. 6 7. For whosoever sins the first way sins not unpardonably Aus T. 10. though dangerously as Saint Austine largely proves Serm. 11. de Verbis Din. p. 47. Copiose tractat that the Texts Mat. 12. 31. c. are not to be meant of every blasphemous word but there is quadam blasphemia quoddam verbum a certain word and a certain kinde of blasphemy Now what this is that we are in the dark for nor have any except the Papists unwarrantably dared certainly to define or describe it so as to say This is the unparponable sin Now therefore Christian upon what ground doest thou say Thou hast sinned the sin against the Holy-ghost when neither thou nor any other can say this or that is the sin against the Holy-ghost why doest thou accuse the soul of thou knowest not what Judge if this be not an irrationall yielding to a groundlesse temptation But saith a poor Christian I have refused the enlightening spirit I have refused instruction and hated counsell and what is this but the impardonable sin or have â—inned against knowledge such and such a truth I have denied disputed against it c. To make therefore a little progresse though positively it cannot be said nor specifically determined what the sin against the Holy-ghost is that is unpardonable for it is certain that every sin against the Holy-ghost is not unpardonable A lye against knowledge is a sin against the Holy-ghost Act. 5. 3. yet not unpardonable Jacob committed it for the blessing Yet 1. It may be shewen negatively what it is not 2. Severall ingredients may be discovered that must be in this compound of iniquity And in relation to thy complaint consider Secondly That none can be guilty of it but such as have had a great measure of knowledge of Gods truth Heb. 6. 4 5 6. They must be such as have been enlightned that is such as the Gospel hath been preacht too and receive by so that it hath cleared up his understanding from that darknesse and mist of naturall blindnesse and ignorance in which Adams fall left us Secondly Such as have tasted of the heavenly gift that is Faith saith Pareus such as having heard the word have not onely been convinced of it but given a firm assent of Faith to it for it can onely be understood of a temporary Faith of assent not of true justifying Faith for that in whomsoever it is is kept by the power of God to salvation 1 Pet. 2. 5. Thirdly Such as have tasted of the good word of God Such as have had the Gospel preacht to them and have apprehended it good and sweet received it with joy Heb. 10. 26. Heard it gladly as Herod Heb. 10. 26. They must be such as have received the knowledge of the Truth It must be a defection and a declination from knowledge and a profession as is clear from that place Heb. 10. 26. from whence is plain that a naturall man that never was enlightned or an heathen that never heard the word of God or those that though they have heard yet have not had hearts to regard and received what they hear and give assent to it These cannot be guilty of this unpardonable sin why doest thou therefore trouble thy self that thou hast refused the Gospel and therefore thou hast sinned the sin against the Holy-ghost When the Gospel was never made known to thee so far as to enlighten thee possibly thou heardst the word but understoodst not regardest nothing Those that crucified Christ were converted at Peters Sermon Act. 2. have thine ears been stopt to the means of grace be humbled for it but dispair not because of it though thou beest called at the ninth hour yet if thou wilt come in at the eleventh thou shalt be received and welcome onely come God winked at the time of thy ignorance Act. 17. 30. Act. 17. 30. This sin must be against the word heard received tasted c. It is not a bare piece of originall corruption consisting in a privation of knowledge or aversenesse unto knowledge or vanity of heart in not regarding knowledge but it is the highest piece of actuall rebellion not for a while to stand at a distance from a pardon offered but to begin to reach out an hand to take it and then draw back and spit in the face of that God that offers thee This is plain for it is a blasphemy against the Holy-ghost in his workings now the spirit doth not alwayes work with the preaching of the word much lesse is the law of nature the work of the sanctifying spirit But the work of illumination and sanctification those are the spirits works in which we must take heed of opposing him This sin is not petty-iarceny but high-treason against God But alas will a poor Christian say yet I fear for I have received and tasted the word of truth and I have made a shew of rejoycing in the good word of God and after this have I been in my heart thinking to deny Christ to be the Saviour of the world to deny the word to be the word of truth and
unto severall truths which are in the word provided 1. That thou assentest to all truths that are necessarily to be beleeved to salvation and the foundations of Faith 2. Provided thou strivest against other doubtings and labourest to get a sense of Faith and a strength to resist the Devils temptations and to be convinced of every particular truth and of thy errour if it bee one which thou hast taken up from some mistaken portion of Scripture and labourest for a more cleare and distinct knowledge of every truth that so thy assent may be more cleare every day than other The Ninth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith I Am shewing you what doubts may consist in a gracious soule with true faith I have already shewed what weaknesse may consist with faith in respect of knowledge and what doubts in relation to the meanest and lowest act of faith which is assent It is my task at this time to shew you what doubts and weaknesses may consist with saving faith in a gracious soule in relation to the second act which is indeed the essence and marrow of justifying faith that is the act of adhering the soules rolling relying and wholly depending it selfe upon Jesus Christ for salvation for although the soules assenting to the promise and being perswaded of the promise as a sure and stedfast word of truth be an act of faith yet it is concluded by most or all godly and sober Divines that it is not the act of faith that justifies but as it is concluded against the Antinomians and Libertines on one side that it is not faith of assurance that onely justifies so it is also concluded against the Papists on the other side that it is not an assent to and perswasion of the truth of the Word that justifieth the soule but that true justifying faith though it doth suppose both knowledge and assent yet it doth especially consist in the soules rollings and throwing it selfe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for eternall salvation and adhering to the promises as its portion And therefore it is observed by learned and gracious Mr. Ball 1 Par. p. 24. in his Treatise of Faith that there are six words in Scripture by which the Holy Ghost doth in Scripture expresse to us true and saving faith This I have noted before every one of which doth denote unto us that the very essence and marrow of true and saving faith is a reliâ—nce and dependance of the soule upon Christ The first is Beleeve opposed to fainting Psal 27. 13. it argues a staying of the soule upon something when it was falling swooning fainting c. The second word is Trust his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. A third word is translated trust but signifies to betake to as a Castle Psal 2. 11. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him A fourth word signifies to leane upon as a man leanes himselfe upon a staffe 2 Chron. 16. v. 7 8. A fifth word signifies to stay and rest the minde upon Isa 48. 2. They stay themselves upon the God of Israel A sixth word signifies to roll a mans selfe upon a thing as a man in danger of drowning catcheth hold of a Willow and hang upon it all which words denote to us that the true and proper distinguishing act of true justifying faith is the soules rolling it selfe upon the promises of life and upon Christ for eternall salvation I take true justifying faith so far as it is the soules act by the vertue and strength of the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ infused in relation to this act to be this for a soul wholly and stedfastly and solely and obediently to rest and roll it self upon the Lord Iesus Christ for eternall life Now in this act of true and saving faith there may be a great deale of weaknesse and it may be accompanied with a great deale of doubting CHAP. X. Concerning those weaknesses which may consist with true faith in a gracious soule and how to satiisfie the soule that conceives it doth not truly rely upon Christ because it doth not finde that it can rely so fully and constantly as it desires nor upon all the promises alike ALas sayes a poor soul I cannot think that I do really rest and râ—l my self upon Iesus Christ and the promises for eternall life when I do rest as I think I am ready again to think I doe not and if I be in a frame of heart one day that I think that now I can roll my self upon Christ and trust his promises another day again I can trust nothing if sometimes I do cleave to the word of life as sweet and pretious and imbrace it as true and prize Christ and value his Word above all sensuall delights whatsoever and hunger and thirst after it and after Christ another while again I cleave to a sensuall good more then to a spirituall promise or an heavenly Christ and besides I cannot rely upon God for the fulfilling of every promise there are some of Gods promises that I think I could rest upon God for fulfilling of others again I cannot for my life though I am perswaded that they are equall words of truth with the other trust God for nor can I be fully perswaded that the promises do really and peculiarly belong to me Now to satisfie the soule in this particular I will shew you what doubtings and weaknesses may be in the soule and yet the soule at that time may have received and may rest and rely and roll it self upon the Lord Iesus Christ for the promises of salvation and may at the same time have true saving justifying faith this is my work to which I am to addresse my selfe Know for thy comfort First Thou mayest fully and wholly rely thy soule upon Iesus Christ and yet not beleeve thou dost fully and wholly rest Reliance and dependance is necessary to Faith not full perswasion of such a reliance I meane justifying faith Reliance is a necessary act of Faith full perswasion of such a reliance is a comfortable act of Faith depending and relying is the act of this hand helped by Gods Spirit full perswasion of this reliance is more the shining of Gods face then the act of our soules Labour more to get evidences of the truth of thy act of faith then of the degrees of it Christ may be in the room and yet not seen he may be in the midst of thy heart and saying Peace be to this soule and yet the doores of thy sense be shut Heaven is a thing unseen and he that measureth his faith by his eye may call an Ephah an Omer especially if thou wilt not think that thou hast faith unlesse thou canst see a truth of the very act and refuse to take an evidence for thy sense from the effects of faith The acts of the minde are secret acts of which as I said before we are very ill Judges Resting and relying upon Christ is
ch 19. 6. 7. The journey was great which he had to go the frequent Stories of the Martyrs make this good when the Lord cald them to their great service at the stake he prepared them for their double work with double comforts ravishing their soules with glory and so often that God makes many of his deare Saints live upon short commons all their life time when he brings them to the hard work of dying he gives them a glimpse of glory This is a note of a pretious Divine Rutherford Tryal of faith who gives experiences of it and it is especially when they die strong torturing deaths for alwayes it is not seen it may be they have had all comforts before and may die in conflicts God will try how they can walk in the strength of what they have had or if they have had no bread till then God will hardly call them to die without giving them a crust yet as he sweetly sayeth God walks in liberty here and will not have us to limit the breathings of the holy Ghost to jump with the hour of our dying for we may make an idol of a begun heaven as if it were more excellent then Christ By this you see in stead of much might bee said that assurances may bee weaker and stronger yet true and this will be further made good by my last Conclusion which I will but touch And that is this Concl. 3. Thou mayest have had and againe have a true assurance and full perswasion and for the present have none at all I have spoken so much to this before that I shall need adde very little It is necessary to constitute the true direct act of Faith that it be a continued act and that soule never did truly rely at all that ever since it began to rely ceased to rely but for a reflex act it may be wanting even in the soule that hath had it and may have it againe if God will please to turne his face towards it nay I will question whither ever that Christian had true assurance or no that hath had it as he pretends without any intermission for so long as there remaines a Devill to tempt or a flesh to allure to sin there will be sometimes wants of full assurance yea if there were none of them both I would make it a great question whither the wise God would ever keep such a despensation of his love in a full Sun-shine to any soule though loved never so dearely I am afraid though we have much talk of Faith of assurance now adayes in the world if the Lord should come to sift the hearts of his poor creatures he would scarce finde the mustard-seed Faith of adherence 1. Overpowring temptations 2. Overgrowing corruptions 3. Naturall distempers of Melancholy 4. Divine desertions shall hinder assurance and make the act to cease and judge you then what soule it is probable shall have it an incessant constant act But I have done with this last thing and now I have shewed you what doubts and weaknesses may consist with every act of Faith in a truly gracious soule Now I should shew you from what principle these doubts arise and how they differ from the doubts of unbelieving desparing wretches The Thirtheenth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith CHAP. XIII How to comfort that soule that thinks it hath not true Faith because it doth not feele God strengthning it to those acts of Grace which it ought to act I Will take leave here apprehending it a seasonable place to bring it in to speak something to one scruple of conscience which doth often perplex many a good Christian and that is want of feeling of Gods love c. Ah! saith many a poore soule did I but indeed know that God and Christ were my Redeemer and portion then I think I should not need be muâ—h intreated to cast away this sadnesse and dejection of spirit but I cannot feele any such thing And this makes a Christian think that it neither doth nor may believe Now there is a double feeling for the want of which many good soules often complaine and upon the want of which they raise to themselves conclusions against believing For want of a distinction I will presume for once to coyne one There is a feeling of peace and a feeling of strength 1. The feeling of peace is when a poor Christian apprehends God appeased to its soule and feels him saying I am thy God the God of thy salvation this is that perswasion which is that highest reflex act of Faith of which I spake the last time and shewed you what degrees and abatements it might meet with in a true Believer Now this a true Christian may want though he doth feel Gods spirit carrying him on to acts of mortification and vivification c. Of this I shall not speak having spoken the last time how farre it may be wanted weakened or abated or discontinued even in Gods true and dear children 2. But there is another feeling which for distinction sake I call a feeling of strength when a Christian though he doth not feele Gods peace sealed up and assured unto his soule yet he cannot deny but hee feels his soul carryed out by God unto duties to love him to desire him to delight in him c. Now this latter feeling ought to satisfie the soul when though God doth not please as yet to apply the promise to his soule yet he feels God enabling him to apply himselfe to the promise when he feels God changing and renewing his heart and affections c. But here is that which many poore Christians want and complaine for the want of they will confesse that could they but feel God strengthening them against their corruptions and carrying out their hearts in acts of love and desire towards him c they would quiet themselves and bee very thankfull to him if he would but give them so much of the morsels of Free-grace as would keep spirituall life in them and keep their hearts from dying for want of mouth-fuls although God would not yet please to let them sit down at the banquetting table of assurance and eat of the sweet meats of that peace which passeth all understanding If God would please to give them but such sips of his flaggons as might stay them though they wanted such dishes of apples as to comfort them it would suffice but alas this they want and how can they believe c. Now all that I shall speak to a Christian in this perplexity I will reduce to these two heads 1. Something by way of Consolation And 2. Something by way of direction First By way of Consolation I should propound these few things as considerations which may tend through the blessing of God to the comforting of such souls in such streights Consid 1. That not feeling doth not argue a not being A thing may be though it be not felt it is no Logick to
inferre a negative conclusion from ouâ— sense Sometimes wee see not the beames of the Sun the interposition of the Moone doth hinder us in an eclypse from beholding its light yea dark clouds we see ordinarily will doe it what shall we therefore conclude that the Sun doth not shine or that the Sunne doth not cast an influence upon the creatures this we should call ridiculous In like manner thou sayest I doe not feele God casting his influence of grace upon my soul strengthening me against my corruptions nor so shining upon me with beames of enlivening quickning grace my heart is not quick in his service it is dead unto duties and dull in them I doe nor feel the heat of the Son of Righteousnesse warming my soule with beames of love c. therefore wilt thou conclude God doth not doe it The Psalmist cryes out for want of feeling Psal 22. v. 1. Psal 22. v. 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and art so farre from my health and from tâ—e words of my roaring and so hee goes on v. 2. O my God I cry by day time and thou hearest not and in the night and have no audience Mark Christian holy men may sometimes want feeling did not God think you heare David had he indeed no audience according to his sad thoughts Ah! saith a Christian but there was some comfort though he did not feele peace yet hee did feele strengh he felt God enabling him to pray and cry and seek him but I cannot feele this Heark yet once againe to Asaph Psal 77. v 4. I am so troubled that I cannot speak David Psal 51. v. 10. 11 12. He prayes to God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him and v. 14. to confirm him with a free spirit And yet shall we think that at this time David had not the sweet influences of Gods holy Spirit if so we are confuted from the foregoing verse Cast me not away from thy presence take not thy holy spirit from me By all which it may easily appeare that it is one thing not to feel God strengthening and quickning us and another thing for him not to doe it The working of Gods Spirit within us is very secret according to the nature of the Spirit we doe not feele the starres influence upon us nor yet the actings of our soules within us and yet it is certaine they have an influence upon us and that our soules do subtilly and secretly act in all in every part of our bodies and therefore secondly Consid 2. That the truth of Gods love to thee in his acting in thee is not so easily to bee discerned in the acting and working of God as in the effect of such acts and operations secret acts of spirituall substances are not to be discerned and understood in agendo but in affecto not in the doing but when they are done we cannot feel the soules conveying of its influence and power of working through every part of the body wee cannot understand or see or feele the time when it doth it nor the manner how it doth it c. yet we know it is done and that is enough for us thou canst not see nor feel the acting of the vegetative soule in the plant thou canst not feel how it growes or see when it growes or understand the moment of its shooting out yet thou sayest it doth act the plant is grown and the vegetative soule in it hath questionlesse been the internall principle of its growth You may possibly see a man in some lethargick disease or in a trance that you shall not see or discern that his soule is yet in his body you shall not discerne his pulse to beat nor discern him to breath but all possibly in the room may judge him dead yet his body keepes still warme doth not stiffen or grow cold his eyes are not set nor his chap fallen and possibly by applying a glasse to his mouth you may discern he yet breathes and lives and consequently you may gather the mans soule hath not yet taken its leave of the body for then you know hee would grow stiff and cold and so you conclude that his pulse doth still beat though so obscurely that you cannot feele or discerne it so it may bee with thy soule Christian the invisible worke of God in acting his grace in thee quickning strengthning thee moving thee to spirituall duties if thou lookest to see it and feele it acting as thou mayest feel the beating of thy pulse upon thy wrist thou mayst be deceived it may beat darkly and secretly it is a secret work of a spirituall substance and yet thou mayest be comforted in it if thou wilt but look to the effects if thy soul and body do not grow stiffe and cold stinking with old sins and lusts and base corruptions there is some spirituall life that keeps thy soule warm though thou canst not feele Gods secret and spirituall working in thy soule in the very act of warming and quickning thee and enabling thy soule to love him and desire after him yet speake truth does not thy soule love him doest thou not delight in him doest thou not desire after him come let us put a glasse to the mouth of thy soule here 's a base lust and corruption which if thou actest thou shalt bewray the hatred of thy God to all the World darest thou doe it wilfully and knowingly here is a prophane company that would be glad of thy company and at the same time here 's an Ordinance of God at which if thou wilt be thou mayest possibly suck a great deale of sweetnesse and taste much of thy God where wilt thou be wilt thou baulk thy communion with God rather then with prophane and ungodly men If thou darest so it is something but on the contrary doth no communion no company please thee so as the company of the Saints of God and doth no communion like thee so as the communion thou hast with thy God in his Ordinances If so thou hast some spirituall life in thee for the dead man hath no such judicious pallat and if thou livest a spirituall life it is not thou that livest but Christ that liveth in thee and thou livest by Faith in the Son of God thus thou mayest easily discern that in the effects which thou couldst not in the working of the cause But Alas saith a poore Christian my willing and desiring is nothing for though to will bee present with me yet I have no strength to performe And what will you make a desire to beleeve and pray Faith and Prayer I answer raw desires and wishes are no more beleeving then Esaus weeping for the blessing was the blessing or Balaams wish to dye the death of the righteous was the happy end of such as dye in the Lord. But the sincere desires and good will of justified persons are accepted of the Lord for the deed and when
Christ pronounceth such blest as hunger and thirst after righteousnesse we say in that sense a sincere desire to pray and believe Ruth p. 14â— is materially and by concomitancy a neighbour and neere a kin to beleeving and praying A verball or seminaâ—â— intention to pray beleeve love Christ do his will is in the seed of praying beleeving c. when the intention is supernaturall and of the same kind with the act as the seed is the tree we say not so of naturall intentions or desires As Abrahams sincere intentions to offer up his sonne was the offring of his son c. But I go to a third consideration Thirdly therefore consider that feeling at the best is but a deceivable and disputable evidence ofttimes conclusions grounded upon sense are false and sink in time If thou judgest thy condition by feeling thou mayest ofttimes think God doth nothing for thee though he be at that instant fully enlivening thee c. and againe think that God is at peace with thee and that hee carrieth thee out to duties c. when there is no such matter and it is nothing but the strength of natuarall parts that carrieth thee out c. Saul thought he had a great deal of feeling 1 Sam. 15. 13. when he came to meet Gods messenger he cryes out Blessed be thou of the Lord I have kept the Commandments of the Lord But yet the following part of that story will tell you that Saul was far enough off from any true feeling of peace and comfort So without question those in Mat. 7. 22. judged themselves to have a great deale of feeling of Gods strength when they had prophesied in Gods name and in his name cast out Devils and in his name done many wonderfull workes yet Christ professeth he would say to many such I never knew you depart from me yee workers of iniquity thou cryest thou dost not feele God carrying thee out in duties as many other Christians are and that which thou callest Gods spirit in them or in thy selfe may be no such matter it is not the courting of God with elegant eâ—â—â—essions that argues the strength of God assisting there is many a stammering non-sence prayer that hath more of the sweet spirit of God in it there may be a full heart though it runs not out of the lips so fast yea oftentimes the fulnesse of the heart causeth the straitnesse of the lips just as the fulnesse of the vessell may occasion the water to run slowly out of the hole for want of vent or wind The Apostle sayes that the Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities with cryes and groanes which cannot be uttered it doth not say it helpeth our infirmities with courtly expressions that cannot be paâ—alleled thou mayest when thou thinkest that God carrryes thee out with more strength and enlargement to duties call and misconstrue that to be the strength and assistance of the spirit of God which is occasioned meerly from thy owne clearenesse of naturall spirit when thou art in a little better vein of Rhetorick then thou wert Mistake not there is a distinction betwixt Praying gifts and Praying graces I observe it is said Iacob wrestled with God by vertue of strength from him subintellige This is the strength of the spirit the spirits worke is not to carry out our tongue in expressions but our heart in zeale and importunity It is not said that Iacob scraped leggs with God no he wrestled wee are but ill ludges of feeling commonly which makes feeling but a deceivable and disputable evidence Fourthly consider that No Christian feeleth alwayes alike yea perhaps hath no cause to feele alwayes aliâ—e God to the best of his dearest servants doth sometimes measure but an Ephah and sometimes but an Omer distinguish alwayes betwixt the truth of Gods love to his deare children and the actings I meane the visible actings of his love that of God which is not seene is alwayes full and certain to Christians I meane his elective love the yernings of his heart towards his deare children there is of God also that may be seen Psal 68. 24. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God in the Sanctuary Gods goings in a poor soule are sometimes very visible to a gracious soule but sometimes his goings are more secret and invisible yet he is alwaies going in acts of love and grace to his poore fervants only his goings are more mysterious and dark God sometimes goes a meere foot pace just sets one foot before another in them and towards them sometimes hee goes faster and more strongly in them and apparently towards them First Gods soft going in the soule may sometimes bee a cause why the soule cannot feel Peter had no reason to feel the strength of God alike when he shamefully denied his Master in the high Priests Hall as when hee durst venture to walke on the Sea towards him Secondly God withdrawes some degrees of his strength sometimes to try whether a Christian can stand upon the true legs of Faith as well as upon the wooden legs of sense the mother withdrawes her hand sometimes to see how the child can goe without trusting to the feeling of her hand guiding and supporting it Thirdly another cause may be in the Christian why he cannot feele God carrying him out to acts of his grace in his strength alwayes alike The soule may possibly have lost its feeling the benummed member doth not feele In sicknesses and deseases of the body Nature may sometimes bee so much infeebled that sometimes the party affected falls into a dead swound wherein he is deiprved for a time not only of the use of his understanding reason and memory but also of his sense motion and vitall functions So it may be with a Christian sin or the violence of some temptations of Sathan may bee such that the Christian cannot feele any thing the soule cast into a swound and deprived of all the spirituall faculties of it faith love life c. no wonder the soule for the present doth not feele the leg of the soule is asleep the whole soule is benummed how should it feel but let it alone a little as such body if not quite dead will quickly returne to its sense again and live and feele and move c. so likewise will the gracious soule quickly come to recover its life and sense and motion againe though the soule seemes to the judgement of sense to have no sap or principle of life in it yet consider it is winter-time with the soule stay but till the spring and summer while the frost hath done nipping and discolouring and the soule will have its sap visible and recover iâ—s beauty againe there is fire in the soule though it be caked up in the night wait but till the morning that the ashes be blown away you shall see the fire of Gods spirit is not extinguished in the soule I sleepe saith the Spouse but my heart waketh