which shall devoure the adversaries Heb. 10.27 4. Lastly in the meane time this want of Faith in the promises leaves the heart of a man full of distractions and unquietnesse thereby so that one becomes uneven in all his wayes unsettled in all his thoughts raised up and cast down with contrary hopes and feares as the outward things of this life subject to continuall changes ebbe and flow from day to day whereof we have too many evidences in these times of trouble wherein men fall on and off as their vaine hopes and feares carry them on to one party or drive to the other to the shipwrack of their owne consciences and as much as in them lyes the betraying of the cause of Christ and of his Church and to their shame discovering to the world that they were never yet setled upon any firme foundation whereas one that hath built his Faith upon Gods promise is like a Ship moared by her anchors in a safe harbour from whence the ebbs and flouds of the sea cannot remove her 2. Vse Let me therefore earnestly beseech you right honourable and beloved by the mercies of God to labour above all things to strengthen Faith having such a firme foundation to build it on not cunningly devised fables as the Apostle cals them 2 Pet. 12.16 not the word of men who may deceive and be deceived but a faithfull word Tit. 1.29 A sure word 2. Pet. 1.29 The word of the God of truth who cannot lye a word more firme then the foundation of the earth setled for ever in heaven Psal 119.89 We have great reason to be earnest and serious in labouring with all our power to attain to this firmnesse of Faith not only because otherwise we despise this great mercy and compassion of God towards us in condescending to our weaknesse and abasing himselfe to be ingaged to us by his word his oath and his seales but more especially upon these sore weighty and important considerations 1. Of all other graces Faith is most necessary and usefull unto us every way 1. We thereby bring unto God the greatest glory by it setting to our seale that God is true Ioh. 3.33 As Abraham is said to give glory to God when he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith Rom. 4.20 Indeed there is no more mentioned in that place but that he beleeved and thereby Sealed to the power of God being fully perswaded that he which had promised was able to doe it ver 21. But without beleeving his faithfulnesse and truth with all neither had hee any sound comfort nor God his due honour by beleeving wherefore it expresly testified of Sarah that she beleeved that he was faithfull that had promised Heb. 11.11 2. ly To us is Faith of such necessity that without it wee were dead spiritually it is that which unites us unto Christ the fountaine of life in whom we live as the Apostle testifieth of himself I live saith he yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by Faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2.20 So that without Faith we are without Christ who is our life Col. 3.4 Again it is Faith that quickens all our endeavours and sweetens all our labours in Gods service knowing that in due season we shall reape if we faint not Gal 6.9 Thirdly it is Faith by which both our persons and services are accepted By Faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice then Cain by which he obtained witnesse that he was righteous Heb. 12.4 Fourthly it is Faith that holds up our spirits in afflictions I had fainted saith David unlesse I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of God in the land of the living Psal 27.13 Whence he professeth that Gods word the ground of our Faith was all the comfort which he had in his afflictions Psal 119.50 Fifthly Faith only enables us to withstand all terrours By Faith Moses his parents feared not the Kings commandement Heb. 11.23 And by the same power of Faith the three Children feared neither King Nebuchadnezzars angry countenance nor his threatning words nor his preparations of the flames of fire to torment them no not so farre as to take time to consider what to answer in so dangerous a case Dan. 3.17 Lastly it is Faith that supplies us with strong consolations Heb. 6.18 So that the Apostle tels us that being justified by Faith as we have peace with God so we not only bear tribulations patiently but in the midst of them rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.3 Secondly as Faith of all Graces is most necessary and usefull so is it of all others the hardest to be obtained and that in divers respects For first there is nothing in Nature that can help us to the attaining of Faith Sense cannot help us for the objects of Faith are things that are not seene Heb. 11.1 That is things that are above Sense things that are in the nature of them spirituall 2. Cor. 4.18 Whereas Sense apprehends only things that are grosse and earthly and things whereof many have no present being but are in hope and expectation only Much lesse can Reason help Faith seeing that takes all her grounds from Sense Wherefore Abraham that he might waxe strong in Faith silenced Reason which would have furnished him with arguments against the promise of having a sonne by Sarah for the Apostle tels us that he considered not that is did not so much admit into debate reasons drawn from the deadnesse of his own body and of Sarah's wombe Rom. 4.19 No Sense and Reason are so farre from helping Faith that they are the most dangerous of all other meares to hinder it or overthrow it where it is When David judged by Sense of Gods wayes and dispensations which represented unto him the prosperous condition of the wicked and his owne afflictions every morning it so shooke his Faith that he had almost slipt and was upon the point of condemning his owne wayes and the state of the Godly too as himself acknowledgeth Psal 73.2.13.15 And when Sarah began by Reason to examine the promise of having a Child at 90. yeers old she was so farre from beleeving it that she laughed at it Gen. 18.11 And as long as Moses makes use of his reason to weigh Gods promise of feeding six hundred thousand men besides women and children with flesh in the Wildernesse for a moneth together we see how hardly he is brought to beleeve it Num. 11.21 22 23. It must therefore be concluded that seeing neither Sense nor Reason nor consequently any thing in Nature can bring any help to Faith nay rather are the strongest meanes to oppose and hinder it it must needs be a difficult worke as being both above and contrary to Nature to obtain it A second difficulty in obtaining Faith is the consideration of those great and wonderfull things which it apprehends and beleeves
liberall things Isa 32.8 And yet these are not the words of men but the Promises of the God of truth more firme then the earth it self The Apostle tels us that Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 Now seeing wee are so greedy of gaine why doe we not follow after this gainfull way of godlinesse which brings so large and lasting a reward assured by the word of God himself Nay why upon the same assurance doewe not lay hold of Eternall life What doe we grasping after the world when we have assurance of heaven a Kingdome that cannot be moved by the firmest of all Gods promises in which it is impossible for him to lye Consider I beseech you and let us weigh well what we doe and take notice First of the great wrong and dishonour wee offer to God himself Secondly of the evils that we bring and that deservedly upon our own soules We dishonour God 1. In that we receive not his Testimony for what we beleeve not that in effect we deny and by consequence make him a lyar 1 Ioh. 5.10 He that beleeveth not God hath made him a lyar as he that beleeves on the contrary sets to his seale that God is true Ioh. 13.33 Herein we doe in effect crosse the maine end for which we came into the world and for which God hath indued us with wisdome and understanding above the beasts of the field that being true of every man which our Saviour affirmes of himself for this cause came I into the world that I should beare witnesse to the Truth Ioh. 18.36 Men will indeed beapt to beguile themselves and others too in professing that they receive Gods testimony in all that he speakes but the Apostle tels us that there is a deniall in Workes as well as in Words Tit. 1.16 And to speake truth deniall in Deeds is the strongest deniall and manifests our affirming in words to be meere Hypocrisie as the Psalmist justifies it against the Israelites in the Wildernesse that though they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer yet they flattered him with their mouth and lyed unto him with their tongue Psal 78.35 36. and proves by their workes because they still went on in tempting and provoking God and limiting the Holy one of Israel ver 40.41 2. It is the greater wrong and dishonour to God not to receive his Testimony First because God hath so farre condescended to our weaknesse as to engage himselfe unto us so many wayes being notwithstanding debtor to no man bestowing whatsoever he gives freely out of meere Grace We accompt it a wrong to a friend to require a bond of him for the assuring of a free gift But God hath bin content to abase himselfe so farre to us as to engage himselfe unto us by his Word to confirme his Word by an Oath and to ratify both by the seales of his Covenant That after the manifesting of so much tender respect to us and condiscending so farre to our weakenesse and affording such firme footing for our Faith God should not have so much credit with us as to bee beleeved upon his Word his Oath his Seale is such a dishonour to the God of Truth as we would be ashamed to offer to a mortall man Especially if we consider in the next place that God hath never given us cause to distrust him he never failed us in any one Promise wherein he hath ingaged himselfe unto us Thirdly it is yet the greater wrong to God if we consider by whom it is offered Nothing so farre kindled Gods wrath as the provoking of his sonnes and daughters Deut. 32.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What thou my sonne said Iulius Cesar to Brutus when he saw him amongst the rest of the conspirators come to stabbe him There cannot be a greater wrong to a master then not to be trusted by his owne servants much greater is the injury when a Father can have no credit from his owne children How is it possible then that God should beare it at the hands of those that call him Father and desire to be known by the name of his children that great dishonour of slighting his Promises and in their lives and conversations declaring to the world that they make more accompt of mens assurance then they doe of them Secondly as the Lord for whose glory we are created is wronged by our unbeliefe in not resting upon his Promises so it fals out as usually it doth in all like cases that we infinitely thereby prejudice our selves many wayes 1. By this meanes we deprive our selves of all true grounds of comfort which might support us in time of tryall It was Gods Word which quickened David in time of his affliction Psal 119.50 It was Gods Word on which he depended Psal 130.5 When he powred out his complaint before God out of the depths that is in floods of distresses that overwhelmed him For as for any other meanes to establish our hearts and beare up our spirits in times of inward distresses or outward afflictions wee shall find our selves forced to take up Davids complaint I looked for comforters but J found none Psal 69.20 and Psal 142.4 I looked on my right hand and there was no man would know me refuge failed me And as for Gods promises whence only the ground of true comfort ariseth with what cold hearts must we needs either apply them to our own soules or urge them and presse them upon God in our prayers when our own consciences tell us that these are the truths of God which we have cast by as matters of which we never made any great accompt Surely God can returne us no other answer to such suits then he gives his people Iudg. 10.14 Go cry unto the gods whom you have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation Cry to your Lands to your Treasures to your Friends in whom you have confided what have you to doe with my promises which you never beleeved nor regarded This is and will be a sad condition into which our unbelief will cast us when it will be too late to help it 2. ly This want of staying on Gods promises wonderfully deads our hearts unto all duties of Gods service unto which we are in an especiall manner encouraged because we know that our labour is not in vaine in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 And the Psalmist professeth the hope of Salvation from God was it that encouraged him to doe Gods commandments Psal 119.166 As on the other-side those that exported nothing from God desire to have nothing to doe with his service Iob 21.15 3. ly The want of this Faith by which we embrace Gods promises utterly cuts off all hope of eternall life which nothing but Faith in Gods promises can lay hold off And to be shut of that hope leaves unto a man nothing but a certaine looking for of judgement and fiery indignation
and bloody warres raised by the Emperour Sigismund thorough the instigation of that same man of sinne against the Reformers of the Churches in Bohemia which continued all the dayes of that worthy Commander Iohn Zisca and divers yeeres after his decease and to draw neerer to our own times We know that when Luther began the Reformation of the Church the Pope and his dependants never left raising of troubles against him and his followers till at length he had engaged the German Emperour CHARLES the sift in a cruell warre against the Duke of Saxonie and his party as most men know And to speake truth that Sword which was then drawne hath been hardly ever since sheathed but to this day in one part of Europe or other goes on bathing it self in blood wherewith how much it hath bin made drunken we aswell as our neighbours feele to this day to our smart There are Instances of Troubles raised by Sathan and his instruments against the Church by those which are without no lesse are those that are stirred up within the bowels of the Church by false Brethren who by speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them as the Apostle tels us they shall doe Act. 20.30 strike at the very foundation on which the Church is built the very doctrine of Truth What divisions were raised thereby in the Churches even in the Apostles own dayes divers of their Epistles doe sufficiently declare and that Sathan continued by the same policy to divide the Church in sunder and thereby to ruine it as our Saviour tels us That a Kingdome or house divided cannot stand Math. 12.25 the records of the Primitive time setting before us the Factions that infected the Church in those ages and the Excommunications Banishments and other Persecutions which ensued thereupon make it evident enough to all that will take the paines to looke into the Histories of those times Neither doe these troubles howsoever raised by the practise of Sathan fall upon the Church without the fore-knowledge and both Permission and direction of God himself Our Saviour tels his Disciples in expresse termes that he came not to send Peace on earth but a Sword Mat. 10.34 35. Not that this is an effect but a consequent of the Gospel The Gospel is in it self a message of glad tidings of Peace Rom. 10.15 Eph. 6.15 But is of Peace between God and Man Luk. 2.14 Rom. 5.1 Yea and between man and man amongst as many as receive it as the Prophet fore-tels that amongst those that are under Christs government the Wolfe and the Lambe shall dwell together Isa 11.6 all enmity shall be taken away so that none shall destroy in his Holy Mountaine Isa 65.25 And a Gospel to settle Peace in mens consciences but not in the World In me you shall have Peace saith our Saviour in the World you shall have affliction Ioh. 3.33 To search into the Reasons of this truth if we looke upon second cause it is easie to conclude that it can be no otherwise unlesse Satan and such as beare his Image and do his Will should change their Nature For besides the contrariety in the Natures of the children of Light and of Darkenesse whereof one is Abomination to the other Prov. 29.27 and consequently like contraries they must needs destroy one another The establishing of Christs Kingdome in the Church is the overthrowing of the Divels Kingdome in the World as many subjects as CHRIST gaines so many the Divell loseth Our Saviour tels us Luke 10.18 That when the Gospell was Preached it brought downe Sathan from Heaven like lightening No mervaile then if Sathan to save his owne Kingdome labour to hinder the planting of the Church and as little mervaile if his servants joyne with him therein as for other reasons so especially because the Gospell which the Church embraceth discredits and condemnes all their wayes restraines their Lusts and cuts off all their hopes sentencing them to hell to be made the subjects of Gods wrath to all Eternity But it yeelds little comfort to the Godly or Honour to God to look upon the Churches troubles as the effects of Satans and his childrens malice unlesse we raise up our thoughts higher to looke not only upon the rod but withall on him that hath appoynted it Mich. 6.9 To consider his faithfulnesse in raising troubles and afflictions which quieted Davids heart Psal 119.75 J know that thou in faithfulnesse hast afflicted me His compassion even when he causeth grief Lam. 3.32 his wonderfull wisdome and Power in being good unto those that love him out of evil Rom. 8.28 That by the consideration of Gods righteousnesse in all his wayes we may gather comfort to our selves in the troubles raised up against Gods Church by wicked men we must first therefore settle this position firmly in our hearts that the Divel and his instruments are but vassals to execute what he hath decreed to be done as St. Peter testifies concerning Christs sufferings that he was delivered although by the trechery of Iudas yet withall by the determinate councell and fore-knowledge of God Act. 2.23 and all the Apostles witnesse that Herod Pilat the Gentiles and people of Israel which were gathered together against Christ were but Gods Executioners to doe whatsoever his hand and his Councell had determined to be done Act. 4.18 Now we know that God who is Righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his workes Psal 145.17 Orders all things for his own ends which are his own glory and that which is never severed from it the God of his people Let us then draw the Reasons of this truth which we have before us from the relations which the troubles raised against the Church in the time of the planting or Reforming thereof have unto those two maine ends at which God principally aymes his own glory and his Churches good And first Gods honour is much advanced by the troubles raised by Satan and his Agents to hinder the Churches Reformation three wayes 1. God is much honoured by making it evident to to the World that the worke of the Churches Reformation is his owne Act. As Ioseph makes his brethren understand that in selling him to the Midianites they were but Gods instruments to bring him into Egipt because there came so much good out of that wherein they intended nothing but evil Gen. 45.7 and 50.20 And David foretelling that great worke of making Christ the head stone of the corner proves it to be Gods doing a work of admiration because the builders had cast him aside Psal 118.23 24. All effects must have some cause by the power and Vertue whereof they are produced wherefore when there appeares no second cause in the bringing forth of any effect it must be ascribed to him that workes without or above or against all causes as pleaseth himself When the Wildernesse which by nature brings forth nothing but bushes and shrubbs is stored with pleasant fruitfull and usefull plants it is