Vnity than the enemies of the Church themselves For he hath not judgement enough to guide him the right way and yet he hath so much zeal as will not suffer him to keep his errours to himself 3. And all these distempers that are but in a lower degree in the weak Christian are predominant in the Hypocrite The Church shall have no concord or peace if he can hinder it but what is consistent with his carnal interest his honour or wealth or dignity in the world The pride and covetousness which rule himself he would have to make the terms of concord and to rule all others It is Hypocrites in the Church that are the greatest cause of discord and divisions having selfish spirits principles and ends and having alwaies a work of their own to do which suits not well with the work of Christ and yet Christs work must be subjected to it and ordered and over-ruled by it And while they pretend to go to the Scriptures or to Councils or Fathers for their reasons indeed they go first for them to their worldly interest and then would fain hire or press the Scripture Church or Fathers to serve their turn and come in as witnesses on their side And thus the Church as well as Christ is betrayed by the covetous Judas's of his own family And the servants of the world the flesh and Devil that take up the livery of Christ and usurp the name and honour of Christians do more effectually hinder the concord and prosperity of the Church than any open enemies do And those that are indeed no Christians do cause Christianity to be reproached Even as Spies and Traitors that are hired by the enemy to take up arms in the Army which they fight against that they may betray it by their fraud and do more harm to it by raising mutinies and by false conduct than a multitude of professed enemies could have done It is proud and worldly carnal Hypocrites that hinder most the concord of Believers LIV. 1. A confirmed Christian is of a peaceable spirit He is not masterly domineering turbulent hurtfull cruell seditious factious or contentious He is like ripened fruits that are mellow and sweet when the younger greener fruits are sowre and harsh He is not wise in his own conceit Rom. 12.16 and therefore not over urgent in obtruding his conceits on others nor quarrelsome with all that cannot entertain them nor will he easily lay mens salvation or damnation no nor the Churches peace upon them He is kindly affectioned to others with brotherly love yea loveth his neighbour as himself Rom. 12.10 13 9 10. And therefore he doth to others as he would they should do to him and useth them as he would be used by them And then how far they are like to suffer by him you may easily judge For Love worketh no ill to his neighbour Rom. 13.10 He is above the portion of the worldling and a contemner of that vanity which carnal men account their felicity and therefore he preferreth love and quietness before it and can lose his right when the interest of Love and Peace requireth it He is become as a little child in his conversion Matth. 18.3 and is low and little in his own eyes and therefore contendeth not for superiority or preheminence either in place or power or reputation of his learning wisdom or piety but in honour preferreth others before himself Rom. 12.10 He mindeth not high things but condescendeth to men of low estate Rom. 12.16 and therefore will not contend for estimation or precedency nor scramble to he highest though he rise by the ruines of mens bodies and souls If it be possible as much as lyeth in him he will live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 For he is not one that by word or deed will avenge himself but when the wrath of others is up like a blustring storm he giveth place to it he boweth before it or goeth out of the way Rom. 12.19 If his enemy hunger he feedeth him if he thirst he giveth him drink when oppressors would deprive not only an enemy but the righteous of their meat and drink and thus he melteth his hardened enemies by heaping kindnesses upon them when they are wrathfull and proud and contentious and do him wrong or use provoking words against him he is not overcome of their evil to imitate them but he overcometh their evil with his good Rom. 12.20 21. If God have given him more knowledge and abilities than others he doth not presently set up himself to be admired for it nor speak disdainfully and contemptuously of those that are not of his mind But he sheweth the eminency of his wisdom with meekness by the works of a good conversation and by doing better than the unwiser do James 3. from verse 1. to 13. He is endued with the wisdom from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruit without partiality or wavering in persecution as Dr. Hammond renders it and without hypocrisie And thus the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.17 18. As he is taught of God to love his brother 1 Thes. 4.9 So that same teaching with experience of the effects assureth him that they that pretend to be wiser and better than others when they have bitter envious zeal and strife in their hearts they vainly glory and lie against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work James 3.14 15 16. Read but the story of the Jewish Zealots in Josephus and the heretical Zealots in all ages of the Church and you will perceive the truth of this when such quarrelsome spirits are filling the Church with contentions or vexations about their meats and drinks and daies c. the Christian indeed understandeth that the Kingdom of God consisteth not of such things as these but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of wise and sober men Therefore he followeth after things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another and will not for meats c. destroy the work of God Rom. 14.17 18 19 20. He stayeth not till peace be offered him or brought home to him but he followeth peace with all men as well as holiness Heb. 12.14 If it fly from him he pursueth it if it be denied him he seeketh it and will not refuse to stoop to the poorest for it and to beg it of his inferiours if it were upon his knees rather than be denied it and live an unpeaceable disquiet life Psal. 34.14 For he believeth that blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Matth. 5.9 2. And the weak Christian hath the same spirit and therefore the love of peace is most
them against Heresies which indeed are all but novelties that so they may know how to try the Doctrines that afterward should be offered them and stick fast to that which the Apostles taught He next requireth them to abound therein to let them know that as it is no small matters that they expect by Christ so they should not rest in small degrees of Grace or duty but especially the duty of Thanksgiving which is an Evangelical and celestial duty and so admirably beseems a people that have partaked of such admirable Salvation and is so suitable to our mercies and our condition and Gods just expectation As it is Love and Grace whose eternal praise is designed by the Gospel and are magnified in the Church by the Redeemers great and blessed work So it is returns of Love and Praise and Joy that should be the most abounding or overflowing part of all our Christian affections and performances After this explication you may see that the sense of the Text lyeth plain in this Proposition Doct. Those that have savingly Received Christ Jesus the Lord must be so far from resting here as if all were done that they must spend the rest of their dayes in walking in him being Rooted and built up in him and stablished in the Faith as the Apostles taught it and abounding in it especially with joyful prayses to our Redeemer And because that my design is only to Direct young Christians how they may come to be established and confirmed in Christ I shall therefore pass over all other things that the full handling of this Text requireth and shall only give you 1. A short intimation here what this confirmation and stability is which shall be fullyer opened to you in the Directions 2. And shew you the need of seeking it And 3. How you may attain it 1. This Confirmation is the Habitual strength of Grace distinct from present actual confirmation by the influence of Grace from God For though God may in an instant confirm a weak person against some particular temptation by his free assistance yet that is not it which we have here to speak of but Habitual confirmation in a State of Grace And ordinarily we may expect that Gods co-operating assisting Grace should bear some proportion with our Habitual Grace Even as in nature he concurreth with the strongest men to do greater works than he causeth the weak to do and with the wisest men to understand more than the foolish do I say but that Ordinarily it is thus A Confirmed Christian as contrary to a weak one 1. Is not to be judged of by his freedome from all scruples doubts or fears 2. Nor by his eminency in mens esteem or observation 3. Nor by his strength of Memory 4. Or freedom of utterance in Praying Preaching or Discourse 5. Or by his seemly deportment and courtesy towards others 6. Nor by his sedate calm and lovely temper and freedom from some hast and heats which other tempers are more prone to 7. Nor by a Man-pleasing or dissembling faculty to bridle the tongue when it would open the corruption of the mind and to suppress all words which would make others know how bad the heart is There are many endowments laudable and desirable which will not shew so much as sincerity in Grace and much less a state of Confirmation and stability But Confirmation lyeth in the great degree of all those Graces which Constitute a Christian. And the great degree appeareth in the operations of them As 1. When Holiness is as a New-nature in us and giveth us a Promptitude to holy actions and maketh us free and ready to them and maketh them easie and familiar to us Whereas the weak go heavily and can scarce drive on and force their minds 2. When there is a constancy or frequency of holy actions which sheweth the strength and stability of holy inclinations 3. When they are powerful to bear down oppositions and temptations and can get over the greatest impediments in the way and make an advantage of all resistance and despise the most splendid baits of sin 4. When it is still getting ground and drawing the Soul upward and nearer to God its Rest and End And when the heart groweth more Heavenly and Divine and stranger to Earth and earthly things 5. And when holy and heavenly things are more sweet and delectable to the Soul and are sought and used with more Love and pleasure All these do shew that the Operations of Grace are vigorous and strong and consequently that the Habits are so also And this confirmation should be found 1. In the Vnderstanding 2. In the Will 3. In the Affections 4. In the Life 1. When the Mind of man hath a larger comprehension of the Truths of God and the Order and Method and Vsefulness of every truth And a deeper apprehension of the certainty of them and of the Goodness of the matter expressed in them When Knowledg and Faith come nearest unto sight or intention and we have the fullest the truest and the firmest and most certain apprehension of things revealed and unseen when the Nature and the Reasons and the ends and benefits of the Christian Religion are all most clearly orderly decently constantly and powerfully printed on the mind then is that Mind in a Confirmed state 2. When the Will is guided by such a confirmed understanding and is not bruitishly resolved he knoweth not for what or why When Light hath fixed it in such Resolutions as are past all notable doubtings deliberations waverings or unwilling backwardness and a man is in seeking God and his Salvation and avoiding known sin as a natural man is about the questions whether he should preserve his Life and make provision for it and whether he should poison or famish or torment himself When the Inclination of the Will to God and Heaven and Holiness are likest to its natural Inclination to Good as Good and to its own felicity And its action is so free as to have Least Indetermination and to be likest to Natural necessary acts as those are of blessed Spirits in Heaven When the least intimation from God prevaileth and the Will doth answer him with readiness and delight And when it taketh pleasure to trample upon all opposition and when all that can be offered to corrupt the heart and draw it to sin and loosen it from God prevaileth but as so much filth and dung would do Phil. 3.7 8 9. This is a confirmed state of Will 3. When the Affections do proceed from such a Will and are ready to assist excite and serve it and to carry us on in necessary Duties When the lower affections of Fear and sorrow do cleanse and restrain and prepare the way and the Higher Affections of Love and Delight adhere to God and Desire and Hope do make out after him and set the Soul on just endeavours When Fear and Grief have less to do and are delivering up the heart still more and more
Wax when yet the Image on the Seal is perfect And therefore the World hath no just cause to censure God or Christ or the Spirit or the Word to be imperfect because that you are so But yet they will do it and their temptation is great O Sirs how would your Prince take it of you or how would your poorest friend take it of you if you should hang forth a deformed picture of them to the view of all that shall pass by and should represent them as blind or leprous or lame wanting a leg or an arm or an eye Would they not say that you unworthily exposed them to scorn So if you will take on you to be the living Images of God of Christ of the Spirit and the Word and yet will be blind and worldly and passionate and proud and untruly and obstinate or lazy and negligent and little differing from those that bear the Image of the Devil what do you but Proclaim that the Image of God and of Satan and the World do little differ and that God is thus unrighteous and unholy as you are 10. Lastly Consider That the faithful servants of Christ are few and therefore if those few dishonour him and prove not fast to him what do you but provoke him to forsake all the World and make an end of all the Sons of men It is but a little flock to whom he will give the Kingdom Luke 12.32 It is but a few from whom God expecteth any great matter And shall those few prove deceitful to him It must be you or none that must honour the Gospel You or none that must be exemplary to the World and shall it be none at all Shall all the Workmanship of God abuse him Shall he have no honour from any inferiour Creature How can you then expect that he should preserve the World For will he be at so much care to keep up a World to dishonour and abuse him If the turning of mens hearts prevent it not he would come and smite the earth with a Curse Mal. 4.6 For the Land that beareth Thorns and Bryars is rejected and is nigh unto Cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6.7 8. If therefore Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah sin Hos. 4.15 If the Vessels of wrath prepared to destruction will be blind and sensual and filthy still yet let pollution be far from the sanctified Such were some of you but ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified 1 Cor. 6.11 O let the Lord be magnified in his Saints Blot not out his Image Receive not his impressions defectively and by the halves Let the Name of the most holy one be written in your very foreheads O that you would be so tender of the honour of the Lord and shine forth so brightly in Holyness and Righteousness that he that runs might read whose servants you are and know the Image Superscription of God upon the face of your conversations that as clearly as light is seen in and from the Sun and the power and wisdom and goodness of God is seen in the frame of the Creation and of Scripture so might the same shine forth in you that you might be Holy as God is Holy 1 Pet. 1.16 and perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Matth. 5.48 that they that would know God may see him in his Saints where his Image is or should be so lively and discernable And they that cannot read and understand the Scripture or the works of Creation or disposing-Providence may read and understand the holy and heavenly representations of your lives Men are apt to look after Images of the Godhead because they are carnal and far from God O you that are appointed to bear his Image see that you so represent him to the eyes of the world as may be to his glory and not to his dishonour and take not the Name of God in vain It is so desirable for God and for the Church and for your own peace and happiness that Christians should grow up to a ripeness in Grace and be rooted built up confirmed and abound according to my Text that it hath drawn out from me all these words of exhortation thereunto Though one would think that to men of such holy Principles and experience it should be more than needs But if all will but serve to awaken the weak to a diligent progress I shall be glad and have my end The great matter that I intended when I began this discourse is yet behind and that is the giving you such Directions as may tend to your Confirmation and perseverance Which I shall now proceed to But I intreat every Reader that hath any spark of Grace in his Soul that he will resolve to put these Directions in practice and turn them not off with a bare perusal or approbation Let me reap but thus much fruit of all my foregoing Exhortations and I shall not think my labour lost XX. DIRECTIONS FOR CONFIRMATION In a state of Grace DIRECT I. Be sure that the Foundation be well laid both in your Heads and Hearts or else you can never attain to Confirmation nor be savingly built up TO this end you must know what the Foundation is and how it must be soundly laid The Foundation hath two parts or respects according to the faculties of the Soul where it must be laid The first is the Truth of the Doctrine and Matter and the second is the Goodness of it As True the Foundation is laid in our Understandings as Good it is laid in the Will Concerning both these we must therefore first consider of the matter of the Foundation and then of the Manner how that must be received or laid And the Foundation is that matter or object of our Faith and Hope and Love which is Essential to a Christian that is to the Christian saving Faith hope and love This hath been alwayes contained in our Baptism because Baptizing us is making us visible Christians or the solemn entrance into the state of Christianity As therefore we are Baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil so the doing of this unfeignedly without equivocation according to the Scripture sense of the words is the Essence of Christianity or the right laying of the Foundation So that the Foundation-Principal or Fundamental Matter is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost The Secondary Foundation or Fundamental Doctrine is those Scripture Propositions that express our Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost When we name the three persons as the object of the Christian Faith we express names of Relation which contain both the persons nature and Offices or undertaken works Without either of which God were not God and Christ were not Christ and the Holy Ghost were not in the sense of our Articles of Faith the Holy Ghost As we must therfore believe that there is One only God So we must
consider of this weighty truth it is not the knowledge of the Truth that will serve your turns without a true and solid knowledge of that truth nor is it the hearing or understanding of the best grounds and reasons or proofs in the world that will serve the turn unless you have a deep and solid apprehension of those proofs and reasons A man that hath the best arguments may forsake the truth because he hath not a good understanding of those arguments As a man that hath the best weapons in the world may be kill'd for want of strength skill to use them I tell you if you knew every truth in the Bible you may grow much in knowledge of the very same truths which you know 3. Moreover a young ungrounded Christian when he seeth all the fundamental Truths and seeth good evidence and reasons of them perhaps may be yet ignorant of the right order and place of every truth It 's a rare thing to have young Professors to understand the necessary truths methodically And this is a very great defect For a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consisteth in the respect they have to one another This therefore will be a considerable part of your confirmation growth in your understandings to see the body of Christian doctrine as it were at one view as the several parts of it are united in one perfect frame and to know what aspect one point hath upon another and which is their due places There is a great difference between the sight of the several parts of a clock or watch as they are disjoynted and scattered about and the seeing of them conjoyned and in use and motion To see here a pin and there a wheel and not know how to set them all together nor ever see them in their due places will give but little satisfaction It is the frame and design of holy Doctrine that must be known and every part should be discerned as it hath its particular use to that design and as it is connected with the other parts By this means only can the true nature of Theology together with the harmony and perfection of truth be clearly understood And every single truth also will be much better perceived by him that seeth its place and order than by any other For one truth exceedingly illustrates and leads in another into our understanding Nay more than so your own hearts and lives will not be well ordered if the method or order of the truths received should be mistaken For the truths of God are the very instruments of your sanctification which is nothing but their effects upon your understandings and wills as they are set home by the holy Ghost Truths are the seal and your souls are the wax and holiness is the impression made If you receive but some truths you will have but some part of the due impression Nay indeed they are so coherent and make up the sence by their necessary conjunction that you cannot receive any one of them sincerely without receiving every one that is of the essence of the Christian belief And if you receive them disorderly the image of them on your souls will be as disorderly as if your bodily members were monstrously misplaced Study therefore to grow in the more methodical knowledge of the same truths which you have received And though you are not yet ripe enough to discern the whole body of Theology in due method yet see so much as you have attained to know in the right order and placing of every part As in Anatomy its hard for the wisest Physician to discern the course of every branch of veins and arteries but yet they may easily discern the place and order of the principal parts and greater vessels So it is in Divinity where no man hath a perfect view of the whole till he come to the state of perfection with God but every true Christian hath the knowledge of all the essentials and may know the order and places of them all 4. Another part of your confirmation growth in understanding is In discerning the same truths more practically than you did before and perceiving the usefulness of every truth for the doing of its work on your hearts and lives It was never the will of God that bare speculation should be the end of his Revelations or of our belief Divinity is an Affective practical Science therefore must truths be known and believed that the good may be received and a holy change may be made by them on the heart and life Even the Doctrine of the Trinity it self is practical and the fountain of that which is more easily discerned to be practical There is not one Article of our faith but hath a special work to do upon our hearts and lives and therefore a special fitness for that work Now the understandings of young Christians do discern many truths when they see but little of the work to be done by them and the special usefulness of those truths to those works This therefore must be your daily enquiry and in this you must grow As if you come into a workmans shop and see a hundred tools about you it is a small matter to discern the shape and fashion of them and what mettle they are made of But you will further ask What is this tool to do and what is that to do If ever you will learn the trade you must know the use of every tool So must you if you will be skilful Christians be acquainted with the use of the truths which you have received and know that this truth is to do this work and that truth to do that work upon the soul and life A Husbandman may know as many herbs and flowers and fruits as a Physician and be able to tell them all by name and say this is such an herb and that is such a one and to perceive the shape and beauty of them But he knows little or nothing that they are good for unless to feed his cattle Whereas the Physician can tell you that this herb is good against this disease and that herb against another disease and can make use of those same herbs to save mens lives which other men tread under foot as useless A Countrey man may see the names that are written on the Apothecaries boxes but it is the Physician that knows the medicinal use of the drugs So many men that are unsanctified may know the outside of holy doctrine that little know what use is to be made of it And the weak Christian knows less of this than the grown confirmed Christian doth Learn therefore every day more and more to know what every truth is good for that this is for the exercise and strengthening of such a grace and this is good against such or such a disease of the soul. Every leaf in the Bible hath a healing vertue in it They are the leaves of the Tree of Life
Christians though their Worship hath errors and faults repugnant to the right order and manner of Worship so be it you joyn not in that Worship which is substantially evil and such as God doth utterly disown Or that you commit no actual sin your selves or that you approve not of the errors and faults of the Worshippers and justifie not their smallest evil Or that you prefer not defective faulty Worship before that which is more pure and agreeable to the Will of God For while all the Worshippers are faulty and imperfect all their Worship will be so too And if your actual sin when you Pray or Preach defectively your selves doth not signify that you approve your faultiness much less will your presence prove that you allow of the faultiness of others The business that you come upon is to joyn with a Christian Congregation in the use of those Ordinances which God hath appointed supposing that the Ministers and Worshippers will all be sinfully defective in method order words or circumstances And to bear with that which God doth bear with and not to refuse that which is Gods for the adherent faults of men no more than you will refuse every dish of meat which is unhansomly Cooked as long as there is no poyson in it and you prefer it not before better 1 Cor. 1.10 and 3.1 2 3. with 11.17 18 21. Rom. 15.1 2. DIRECT XIV Keep up a constant Government over your Thoughts and Tongues especially against those particular sins which you are stronglyest tempted to and which you see other Christians most overtaken with KEep your Thoughts imployed upon somthing that is good and profitable either about some useful Truths or about some duty to God or man of your general or particular Calling yea about all these in their several seasons Learn how to watch your thoughts and stop them at their first excursions and how to quicken them and make them serviceable to every grace and every duty You can never improve your solitary hours if you have not the Government of your Thoughts And as the Thoughts must be governed because they are the first and intimate actings of good or evil so the Tongue must be Governed as the first expresser of the mind and the first instrument of good or hurt to others Especially take heed of these sins which the faultiness of most Professors of Religion doth warn you to avoid 1. An ordinary course of vain jesting and unprofitable talk 2. Provoking passionate inconsiderate words that tend to kindle wrath in others 3. Backbiting censuring and speaking evil of others without any just call when it is either upon uncertain reports or uncharitable suspition or tendeth more to hurt than good 4. A forward venting of our own conceits and a confident pleading for our uncertain unproved Opinions in Religion and a contentious wrangling for them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them And a forwardness in all company to be the Speakers rather than the Hearers and to talk in a Magisterial Teaching way as if we took our selves to be the wisest and others to have need to learn of us But especially take heed of speaking evil of those that have wronged you or of those that differ from you in some tollerable Opinions in Religion And hate that devilish uncharitable vice which maketh many ready to believe any thing or say any thing be it never so false of those that are against their Sect yea of whole parties of men that differ from them when there is not one of a thousand of all the party that ever they were acquainted with or ever could prove the thing by of which they are accused By the means of these bold uncharitable reports the Devil hath unspeakably gained against Christ and the Kingdom of malice hath won upon the Kingdom of Love and most Christians are easier known to be factious by hating or slandering one another than they can be known to be Christs Disciples by loving one another And while every Sect without remorse doth speak reproachfully and hatefully of the rest they learn hereby to hate one another and harden the Infidel and ungodly world in hating and speaking evil of them all So that a Turk or Heathen need no other witness of the odiousness of all Christians than the venemous words which they speak against each other And as foul words in quarrels prepare for blows so these malicious invectives upon differences in Religion prepare for the cruellest persecutions From my own observation which with a grieved soul I have made in this Generation I hereby give warning to this and all succeeding Ages that if they have any regard to Truth or Charity they take heed how they believe any factious partial Historian or Divine in any evil that he saith of the party which he is against For though there be good and credible persons of most parties yet you shall find that passion and partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity in most that are sick of this Disease And that the envious zeal which is described Jam. 3. doth make them think they do God service first in believing false reports and then in verting them against those that their zeal or laction doth call the enemies of truth so that there is little credit to be given to their reproaches farther than some better evidence is brought to prove the thing Nay it would astonish a man to read the impudent lies which I have often read obtruded upon the World with such confidence that the Reader will be tempted to think Surely all this cannot be false Yea about publick words or actions where you would think that the multitude of Witnesses would deter them from speaking it if it were not true and yet all as false as tongue can speak Therefore believe not Pride or Faction or Malice in any evil that it saith unless you have better evidence of the truth Most Christian is that advice of Dr. H. More that all Parties of Christians would mark all the Good which is in other Parties and be more forward to speak of that than of the Evil And this would promote the work of Charity in the Church and the interest of Christianity in the World whereas the overlooking of all that 's good and aggravating all the evil and falsly seigning more than is true is the work of greatest service to the Devil and of greatest enmity to Christianity and Love that I know commonly practised in the World Keep your tongues from all such hellish work as this DIRECT XV. Let every state of life and Relation that you are in be sanctifyed unto God and conscionably used And to that end understand the advantages and duties of every condition and Relation and the sins and hinderances and dangers which you are most lyable to THe duties of our Relations are a great part of the work of a Christians life As Magistrates and Subjects Pastors and Flocks Parents and Children Husband and Wife Masters and
I meddle not now with the Lapsed Christian as such nor with those Giants in holiness of extraordinary strength nor with the perfect blessed Souls in Heaven But it is the Christian who hath attained that confirmation in grace and composed quiet fruitfull state which we might ordinarily expect if we were industrious whose Image or Character I shall now present you with I call him oft-times A Christian indeed in allusion to Christs description of Nathaniel Joh. 1.47 and as we commonly use that word for one that answereth his own profession without any notable dishonour or defect As we say such a man is a Scholar indeed and not as signifying his meer sincerity I mean one whose heart and life is so conform to the Principles the Rule and the Hopes of Christianity that to the Honour of Christ the true Nature of our Religion is discernible in his conversation Mat. 5.16 In whom an impartial Infidel might perceive the true nature of the Christian Faith and Godliness If the World were fuller of such living Images of Christ who like true Regenerate Children represent their Heavenly Father Christianity would not have met with so much prejudice nor had so many enemies in the World nor would so many millions have been kept in the darkness of Heathenism and Infidelity by flying from Christians as a sort of people that are common and unclean Among Christians there are Babes that must be fed with milk and not with strong meat that are unskilfull in the word of righteousness 1 Joh. 2.2.12 13 14. Heb. 5.12 13 14. and Novices who are unsetled and in danger of an overthrow 1 Tim. 3.6 Joh. 15.3 5 c. In these the nature and excellency of Christianity is little more apparent than Reason in a little childe And there are strong confirmed Christians who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.13 14. and who shew forth the glory of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light of whom God himself may say to Satan and their malicious enemies as once of Job Hast thou not seen my servant Job c. This Christian indeed I shall now describe to you both to confute the Infidels slanders of Christianity and to unteach men those false descriptions which have caused the presumption of the profane and the irregularities of erroneous Sectaries and to tell you what manner of persons they be that God is honoured by and what you must be if you will well understand your own Religion Be Christians indeed and you will have the Comforts indeed of Christianity and will finde that its Fruits and Joyes are not dreams and shadows and imaginations if you content not your selves with an imagination dream and shaddow of Christianity or with some clouded spark or buryed seed The Characters I. A CHRISTIAN INDEED by which I still mean a sound confirmed Christian is one that contenteth not himself to have a seed or Habit of Faith but he Liveth by Faith as the Sensualist liveth by sight or sense Not putting out the eye of sense nor living as if he had no Body nor lived not in a world of sensible Objects But as he is a Reasonable creature which exalteth him above the sensitive Nature so Faith is the true information of his Reason about those high and excellent things which must take him up above things sensible He hath so firm a Belief of the Life to come as procured by Christ and promised in the Gospel as that it serveth him for the Government of his Soul as his bodily sight doth for the conduct of his Body I say not that he is assaulted with no temptations nor that his Faith is perfect in degree nor that believing moveth him as passionately as sight or sense would do But it doth effectually move him through the course and tenour of his life to do those things for the life to come which he would do if he saw the Glory of Heaven and to shun those things for the avoiding of damnation which he would shun if he saw the flames of Hell Whether he do these things so fervently or not his Belief is powerfull effectual and victorious Let sight and sense invite him to their Objects and entice him to sin and forsake his God the objects of Faith shall prevail against them in the bent of an even a constant and resolved life It is things unseen which he taketh for his treasure and which have his heart and hope and chiefest labours All things else which he hath to do are but subservient to his Faith and Heavenly interest as his sensitive faculties are ruled by his Reason His Faith is not only his Opinion which teacheth him to choose what Church or Party he will be of but it is his Intellectual Light by which he liveth and in the confidence and comfort of which he dyeth 2 Cor. 5.7 8 9. For we walk by faith not by sight We groan to be cloathed upon with our heavenly house Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Heb. 10.3 Now the just shall live by faith Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Most of the examples in Heb. 11. do shew you this truth that true Christians live and govern their actions by the firm Belief of the promise of God and of another Life when this is ended v. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith V. 10. Abraham looked for a City which had foundations whose builder and maker is God Moses feared not the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him who is invisible v. 27. So the three witnesses Dan. 3. and Daniel himself ch 6. And all Believers have lived this life as Abraham the Father of the faithfull did who as it is said of him Rom. 4.20 Staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God The Faith of a Christian is truly Divine and he knoweth that Gods truth is as certain as sight it self can be however sight be apter to move the passions Therefore if you can judge but what a Rational man would be if he saw Heaven and Hell and all that God had appointed us to Believe then you may conjecture what a confirmed Christian is though sense do cause more sensible apprehensions 2. The weak Christian also hath a faith that is Divine as caused by God and resting on his word and truth And he so far liveth by this Faith as that it commandeth and guideth the scope and drift of his heart and life But he believeth with a great deal of staggering and unbelief And therefore his Hopes are interrupted by his troublesom doubts and fears and the dimness
grounds of comfort and when they cannot raise their souls to any high and passionate joys they yet walk in a settled peace of soul and in such competent comforts as make their lives to be easie and delightful being well pleased and contented with the happy condition that Christ hath brought them to and thankful that he left them not in those foolish vain pernicious pleasures which were the way to endless sorrows 3. But the seeming Christian seeketh and taketh up his chief contentment in some carnal thing If he be so poor and miserable as to have nothing in possession that can much delight him he will hope for better dayes hereafter and that hope shall be his chief delight or if he have no such hope he will be without delight and shew his love to the world and flesh by mourning for that which he cannot have as others do in rejoycing in what they do possess and he will in such a desperate case of misery be such to the world as the weak Christian is to God who hath a mourning and desiring love when he cannot reach to an enjoying and delighting Love His carnal mind most savoureth the things of the flesh and therefore in them he findeth or seeketh his chief delights Though yet he may have also a delight in his superficiall kind of Religion his hearing and reading praying in his ill-grounded hopes of life eternal But all this is but subordinate to his chiefest earthly pleasure Isai. 58.2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my waies as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching unto God And yet all this was subjected to a covetous oppressing mind Mat. 13.20 He that received the seed into stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended Whereby it appeareth that his love to the word was subjected to his love to the world Obj. But there are two sorts of people that seem to have no fleshly delights at all and yet are not in the way to salvation viz. the Quakers and Behmenists that live in great austerity and some of the Religious orders of the Papists who afflict their flesh Answ. Some of them undergo their fastings and pennance for a day that they may sin the more quietly all the week after And some of them proudly comfort themselves with the fancies and conceit of being and appearing more excellent in austerity than others And all these take up with a carnal sort of pleasure As proud persons are pleased with their own or others conceits of their beauty or witt or worldly greatness so prouder persons are pleased with their own and others conceits of their holiness And verily they have their reward Mat. 6.2 But those of them that place their chiefest happiness in the love of God and the eternal fruition of him in heaven and seek this sincerely according to their helps and power though they are mislead into some superstitious errors I hope I may number with those that are sincere for all their errors and the ill effects of them XXIV 1. A confirmed Christian doth ordinarily discern the sincerity of his own heart and consequently hath some well grounded assurance of the pardon of his sins and of the favour of God and of his everlasting happiness And therefore no wonder if he live a peaceable and joyfull life For his grace is not so small as to be undiscernable nor is it as a sleepy buried seed or principle but it is almost in continual act And they that have a great degree of grace and also keep it in lively exercise do seldom doubt of it Besides that they blot not their Evidence by so many infirmities and falls They are more in the light and have more acquaintance with themselves and more sense of the abundant love of God and of his exceeding mercies than weak Christians have and therefore must needs have more assurance They have boldness of access to the throne of grace without unreverent contempt Eph. 3.12 2.18 They have more of the spirit of Adoption and therefore more child-like confidence in God and can call him Father with greater freedom and comfort than any others can Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.6 1 Joh. 5.19 20. And we know that we are of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickedness c. 2. But the weak Christian hath so small a degree of grace and so much corruption and his grace is so little in act and his sin so much that he seldom if ever attaineth to any well-grounded assurance till he attain to a greater measure of grace He differeth so little from the seeming Christian that neither himself nor others do certainly discern the difference When he searcheth after the truth of his faith and love and heavenly mindedness he findeth so much unbelief and aversness from God and earthly mindedness that he cannot be certain which of them is predominant and whether the interest of this world or that to come do bear the sway So that he is often in perplexities and fears and more often in a dull uncertainty And if he seem at any time to have assurance it is usually but an ill-grounded perswasion of the truth though it be true which he apprehendeth when he taketh himself to be the child of God yet it is upon unfound reasons that he judgeth so or else upon sound reasons weakly and uncertainly discerned so that there is commonly much of security presumption fancie or mistake in his greatest comforts He is not yet in a condition fit for full assurance till his love and obedience be more full 3. But the seeming Christian cannot possibly in that estate have either certainty or good probability that he is a child of God because it is not true His seeming certainty is meerly self-deceit and his greatest confidence is but presumption because the spirit of Christ is not within him and therefore he is certainly none of his Rom. 8.9 XXV 1. The Assurance of a confirmed Christian doth increase his alacrity and diligence in duty and is alwayes seen in his more obedient holy fruitful life The sense of the love and mercy of God is as the rain upon the tender grass He is never so fruitful so thankful so heavenly as when he hath the greatest certainty that he shall be saved The Love of God is then shed abroad upon his heart by the Holy Ghost which maketh him abound in love to God Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. He is the more stedfast unmoveable and alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord when he is most certain that his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 2. But the weak Christian is unfit