CERTAIN SELECT CASES RESOLVED Specially tending to the right ordering of the Heart that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular Callings By THOMAS SHEPHARD Sometimes of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge Now Preacher of Gods Word in New-England Re-printed in the Year 1â—â—5 To The Christian READER THis holy Letter of that ready Scribe of Christs Kingdom Mr. Shepherd of New-England is so full of Grace Truth that it needs no other Epistle commendatory than it self Yet seeing the Lot is unexpectedly fallen upon my pen to give it a Superscription that it may pass current from hand to hand I do heartily in the first place dedicate it to thee thou bleeding troubled spirit as a choice cordial Friend an Interpreter one of a thousand that doth not only speak thy heart but by the Comforter whom Christ has promised to send to thy Heart It may be this paper present is sent on Embassy from Heaven on purpose to set thy House in order to untie thy bosom knots to bind the strong man and cast him out of thy doors that thy Heart may be once again set at liberty to serve the Lord thy God in thy general and particular Calling whose service is thy freedom What is here sent by this Ambassador of Christ who is now the voice of one crying in the wilderness to a weary and heavy laden Soul in this Island I had rather it should appear to thy judgment in the serious reading and to thy conscience in the home application thereof than from my opinion of it Therefore I shall only add as the Contents of this Letter certain select Cases proposed and resolved in the several Paragraphs thereof as they lie in order in the Pages following viz. Page 3. Trouble of mind in civil affairs by the secret injection of religious thoughts Page 5. From what Spirit such suggestions do arise Page 10. How to entertain them when they crowd in Page 14. Concerning the not being humbled for sinful distractions that hinder and imerrupt the spiritual performance of holy duties Page 19. How a Christian may be said to be under the Covenant of works Page 21. How to conceive a right of that Mystery of Mysteries the blessed Persons in the Trinity Page 26. The Souls aptness to go to God immediatly in holy duties without taking Christ Jesus by the hand Page 30. How to apply absolute promises to thy self tho' they are made indefinitely without condition Page 43. A notable discovery of a secret unwillingness in the Soul to seek God in the strictest solemn services before it entreth into them Weariness of them while they last and a gladness when they are ended Page 47. A sound confutation of that Heretical Arminian Tenet viz. That the strength of Grace is to be got rather by Argumentation than inward Communication and influence arising from union with Christ Page 49. The experiences of this tried servant of Christ who is the Pen-man hereof how he was cured of Atheistical thoughts whether they did wear out or whether by the dint of Arguments they were rationally overthrown Page 54. Lastly whether those changes which a child of God hath sometimes and those movings of the spirit are caused by a natural temper or Gods Spirit All which select Cases and many more that collaterally issue from their sides are judiciously resolved with much perspicuity and brevity in these few sheets by the only juâ—ge of all Controversies the two-edged sword of the Spirit the Word of God Thus humbly beseeching thee to read over this Epistle of Christ to thee with the same Spirit of love and of a sound mind which indited every line in it I do desire to leave thee at the Throne of Graee in the arms of Christ with the Father of all Comfort that thou mayest receive the Peace of God which passes all understanding and be crowned with joy unspeakable and full of Glory I subscribe my self Friend Thine in any Spiritual furtherance of thy Faith William Adderley Dated from Charter house in London Febr. 1. 1647. Dear Sir I Dare not multiply many words in acknowledging and professing my own unfitness and insufficiency to yield your loving and most welcom Letter that satisfaction which both your Self desire and it deserves Neither yet will I be so unfaithful to you seeing your expectation puts me to reply neither ought I I think be so unserviceable to Jesus Christ who in you and by you beckens to me to take this call to write to you and not to neglect so fair a season seeing especially it may be possible my dying Letter to you before I depart from hence and return to him as not knowing but our last disasters Sea-straits of which I wrote to you may be but preparations for the execution of this next approaching voyage Yet our eyes are to the hills and our desires are your prayers and at this time my endeavour shall be in respect of your self to break open that light to you and to prepare it to you with that brevity I may and with what plainness I am able beseeching the God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who must be when all fails the wonderful Counsellor to give you the spirit of revelation and that after you have suffered a while by these outward temptations doubts fears desertions distractions which the Letter mentions he would make you perfect stablish strengthen and settle you And this I verily think will be unexpected yet happy joyful and most glorious end of them For since I have observed and seen the lamentable ruins of the Soul and seeming graces of many men by being rockt asleep in a quiet still calm easie performance of duties without such awaking temptations and tumults within which it self complains of I say since I have observed what a deal of mud is in the bottom of such standing Pools and what a deal of filth is in such Moats which are inwardly at ease and not emptied from vessel to vessel next unto the donation of the Lord Jesus to a man I have accounted such tumultuous heart-storms and uproars together with the fruitful strange effects of them the second mercy For I never saw that man kept from secret putrefaction and corruption that was not usually salted with such temptations especially in a Christians first Apprentiship which usually preserve him entire till death And therefore Dear Sir faint not for Jesus Christ will raise a world of blessings out of your present Chaos and confusions But I make haste to answer Before you reply to my first Letter your complaints are many Your first trouble is concerning your disturbances in civil affairs by the secret injection of Religious thoughts so that you know not how to follow the one without hazard of grieving the spirit and breaking your peace in not maintaining and nourishing the same time the other and hence being drawn to go two ways at the same time which you cannot well do your Heart is disquieted and your
his first root and so to sorrow and loath and condemn himself so that to wind up all that I have said look upon your self as in Christ you may say these involuntary infirmities do not shall not condemn me But Lord it is grace Grace that it is not so and this is Evangelical humiliation Look again upon your self as you stand on your own bottom and live in your own nature and so you may say after the least infirmity I have now broken a most holy and righteous Law and rherefore I am already condemned O woe is me I have already undone my self by mine iniquity and this is Legal humiliation which serves for mortification as the first for vification I know it is very difficult to bring the heart to acknowledg freely it deserves death after so small an involuntary offence but when the Lord reveals two things First himself in his glory Secondly how the least sin strikes him I perswade my self the vilest heart cannot but be forced to confess how just God should be in his severest proceedings against him And withal consider the more involuntary any sin is the more strong and natural it is and the more natural the more horrible as to be a natural Thief is far worse than to be a deliberat thief who somtimes steals and therefore good Sir take heed of looking no deeper nor seeing no further than the bare act and unvoluntariness and accidentalness and suddenness of your infirmities for if you do you look through the wrong end of the glass and they will appear so small that you will find it a very tough work to bring your heart consentively to say if I may say and use your own phrase It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them but look upon them as indeed they are in respect of that infinite glory you strike doing the greatest mischiefs to God by them and which makes them the viler as they are so strong you cannot remove them and so horrible as that it is natural to you to commit them c. And surely you will not through grace find such thoughts haunt you long not but that they will be haply rising and tempting but never alway vexing and prevailing Ans Satans ground reaching as far as the minds of Gods people and therefore so far he may come and there he may walk for he came into the mind of innocent Adam nay Jesus Christ by his suggesting temptations but the heart is Christs peculiar possession and purchase and if he shall still there offer to come in and vex you and prevail against you and to lodge his suggestions this or any other way with you you have Law and Christ on your side by this little light now given you to cast him out Quest 3. The third thing that troubles you is the dis-ranking of the Persons in the Trinity for tho' you think the holy Ghost is God yet you have not so high a repute of him as of the Father and the Son because the Son addresseth himself to God the Father in all his prayers and acknowledgmenrs in a more immediate manner than unto the holy Ghost and therefore you would know if the word Father as in the Lords Prayer includes not the Unity in Trinity To this briefly consider three things 1. Without all question the same God which lies under that relative property of Father is the same God with the God-head of the Son and the God-head of the holy Ghost there being not three Gods and therefore the God-head of the Son and Spirit are not excluded but included in the God-head of the Father when we look upon the Father as God in the Lords Prayer or any where else 2. But secondly the Father as Father is never taken for the same holy Ghost in Scripture nor the Son as Son is taken for the Father nor the holy Ghost as holy Ghost is at any time taken for the Son For it is a rule in Theologie tho' the res substrata the thing that lies under the Relative property viz. the God-head of every person be common and communicated yet the same God-head considered as clothed with his Relative property as Father Son and Spirit it is not common but peculiar For the God-head of the Father as Fathet is not the God-head of the Son as Son c. 3. Hence it follows that when Christ addresseth himself to the Father as Father in Scripture it is not because he is either a diverse or greater God than the holy Ghost but it is for two other reasons 1. Because the Father as Father received primarily the wrong that sin did against his work of creation for the Father being the first person in order creation the first transcient act as election and reprobation were the best immanent hence this work is attributed chiefly to God the Father in respect of our orderly apprehension and hence man sinning then when he was only made this is chiefly attributed to be against the Father because his work appeared to be chiefly there and not against the Son for his work chiefly appears in redemption he being the second Person and this the second main and wonderful work neither against the holy Ghost for his work chiefly appears to us in application being the third Person And this the third main act that ever God will do or show forth to the world in this life hence God the Father receiving to our apprehension the wrong in creation by sin he is the Person that is to be satisfied and not the holy Ghost And hence Jesus Christ in all his prayers has a most special eye to him and not to the holy Ghost as holy Ghost because he came into the world by his death and intercession and strong cries to satisfie God the Father and not God the holy Ghost as a third Person And hence it is said 1 John 2. 1 2. If any sin we have an Advocate with God the Father not God the holy Ghost because he was to our apprehension the Person wronged and hence we are after sins committed chiefly to eye the Father in our prayers and to go to him for pardon with our advocate with us because to whom offence is chiefly offered from him chiefly pardon and reconciliation is to be expected 2. Therefore Christ addresseth himself chiefly in his prayers to God the Father because he is the original and first cause of all good because he is the first Person in order of subsisting and therefore first too in the manner of conveying I know the God-head is the original of all good but consider the Persons one with another and so the Father is ever the first in operation as the holy Ghost is the last in consummation for all good comes from the Father James 1. 17. through the Son by the holy Ghost And hence in all our prayers we are to look for all good from the Father for his Sons sake to be conveyed us by the holy Ghost
being no piece of Christian wisdom or honesty to turn round in worldly imployments so long till by giddiness we fall down but by secret steps ever and anon to look up to heaven and to behold the face of God to whom only there in we are to approve our selves But yet it seems your thoughts are so far from being subservient the one to the other that you are distracted and molested your peace interrupted and your Christian course made troublesom and an heavy but then which surely cannot be by the yoke of JesusChrist therefore you must first bring your troubles in this particular to this issue either you may follow your civil affairs and nourish these thoughts as helps to maintain your peace and make you heavenly minded in them and if they serve sufficiently to such an end why are you troubled with them or else you cannot follow God comfortably in civil actions unless you banish from you thoughts which do so miserably distract you and then why do you fear you shall grieve Gods Spirit if at the same time you do not give entertainment to them the unseasonableness of which speaks plainly they came not from the spirits suggestions besides their hinderance of comfortably walking with God which the imployments themselves can never hinder But you will say When is the season of nourishing such thoughts I answer Entertain those thoughts as it may be you have done some Friends who came to you at that time you have business with strangers whom you love not so well as your Friends you have desired them to stay a while until you have done with the other and then you have returned to your Friend and when the other has been shut out of the doors the other has had the welcom and has lodged with you all night and thus you have gâ—ieved neither but pleased both It is so in this case Worldly employments are our strangers yet they must be spoke with Religious thoughts and practices are our Friends these come unto us while God calls us to parley with the other you cannot speak with both at one time in one place without much perplexity Take therefore this course make much of the good thoughts but parley not with them till your business is done with strangers and towards evening which is your season set some time apart every day for meditation and then make them welcome then consider and ponder well what was suggested to you in the day time and sift every good thought to the bran for then is your season and after that let them sup and lodge with you all night and keep the house with you every day And surely when the Lord Jesus shall see what a Friend you shall make of his Spirit and how wisely you walk therein you shall not need to fear any grieving of it or unseasonable times nay I say you will most fearfully grieve his Spirit if you parley with the conceived suggestions of it at unseasonable times What thou dost do it with all thine Heart saith Solomon Eccl. 9. Therefore when you are to pray confer or meditate do it with all your mind and all your thoughts and all your strength So when God calls you to worldly employments do them with all your mind and might and when the season of meditation comes take it which glorious ordinance of God although many Christians use it occasionally and against some good time or when they have leisure meeting with them yet to set some time apart for it in a solemn manner every day and that in conscience as we do for prayer generally where is the man to be found that does thus Those men that thus neglect their season of musing and entring into parley with Gods Spirit daily may be well said to grieve the Spirit through the neglect of which ordinance Gods Spirit is as much grieved by Professors in England as by any course I know The Lord awaken us but I have run too far already in this first part of my answer â—2 Means For the second means viz. how the soul is to carry it self in Civil employments that so you may not think you do for better when you listen to good thoughts as you mention 1. I say but two things 1. Learn to follow them out of an awful respect to the eye presence and command of Jesus Chrift and to do what you do in Civil businesses as the Work of Christ When you are riding or making up breaches between man and man then think I am now about the work of Jesus Christ 2. Secondly seeing your self thus working in worldly employments for him you may easily apprehend that for that time God calls you to them and you attend upon the work of Jesus Christ in them that you honour God as much nay more by the meanest servile worldly act than if you should have spent all that time in meditation prayer or any other spiritual employment to which you had no call at that time It is noted therefore by some of Peters Wife's mother that when Christ had healed her of her Fevor she sate not down at Table with Christ in communion with him which no question was sweet but ministred at the Table and ran too and fro and so served him and acted for him wherein she shewed more love and gave him more honour viz. in that mean service and in acting for him than in having communion with him now if the Lord would out of his abundant goodness set the Soul in such an acting frame for him and if it could do iâ—s worldly employments as the Work of Christ and see how greatly it honours Christ in attending on him Oh what peace should a Christian enjoy notwithstanding all his dislractions every day And how easily would such devout thoughts you speak of be repell'd like darkness before the light for the nobleness of those good thoughts you speak of presenting themselves against the mean and base outsides of Civil affairs makes you ready to honour the one when you are call'd to serve the other but now by seeing you do the Work of Christ Jesus in them you shall hereby see a glory in the meanest service you perform in Civil affairs and this will make you cleave unto them But I have said too much about repelling of good thoughts in these times wherein men have to few though it may be little enough to satisfie you Quest 2. Your second trouble is this viz. that your Heart is kept from being humbled for sinful distractions that hinder and interrupt the spiritual performance of holy duties and that for two reasons First Because they be involuntary and accidental Secondly Because they cannot break the Covenant between God and your Soul being but infirmities Answ For the latter clause concerning breach of Covenant together with the other 1. I say not only infirmities do not but the greatest sins cannot make a breach of Covenant between God and the soul that is once really not
to keep you and me and all his for ever while we are here in our valley under the sense of such distempers as our greatest misery And therefore me thought it was a solemn sweet speech of an honest man to his friend who seeing him oppressed with such distempers as you mention and perceiving him to droop under them he came chearfully to him and suddenly said unto him I can tell you good news the best that ever you heard viz. Assoon as ever you are in Heaven you shall serve Christ without weariness Which words well thought on revived the man That which I would speak with as much tenderness of compassion as I am able to you I refer to these things 1. That a child of God is never usually weary of the duty but rather of his vile heart to think of to look upon that in the duty Christ's yoke is easie and his burthen light to him that takes it on his neck and puts his Soul under it The duty nakedly considered in it self is glorious in his eyes and sweet to his Soul and hence sometimes never well but when he considers his dead blind barren and senseless heart that he is to carry to the duty and that he fears and has felt will abide with him in the duty Oh! this grieves here the Soul pincheth An Hypocrite is weary of the duty a child of God rejoyceth in it but he is weary of his sin and unsavouriness and weariness in the duty I perswade my self Sir that you may soon mistake your spirit herein you think you are unwilling to come to the duty and are weary of it when indeed it is your glory joy and love but it is because you fear you can do it no better that troubles you that you have such a vile heart in it And if your trouble be from hence the good Lord increase ir in you daily and withal bless the Lord and say Lord tho' I am weary of my vile heart in these days of humiliation in these Sabbaths yet I hless thee the days and duties themselves thou knowest are dear unto me It is not Lord because I am weary of thy word but because I can do it no better I am weary of my self and this vile heart here is much love in such a spirit to the Lord. And believe it Sir your love wants not its recompences and remember that the Lord respects you not according to your duties done but according to your love in them to them And therefore those duties you are ashamed to own the Lord will not be ashamed to crown 2. Consider you must and shall be baited with these distempers of heart sometimes more and sometimes less as long as you live It is part of Pauls body of death which he must carry with him till he come to bury himself 3. Those means which may help you to be freed from them a little at least are these among many 1. Be but truly and really not by fits and darkly sensible of them men in deep miseries are not unwilling to be helped out 2. Judge ye not rigorously of God altho' he were a bloody austere God as he did of his master whose talent he had and hence never improved it but look upon God as having a Fathers heart and affection towards you in the meanest greatest performances which is double either to give you strength to do what you cannot I can do all things through Christ or having come to him for it to accept of what you would do for him as if it were done and this will make you joy in the poorest performance that tho' it be never so full of vileness yet the Lord out of his fatherly love accepts of it as glorious 3. Renew morning and evening by sad and solemn meditation the sense of Gods love to you in Christ and in every duty that he sets you about and love will love and like the yoke and make the commandments that they shall not be grievous to you Thus I have briefly done with your new troubles which you mention you say because you may not have the like opportunity of writing again It may be so and therefore I have desired to satisfie you which I beseech the Lord himself to do Next you come to reply to my first Letter of which I have kept no copy as I never did of any and hence may and do forget what I writ then unto So much light as your Letter lends me to bring things to mind I will gladly take and be more brief in answer Quest 1. You find the strength of grace to be got in you rather by argumentation then inward communication and influence arising from the union to Christ And this troubles you Answ To which I answer these three things 1. That as the old sinful nature is communicated from Adam the first to us without any argumentation so the new nature which is the seed foundation and plot of all grace is diffused into us by the second Adam when we are united to him without argumentation It is only by divine operation The Lord leave not me nor any friend I have to a naked Arminian illumination and Perswasion 2. That to the increase of those habits and drawing out the acts of the new creature the Lord is pleased to use moral and rational perswasions as in the instance you gave Christ died for us then hence the love of Christ constrains but remember withal it is not the bare meditation or strength of reason or perswasion that elicits such divine and noble acts in the heart and affection but it is the blood of Christ sprinkling these serious meditations that makes them work such graces in the Soul which I might shew at large which blood is the salve tho' argumentation is the cloth or leather to which it sticks by which it is applied but from such leather comes no vertue all of it is from the blood of Christ which by argumentation heals the Soul For if it were nakedly in the argumentation to stir your heart and to work strength of grace what should be the reason that sometimes you are no more moved by all your argumentations than a mountain of brass is by the winds why should the same truth affect you at one time and not at another when you are as filthily disposed to be affected as at the first Therefore consider it is not your reason and argumentation but Christ's blood that doth all by as admirable and yet secret operation 3. Your union to Christ on your part is begun and partly wrought by the understanding and hence the good that you get by it at any time it is from your union or part of it at lest Quest 2. Again you ask me whether Calvin doth not express fully my thoughts about our Spirituall union in his lib. 4. cap. 17. Answ I answer I have forgot what he has writ and my self have read long since out of him and for the
present I have no books about me where I am and therefore cannot satisfie you in this neither know I when I shall seek to find out the book and place If I have leisure I will either write to you or tell some of your friends before I am gone what he hath said or writ that way c. Quest 3. Again thirdly You desire me to tell you how my self came to the cure of Atheistical Thoughts and whether they did wear out or whether they were rationally overthrown Answ I answer at first they did wear out meeting with fruitless and dead-hearted company which was at the University 2. The Lord awakened me again and bid me beware lest an old sore broke out again and this I found that strength of reason would commonly convince my understanding that there was a God but I felt it utterly insufficient to perswade my will of it unless it was by fits whenas I thought Gods Spirit moved upon the Chaos of those horrible thoughts and this I think will be found a truth 3. I did groan under the bondage of those unbelieving thoughts looking up and sighing to the Lord that if he were as his works and word declared him to be he would be pleased to reveal himself by his own beams and perswade my Heart by his own Spirit of his Essence and Being which if he would do I shold account it the greatest mercy that ever he shewed me And after grievous and heavy perplexities when I was by them almost forced to make an end of my self and sinful life and to be mine own Executioner the Lord came between the bridge and the water and set me out of anguish of spirit as she prayed for a child to pray unto him for light in the midst of so great darkness In which time he revealed himself manifested his love stilled all those raging thoughts gave return in great measure of them so that tho' I could not read the Scripture without blasphemous thoughts before now I saw a glory a majesty a mystery a deprh in it which fully perswaded and which light I desire to speak it to the glory of his free grace seeing you call me to it is not wholly put out but remains while I desire to walk closely with him unto this day And thus the Lord opened mine eyes and cured me of this misery and if any such base thoughts come like Beggars to my door to my mind and put these scrupies to me I use to send them away with this answer Why shall I question that Truth which I have both known and seen Object But you say this remedy is good viz. of prayer but that you cannot use it especially because you question the truth of God Answ Yet dear Sir give not over this Trade you will doubtless find it gainful when it may be God hath laden you more with these thoughts and made you loath your self for them But the thing seems strange to me if I mistake you not viz. that your heart will not be perswaded but that you must resolve your doubts concerning the perfection of Scripture not by seeking to harmonize those passages that seem to cross one another but by ascribing some humanity or error if I may interpret you to the pen-men seeing St. Paul saith We prophesie but in part and seeing one of the Evangelists leaves out the doxology in the Lords prayer Sir if you can take these thoughts arising from these the like grounds as your burden I do not blame you but pity you in that respect but if your judgment indeed think so I am sorry you should harbour such thoughts one hour within doors for you know that holy men writ the Scriptures but so far they might err but it is added as they were inspired or as the Original has it as they were moved or carried in the arms of the holy Ghost and so how could they err how could God lie It is true Paul did prophesie but in part and is this an argument because he did not prophesie fully therefore in some things he did not prophesie truly I am perswaded you will say there are many things my poor thoughts have suggested to you as true and yet I am perswaded I do in them prophesie if I may so say but in part The Spirit of God directed the four Evangelists to write yet so as they did not all write what another writ but in great wisdom left some things doubtful and short in one which are more clear and full in another and hence the Doxologie is fully set down in one and not in another and many reasons I could set you down why but that it is needless I grant you ought not to put up all with a charitable opinion of Scripture but if you can by reason reading and comparing help your heart to a full perswasion this is Scripture but many things you cannot get satisfaction for by that way and means but still your Spirit will be left dark and doubtful What course will you here take for resolution which is Scripture The Papists say it is so because the Church has christened it for Scripture you say you will see reason for it that it is so or else you cannot be satisfied then I fear you will never be sarisfied I think In this case therefore these two things you are to do 1. To go to God by prayer to give you a resolution of all your doubts and by some means or other some light to see whether this is his word or not Secondly if this be his word then he would perswade your heart of it that it is so For the least resolution which is Scripture and which is not is made by the same perswasion and sole perswasion of the same Spirit that writ the Scripture Concerning the Angels that appeared to Mary see Gerard and he briefly I think will satisfie you in your answer to the particular scurples about the Scripture sense and the dissonancy of them Only this I will add to the last clause about these things that if the Scripture be inspired by the holy Ghost that not in the sum and substance of it but to every word and sentence of it which I think you will not doubt of when you have considered it then I think it will undeniably follow that the same Spirit of truth is also a Spirit of order and hence the method of various penning of it is from the Spirit too which you say you stick at Answ 2. Again to your third thing concerning your spirit being burthened with involuntary infirmities as burdens but not as sins I say nothing now because I preceive by one part of your reply that the Lord has done you some good by the first answer only it is your grief you cannot fear them nor condemn your self for them as damning sins For satisfaction of which I hope this reply to your second trouble will give you some satisfaction Quest 4. Again to your fourth
Q. How many persons learn you from hence to be in God A. Three First The first is the Father the first Person in order begetting the Son Psal 2. 7. Secondly The Son the second Person begotten of the Father Joh. 3. 6. Heb. 1. 3. Thirdly The Spirit the third Person proceeding from them both Joh. 15. 26. Q. Are these three Persons three distinct Gods A. No For they are that one pure Essence and therefore but one God Joh. 1. 1. Rom. 9. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 16. 1 Cor. 2. 10. Q. If every Person be God how can they be distinct Persons and not distinct Gods A. Yes Because one and the same thing may have many Relative properties and respects of being which in the God-head make distinct Persons As one and the same man may be Father in one respect a Master in another respect and a Scholar in another respect Q. If these three Persons be but one God what follows from hence A. That all the three Personr are Co equal Co eternal subsisting in one not separating from each other therefore delighting in each other glorifying each other Prov. 8. 30. Thus much concerning God Now concerning the works of God Q. Thus much concerning Gods sufficiency VVhat is his efficiency A. Whereby he worketh all things and all in all things Rom. 11. 36. Isa 45. 7. Q. VVhat of Gsd shines forth and are you to behold in this Efficiency A. Two things First Gods Omnipotency in respect of his Essence Secondly the co-operation and distinct manner of working of the three Persons Rom. 1. 20. John 5. 17. Q. VVhat is Gods Omnipotency A. It is his almighty power whereby he is able to bring to pass all that he doth will or what ever he can will or decree 2 Chron. 20. 6. Phil. 3. 21. Mat 3. 9. Psal 115. 7. Q. VVhat is Gods Decree A. It is his Eternal and determinate purpose concerning the effecting of all things by his mighty power according to his counsel Eph. 1. 11. Q. VVhat attributes or glory of God appear in his Decree A. First His constancy whereby his Decree remains unchangeable Num. 23. 19. Secondly His Truth whereby he delivereth nothing but what he hath decreed Jer. 10. 10. Thirdly His Faithfulness whereby he effecteth what-ever he decreeth according thereunto Isa 46. 10. Q. VVhat is God's Counsel A. His deliberation as it were for the best effecting of every thing according to his Wisdom Acts 4. 24. Psa 104. 24. Q. VVhat is Gods VVisdom A. It is the Idaea or perfect platform of all things in the mind of God which either can be known or shall be done according to the good pleasure of his will Hebr. 11. 3. Prov. 8. 12 13. Q. VVhat is the good pleasure of Gods will A. It is the most free Act of his Will whereby he willeth himself directly as the greatest good and all other things for himself according to his good pleasure Mat. 11. 25. Prov. 16. 4. Q. VVhat learn you from hence A. That Gods good pleasure is the first and best cause of all things Psal 115. 3. Psal 33. 8 9 10 11. Q. VVhat are the Co-operations of the three persons in Gods Efficiency A. Whereby they work the same thing together unseperably Joh. 5. 17 19. 16. 13 14. Q. If they work the same thing together How is it that some works are attributed to God the Father as Creation some to the Son as Redemption some to the Holy Spirit as application A. This is not because the same work is not common to all the three Persons but because that work is principally attributed in Scripture to that person whose distinct manner of working appears chiefly in the work Q. VVhat is God the Fathers distinct manner of working A. His working is from himself by the Son to the Holy Ghost Ps 33. 6. Joh. 1. 3 hence the beginning so the Creation of all things is attributed to him Q VVhat is God the Sons manner of working A. His working is from the Father by the Holy Ghost Ioh. 14. 16. and hence the dispensation of things and so Redemption is attributed unto him Q. VVhat is the Holy Ghosts manner of working A. His working is from the Father and the Son Ioh. 14. 26. and hence the consummation of all things and so application is attributed unto him Q. VVherein doth Gods efficiency or working appear A. In two things First In his creation of the world Secondly in his providence over the world Esa 37. 16. Q. VVhat is his Creation A. It is Gods efficiency whereby he made the whole world of nothing originaâ—ly exceeding good Psal 33. 9. Gen. 1. 31. Q. Did the Lord make the worlding an instant A. No but by parts in the space of six dayes described at large by Moses Gen 1. Q. When did the Lord make the third heaven with the Angels their Inhabitants A. In the first day in the first beginning of it Gen. 1. 1. Iob 38. 6 7. Q. What is the creation of the third heaven A. Whereby he made it to be the heaven of heavens a most glorious place replenished with all pleasure which belongs to eternal happiness wherein his Majesty is seen face to face therefore called the habitation of God 2 Chr. 2. 5 6. Psal 16. 11. Psal 63. 15. Q. What is the creation of the Angels A. Whereby he created an innumerable number of them in holiness to be ministring spirits with most acuteness of understanding liberty of will great strength and speedy in motion to celebrate his praises and execute his commands specially to the heirs of salvation Heb. 11. 22. Ioh. 8. 44. Heb. 1. 14. 2 Sam. 14. 20. Iude 6. 2 Pet. 2. 11. Esa 6. 2. Psal 130. 20. Q. When did God create man A. The sixth day Gen. 1. 27. Q. How did God create man A. He made him a reasonable creature consisting of body and an immortal Soul in the Image of God Gen. 2. 7. Gen. 1. 28. Q. What is the Image of God wherein he was made A. That hability of man to resemble God and wherein he was like unto God in wisdom holiness righteousness both in his nature and in his government of himself and all Creatures Col. 3. 10. Ephes 2. 24. Gen. 1. 26. Q. What became of man being thus made A. He was placed in the Garden of Eden as in his Princely Court to live unto God together with the woman which God gave him Gen. 2. 15. Q. Thus much of Gods creation What is his Providence A. Whereby he provideth for his creatures being made even to the least circumstance Psal 145. 16. Pro. 16. 33. Q. How is Gods Providence distinguished A. It is either first Ordinary and mediate whereby he provids for his creatures by ordinary and usual means Hos 2. 22. Secondly Extraordinary and immediate whereby he provides for his creatures by miracles or immediatly by himself Psal 36. 4. Dan. 3. 17. Q. Wherein is his Providence seen A. First in
for the procuring and meriting of life and this is called his Active Obedience Heb. 7. 26. Q. What follows Christs Humiliation A. His Exaltation which is his glorious victory and open Triumph over all his and our enemies sin Satan and death in the several degrees of it Luk. 24. 26. Phil. 2. 8 9. 1 Cor. 15. 5 7. A. What is the first degree of Christs Exaltation A. His Resurrection the third day whereby his Soul body by the power of the God-head were brought together again and so rose again from death appearing to his Disciples for the space of 40 days 1 Cor. 15. 4. Ioh. 2. 19. Act. 1. 3. Q. What is the second degree of Christs Exaltation A. His Ascension into Heaven which was the going up of the Manhood into the third heaven by the power of the God-head from Mount Olives in the sight of his Disciples Act. 1. 11 12. Q What is the third degree of his Exaltation A. His sitting at the right hand of God whereby he being advanced to the fulness of all glory in both natures governeth and ruleth all things together with the Father as Lord over all for the good of his people Mark 16. 9. Psal 110. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 25. Eph. 1. 20 21 22. 1 Pet. 3. 22. Q. What is the fourth and last degree of his Exaltation A. His return to Judgment which is his second coming into this world with great glory and Majesty to judge the quick and the dead to the confusion of all them that would not have him rule over them and to the unspeakable good of his people Mat. 19. 28. 2 Tim. 4. 1. Acts 17. 31. 2 Thes 1. 7 8 9. Q. Thus much of Redemption the first part of his Recovery What is application A. Whereby the Spirit by the Word and Ministry thereof makes all that which Christ as Mediator hath done for the Church efficacious to the Church as her own Ioh. 16. 14. Tit. 3. 5 6 7. Ioh. 10 16. Rom. 10. 14 17. Eph. 5 25 26. Q. What is the Church A. The number of Gods Elect. Heb. 12. 23 Ioh. 17. 9. 10 11. Ioh. 10. 16. Ep. 1. 22 23. Q. How doth the Spirit make application to the Church A. 1. By union of the Soul to Christ Phil. 3. 9 10. 2. By Commnnion of the benefits of Christ to the Soul Q. What is this Union A. Whereby the Lord joyning the Soul to Christ makes it one Spirit with Christ and so gives it possession of Christ and right unto all the benefits and blessings of Christ 1 Cor. 6. 17. Ioh. 17. 21. Rom. 8. 32. 1 Ioh. 5. 12. Q. How doth the Spirit make this Union A. Two ways first By cutting off the Soul from the old Adam or the wild Olive Tree in the work of preparation Rom. 11. 23 24. 2. By putting or ingrafting the Soul into the second Adam Christ Jesus by the work of vocation Act 26. 18. Q. VVhat are the parts of the preparation of the Soul for Christ A. They are two 1. Contrition whereby the Spirit immediatly cuts off the Soul from its security in sin by making it to mourn for it and separating the Soul from it as the greatest evil Isa 61. 1 3. Jer. 4. 3 4. Mat. 11. 20 28. 2. Humiliation whereby the Spirit cuts the Soul off from self-confidence in any good it hath or doth Especially by making it to feel its want unworthiness of Christ and hence submitteth to be disposed of as God pleaseth Phil. 3. 7 8. Luk. 16. 9. Luk. 15. 17 18 19. Q. VVhat are the parts of vocation of the Soul to Christ A. 1. The Lords call and invitation of the Soul to come to Christ in the Revelation and offer of Christ and his rich Grace 2 Cor. 5. 10. 2. The receiving of Christ or the coming of the whole Soul out of it self unto Christ for Christ by virtue of the irresistable power of the Spirit in the call and this is Faith Jer. 3. 22. Ioh. 6. 44 45. Ioh. 10. 16. Esa 55. 5. Q. Thus much of our Union VVhat is the communion of Christs benefits unto the Soul A. Whereby the Soul possessed with Christ and right unto him hath by the same Spirit fruition of him and all his benefits Ioh. 4. 10. 14. Q. VVhat is the first of those benefits we do enjoy from Christ A. Justification which is the Gracious Sentence of God the Father whereby for the satisfaction of Christ apprehended by Faith imputed to the faithful he absolves them from the guilt condemnation of all sins accepts them as perfectly righteous to eternal life Rom. 3. 24 25. Rom. 4. 6 7 8. Rom. 8. 33 34. Q. VVhat difference is there between Justification and Sanctification A 1. Justification is by Christs righteousness inherent in Christ only Sanctification is by a righteousness from Christ inherent in our selves 2. Cor. 5. 21. Phil. 3. 9. 2. Justification is perfected at once and admits of no degrees because it is by Christ his perfect righteousness Sanctification is imperfect being begun in this life Rev. 12 1. Phil. 3. 11. Q. What is the second benefit next in order to Justification which the faithful receive from Christ A. Reconciliation whereby a Christian justified is actually reconciled at peace with God Rom. 5. 1. Ioh. 2. 12. hence follows his peace with all creatures Q. VVhat is the third benefit next unto Reconciliation A. Adoption whereby the Lord accounts the faithful his Sons crowns them with priviledges of Sons gives them the Spirit of Adoption the same spirit which is in his only begotten Son Ioh. 3. 2. Rom. 8. 11 14 15 16 17. Q. VVhat is the fourth benefit next to Adoption A. Sanctification whereby the sons of God are renewed in the whole man unto the Image of their heavenly Father in Christ Jesus by Mortification or their daily dying to sin by virtue of Christs death and by Vivification their daily rising to newness of life by Christs resurrection 1 Thes 5. 23 Eph. 4. 24. Jer. 31. 32. Rom. 6. 7 8. Q. VVhat follows from this Mortification and Vivification A. A continual war combat between the renewed part assisted by Father Son and Holy Ghost the unrenewed part assisted by Satan this evil world Rom. 7. 21 22 23. Q. VVhat is the fifth and last benefit next unto Sanctification A. Glorification which hath two degrees The one in this life and the other in the world to come Q. VVhat is the first degree of Glorification in this life A. Lively expectation of Glory from the assurance and shedding abroad Gods love in our hearts working joy unspeakable Rom. 5. 2 5. Tit. 2. 13. Q. VVhat is the second degree in the world to come A. Full fruition of Glory whereby being made compleat and perfect in Holiness and Happiness we enjoy all that good eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard in our Immediate and Eternal Communion with God in Christ Heb. 12. 23. 1 Cor.