towards this Christ that by him the Soul may come to this God there remaining nothing but propounding of the terms and agreement to them which the man being thus far prepared and enlightened to see the Gospel will renewed and Spirit still acting drawing in order of the first cause he doth most willingly and freely come up to the terms and takes Christ for my Saviour and my Lord. Do not mistake Christians when I say my Saviour I do not say the Soul is assured that Christ is my Saviour It is one thing for a Soul to receive Christ for my Saviour and my Lord which all sound Believers do another thing to be assured Christ is my Saviour and my Lord which many Believers cannot attain unto at least not till a long time But of this more fully hereafter I shall but briefly touch these Heads because they are commonly taught and found in many Books Only to remove move a block here if any should think you have been a long time upon the work what have you more still before we come at Christ Alas when was this enlightning and conviction now you speak of wrought in me First I pray remember what I said in my first Chapter about Preparations in general how the Lord sanctifies many in their infancy and are trained up by Parents that have any Religion in them in the knowledge of Christ so far as their catechizing can help and many from their childhood are savingly acquainted with the knowledge of Christ their Saviour as they are with their sinful and lost condition in Adam Secondly If the Lord wrought upon you when you were adult yet living under the clear preaching of the Gospel you had the knowledge of Christ in the notion you thought you knew a Saviour so well that you had him pind on your sleeve you might have him when you list but as it was in the former work you knew the notions of sin and misery before the Lords work on you and it may be there were no new notions let in but a Divine light which made you see those notions you had before after another manner than ever you saw them before that now your sin misery and creatures appeared like themselves so you may have the notions of Christ his Person Offices Redemption before you could tell these truths before but you never saw their truth necessity and glory as now you do under the Spirits working How quickly had the Jaylour the knowledge of sin and of Christ and received him A very few hours if it were two is more than I can prove Thirdly Though you have not observed nor can observe the distinct times of these distinct workings yet the work is done and so done as we write You must have light first to know Christ his person what he is and his work and God in fulness and goodness you must be convinced of the sufficiency in Christ and in God to answer all your wants necessities desires your understanding must be brought to assent to all this as true else you will never receive nor trust Christ nor will your will and affections ever go out after God and Christ So that whatever you can observe for distinctness of the Spirits working which is very secret yet thus it is and we must preach and write as things are in nature methodically or else we shall be wild Preachers So that here is no matter of trouble if the Lord hath enlightned you and convinced you in the knowledge of Christ no matter when it was nor how it was the work is done Concerning the nature of saving Faith in Christ wherein the essence of it lies great hath been the controversie between Protestants and Papists great the difference between Protestants themselves Divines of late years have cleared up the nature of Faith more than ever yet I shall make bold to to cast in my Mite it being a thing wherein I was exercised for many years my self as to my own state not being able to find by the Books which then were extant what it was but if that were Faith and saving Faith which Mr. Perkins Mr. John Rogers and others had described and what my godly Father had taught me in my Catechism viz. that Faith was a sure perswasion of my heart that whatever Christ hath done belongeth to me as if I had done it he had learned it from some of those ancient Divines then be sure I had no Faith When I heard Ministers preach against unbelief in Christ or faith in him I could not tell what they meant by faith or unbelief nor do I know to this day when I hear some men what they mean by unbelief Doctor Ames in his Medulla Theolog l. 1. c. 2. Thes 14.17 cap. 27. Thes 17.19 was the Book that first gave me some hopes I might have Faith A reverend Divine whom I have mentioned in my Epistle to the Reader assured me that what I found and related to him was saving Faith It is an ill thing that in a thing of this moment the Trumpet should give an uncertain sound Ministers should be clear in their preaching As ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord Colos 2.6 gospel-Gospel-faith I conceive is here described by the object of it The person cloathed with his offices Jesus Christ the Lord By the Act received As ye have received his Doctrine say some there is a truth in that they do receive his Doctrine who do believe in Christ though Grotius would have the word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Vox propria discentibus whence he interprets Jesus Christ the Lord the Doctrine of Christ Yet in Matth. 1.20 24. it is twice used of Joseph's taking Mary to wife where Joseph took the person of Mary and so doth the Soul in its married union with Christ Faith unites the Believers with the person of Christ Vnion respects the person Communion the benefits Vnion is ever first Hence Doctor Davenant well Here is a great emphasis in this manner of speaking for it is to be observed that he doth not say as ye have received the Doctrine of Christ or concerning Christ but as ye have received Christ himself for by Faith we do not only perceive the Doctrine of Christ but also receive our quickning Saviour and lay him up in our hearts for our salvation Thus he Christ cloathed with his Offices so I understand the words thus the Angel Luke 2.11 there is indeed the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not this Hebrew word Jesus but yet this Saviour is by the Angel called Christ the Lord The quarrel the Jews had with him was not about his name Jesus but that this Jesus should be Christ the Lord Let his name be Jesus they had others of that name before but the name Jesus with that Notation which the Angel gave of it and which they saw believing Jews and Gentiles did embrace this they abhorred afterwards in so much that they would not pronounce it but
the fan of temptations they will find to be matter of worth Dogmatical Faith is with them but of little worth because the Dogmatical Faith of most is nothing worth Let their principles be searched into how little of that Faith will be found to be divine Faith Lay by these principles that we have been in possession of these Truths concerning Christ his Person his Offices his Redemption for sixteen hundred years this was our Grandfathers and Fathers Religion it is the Religion of our Nation all men are of this Faith our King Rulers our Ministers who teach us are all of this Faith I say lay by these principles which are too short to make a Divine Dogmatical Faith What other reasons of their Faith can the greatest part of those who are called Christians and do assent to these Truths give you How do men generally condemn the Jews I wish these men would read Mr. Jackson's third Chapter of Sect. 2. of Justifying Faith cry out upon them as the basest people under the Sun because they did not believe in Christ and receive his Testimony which in their esteem was the easiest thing and had they been living then they would have believed in him I do not excuse the Jews what they might have learned by observing the Prophets which few of them read and the works which he did John 22.24 he gave them sufficient ground for their faith But though I do not excuse the Jews who yet had a pretty hard work to believe in my opinion and I tremble at Gods Judgments yet thou that canst thus easily condemn the Jews shewest thy self to be a proud a foolish an ignorant Gentile If thou hast not learned this That Faith is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Every Act of Faith if it be Divine Faith even this of assent to these Divine Truths concerning Christ It is given you to believe Philip. 1.29 even this very Act is given Temptations will learn men to interpret Texts Though the Jews had the Prophets and Christ his preaching and Miracles yet Christ tells us John 6.65 No man can come unto me except it were given him of my Father And in ver 44. he saith None come unless the Father draw him Object You will say this is meant of saving Faith Answ I deny it not but observe the next words They must be all taught of God men must hear and learn of the Father before they come ver 45. That teaching hearing learning which are before coming belong to the understanding and this I am sure is one effect of that teaching and learning that he causeth the understanding to give this assent Hence then Dogmatical Faith in those who come to Christ if Divine Faith is the Fathers gift That this Faith is not such a slight thing as men make of it let me shew it a little further First What was the way the Tempter took to overthrow our first Parents and us in them Observe it well you will find he struck at this Faith of Assent this Historical Faith Gen. 3.1 4. Yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden He puts the question and tries their Faith whether they did believe that which God had said to be true he tells the woman ver 4. Ye shall not surely die Just cross to God this which was the hedge to keep them from the Tree he labours to pull down and he doth that by weakning their faith in giving assent to the Threat of God as being true having once done that he quickly attained his design The woman could assent to him though not to God Secondly What Faith was that in Peter for faith it was the Devil aimed at appears by Christs speech to him Luke 22.32 that Satan struck at Observe it and it was this Historical Faith Peter Matth. 16.16 had made a good confession of Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the living God So again John 6 69. Thinks Satan this Peter is a brisk fellow very forward in his conressions it I can but get leave of God to get him unto my san I will try what he is whether he will hold to this confession it may be he will not be of the same mind though he thus now confess and profess he will dye for him and with him When Peter followed his Master and stood amongst the Servants Matth 26.69 to the end now was the time of winnowing Peter Luke 22.31 and now is that faith of his to be tried for so saith Christ I have prayed thy faith fail not when the Servant told him thou wast with Jesus Mat. 26.72 he denied with an oath I do not know the man What not know him This is strange When Christ put the question to his Disciples Whom do men say that I the Son of man am Matth. 16.13 and when ver 15. he put it to his Disciples to answer the question were not you the forward man that answered for all who he was And at another time John 6.69 did you not say We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son c. it seems you did know and were sure who he was and what not so much as know the man now If your faith were not so strong to maintain your confession of him before these but it flabs must you lye so abominably to say you do not know him and bind it with an Oath and Curse So that Peter is far from assenting to that truth which before he confessed Thirdly What Faith was it the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews did so fear lest the Hebrews should fall from it Observe it well and you will find it to be this Historical Faith concerning Christ his Person his Offices his Sacrifice that he was the body the substance of all the ceremonial legal shadows which doctrine they had assentted to but under temptations were in danger to fall from it and so all persecutions in the Church did arise from their Dogmatical faith persecutions did all endeavour to evercome that Faith in all ages and persecutions of the Church If Dogmatical saith once fall saving Faith cannot shand therefore Satan struck so at this Faith in the Hebrews and all the Churches Hence again those whisperings of temptations not in times of persecutions but at other times Titubabit sides si vacillat Scripturarum Divinarum Authoritas Aug. de Christ doct l. 1. c. 37. Are those Scriptures you read the Word of God Are you sure of it Is there a God Are you sure of it Christians at first startle to meet with such motions these are horrid things indeed at the first on-set it may be Satan draws of not follows too hard afterward comes again and follows his motions a little more at last not only from Satan but from the unbelief and atheisine of our own hearts the Soul comes to be so pestered with them that they make him almost distracted and now he that before made a tush at Dogmatical faith
Christ is offered in the Gospel what this receiving is I have opened before and must not now repeat again but shall briefly prove this is saving faith I shall run over the heads of Arguments First This is that which the Scripture tell us is faith Col. 2.6 John 1.11 12. where we have receiving of him expressed Matth. 12.21 In his Name shall the Gentiles trust thus nothing is more frequent than to have faith set out by trusting resting staying rolling ones self or burden upon God or Christ Secondly According to this definition Christ hath possession of the whole Soul Vnderstanding and Will Thirdly This is that faith which all men are commanded to have This faith Ministers may and must preach to all men and charge them with it and that without a lye Fourthly This faith is directly cross to flesh and blood God hath his ends directly not implicitely in giving his Christ His Servant is exalted extolled very high Isai 52.13 Man being emptied of himself Christ is received by this faith the Soul goeth out of it self and fetcheth wisdom righteousness sanctification redemption from him 1 Cor. 1.30 This Soul glorieth in Christ in rich Grace now God hath his ends man is debased Christ and free Grace are exalted By saying Christ is mine my comfort is exalted but not the ends of God directly though implicitely they are if it be true what the Soul saith because this act of faith which directly exalts him went before it Fifthly No other definition hath been yet given wherein the saving nature of faith in Christ hath been truly opened De Natur. Gra. l. 2. c. 7. not the general assent to gospel-Gospel-truths Soto thus states the Question Fides Catholica Christianae familiae necessaria utpote qua Christiani censemur non est specialis illa quam indubitato credit quisque ac constituit sibi remitti peccata propter Christum esse in gratia Dei sed illa potius persuasio Divina atque assensus quem debemus praestamusque Deo omnium in genere quae ab ipso sunt Ecclesiae revelata per Christum per-quae ejus Prophetas Evangelistas Apostolos inter quae promissiones ipsae divinae connumarantur Neither of these are true the latter is deficient and as I said because it troubles not our Christians and they are easily resolved in that point I let it alone nor is the first true that I have opposed in my former discourse He that hath no other faith but this I am perswaded and assured Christ is mine and that my sins are forgiven shall never see Christ with comfort That assurance though true may comfort me but cannot save me for it doth not the saving work of faith Lastly This faith is found in all true believers and at all times First It is found in all true believers not one that is found but hath it take it into pieces and leave out one piece of it and see if you can make sound faith First take the object What do you receive The Person of Christ with his Offices and compleat Redemption What is that Person of Christ God man Doest thou receive a man only Take thou such a Jesus he is no Saviour for me he is too poor to pay my ransom too weak to do my work I find our Jesus calls for denying of Father Mother Wife Children Lands Life c. Luke 14.26 Mark 10.29 all must go else can be none of his Disciple The Father calls for no more but All Jesus calls for as much for my Names sake then I hope he giveth as much as the Father doth if he deprives my will of all these goods then he must have good far beyond them all to satisfie my will else it is an unreasonable Command and the will can never come off rationally but may justifie its refusal to come to him because being by nature from a principle God hath put into it inclined to good to blessedness here is good denyed and not better good come in the room but if the Divinity of Christ his Satisfaction his imputed Righteousness his Grace whereby we live and are enabled to persevere in Grace be denyed I do not see that good in Christ which is able to fill up my will But you take Christ God-man you say but do you take one Office or some part of his Redemption leave out some Offices leave some Redemption tell us what it is and you will soon shew your self to be unsound Do you receive him and not trust rest rely upon him for all redemption or can you find redemption in any other besides him It is a sign you feel no great need of him Whence in answer to that Question What is the lowest degree of Faith For my part I know no lower degree than this definition I have given for that Soul which cometh not to this I know not how to call him a true believer Let any man give me a lower definition of Faith which is saving and I will yield him to be a believer according to that definition I know very well there are greater degrees of strength in the acts of receiving and trusting resting According to the greater degrees of discovery of our sinful miserable guilty state the greater discoveries of Christ in the necessity we have of him glory excellency and worth in him according to the degrees of quickning grace infused and the degrees of the influence and concourse of God with the will but still as the least Child is a reasonable Creature so the least believer truly so is united to Christ married to Christ If union and marriage can be without that faith as I have opened then I will yield there is a lower degree than that definition and I shall renounce mine as false Secondly It is in believers at all times Take those who have lost their assurances and lye bemoaning themselves in their dark desertions examine them softly prudently you shall find them at last yielding to this though when you come to gather up your discourse and so would conclude their faith for them then they may shuffle thwart and call back something they have yielded when they come to see what you drive at Sometimes they will give no answer at all or deny all frowardness doth too often attend these dark fits Take other Christians unless it be in the very heat of their Combat when corruptions are raging when they know not what to say of themselves but they are plain Hypocrites let but the storm cease they will give you a fair account of this work for as union with Christ alwayes hold so this faith alwayes hold though not discernable to themselves alwayes yet others may help them to spell their lesson and find it out when they cannot But it seems we have not as yet got a sound definition of faith the reverend Mr. Daniel Rogers hath put in one thing which creates much trouble to Christians as you may see in the Epistle to the Reader
mystical Babylon he must be very censoreous who reads Bradwardin and Jansenius his August besides others who will not yield it But to return to those who deny preparatory works I pray what is the work of a Minister Is not it to labour to bring home Souls to Christ and being brought home to labour to build them up in Christ This is the sum of a Ministers work If you deny preparatory works you will deny half the work of a Minister For doth any Minister think he shall ever perswade people to come to Christ and receive him upon his own terms who were never throughly enlightened to see their miserable state they are in by sin and convinced that this is their state Will they ever come off from this term from which he calls them unless they feel the evil and burden of sin so as to cause fears and sorrows Will a man thus far wrought on if he can set up a trade of duties and felf-righteousness and find his life in these eyer come home to Christ He that thinks he can do his work soundly without these understands little of his work and less of any saving work upon his own heart But how little of this working do we find amongst Christians How few enlightened to see and convinced of their own finful and miserable state as it is How few under this sense and conviction through the fears and sorrows accompanying this conviction cry out what shall we do to be saved Such cryes such questions how rarely do Ministers hear from those who are called Christians As for self-righteousness and duties if men can but set up a form of worship keep from the gross sins of the times their conversation but moral nay now you must not question these mens Christianity none are sound or real Christians if these be not yet these are but course sieves the Hypocrite it may be can tell you he hath experienced these preparations we must sift him in a finer sieve so that by the unacquaintance of the greatest part of Christians with these works we shall find few are real Christians Obiect But did you not tell us before that God begins his work and layes his foundation in the Infancy of many How can they experience these preparatory works as your self before have argued Answ I recall nothing of what I said but in answer to your Objection I say First Such do shew this work of Grace in their childhood as they do grow up observe them and you shall see such actings that will give good grounds to hope God hath begun the work of Grace Secondly Few if any of these living to years of understanding and hearing of these things but it hath been a trouble to them and made them question themselves whether they had Grace because they have not found them Thirdly None of them all who live to riper years but do experience all the preparatory works though in them I conceive the work doth loose that relation as preparatory because they had Grace infused into them in their infancy or childhood So that I will not contend about the word preparatory so the works be found Tell me that Real Christian let God have begun his work when he pleased that is not enlightened to see and convinced of his sinful and miserable state that hath not known fears and troubles because of it hath not been made willing that Christ should separate him and his sin that is not taken off from resting in his own duties reformations and doings They do all experience these let the Lord work them when and how he pleaseth But for others where the work begins in riper years there they are known more distinctly and properly preparatory though God hath his variety of working even amongst such also Hence preparatory works I did not at all oppose nay I maintained them only my scope was to help Christians who were in the dark as to their own work searing they were not sound and real Christians because they had not experienced those workings as others had Try those who are called Christians by the next thing we were upon their receiving of Christ when prepared for him see if the number of them be greater than we mention Receiving of Christ what is that Do you mean Faith Yes I do mean Gospel-faith in Christ nay then your Conclusion which you drew that the number of Real Christians was but small is very false For your preparations we cannot say much for them but for faith in Christ we can speak enough for it all the Ministers in England shall not make us believe but we have faith ay and it may be will swear by their faith they shall not Define faith which way you will they are for you If you will call it an Assent to what Truths soever God reveals c. in a laxe way they do assent to their Bible that it is the Word of God that all which is contained in it is the Mind and Will of God they did never doubt of it in all their lives and it may be will say it were no matter though he were hang'd that doth doubt of it but if you come more close to tell them what the ablest of the Popish party tell us is required to make that assent to the divine and supernatural Mysteries revealed to be Divine faith not only they but many others who make light of Dogmatical faith had need examine again whether their faith be divine De essentia Fidei Christianae est ut innitatur primae veritati revelanti tanquam rationi formali credendi De Auxiliis Disp 49. And adds presently Ad eliciendum talem acium necessario requiritur speciale auxilium praevenientis gratiae Gods general concourse will not serve the turn saith Alvarez both of these parts he proves partly from Aquinas and Austin In this point Alvarez to me appears very Orthodox and according to him I doubt not to affirm there is but little Dogmatical divine faith in Christendom though many Professors make a tush at it But if we grant they have this faith such as it is yet this is not enough to make saving faith then we are to seek still and that is proved by our Protestant Divines against the Papists If you say as our Fathers That faith is a particular perswasion that Christ with all his benefits are mine they have this faith also and so assured of it that let the Minister preach himself hoarse he shall never perswade them of the contrary but if we examine them upon what grounds our Fathers taught this perswasion was built there but few will answer If you say Faith is a receiving of Christ as he is offered in the Gospel and so resting upon him alone for salvation the latter part of this they understand and that is the faith which men of more knowledge than the common rout have taken up I remember a young Gentleman who had been catechized by his Mother a right Gallant he was
his Ministers to do Is he your Lord have you received him so and can you find your Lords Institutions and trample upon them Men are now grown so spiritual that they can live above Ordinances yea and above your Lord too if he be your Lord which I much doubt Tell not me of your spirituality I tell thee if thou hast truly received Christ thy Lord then all thy Lords Institutions in his House are reverently received by thee thou hast a high esteem of them for his sake who did appoint them else you make your self to be the Lord and not him Whose Image and Superscription is this said Christ Matth. 22.20 to them who sought to intangle him if Cesars then give to Cesar the things that are Cesars c. So say I whose Superscription is there upon the Gospel-ministry upon Baptisme the Lords Supper Church Discipline Is it not the Lord Christs I look not on him as a sober Christian that dare deny it Let then the Lord Christ have what is his It was a very unsavoury speech if true of one whose name I spare and very unbecoming a Minister let his notions be as high as they will calling Baptisme and the Lords Supper Low Ordinances Was it fit for a Servant to call the Institutions of his Lord low Ordinances We do bless him for his Institutions he appointed nothing in vain in his Church But this is our misery since the Orthodox have rectified the doctrine of good works and Sacraments Charity good works and Sacraments come to be slighted by a Gospel-glutted generation I do not intend Infant-baptisme alone when I mention Baptisme for the Anabaptists do set up Baptisme if they do not put too much upon it the Ordinance they keep up though as to the subject of it there they differ I intend not to meddle with the Opinion Only this I may say the Christians who were baptized in their Infancy upon the account of Gods Covenant with his People and their Seed have generally I speak of good Christians made so little improvement of the Covenant and their baptisme that it is no wonder though some men rise up against the baptizing of Infants God thereby giving a check to their negligence therein But Christian if thou hast not been so good a husband as thou shouldst have been wilt thou therefore cut off all the seed of believers for thy sake and deny them that priviledge and advantage the Lord hath given them If you say what advantage is this to them If you do not know I will tell you what some have found when in the time of their temptations and darkness they have been beaten out of all and could not tell what promise to apply or fasten upon as theirs then they remembred God was my Fathers God my Mothers God in Covenant with them and with their seed Lord I hold to my Fathers Covenant or my Mothers Covenant I chuse thee for my God as thou wert my Fathers God or my Mothers God if one be a believer 1 Cor. 7.14 thou hast given me the Seal in my baptisme I hold to the Seal the things thou didst there signifie and seal I prize I embrace I plead for that blood of Christ that may purge my Conscience from dead works that I may serve the living God Heb. 9.14 that thou wouldst pour that clean water upon me that I may be clean from all my filthiness and from all my idols that thou wouldst cleanse me Ezek. 36.25 If thy Institutions have any thing in them as it were vile profaneness to imagin thou shouldst set up any vain thing in thy Church then I bless thee that thou hast prevented me thus in my infancy and hast given me an advantage so lay hold upon thee which now I desire to improve and plead here have some found footing this it is hath brought in stay and support with resolution to cleave to the Lord in this Covenant and Ordinance when they could not tell where else to fasten So that I conceive as they do very ill that mind not this their priviledge nor improve it so they do ill that cut off their Children from this priviledge that they cannot improve it whatever thy Child is now I suppose you cannot say of those few who are rebaptized when adult that they are all godly no we see the contrary what doest thou know but God may awaken him and then it may be an advantage to remember the Covenant of God with his Father and his Seed and that God hath entred into Covenant with him in his baptisme but I must insist no more upon this Head but conclude if Christ indeed be received thy Lord then thou wilt have an honourable esteem of all thy Lords Institutions and thou wilt as reverently observe them else thou art not right Thus I have done with that which I intended If you say these are old things we have heard and read them before I intended not to give you new notions or high strains but though they be old notions yet they will serve to discover new Hypocrites let their new notions be as high as they will there is never an unsound believer but by what I have said he shall be discovered Thou that canst slight them because they are old canst thou answer them all bring them close home to thy heart let Conscience speak How many of our high flown Gospellers whose ears are itching after new things are found basely to fall short of old Truths in their practises How abominable is this to a sincere Christian It was a saying of that eminent Servant of Christ Mr. Daniel Rogers to me O Cousin I find so much in the old Truths they are so spiritual so hard that till I have reached and learned them I will never listen after new But I leave these and turn to the humble and sincere Christian to whom after I have spoken a few words in answering two or three Questions I shall put an end to my work Now Christian what saith thy heart to what thou hast read can you experience what hath been said I do not ask you if you find no difficulties but come off with ease in all points if you find your heart come off with ease I am afraid you do not understand what I have written and I should the more suspect you for if your heart be indeed set upon the work to clear out and prove the sound work of faith in closing with Christ your Saviour and Lord you will find you have an old man a dead body a corrupt principle yet within you and a Devil without you that will cause the work shall not come off with so much ease I will allow you fears jealousies surmizes doubts whether there be or ever will be a sound work of faith from what thou meetest with in thy heart and yet shall like you never the worse for that the question is where art Christian how far art come I have endeavoured to take away what may
something lurking that I do not yet see some secret hppocrisie lyeth yet undiscovered he that is known to be a lyar who will trust him or believe him though at this time he doth speak truth My heart is known to be a lyar God hath said so Jer. 17.9 and I have found his Word true how then can I chuse but fear there may be something at bottom that as yet I know not Thus you shall have Christians stand when you have so pent them up that they cannot but yield to you yet say they I fear I fear and that is all you shall get from them but to draw up the Conclusion no by no means they cannot do that Thirdly Though the Soul doth assent to the minor Proposition yet his assent unto it is not so strong and firm to force the Conclusion that Christ is his or that he is a believer as his Assent to the minor Proposition in the state of unregeneracy was to force this Conclusion that he was miserable and in that state must perish or that Christ was none of his Frame the Argument thus He that is an enemy to God and God to him under sin under unbelief a child of wrath he is in a miserable perishing state But I am an enemy to God and God to me I am under sin under unbelief a child of wrath Therefore I am in a miserable and perishing condition Here the Premises and the Assent to these Premises is so strong that the Conclusion is forced so as no resisting The Major is so plain that there is no opposing it The Minor where the pinch lies in concluding our good estate here in our proving our miserable state is as strong as the Major for the same word of God tells us it is the condition of us all by nature Col. 1.21 Ephes 2.16 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Rom. 8.7 and 11.32 Gal. 3.22 Ephes 2.3 Rom. 3.23 Whence the Assent I give to the Minor is not only from the sense of sin and enmity which I feel in my self which Assent is yet stronger for I am sure here cannot subesse falsum but besides this I Assent to it by a Divine faith because by necessary consequence from these Scriptures it follows That if all men are so by nature then though my name be not in the text yet I am sure I am included in the text But in drawing up my Conclusion for my saved state the Minor Proposition upon which the stress lies I cannot assent to it by a Divine faith as I did to the other because it is not contained in any Text that I do believe and may be forced out of the Text by necessary consequence Again to say I am as sensible of sincerity of saving grace as I am sensible of sin therefore I can as truly assent to the Minor from what I feel that I have sound faith as I did assent from my feeling that I had and have sin this the heart will shrink at and is afraid to speak so boldly though it may be truth that he is sensible of Grace Thirdly When a Christian by close examination is pent up to give answer yea or nay whether he have not so received Christ or such a work of faith is wrought in him as you by opening it and questioning of him would perswade him Arguments pro and con being weighed the Arguments for the Affirmative that such a work is wrought prove the heavier and cast the scale in the judgment of his own Reason and Conscience which he must not bely which doth witness and his own feeling testifies this in him But then here are two things 1. Though the Soul doth assent to the Affirmative yet he seeth much lye in the other Scale for the Negative which makes his assent that it is not so strong 2. He doth answer to what is in him according to his feeling or spiritual sense what work is actually there and if he denies his own feeling then Conscience will tell him he lyes and it is a vile thing to deny the work of God which he feels But this Proposition Christ is mine pardon is mine is not a work in him it is not felt by spiritual sense and experience as the other is and therefore he less minds that as being in no such great danger of denying a work of God in him or having Conscience tell him he lyes in denying what he feels and cannot but experience is wrought in him Fourthly The Christian upon tryal and examination answers to the question as he considers the work of faith in its causes or essence a priori and so commonly when you examine is it not thus you open the nature and essence of faith to him and he viewing of his own heart tells you if I know any thing of my own heart I have thus received I do thus cleave to Christ rest and roul my Soul upon him for all benefits of communion and execution of all his Offices but for the experiencing of these in my heart I cannot I have looked and longed to find Christ ruling like a King in me and acting like a Prophet in me and so as a Priest for me Now the want of these experiences shake his assent which he gave before while he considers faith in the causes Certainly saith the Soul if I had rightly received him did I truly cleave and trust to him I should experience the vertues of his Offices as well as the woman found vertue flowing from him when she touched the hem of his garment Matth. 9.20 Now if the want of these make him almost to eat his words the assent he gave before though still the Soul would hold that for saith the man were I to begin the work now again that a new I were to believe in Christ I could not tell how I should receive him adhere to him roul upon him otherwise than I do and have done already note this Christian and hold it so that it will not wholly let it go but hold it yet if the want can so shatter his assent to the minor Proposition to be sure the want of these experiences will trouble him so that he dare not assent to the Conclusion A man must have experience of Christ before he can say Christ is mine Fifthly Suppose saith the poor Christian I should draw up the Conclusion and say Christ is mine my sins are pardoned and if this should not be true where am I then hath not this been the case of many a hypocrite and unsound believer have not they thus said and thus believed and after all prove rotten and may it not be my case as well as theirs for they appeared to have more than I have these examples make the real Christian to tremble he dare not speak or think such high things for fear his fall should be more dreadful How Satan can work in all these I do not mention I will not multiply Heads Sixthly To draw up this Conclusion Christ is mine forgiveness
all these have born up bravely by your faith above sinking and afflicting thoughts and solaced your Soul with the joyes of Heaven if it be so magnifie mercy and yet pity those who would walk with God uprightly and do for the main but have not yet attained to that measure you have but if you have not been under these conditions and experienced what the temptations are if you will teach them their duty how they should walk do it but yet let it be with compassion the poor body will complain we live an Animal as well as a rational and spiritual life and though I know God can send in that which shall lift up a Soul above all discouragements under these conditions yet that all Christians under these conditions have such influences of grace and comfort from God alwayes abiding by them to do it though sometimes a glimpse they meet with I do not find it Secondly As to the fixing of the thoughts upon such an object so as no other thoughts intermix themselves more than they should in prayer I have nothing to say against it if this be the duty that we must separate so much time for these thoughts or meditations only What others find of intermixing of thoughts in prayer I know not but this I know who hath cause to be ashamed and humbled for such intermixings had we not a High-Priest to bear the iniquities of our holy things I know it would go ill with some body When the mind of a man is like a Spannel that runs before his Master one while he keeps before him in the path presently he is hunting on the other side the hedge then into the path he comes again and runs a while by and by gone again thus the mind one while attends the business it is about presently it slips aside to other matters then in again but to hold it firm fixed in the work alwayes in the path this some body finds hard But when we come only to thinking meditating who will fix this Quicksilver The Bird hops off one bough to another stayes long on none this vanity and inconstancy is a wretched distemper and this makes the duty of meditation so hard If the heart be laden with sorrows or filled with fears it can fix the mind upon the Objects which cause these fears or sorrows if it be enlarged with joy delight it will fix on the Object that causeth it so if love and desire be greatly drawn forth after an Object it will fix the mind upon the Object Voluntas imperat intellectui quoad exercitium actus Impellit intellectum ad considerationem But the affections must be much enlarged else they will not fix the mind Hence many Christians I do not mean such as bear the name only but real and serious Christians if I have any skill to judge by the inward acquaintance I have with them and observation of their conversation have complained much and said they find this to be such a hard duty when they set themselves apart only to think and meditate that they cannot perform it after that manner which Divines write not out of a corrupt spirit and enmity to the duty for they are very willing with it and try to do it but cannot fix their minds and make them hold to the thing they propound but for secret prayer there they make up what they cannot in meditation And in truth the prayers of many Christians what are they but their spiritual meditations expressed in words to God But if other thoughts should come in are they as sinful as in prayer wherein we deal with God immediately in Divine worship Thirdly For the time allotted for this duty one hour or half an hour To hold the mind fixed one hour or half an hour together without any other thoughts intermixed about Heavens Joyes or iudeed about any other Grace what say poor Christians to this Hath the blessed God revealed this to be his will hath he set down the time how long Christians must meditate What if a Christian cannot hold his mind fixed a quarter of an hour what if not half a quarter doth he break any Command or Rule of God form editation I know very well the Scripture speaks of meditating in the Word day and night but the meaning of that Text I hope is not according to this duty of meditation which is urged in this manner Many poor Christians who cannot meditate of Heavens Joyes or other Graces half an hour nor quarter without thoughts intermixing do yet labour to meditate in the Word both day an night Psal 1.2 that is endeavour to have their conversation framed according to the Word both day and night I honour much that holy man whose name I have forgot but he was Minister either in Wales or near Wales the same man it was as I remember whose conversion was so observable two Livings he had before his conversion but discharged not his duty to one being at a Fair and buying something at a Pedlers Stall he rends off a leaf of Mr. Perkins Catechism to put the thing into which he bought and reading a line or two in it God set home something out of it which did the work presently he parts with his best Living kept the least and proves a faithful Labourer in Gods Vineyard This holy man was observed by those who lived in the house with him to keep Fasts alone and they observed this was his manner sometimes to walk then fall down upon his knees to prayer and was not at prayer but a very short time may be five or six minutes then walk again and pray again a few minutes and thus spent his day in meditation and prayer This man I much honour that could do thus and so I do those who can meditate if two hours or ten hours but to set down times how long men should meditate I know no ground for that First I conceive under favour meditation is then rightly performed when the affections are wrought up unto a sutableness with the object I am meditating upon Would I meditate upon the vanity of the Creature to which I see my self enslaved too much if I can by meditation come to see the vanity of it by the Spirit of God assisting me that I find my affections are more loosened from is get more above it and take up more in God I conceive meditation hath in its measure attained its end If it be any lust or sin that I would see the evil of it if the Spirit helps me in meditation to see the evil of it so that I fear it I tremble at it my will turns away from it and begs grace and strength against it a heart to hate it meditation hath its end If my Object be God Christ Grace Holiness and I would see the good of these if the Spirit assisting me I come so to see the good of these that my will chuseth love desire run out after these with an unsatisfied spirit