thankfull for a spark for a beame of light thou shalt be satisfied and filled with the fountaine of light it self Doest thou blesse God for crumbs that fall from his table thou shalt be feasted with the marrow and fat things of life and salvation Ingrato nihil augetur sed quod acceperat vertitur ei in perniciem Fidelis autem in modico censetur dignus munere ampliori saith Bernard The ungrateful person receives no increase but what he hath formerly received turnes to his ruine But the grateful person is alwayes thought worthy of more ample rewards This direction I gladly would that those Christians should often have in their thoughts who are so much in complaining what they want as that they never blesse God for what they enjoy When any come into their company their eares are continually afflicted with their mournful notes how few their comforts are how little the benefit is which they reap by the promises but their hearts are never quickened to bless God on their behalfe by their thankful acknowledgement of the least mercy that God hath vouchsafed them when as indeed it is a temper most befitting a Christian not to let the smallest of his favours to passe unobserved or unacknowledged The swine eats the fruit that falls from the tree but never looks up from whence it comes but the Dove picks not up a graine without casting up its eye to heaven it eats and then looks up then picks again and then looks up againe And so should a beleever lift up an eye of thankfulnesse unto God for every beame of light and hope which he beholds in his Word though it shine only through a narrow cranny I thank God in Christ saith holy Baines sustentation I have but spiritual suavities I taste none When we do not lie rejoycing in the armes and bosome of God as a Father it is a mercy worthy of our thankfulnesse that we may lodge safely in his house when we do not behold the smiles of his face it is a mercy that we may hear his voice in his Word when we have not the ring put on as an ornament it is a favour that we have any piece of a broken ring left with us as a pledge and token that in our extremity he will not forsake us To encrease the number of these positive rules were a task not in it self difficult nor yet happily to many weak ones altogether unnecessary but because it is farre easier for a Physician to write Recipes then for a Patient to take the many repeated and continued potions I shall forbeare to adde more as fearing I have been already too burthensome and prolix in these and shall onely recommend what hath been spoken to the serious practice of beleevers without the least infringing of their liberty to use others which either their own or others experience may suggest as profitable And so I passe on to the second sort of rules which are Cautionary The end of which chiefly serves to discover sundry errours and mistakes which in the application and use of the promises are as dangerous to beleevers as unseen rocks and unfounded shallows are to mariners and therefore are to be carefully heeded and to be avoided by them CHAP. IX Cautionary Rules for the application of the Promises SECT 1. Rest not in a general faith THe first cautionary Rule is to Take heed of resting in a general faith which goeth no further then to give a naked assent unto the promises of the Gospel as true but doth not put forth it self to receive and imbrace them as good True faith is not an act of the understanding only but a work of the heart also Rom. 10. 10. With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse As it yields an assent unto the truth of the promise so it exerciseth fiducial application of it unto its self and thereby drawing neer unto Christ wholly throwes and casts it self upon him for life and happinesse not at all looking after any other help Maldonate is pleased to make himself and his reader merry with that usual distinction of our Divines by which faith is distinguished into an historical miraculous temporary and saving faith And playing upon the word Fides saith that the Protestants have Tot fides quot in Lyrâ As many faiths as there be strings upon a fiddle But it is not his scoffe and sarcasme that can elude either the truth or the necessity of the distinction when as the Scripture tells us of many that beleeved and yet did never imbrace Christ with their hearts as their onely Saviour or confidently rely upon the promises of his mercy Simon Magus is said to be a beleever Act. 8. 13. And yet Saint Peter tells him that he is in the gall of bitternesse and the bond of iniquity ver 23. The multitude beleeve in Christs name but yet he would not commit himself unto them for he knew what was in man John 2. 23. He did not own them as those to whom he would impart the saving mysteries of his Gospel or joyne himselfe unto them in the same bond of love and friendship as he did with those who with an entire and sincere heart beleeved on him The five foolish Virgins went farre in their waiting for the bridegroome they took lamps with them to meet him and kept their lights for a season burning but yet at his coming the doore was shut against them Mat. 25. 11. And shall the faith of Gods lect and sanctified ones be of no better alloy then the faith of hypocrites and other wicked and impenitent sinners Yea shall the confession of Peter concerning Christ Mat. 16. 16. Thou art the Sonne of the living God be no whit better then that of the devils Mat. 8. 29. who with a loud voice cry out Jesus thou Sonne of God c. Shall it be distinguished from it no more in its worth then it is in its words But as the palest Gold doth much exceed the most glittering Alchimy which though it seeme to out-vie the gold in its lustre yet hath it not the least affinity with it in its reall vertue and worth so the smallest grain of saving faith by which a beleever closeth with Christ in the promises is more precious and excellent then a meere assent unto the truth of the Word which resteth in the understanding but hath no quickening influence upon the will and desires the one being onely a bare credence and the other a divine affiance This was it which put a wide difference between Peters confession of Christ and the Devils acknowledgement of him as Austin well observes Hoc dicebat Petrus ut Christum fide amplecteretur hoc dicebant Daemones ut Christus ab cis recederet This spake Peter that he might imbrace Christ this said the devils that Christ might depart from them And this fiducial application is the distinguishing character which the Scripture makes between the faith of true beleevers and others it being sometimes described
well for common sores but their maladies are such that unlesse Christ touch them with his own hand the vertue that comes from these things as from his garments can never heale them unlesse God do from heaven confirme his promises by extraordinary signes and miracles their breaches and ruptures will never be healed their comforts and peace will never prevaile against their feares and darknesse It is not the Prophets staffe laid upon the face of the dead childe that will bring life again into it 2 King 4. 32. he must come and stretch himselfe upon the childe ere the flesh of it will wax warme This Caution is the more necessary to be heeded upon a double ground First because of the aptnesse that is in troubled Christians to affect new meanes above the right means and to build their confidence upon something that is without the compasse of the Word rather then upon the Word it self Secondly in regard of the great danger and deceit that is in those extraordinary ways by which many do pretend to have their comfort assurance to be confirmed unto them which in the use of all other means they could never find to be fully and satisfyingly evidenced unto them First there is a pronity in Christians especially when exercised with fears and doubts concerning their condition to grow weary of using such means in which they find not their expectations speedily answered through an over-hasty desire of comfort to trie the gaining of it in a new way rather then to persevere in the old Being in this not much unlike to many weak and crasie Patients that are more ready to fancy every new medicine they heare off and to tamper with it then to expect a recovery by going through a course of Physick prescribed by the Physician Gregory tells of a Religious Lady of the Emperesses bed-chamber whose name was Gregoria that being much troubled about her salvation did write unto him that she would never cease importuning him till he had sent her word that he had received a revelation from heaven that she was saved To whom he returned this answer Rem difficilem postulas inutilem c. That it was an hard and altogether uselesse matter which she required of him It was difficult for him to obtaine as being unworthy to have the secret counsels of God to be imparted unto him and it was unprofitable for her to know not onely for the reason which he assignes that such a revelation might make her too secure but also because it was impossible for him to demonstrate and make known unto her or any other the truth and infallibility of the revelation which he had received to be from God so that had she afterwards called into question the truth of it as well she might her troubles and doubtings concerning her salvation would have been as great as they were before O therefore let believers that would be confirmed in the peace and love of God take heed of relinquishing that more sure word of Prophecy which shines as a light in a darke place 2 Pet. 1. 19. and of flying unto visions revelations voices from heaven to assure and evidence unto them their salvation and to be the seales of the truth of those comforts and joys which they are filled with These are wayes that have more external glory and pomp in them but the acting of faith on the promises and the adhering of the soule unto those truths declared in them is the unquestionable way of obtaining a full establishment of heart in all sound joy and peace and therefore Luther though as he confesseth he was often tempted to aske for signes apparitions revelations from heaven to confirme him in his way yet tells how strongly he did withstand them Pactum feci cum Domino Deo meo ne mihi mittat vel visiones vel somnia vel eâ—iam Angelos Contentus enim sum hoc dono quòd habeo Scripturam sanctam quae abundè docet ac suppeditat omnia quae necessaria sunt tum ad hanc vitam tum ad futuram I have saith he indented with the Lord my God that he would never send me dreams visions Angels for I am well content with this gift that I have the holy Scripture which doth abundantly teach and supply all necessaries for this life and that also which is to come Secondly as there is an aptnesse in Christians to affect such extraordinary wayes and means of comfort so is there also no little danger and deceit in the wayes themselves First they are dangerous in regard that they make the Word and promises to be as things of little value and esteem which should be as the only sacred Oracles of truth for believers to have their recourse unto Such who cry up revelations make it their practice to cry down the Word and look upon those that adhere to the Scriptures and make them the touchstone to try every spirit by as Vocalistas et Literatistas Vowalists and Letterists having litle or no acquaintance with the deep things of God Such who affirme assurance to be the immediate voice of the Spirit speaking in them saying unto them that their sinnes are forgiven them how disdainfully do they speak of the certainty and perswasion which believers have from the gracious operations of the Spirit and the blessed fruits of holinesse wrought by him in their souls which by his enlightening they are enabled to discern thereby to be confidently perswaded of Gods love unto them and of their interest in all the promises This they dignify with no better or higher title then an humane faith then a conjectural knowledge though the testimonie be truly supernaturall both in regard of the efficient cause and also of the meanes whereby they come to be thus perswaded Yea though it be the only safe way which the Scripture holds out for believers to trie their estates by to look unto the effects and fruits of the Spirit of God in them and not to any immediate voices or revelations from heaven as the testimonie of Gods love unto them yet do such vilifie this kinde of evidence as low and carnall and altogether unmeet for Evangelical Christians to make use of What should they need to have a rush-light to see by when they may enjoy the sunne which is the light of lights Secondly as they are dangerous so are they full of deceit and illusion Young Samuel not acquainted with any extraordinary manifestations of the presence power of God took the voice of God from heaven to be the voice of old Eli 1 Sam 3. 5. And so do many take the irregular motions of their owne hearts to be the divine breathings and the powerfull impulses of the Spirit of God wherby they are stirred up to the undertaking of sundry actions which the Word in the least measure countenanceth not How frequently in these times do fanatick persons baptize the violent workings of their own distempered fancies with the name of
which he beares the image of the second Adam the Lord from heaven as in the other he did beare the similitude of the first Adam who was of the earth earthy 1 Cor. 15. 47. The promises they have in them a vim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative vertue and power to mould and fashion the heart to holinesse and to introduce the Image of Christ into it in regard of that native purity which dwels in them and is above gold that hath been seven times tried in the fire Psal 12. 6. therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples that they were cleane through the Word that he had spoken unto them John 15. 3. and when he prayed unto God to sanctifie them his prayer is Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth Joh. 17. 17. Secondly beleevers may be said to be partakers of the divine nature by the promises as they are the Objects of Faith and Hope Both which are graces that have in them a wonderful aptitude to cleanse and purifie the Subjects in which they dwell and to introduce true holinesse in which the lively image and resemblance of God doth chiefly consist First Faith it believes the truth of those things which God hath promised and apprehends also the worth and excellency of them to be such as that thereby it is made firme and constant in its adherence vigorous and active in its endeavours to use all means for the obtaining a conformity to God and Christ and the escaping of the corruption that is in the world through lust For till a man come to be a believer he is by the temptations of Satan and the specious promises with which they usually come attended drawn aside to the commission of the worst of sinnes in which though he weary himself to finde what first was seemingly promised yet he meets with nothing but delusions and disappointments of his expectation Balaam hath an edge set upon his spirit to curse the people of God by a promise of preferment made unto him and he tires himself in going from place to place to effect it but God hinders him from doing of the one and Balack denies the giving unto him the other So Judas by a baite that suits his covetousnesse undertakes to sell his Lord but when he hath accomplished his wickednesse and received his wages he throws it away and dares not keep what before he so earnestly thirsted after the blood of his Master makes every piece of the silver look gastly so that now he sees another image upon it then Cesars and cries out that he had sinned in betraying innocent blood Now faith it enables a beleever to discern a snare a defilement under all the gilded aldurements of Satan and the world And therefore he rejects with scorne those temptations with which others are miserably captivated resists with resolution all the courtings and solicitations of the flesh to which others yield beholding onely a stability and preciousnesse in those promises which have the oath of God to make them sure and his love to make them sweet And these only have a prevailing power with him to cause him so to order his conversation in all manner of holinesse that he may walk as it becomes an heire of heaven and an adopted sonne of the most high God to walk Secondly as Faith by beleeving the promises doth purifie the heart so also doth hope which expects the performance of what faith beleeveth work and produce the same effects He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as God is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. The expectation which beleevers have by the promises is not a supine oscitancy whereby they look to be possessed of life and glory without any care or endeavours of theirs for to obtaine it like to callow and unfeathered birds that lie in the nest and have all their food brought to them gaping onely for to receive it But it is an expectation accompanied with diligence and industry for the fruition of what they do expect The grace of God saith Paul teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. And the ground of this he subjoyneth Vers 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ He that truly expects glory earnestly pursues grace Heb. 12. 14. He that hopes to be with God in heaven useth all meanes to be like God on earth An heavenly conversation is the natural fruit of an heavenly expectation Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ The Heathen could say that labour was the husband of hope There is hope the harlot and hope the wife Hope the married woman is known from hope the harlot by this that she alwayes accompanieth with her husbands labour True hope looks to enjoy nothing but what is gotten by travel and paines and therefore useth all meanes to obtaine that good which faith apprehendeth in the promise It seekes glory by grace it endeavours after communion with God in heaven by working a conformity to God in a beleever while he is on earth Thirdly beleevers are made partakers of the divine nature by the promises as they are the irreversible obsignations and declarations of God which he hath freely made unto them of his taking them unto himself in an everlasting communion of life and glory Heaven is as Prosper calls it Regio beatitudinis the onely climate where blessednesse dwells in its perfection While we are here below we are but as Kings in the cradle the throne on which we must sit the robes with which we must be clothed the crown which must be set upon our heads are all reserved for heaven In this life there is onely a taste of celestial delights and in the other there is a perpetual feast Here we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Grace doth as Cameron expresseth it adsignificare infirmitatem connotate a weaknesse and imperfection and glory that signifies an abolition and doing away whatsoever is weak or imperfect But all this absolute perfection of happinesse which is laid up in heaven for beleevers is ratified and made sure unto them in the promises and therefore they are said to be heires of the promise Heb. 6. 17. Yea by the promises they have the pledges and first-fruits of all that happinesse which they shall enjoy in heaven given unto them in this life We are now the sonnes of God saith the Apostle though it doth not yet appeare what we shall be 1 John 3. 2. That is we now beare his image and likenesse though in a more dark and imperfect character Our knowledge our grace our comforts are all incompleat But when he shall appeare we shall be like him That is when Christ shall come to receive us unto himself we shall beare upon us his
by a rolling and staying of its selfe upon God Isa 50. 10. sometimes by a trusting in him Isa 26. 4. sometimes by receiving of Christ Colos 2. 6. sometimes by a coming unto him Joh. 6. 36. All which expressions do speak the spiritual motions and affections of the heart towards Christ in cleaving and adhering unto him which beleevers onely exercise and not hypocrites or castawayes And therefore they are said not to rely on God or to look towards him Isa 31. 1. Not to trust in him Psal 78. 22. not to receive Christ John 1. 11. not to come unto him John 5. 40. Their faith is a forme of faith but it wants the power and efficacy which accompanies saving faith This Cautionary Rule is with the more circumspection to be heeded in regard that multitude of professors do rest themselves contented in that general acknowledgement and assent which they yield to the truths of the Gospel though haply the chief enducement by which they are led unto it be no other then custome education or the authority of the Church They think that the believing there is a God that Christ is the Saviour of the world that he died for sinners is faith enough to carry them out of the wildernesse into Canaan out of the world into heaven But alas this and much more may be beleeved and yet no benefit at all accrue unto them who are perswaded of the certainty of these supernaturall verities Here the Logicians rule holds true Medicina curat Socratem non hominem Physick is not given to mans nature to cure the Species but to every man in individuâ— to heal his person Christ and his promises are not beneficial unto any but unto them who make a particular application of both unto themselves What comfort is it to an insolvent debtour to believe that there are rich mines of gold in that land into which he is fled to shelter himself from his creditors What relief is it to a thirsty man that there is a full vintage of cordiall and refreshing wines growing not farre from him if he have no hope that he shall taste the least drop of it What satisfaction is it to a condemned person to be assured that there is a pardon granted and sealed for many if there be no ground for him to conceive that his name is included in it No more can it advantage any man to believe that Christ died to reconcile sinners to God and that by a glorious resurrection from the grave he hath ascended the throne of Majesty and lives for ever to make intercession for them unlesse with the beliefe of these blessed truths there be conjoyned a particular reliance upon Christ for salvation and a casting of a mans selfe into the armes of his free mercy for the obtaining of the forgivenesse of sinnes and the justifying of his person at the tribunal of God Do not the devils beleeve a God and tremble James 1. 19. Do they not acknowledge Christ his Sonne Luk. 4. 34. And bow the knee unto him Phil. 2. 10. Do not they know and beleeve that Christ died in general for sinners and that they which fix their confidence in him shall be saved by him What article of the Creed is it which they yield not an assent unto And shall the faith whereby beleevers are justified not exceed the faith of these infernal spirits But if it be said That the assent which the devils yield is full of force and coaction and is commanded by the evidence and Majesty of those infallible truths which they do not at all love or affect but the general belief which Christians have of the revealed truths of the Gospel is altogether free and voluntary and is thereby distinguished from the faith of devils This difference though it may seeme at first blush somewhat specious yet is it both insufficient and impertinent for that end to which it is assigned in regard that the distinction which it makes of the one assent from the other is from what is meerly accidental and not from what is essential to the nature and being of faith For they who make faith to be an act of the understanding onely and to consist in an assent unto the truth of those things which God hath revealed cannot properly fetch the essential difference which is between the faith of devils and the faith of Christians from the voluntarinesse or involuntarinesse of the assent from the liking or disliking of the truths which they beleeve because those are acts of another faculty in which by them faith is not acknowledged to be seated Besides the assent which the good Angels give unto the glorious truths of the Gospel which with diligence they look into 1 Pet. 1. 12. is both voluntary and delightful and yet it is most distinct and differing from the credence and assent which beleevers do give unto the same truths it not being accompanied with a particular application and reliance for life and salvation as it alwayes is in beleevers who do with a justifying faith embrace and apply the promises of the Gospel unto themselves A man may be called to be a witness to a Will to averre the truth of it though he have no legacy given unto him in it so the Angels as so many heavenly witnesses do affirme and assent unto the truth of those things which Christ hath declared in his Gospel as in his last Will and Testament But beleevers are as so many Legatees which have particular blessings therein bequeathed unto them therefore must not rest in a general belief of the truth of the things but must claime their propriety and interest in them before they can ever have any benefit or comfort from them But if it be further objected that the Scripture doth in many places attribute salvation to a general faith and that the Centurions faith which our Saviour so much commended Mat. 8. 10. seemeth to imply no more then an historical belief of Christs power and divinity that Peters confession of Christ Mat. 16. 16. was but general that Martha's faith John 11. 27. was of the same stamp that Saint Johns character of the new birth is set forth by a general faith Whosoever beleeveth that Jesus is the Christ is borne of God 1. Joh. 5. To the solving of this doubt a double answer may be given First that in those times the difficulty lay rather upon the assent then upon the affiance and the question then was more about the person of Christ then the office of Christ Now because it was a great matter in the first dawnings of the Gospel to beleeve him to be the Messiah whose outward appearance was so meane and contemptible to the eye of the world therefore doth the Scripture much magnifie and heighten this act Secondly though the Scripture-expressions do lay much upon this one act of faith yet do they not exclude but suppose the other acts of faith to be joyned with it To a true beleeving
there are three acts necessary Knowledgr Assent Fiducial application but yet the Scripture doth oftentimes describe faith by one of these acts Joh. 17. 3. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent In knowledge there are couched and included the other two acts of faith in which the powerful reception and embracing of Christ for salvation doth chiefly consist So when it is set forth by an assent unto the truths of the Gospel there is implyed not only a bare perswasion of the minde but an affectionate cleaving and adherence of the heart unto the promises of God made in Christ by which the soul of a beleever is fortified against despaire which the historicall belief of them doth not in the least measure expell or overcome And therefore though the Papists do deride this special apprehension and application of Christ as a meere conceit and unwarranted fancy though formal professors do carelesly neglect it and take all to be well enough with them as long as they do not question what the Scripture reveales yet must not any that look after the real enjoyment of comfort and peace from the promises please themselves in a generall assent which is little worth but must endeavour to cleare and evidence their peculiar interest in Christ and his promises by a fiducial application of them unto themselves SECT 2. Rule 2. Pore not on the measure of Humiliation The second Cautionary Rule is to take heed of poring too much upon the measure and degrees of humiliation as if there were any certain and regular standard by which all humiliation must be measured before ever we may justly claime an interest in the promises or so much as put forth an hand to touch the hem of Christs garment that our bloody issues may be healed True it is that the invitation which Christ makes Mat. 11. 28. is only to them that labour and are heavy-laden to come unto him that he may give them rest because they do best taste the sweetnesse and prize the happy enjoyment of an heavenly rest and peace But yet all whom Christ invites to come to him are not alike burthened with the weight and pressure of their sinnes or do equally labour under the sense of Gods wrath and displeasure Some are not onely heavy-laden with their sinnes but have their bones broken with the weight of them so as that they roare by reason of the continual disquietnesse of their heart Others though they walk mournfully under their sins yet are not bowed down under so great a weight nor expresse themselves in such loud and passionate complaints True it is that Christ as a Physician goes onely to the sick and not to the whole Luk. 5. 31. But yet all are not afflicted with the same violence though all be sick of the same disease Some are so affected as that for a season they seeme to lie under the Calenture and rage of despaire it self Others again are sick of their sinnes after a more milde and gentle manner like to an overcharged stomach they loath what before they loved the iniquities that before they swallowed down with delight they vomit up in their confession to God and acknowledge them to be full of nothing but bitternesse But yet wearisome nights through the grinding paines of a guilty and stung conscience are not appointed unto them they lie down upon the bed of sorrow but not upon the rack of horror Now the ground of this wide difference that is between the children of God in their first conversion and turning unto himself doth chiefly arise from the wisdome of God and the liberty which he is pleased to take unto himselfe in the effecting of his counsells and purposes For God being a most voluntary agent doth not tie himself to a like certaine and unaltered constancy in the time measure and proportion of his working upon his children but being free and wise without limit and above measure doth much diversifie sometimes the duration and continuance of their humiliation and sorrow by making the darknesse in some to be shorter in others to be longer Sometimes he differenceth the measure making the pangs and throwes of the new birth to be in some both few and easie in others to be many and full of extremity Sometimes he alters the most usual manner of his working in proportioning sin and sorrow to each other and doth not make the terrours and affrightments for sin to be parallel to the hainousnesse of the rebellions that have been persisted in against himself Paul a persecutor is from heaven smitten with trembling and astonishment so as that for three dayes he sees neither the light of the sun nor tastes ought of any food Act. 9. 9. But Zaccheus a Publican extortioner is not stricken from the tree upon which he climbes to behold Christ by any raies of maiesty and dread shining from his face upon him but is like ripe fruit gathered by the hand not shaken off by a tempestuous winde By a soft and milde voyce that may allure and not affright he is called to come down to entertaine him who brought salvation unto his house Luke 19. 5. But yet both these though by much differing meanes are effectually brought home to Christ and made partakers of life and happinesse by him This cautionary direction is given not as an encouragement to any to slight the necessity of humiliation as if they might without all remorse and brokennesse of heart for their sins interest themselves in Christ and his precious promises and in one moment leap out of the dregs and lees of their naturall corruption on which they have been long settled into an estate of purity and blessednesse but it is chiefly for these three ends First to direct such as mourne under the sense of their sinnes that are of a deep and double die to look more to the quality of their humiliation then to the quantitie and to trie it rather by the touch-stone then to weigh it by the balance because it is not the measure but the truth of it that makes it saving The Mariner in a calme may sometimes apprehend as certain ruine to befal him as in a storm and so a sinner may see himself in a lost and forlorne condition out of Christ though he be not broken with the fierce tempest of Gods displeasure but by more gentle yet powerful convictions of the Spirit made apprehensive of the absolute necessity of a Saviour to free him from the maledictions of the law and to restore him to an estate of happinesse Humiliation as it is Gods work so the measure of it is of his ordering and appointing and in it deals as a wise Physician who doth not give the like dosis or quantitie of Physick to every Patient but what may best fit the strength and constitution of him that is to receive it or like the prudent husbandman whom God hath instructed to discretion who
on the Word and promises of God For as faith is truly the life and guide of the soul so the Word is the ground life and guide of our faith Now the Arguments that I shall set down are briefly three First The life of faith is that life which above all others God would have Believers to live And this appears by the distance that God hath put between his promises and his performances making their whole life to be rather a life of hopes then of enjoyments and the good things that he gives to relate more to the future then to the present time God was graciously pleased to open a door of hope to fallen man in that first Gospel-promise which he himself proclaimed Gen. 3. 15. that the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head But how many generations passed away before the fulnesse of time came in which he sent forth his Sonne made of a woman He hath promised to Believers that they shall tread down the wicked and that they shall be ashes under the soles of their feet Mal. 4. 3. But yet he hath made their warfare to be as long as their life He hath promised a glorious resurrection of their bodies out of the grave And yet for how many thousand years have his Saints lain dissolved in their dust as if they did seeme to be altogether forgotten by him Now to what end hath God set such long periods of time between the making and the accomplishing of his promises but only that he would have the heirs of them to live by faith yea and to die in faith by resting on the truth of his Word for the fulfilling of every mercy which he hath undertaken for in his promises And indeed this glory which Believers give to God in the exercise of their faith upon his Word is farre greater and more noble then all that glory which the whole universe of creatures do yeeld unto him They give him the glory of his goodnesse in their being and in the comforts of it derived unto them by him But who gives him the glory of his faithfulnesse in his promises but a Believer Who is it that rejoyceth in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. but a Believer Who glories in tribulations but a Believer Who is it that lets not his confidence die when his life expires but a Believer My flesh and my heart faileth saith David but God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 26. Secondly The life of faith is of all estates the most contented and of all lives the fullest of real sweetnesse and delight First It is the most contented life True contentment is the inseparable companion of true faith 1 Tim. 6. 6. A Believer is the onely person that is instructed in this sacred mystery Phil. 4. 13. The things that others want he desires not Riches which others covet with the straining of their consciences he throws away as snares Pleasures which others drink down with a thirst unsatisfied he out of choise sparingly sips of or else refuseth so much as to taste Honours that others value themselves by he looks upon as fancies and not realities As Plato told the Musicians that a Philosopher could dine and eate his meat without them So a Believer can live happily without the having of any of these things And the ground of all this is because by faith he lives above them and enjoyes more high and noble delights in the very expectation and hope of that blessednesse which God hath promised then any other can have from the fruition of an earthly Paradise or of the whole world it self if turned and changed into an Eden Secondly Of all lives the life of faith is the sweetest The delicacies that faith feeds upon doth not arise from any stagnant and impure pits or cisterns but from the fountain and well of life It sucks the breasts of consolation Isay 66. 11. It lives upon the free favour of God which is better then life it self Psal 63. 3. It hath Christ himself for nutriment whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed John 6. 55. All which are food the world knows not of it never understood their preciousnesse or tasted their sweetnesse There is a greater difference between the repasts of faith and the refreshments of the world then there is between the Physick of the Galenists Paracelsians the one giving it in the drug and the other as they boast in the quintessence and spirits extracted from that flegme and earthymatter that deads allaies their efficacy All the comforts of faith have in them a native purity and spiritualnesse and need not the help of Artists to refine them Such they are as that Angels themselves have neither better nor higher to live upon How injurious then are Believers to their own happinesse while they neglect the living by faith and gaze rather upon these dainties with their eyes then feed upon them with their mouths How greatly do they live below themselves while they take up with the things of this world and put not forth this divine grace of faith which can fetch every good thing out of heaven What dishonour do they cast on the precious promises while like the lustful Israelites they slight this Manna of the Gospel as dry food O therefore if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any excellency in the promises be perswaded you that are the beloved ones of God to live the life of faith and to exercise it in an improvement of the promises the use of which makes you more rich and blessed then the having of them Thirdly to move Believers to act faith upon the promises I shall adde this Argument that their labour and expectation will not be in vaine Faith in the promise is like the bowe of Jonathan and the sword of Saul which never returned empty 2 Sam. 1. 22. It alwayes findes what it seeks and enjoyes what it desires He that beleeveth shall never be confounded 1 Pet. 2. 6. that is he shall not be disappointed or broken in his purposes or hopes If the promise be not good security to rest and build upon What is What bond can be so firme as his Word who cannot lie Tit. 1. 9. What pledge can be more certain then the earnest of the Spirit by which the inheritance of Believers is sealed unto them Ephes 1. 14. If these foundations fail then we may well say with the Prophet What can the righteous do But sooner shall the rocks be broken into bits and thrown as pibbles and cockle-shels upon the shoar by the violence of the waves sooner shall the mountains that God hath set fast by his strength Psal 65. 6. be over-turned by the breath of tempestuous windes then the promises which are founded upon the immutable power of God and the never-failing goodnesse of Christ be in the least iota made void
and of no effect For besides the infallibility of Gods Word which may abundantly confirme unto Believers the truth of the promises the goodnesse also and mercy of Christ are as another sacred anchor for their faith and confidence to rest upon if in relation to the promises it be seriously thought on in two particulars First That the promises are the real purchase of the precious blood of Christ and must therefore be certainly made good or else he must be a loser in all his sufferings If he like Jonathan 1 Sam. 18. 4. should strip himself not only of his robes but of his life that he might expresse his love to distressed and undone persons with whom God is angry and displeased and yet they receive no advantage or fruit by it would not all these condescensions of goodnesse and mercy be in vain If he should drink of that brook and torrent of curses that was in the way between salvation and sinners and yet the passage to the heavenly Canaan be no more open then it was before should not Christ be a greater loser then sinners themselves They it is true lose their soules each of which are of more value then so many worlds but Christ must lose the revenue of his glory which is farre more precious then the souls of all the men in the world How would sinne exult and triumph if it should ever be able to say there was a pardon covenanted for to be given such a person but I have hindred the execution of it How would Satan reproach the death of Christ if he could be able to say that he hath destroyed one soul for whom Christ died Yea how should Paul or any other believer be able to throw forth their gantlet and to challenge all the enemies of salvation to do their worst Rom. 8. 31. if any of them could make a separation between the love of Christ and them How quickly would tribulation persecution famine nakednesse say we will make you miserable How soone would perils and the sword reply we will conquer you How confidently would principalities and powers say we will pluck you out of Christs hand But for ever blessed be his Name there are none among the whole host of enemies that dare revile the confidence of a beleever or say as that uncircumcised Philistine to David 1 Sam. 17. 44. I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the aire or to the beasts of the field There are none that dare presume to say that they can make void the least mercy which the promise doth hold forth to be the gift of Christs love and the purchase of his blood Let therefore beleevers lift up the hands which hang down and put forth the strength of faith in renewed acts of confidence upon the promises being fully perswaded in themselves of this truth that they can no more be disappointed of their hopes then Christ can be disappointed of his purchase Secondly That the promises are the matter of the most prevailing intercession of Christ who now sits on the right hand of God in glory When he was on earth he purchased by the price of his blood all that masse of treasure and riches both of grace and glory that are inventoried in the promises and by his last Will and Testament on the crosse bequeathed them to beleevers But all this which was transacted here below was onely as Divines usually terme it medium impetrationis the meanes of procurement or obtaining it for beleevers the medium applicationis the meanes of applying all this unto them are as his resurrection and intercession his resurrection that declares his conquest over death his intercession that shews his favour and acceptance with God And they are both as necessary to make his satisfaction of force unto beleevers as the image or stamp of the Prince is to make the coin currant though it neither adde weight or value to the substance He saith the Apostle being made perfect became the Author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Now the intercession of Christ is set forth in Scripture with all the advantages that may be that thereby beleevers may be secured of their interest and title to the things which he hath purchased We have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Sonne of God let us therefore hold fast our profession Heb. 4. 14. First He is a great high Priest greater then all that were before him both in power and favour with God Secondly He is passed into the heavens a Sanctuary which no other Priest could ever enter into or sit down in all their sacrifices being imperfect and therefore to be daily renewed by them Thirdly He is Jesus the Sonne of God more near in alliance unto him then Angels or men and therefore most sure to prevaile for the obtaining of whatever he asks or requires of him When he therefore who is the only Favorite of heaven is the Believers Advocate and doth continually solicit God to fulfil his Covenant made with him and his peoples prayers made unto him What ground can therebe for jealousies and distrust in a Believers heart What rational impediment can there be imagined to hinder or weaken the confidence of faith which the intercession of Christ doth not fully remove and take away Are your prayers tainted with the corruption and infirmities of the flesh he perfumes them with the sweet odours of his intercession Rev. 8. 3. Are your sins multiplyed and renewed daily So are the intercessions of Christ It is his only work in heaven to intercede for sinners Heb. 7. 25. Are your persons vile and such which you fear God will not accept Christ who is your high Priest is holy harmlesse and separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. He hath in his person a fulnesse of all perfections which may assure every Believer that the promises which he pleads that the requests which he makes to God in Christs Name shall not be like arrowes shot at the Sunne which never reach it or come near to it but that they shall pierce the heavens and be of such power and prevalency with God as that what they seek he will grant and the promises which they plead in faith he will performe and make good in truth Wherefore let me again commend unto Believers the great duty of exercising faith on he promises of Christ which cannot but fill the heart with strong and inseperable consolations when by the eye of faith they are looked upon as those great things which are both the purchase of his most precious blood and the matter of his most powerful intercession And now as Mariners who when they come nigh the port roll up their sails which were before spread they being not useful in the harbour that were before most necessary on the sea So must I being arrived at that point which was the utmost boundary of my thoughts and intentions draw towards a conclusion and winde up this
its orbe doth then enlighten the earth farre more then multitudes of stars that shine bright in the clearest night and so one promise in armies of changes that befall beleevers fills their souls with more serenity and peace then the confluence of all outward contentments can produce under one small and petty crosse A Christian many times walkes more chearfully under sore fiery trials then others in the sun-shine of worldly prosperity The three children walkt to and fro with more joy in the furnace then Nebuchadnezzar in his stately Palace CHAP. VI. Containing positive rules directing to the right use of the promises HAving shew'd what a promise is and the sundry respects wherein the promises of the Gospel are precious by way of eminency and excesse I passe on to the third general head which is made up of several rules and directions that concern the due application of them which are by so much the more necessary by how much the promises above all other parts of the sacred Oracles of God are most apt to be deeply injured by the two sinful extremes of distrust and presumption The infirme beleever whose jealousies and misgivings are too strong for his faith puts away from him the consolations of the promises as small and looks upon them as cordials not strong enough to heale and remove his distempers The over-secure and self-confident person placeth his fond presumptions in the roome of Gods promise and thereby drawes as certaine a ruine upon himselfe as he who ventures to go over a deep river without any other bridge then what his shadow makes I shall therefore branch the rules which concerne the right use of them into rules positive and cautionary the one pointing out several duties which every one must exercise himselfe in that would willingly reape any real fruit and advantage from the promises the other forewarning the many errours and mistakes which are as stones of stumbling to weak Christians or as stones that lye upon the mouth of the wells of salvation which must be removed before the water of comfort can be drawn from them I shall begin with the positive rules which are many SECT 1. Eye God in the promises First in the applying of any promise fix the eye of your faith upon God and Christ in it Promises are not the primary object of faith but the secondary or they are rather the meanes by which we believe then the things on which we are to rest As in the Sacraments the elements of bread and wine serve as outward signes to bring Christ and a beleever together but that which faith closeth with and feedeth upon is Christ in the Ordinance and not the naked elements themselves So the promises are instrumental in the coming of Christ and the soul together they are the warrant by which faith is imboldned to come to him and to take hold of him but the union which faith makes is not between a beleever and the promise but between a beleever and Christ And therefore those Divines who in their Catechetical Systems have made the formal object of faith to be the promise rather then the person of Christ have failed in their expressions if not in their intentions and have spoken rather popularly then accurately For the object of faith is not ens complexum an Evangelical maxim or proposition but ens incomplexum the person of Christ as the whole current of Scripture-expressions do abundantly testifie wherein faith is described by receiving of Christ Joh. 1. 12. by beleeving on him Joh. 3. 16. by coming to him Joh. 6. 36. As we cannot come to Christ without the aide of a promise so may we not rest in the promise without closing with Christ The promises they are but as the field and Christ is the hidden pearle which is to be sought in them they are as the golden candlesticks and he is both as the Olive-tree which drops fatnesse into them and as the light which shines in them they are as the Alabaster-box and he is as the precious spicknard which sends forth the delightful savour they are as the the golden pot and he is the Mannah which is treasured and laid up in them they are as the glasse and he is the beautifull face which is to be seen in them We all beholding with open face as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. But in looking unto God and Christ in the promise let the eye of faith be directed especially to these foure attributes and perfections of God the freenesse of his grace in making them the absolutenesse of his power to effect them the unhangeablenesse of his counsel not to revoke or disannull the least iota of them the greatnesse of his wisdome to performe all which he hath spoken in the best season and joynt of time These are foure such pillars upon which faith may safely leane and which the strength of the most violent temptations can never shake much lesse overturne as Sampson did the pillars of the house against which he leaned Judg. 16. 30. SECT 2. Eye free grace First view with the eye of faith the freenesse of Gods grace in making so many rich promises they are all patents of grace not bills of debt expressions of love not rewards of services gifts not wages He that made many out of mercy might without the least umbrage of injustice have made none Though his truth do tie him to the performance of them yet his love and mercy onely did move him to the making of them his promise hath made him a debtour but free grace made him a promiser And here the assertion of the School may be judged sound Divina voluntas licèt simpiciter libera sit ad extra ex suppositione tamen unius actus liberi potest necessitari ad alterum Though the will of God be most entirely free in all his manifestations towards the creature yet upon the voluntary and free precedency of one supposed act we may justly conceive him to be necessarily obliged to a second Thus God was most absolutely free in the making of his promises but having made them he is necessitated to the fulfilling of them by his truth According to that of the Apostle Tit. 1. 2. God who cannot lie hath promised before the world began And that of the Prophet Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham Mich. 7. 20. The making of the promise unto Abraham was free mercy the fulfilling of it to Jacob was justice and truth This direction touching the freenesse of Gods grace in the promises is exceeding usefull to succour and relieve the perplexing fears of the weak and tempted Christian who though he have eyes to see the unspeakable worth and excellencie of the promises yet hath not the confidence to put forth the hand of faith and to apply them to his necessities He wants forgivenesse of sinnes but doubts the promise
of blotting out iniquities belongs not unto him He is naked and gladly would that Christ might spread the skirt of his righteousnesse over him to hide his deformities But alas what hath a leper to do with a royal robe He is sick and diseased but the Physick that must cure him the least drop of it is more worth then a world and he is more vile then the dust How then can he expect that he should ever be the patient of such a Physician who will be both at the cost to buy the Physick and at the paines to administer it If he had an heart to love God as David if talents to glorifie God as Paul if he were but an Israelite without guile as Nathanael then he might have hopes together with them to have his person accepted his services rewarded and his imperfections pardoned But his heart with which he should love God is carnal and not spiritual his talents and abilities with which he should glorifie God are few or none his sincerity which should be the Evangelical perfection of all his duties hath more then an ordinary tincture of hypocrisie and self-ends mixed with it With what confidence therefore can such an one draw neer to Christ or ever expect to be welcomed by him Now to put to silence these reasonings and to allay these feares which unless checkt and bounded do oftentimes terminate in the blacknesse of despaire there is not a more effectual remedy then the consideration of the freenesse of the grace of God and Christ in the promises which are not made to such as deserve mercy but to such as want it not to righteous persons but to sinners not to the whole but to the sick And therefore such who through the weaknesse of faith or the violence of temptations finde it difficult to lay hold on the promises of God touching the pardon of sin and the obtaining of life and salvation let them resolve the promises into the first root and principle from whence they spring which is not from any good within us but wholly from grace without us and they will readily finde that by eying the ground and original of the promise they will sooner be encouraged and drawn to believe and to lay hold upon it then by looking onely to the promise it selfe Of all the wayes and experiments to beare up a sinking spirit there is no consideration like this that from the beginning to the end of our salvation nothing is primarily active but free grace This is a firme bottome of comfort against the guilt of the most bloody and crimson sins because free grace is not tied to any rules it may do what it pleaseth Some body that goes to heaven must be the greatest sinner and what if thou beest he whom God will make the everlasting monument of the riches of his love and mercy in Christ This is an impenetrable shield against the constant accusations of Satan drawn from unworthinesse unprofitablenesse backwardnesse to holy duties and distractions in them 'T is true may a beleever say I am unworthy and that which Satan makes the matter of his accusation is the daily matter of my confessions and self-judgings before God the sinnes which he pleads against me with delight I bemoane with tears of bitternesse And were the way which leads to heaven a ladder of duties and not a golden chaine of free grace I could not but fear that the higher I climbe the greater would my fall prove to be every service being like a brittle round that can beare no weight the whole frame and series of duties at the best far short of the ladder in Jacobs vision which had its foot standing upon the earth and its top reaching to heaven But the whole way of salvation from first to last is all of meere grace that the promise might be sure Rom. 4. 16. Every link of the golden chaine is made up of free mercy Election is free Eph. 1. 5. Vocation free 2 Tim. 1. 9. Justification free Rom. 5. 24. Sanctification free 1 Cor. 6. 11. Glorification free Rom. 6. 23. And therefore though I can challenge nothing of right yet I may ask every thing of mercy especially being invited by him who seedes not his people with empty promises but gives liberally unto every one that asketh and upbraides not either with former sinnes or present failings Jam. 1. 5. SECT 3. Eye Gods Power Secondly in the applying of every promise look with the eye of faith upon the greatnesse of Gods power which is able to fulfill to the least iota whatever he hath spoken and to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can aske or think Eph. 3. 20. The confining of Gods power according to the narrow apprehensions and dwarfish thoughts that men naturally have of him in their hearts the Scripture points out as the chief root of all that unbelief and distrust which is put forth in their lives Thus the Israelites in the wildernesse were seldome in any exigency which they looked upon beyond the possibility of second causes to deliver them from but they straightways called also into question the power of God Psalme 78. 19 20. They spake against God they said Can God furnish a table in the Wildernesse Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streames overflowed but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people So when they were in the long captivity of Babylon they had many cleare and expresse promises of being restored and brought back again into their own inheritance yet measuring the truth of Gods Word not by the strength of his power but by the improbabilities and impossibilities which did appeare to their reason they look upon themselves not as prisoners of hope but as free among the dead and as far from any expectation of deliverance as dead and drie bones are from reviving Our bones say they are dried up and our hopes are lost and we are cut off for our parts Ezek. 37. 11. Thus the Sadduces denied and deuided the great doctrine of the resurrection as being full of irreconcileable difficulties and inconsistencies How a body and a soul separated should be reunited how a body not only separated from the soul but dissolved into dust should be recompacted how dust scattered and blown up and down should be recollected was altogether beyond the line of their reason for to fathome or compasse Our Saviour therefore points out the ground of their errour to arise not onely from their ignorance of the Scripture which had foretold it but also of the power of God which was able to effect it Ye do erre not knowing the Scrptures nor the power of God Mat. 22. 29. Necessary therefore it is in the making use of any promise that a beleever have such conceptions of the power of God as that whatever lets and impediments do arise between the promise and the fulfilling of it though as high as mountaines and as strong as
particular perswasion that God will give the very thing it self that we begge of him but the faith of submission by which we resolve our prayers into his will and beleeve that he will do whatever is best for our good and his glory We then distrust God when either we are jealous of his willingnesse to performe his Word or of his power to accomplish his Word But when we acknowledge the alsufficiency of his power and resigne our desires to his will we do then pray in faith And this was the faith that our Lord Christ did put forth in his prayer when he said Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 22. 42. I do not deny but that God may sometimes assure and incline the hearts of his children that are importunate wrestlers in prayer to be confident of granting the temporal blessing that they seek but this is a confidence that is rather begotten by the Spirit in the height and vigour of prayer then brought with us unto the duty Sometimes I say such a confidence may be but it is neither ordinary nor usual Secondly temporal mercies must be asked for a right end James 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amisse that ye may consume it upon your lusts Carnal lusts may make men eager in prayer but not successeful Usually wrong ends in prayer are accompanied with disappointments Sinister Aimes turn duties of worship into acts of self-seeking they change the voice of prayer into a brutish howling Hos 7. 14. The execution of justice it selfe into murther Hos 1. 4. Finis in moralibus idem est quod forma in naturalibus The end in moral things is the same that the forme is in natural things The quality and goodnesse of them is not discerned but by the end It concernes therefore beleevers that would in prayer obtaine any outward blessing to look unto their ends in asking of it though the mercy be earthly yet their end in asking of it must be heavenly Gods glory must be in the end of all prayer as his Name must be in the beginning of it else it cannot be expected that it should be owned as a sacrifice by him The fifth Assertion is that the blessings of temporal promises are to be sought secondarily and not primarily Mat. 6. 33. They are neither to be the chief cares of our life or desires of our prayers because the soul may do well without the body but the body cannot do well without the soul And yet of this disorder the greatest part of men may be found guilty Their estates they carefully put into their deeds and evidences and their souls they onely put into their wills the last of instruments that are usually either made or sealed For the one they think it enough if with a few gilded expressions of piety it be given and bequeathed as a legacy unto God But for the other they conceive no paines or toile too great to encrease it or cost too much for to secure it The one they make the task of the morning and day of their lives the other the by-work of the evening and the approaching night of death So that it is no wonder if in these preposterous and irregular actings of men they do not finde the blessing of Gods promise upon their labours that they toil as in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity Hab. 2. 13. that they sowe much and bring in little Hag. 1. 6. For what benefit can they justly expect to reap from the promise who neglect to walk by the guidance of that rule to which the promise is made CHAP. XVII It is an horrible sinne to neglect or abuse the Promises Aggravated in five particulars HAving spoken enough if not too much to each of those foure heads that in the beginning were propounded and laid as so many corner-stones for this small structure to stand upon The last head which now remaines to be insisted on is the handling of such useful applications and inferences as do naturally flow and arise from this Doctrinal truth of the transcendent worth and preciousnesse of the promises which are given unto us by Jesus Christ And the first Application which I shall make is A sad and just complaint which sighes and tears may better expresse then words of the great injury and contempt that is done unto the blessed promises both by mens carelesse and overly seeking after them as things of no great worth and by their sinful perverting of them unto wrong ends and purposes while they turn grace into wantonnesse and sin the more freely because of the redundancy of divine mercy which is manifested in them God layes it as an heavy charge against Israel that he had written unto them the great things of his law but they were counted as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. How much more are they blame-worthy who are guilty of despising the Magnalia Evangelii and of setting light by the most choice and excellent things of the Gospel as if they were of little or no importance for the obtaining of life and salvation This complaint if it had no circumstances to aggravate it but were onely laid in the general against men that they have forsaken the fountain of living water and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2. 13. It would quickly prove to be so black an indictment as could neither admit of an excuse to lessen the sin nor yet of pitty to mitigate the punishment that deserves to be inflicted upon such offenders But if we shall consider it in the several aggravations which heighten it we may then at this sinne justly crie out Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate There are five particulars that make the complaint more sad and the injury which is done unto the promises the more exceeding sinful SECT 1. The first Aggravation is taken from the universality of this sin they who are transgressors in this matter are not a few Parisiensis speaking of Davids Psalmes cries out Eheu quot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habet sanctus David vel potiùs Spiritus sanctus ad suam Cytharam Oh! how many Dullards hath holy David or rather the holy Spirit to his harp who are little affected with the heavenly melody that it makes And may it not be as truly said concerning the precious promises of Christ Oh! how many are there that taste little or nothing of their sweetnesse What vast numbers of men are there who see no more worth and beauty in them then blinde persons do in the Sunne How many be there that spend and blaze away the lamp of their time in frothy studies and curious speculations but seldome or never look into the Bible to read and understand what their interest or right is to the blessings of heaven by the promises How ambitious are others to be thought to know much of the minde of God concerning his decrees which
we can make David as a man truly sensible of his many and deep obligations unto God hath a great consultation with himself which way he should expresse his thankfulnesse unto him What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psalm 116. 12. But after all musings and studyings with himself he can finde no other way but this I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord Vers 13. An Eucharistical sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is all that David though a King can finde to give unto God And this kinde of payment the poor may make as well as the rich the young as well as the old The children in the Gospel can cry Hosanna and say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Mat. 21. 15. as well as others It is a good observation of Nazianzen that God hath equalized all men in that ability which most recommends or discommends them unto him and that is the ability of the will to love him and to give him praise This is that which all may do who have tasted how good God is and this is all that the best can do who have been most filled with the riches of his mercy Seeing therefore that a thankful recognition of Gods love and bounty in his promises is the onely recompence that we can make it is most meet that we should abound in it and make it not only the duty of our lips but of our hearts breathing forth our very souls in the continual praises of him who hath manifested the gracious purposes of his heart unto us in many rich promises of life and salvation More then this God in his mercy doth not desire and lesse then this in all reason we cannot give Thirdly the giving of God praise and glory in endlesse songs of thanksgiving is the onely work of the Saints in heaven when fully made partakers of all the blessings that the promises do hold forth It is now the continual blessed exercise of all the inhabitants of those everlasting Mansions in the highest heavens and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither and have our faith turned into vision and our hope into enjoyment Requisite therefore it is that what we know must be our eternal exercise in heaven to make that our frequent practice on earth Those persons that intend to travel into remote and forreign countreys with an advantage unto themselves do before-hand acquaint themselves with the customes manners and fashions of the place to which they go and from others whose experience may give the best light do inquire what is the ingenie and disposition of the natives that so they may the better comply with their formes and civilities yea they endeavour to get some smattering of the language that they may not be altogether strangers to what is done and spoken there So should Christians who expect to dwell with the Lord for ever with all diligence inure themselves to the work and services of that innumerable company of Angels and spirits of just men made perfect and to get some rudiments of their heavenly language while they are below that so they may the better bear a part in that celestial quire singing with a loud voice Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Rev. 7. 12. Now that this duty of thankfulnesse may run in a right channel I shall in some few particulars shew how it may and ought to be expressed First let thankfulnesse appear in the fulfilling of that exhortation of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God The promises as they are causes working holinesse so also are they Arguments inciting to it being for the most part propounded as rewards unto the obedience of faith which is a purifying and cleansing grace Acts 15. 9. In what more genuine fruits therefore can thankfulnesse manifest it self then in holinesse Or how can a beleever better evidence his high esteeme of the promises then by his continual pressing forward to the perfection of sanctity Now as Aristotle tells us in the first book of his Rhetoricks that there are two wayes by which men grow rich either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding to their present store or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substracting and taking away from their expenses So also holinesse is perfected by a double meanes either by the addition of one grace unto another which is the duty that Saint Peter calls for 2 Pet. 1. 5. Adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse c. Or else by not making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof which is the counsel that Saint Paul gives to beleevers Rom. 13. 14. And he that doth not both these wayes endeavour the increase of holinesse starving the boundlesse desires of the flesh and strengthening the graces of the Spirit by renuing acts of godlinesse can never be rich either in grace or comfort Secondly let thankfulnesse for the promises be expressed in proclaiming that mercy salvation and assured peace which you have received from them If so be you have tasted that God is good do as the birds which when they come to a full heap chirp and invite their fellows Tell the hungry soul what satisfying and blessed food the promises are the dejected what reviving cordials the poor what enduring riches the broken and wounded what healing balsoms they are that so they may be encouraged to take hold of these promises by an hand of faith Criples that returne with health from the Bathe hang up their crutches on the trees and their rags on the hedges that are near that thereby they may win credit and esteeme to the waters And so to honour the Wells of salvation should Christians make known the great things that God hath done for them and leave in every place where they come some testimony of their thankfulnesse and Gods goodnesse Come saith David all ye that feare the Lord and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul Psal 66. 16. He doth not call them as Austin observes to acquaint them with speculations how wide the earth is how farre the heavens are stretched out what the number of the starres is or what is the course of the Sunne but come and I will tell you the wonders of his grace the faithfulnesse of his promises the riches of his mercy to my soul Oh! that Believers would be perswaded to declare thus the experiences that they have any time had of Gods truth and power in his Word and in a way of gratitude to communicate them unto others How instrumental might they thereby become in the comforting and establishing of others Experiences are