Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	delusion_n	unrighteousness_n	1,978	5	11.2673	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33971	Par nobile two treatises, the one concerning the excellent woman, evincing a person fearing the Lord to be the most excellent person, discoursed more privately upon occasion of the death of the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Hobart late of Norwich, from Pro. 31, 29, 30, 31 : the other discovering a fountain of comfort and satisfaction to persons walking with God, yet living and dying without sensible consolations , discovered from Psal. 17, 15 at the funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Katherine Courten, preached at Blicklin in the county of Norfolk, March 27, 1652 : with the narratives of the holy lives and deaths of those two noble sisters / by J.C.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Excellent woman.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Light in darkness.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5329; ESTC R26441	164,919	320

those who in this noon-day of the Gospel are in Protestant Countries proselyted to that kind of devotion will find that their temptation to it hath been advantaged 1. From some carnal conceits of God and his Worship thinking him such a one as themselves to be pleased with musick and gay pompous shews of devotion or at least some Jewish conceits for the continuance of what the Apostle calls worldly Ordinances and a carnal Sanctuary not regarding that God is a Spirit and under the Gospel to be worshipped in spirit and in truth but pleasing themselves with what the Apostle calls the rudiments of the world and such Ordinances as touch not taste not handle not which are things perishing with the using after the Commandments and Doctrines of men which things Col. 2● 20 21 22 23. indeed have a shew of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Some such temptation as this might easily help to Proselite a Vane a Crashaw a Nonnanton c. 2. Or else secondly an ignorance in the things of God Ignorance we know is avowed the Mother of their devotion for Laicks and indeed an ignorant soul as to devotion is White-Paper upon which a Mahumetan or a Papist may write any thing And of knowing persons we rarely find any proselited unless some rare persons whom the Lord picks out to make examples of his vengeance who as the Apostle speaks 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. Having 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. received the truth and not the love of the truth that they might be saved God gives up to strong delusions that they should believe a lye That they all be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 3. Or else Thirdly They are such persons who are tempted to it from their dependancies as servants to their Masters or Mistresses or Relations the Wife to please her Husband or an Husband to humour his Wife or from their hopes to gain such relations and carnal advantages as their necessities or covetousness or a●●●ition betrayes them to thirst after and pu●●hase though at the price of their immortal souls 4. Or Lastly Such for whose loose and wanton feet the waies of the Gospel are too strait They must have more sensual pleasure than a Gospel Rule will allow them and are no● able to endure the rebukes of a conscience smiting them for such vanities and fain would have a pardon at a cheaper rate than the Gospel will afford it and that with a license to sin again and be upon the same terms of peace again upon the slight terms of a little mony or an auricular confession or a slight penance or a short Pilgrimage c. Those who wistly cast their eyes upon those few Proselites which the Papists have in England will find that some or more of these things have been and are their temptations Now who so knew this eminent Lady knew her far enough from the impressions of such temptations No person lived a more severe and strict conversation nor was more fearful of deceiving her self with false hopes nor wary in giving her self grounds of hope as to the remission of sins and the favour of God No person living was more an enemy to a pompous vain Pageantry in the Worship of God nor more affected to a simplicity plainness and spirituality in her devotions she was an exceeding knowing judicious person in the waies of God and one who truly received the truth in a most ardent love of it nor had she any temptation from any dependancyor relation from any carnal enjoyment or hope of any Her fear for her dear Husband lest the temptation of the place where he was which was Italy should have any influences on him as to Religion was a great affliction to her her joy as much when by Letters received from him she understood his constancy she was earnest with every Christian that came near her to beg of God to keep him in that Country from the Idolatries and superstitions of it Her acquaintance and delight was not only in and with Protestant Ministers but with those of them whose principles were at greatest distance from any thing of Popery I dare say that in the two last years of her life she never saw the face of a Popish Priest All which things considered I leave it to an indifferent Reader to determine with what disadvantage to their own honour and repuration as well as impudence as to matter of justice and common honesty towards a noble person who hath now these sixteen years been in Heaven any persons evulge such impudent slanders but their boldness to rake in the ashes of a person dead is the more evident from the imputation with which they are not ashamed to brand the only male-branch of this excellent root who blessed be God yet lives and that not only rotted in the Protestant Faith but able to justifie it against such as oppose it FINIS

men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhere●●e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives ●s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of

of death should take the terrour of it off our spirits no man is afraid to go to sleep why should we be more afraid to die but for unbelief and a reproving conscience 2. Were it indeed a perpetual sleep there would be less of relief in it but there shall be an awaking out of this sleep though the night be long there shall be a morning This doctrine of the Resurrection is indeed the great argument of comfort against death The Apostle having mentioned it to the Thessalonians to relieve them as to their sorrow for their friends asleep in the Lord concludes wherefore comfort your solves with these words 3. But yet the feast to which we shall awake in the Resurrection is of a further consequence to relieve us under disturbances of this nature This was that which cleared the Martyr that although he had an ill Supper he should have a good breakfast The sleep of death is not like the sleep the Prophet speaks of When a man dreams he is at a feast and when he awaketh behold he is an hungry Indeed there is no dreaming in this sleep but when the child of God awaketh from it in the resurrection he shall awake to a feast not an imaginary but a real feast where he shall be filled with the likeness of God to all eternity 3. Branch Lastly What we have heard administers great consolation to such as mourn for their friends fallen asleep in the Lord. Have we had any friends who have made it their business to behold the face of the Lord in righteousness and to watch for the Lords likeness who herein have exercised themselves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and possibly have had their sad hours for a long time sitting in darkness and seeing no light and whose Candle possibly hath at last gone out in obscurity as to visions of peace They have indeed died breathing and thirsting after God hoping and trusting in God and quietly committing their selves unto him but not being able to say Lo this is my God I have waited for him this is my God I have waited for him I will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation I say have we known any so have we had at any time any such friends under such circumstances possibly we have been troubled and have had sad thoughts for them but there is no reason what though they have fallen asleep they shall awake what though they fell asleep not satisfied they shall be satisfied with the Lords likeness when they awake they shall be satisfied There are thousands that die without any such troubled thoughts Some it may be with bold and groundless confidences who will awake with terrour and trembling There be many that shall in that day say Lord Lord open unto us have we not prayed in thy name and prophecied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils to whom the Lord shall say Matth. 7. Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity But there is no soul who hath truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who hath walked strictly and closely with God and made it his or her business to serve the Lord in truth to mortifie his or her lusts and corruptions but though it may live in the dark and it may be die in some dissatisfactions but that soul shall awake in a glorious resurrection and so awaking shall be satisfied and filled with the consolations of God Mourn for loose walking Professors who have lived here without any fear of God or any care to please God and yet when they die have talkt of full perswasions and been full of presumptuous confidences but be not troubled for holy and gracious souls whose lives have been full of faith and holiness though it may be they have had their fears while they lived and a dark hour when they died hath clouded them yet doubt not of them mourn not for them those persons have not died without hope do not you mourn as those without hope their salvation is certain whether it hath been ascertained to them or no hoping in God committing their souls unto God trusting in him walking with him they shall not be ashamed trouble not your selves for them though they fall they shall rise though they sleep they shall awake though through a too much love-jealousie or through the wise dispensation of God when they fell asleep they were unsatisfied yet when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied inessably plenteously abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and in the joy of that glorious day they shall forget all their former sorrows Vse 4. What you have heard may be applied by way of Caution 1. To all ungodly impenitent sinners such as never beheld the face of God in righteousness nor at all watch for his likeness yet live without any fears it may be with strong confidences and doubt not of being satisfied with the Lords likeness in the resurrection of the just Oh! the presumptuous groundless hopes of an infinite number of Hypocrites they make no question of salvation and think it great uncharitableness for any to doubt of their eternal welfare yet whoso observeth their lives seeth them neither exercising a good conscience towards God nor man instead of walking in righteousness they live in all manner of wickedness yet they will tell you they hope to be saved by Jesus Christ they are of the number of those whom the Apostle speaks of who are dead in trespasses and sins who still have their conversation in the world according to the power of the Prince of the Air who lives and works in the children of disobedience and walk fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the mind without Christ and his righteousness strangers to the Covenant of Promise having no true ground of hope living without a God in the world in all neglect of duty towards God and man yet these men hope to be saved these men hope in the resurrection that they also shall be filled with the likeness of God I shall but offer one text of Scripture to such bold presumptuous sinners it is that in Deut. Deut. 29. 18 19 20. 29. 18 19 20. Lest there should be amongst you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these Nations lest there should be amongst you a root that beareth gall and wormwood And it cometh to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven and the

King 21. 19 20 21. to tell him in short that God would ruine him and his family and all that belonged to him v. 27. Ahab hears those words he rends his cloths puts sackcloth upon his flesh fasteth lyeth in sackcloth and goes softly Here 's the best of a carnal man if his dread of God in his Judgements worketh thus far and to a temporary abstaining from some gross sins it is all you read not a word of Ahabs tending to inquire of the Lord not a word of any cordial humiliation or resolved reformation 2 King 22. 11. Josiah findeth the Book of the Law and heareth there of the wrath of God he rends his cloths so did Ahab but he resteth not here v. 13. He tends to inquire of the Lord for him and for the people and for all Judah c. was this all No chap. 23. He sets upon a real and effectual reformation with all his might Thus you see how the dread and awe of God upon the heart of a child of God doth not drive him from God but unto him it doth not stupifie but quicken him it doth not put him upon a formal temporary particular reformation but upon a fixed real general reformation Pharaohs fear flartled him and put him upon sending to Moses to pray for him and put him upon some good thoughts and resolutions at present but yet Pharaoh notwithstanding this was one who feared not the Lord. But thus much may serve to have spoken to this branch of Application I come now to the last branch I will shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation I will reduce all to three particulars 1. To such as have not this fear of God in Exhort their hearts to perswade them to labour for it 2. To such as have this fear of God to perswade them 1. To labour to grow in this habit and exercise 2. To live like excellent persons and to shew they have this excellent blessing 3. Lastly To the men of the world in general to perswade them 1. To an undervaluing of all other excellencies 2. To a true value of this excellent thing and these excellent persons 3. To give them of the fruit of their hands and to suffer their works to praise them in the gates In the first place let me press a word of 1 Branch Exhortation upon such as yet fear not Go● to perswade them to it It is a frequent precept in holy Writ Levit. 19. 14. Fear thy God I am the Lord ch 25. v. 17. 43. Eccles 5. 7. Matth. 10. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Rev. 14. 7. Eccles 12. 13. God calls to you Fear God Solomon calls to you Fear God Our Saviour calls to you Fear him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The Angels in Heaven call to you Fear God All the Prophets and Apostles call to you unâvoce and this is that which they say Fear God The meaning of this you have heard Not only dread the great and living God in the secrets of your hearts but let all your conversation savour of this fear so comport your selves in your whole carriage both towards God and towards your neighbours as you may evidence to the world not only that you have a natural sense of that infinite distance which is between your Creatour and you and the power that he hath over you but that you may shew that you have this gracious habit of fear wrought in you and that you fear God in the Scripture phrase You see this is a great picce of the will of God concerning you pressed upon you again and again in holy Writ Give me leave to inlarge a little in pressing it upon you I shall first give you some Arguments Secondly I shall offer you some directions in the case from the text And what I have said furnisheth me with two great Arguments 1. This is Wisdom This is Grace Job 28. 28. ●●e fear of the Lord that is wisdom Prov. 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge That man who hath nothing of the fear of God in him hath nothing of God nothing of the Grace of God in him On the other side that person who hath in him the fear of God hath all that is an holy that is a gracious man There can be no more said of any than that he or she are persons not fearing God Nor can there be better said of any that he or she is a person fearing God 2. Secondly You have heard a person fearing God is the most excellent person in the world Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Others may call themselves excellent and the men of the world may call the proud happy but the truly happy the truly excellent person is one fearing God I might add a third 3. This is the only person who deserveth to be praised and whose works will truly praise him Let others be commended and admired for beauty for riches and honour and another for learning as the end of all is to fear God and keep his Commandments So that person that truly answereth this end and doth fear God and keep his Commandments will upon the best evidence which is that of Scripture and reason appear to be the person that is most worthy of praise and commendation Now if I could say no more than this to engage any to this study yet in other things this would be enough Every one naturally desireth the things that are excellent and is naturally covetous of honour and praise Would you have that which is in it self most excellent that which will make you above all others excellent that which most truly deserveth praise and will make you the truest objects of praise Oh get this fear of the Lord Give me leave to add another Argument or two 4. In the fourth place Consider the many Promises made in Scripture to the fear of the Lord Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth daies Prov. 14. 26 27. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Prov. 15. 16. Little with the fear of the Lord is great gain v. 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life ch 22. 4. By the fear of the Lord are riches Psal 112. Psal 128. are full of Promises to the man that feareth God The things promised in these and those many other Promises annexed to the fear of the Lord are such as every one defireth Who would not have long life riches and honour Either you believe the Scriptures or you do not believe them if you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God you must assent to whatsoever Propositions are revealed in them as Propofitions of eternal and

infallible truth whether the Proposition be dogmatical or promisory c. And indeed if you so believe you cannot but judge your selves reasonably engaged to labour for this fear of the Lord which shall most certainly have such a train of blessings waiting upon it 5. I will add one thing more There is no such preservative from all evil both of sin and punishment Evil of punishment is sensible evil Evil of sin is the greater evil but not so obvious to sense while the poor creature liveth here As to the former the evil of sin there 's no such preservative against that Prov. 16. 6. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil It is of the nature of fear well rooted in the heart to lay a restraint upon us from provoking the person of whose power we are afraid And 't is impossible that a soul should truly fear God and yet boldly knowingly and deliberately provoke him to vengeance There is no such preservative from the evil of sin as the fear of the Lord is Nor is there any such preservative from evils of punishment This indeed followeth upon the other for all punishment is the fruit of sin Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway but be that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief It is not he that feareth alway but he that bardneth his heart that falleth into mischief I shall add but one thing more 6. Lastly There is no such remedy against the slavish fear of the creature as this filial and reverential fear of God Isa 7. You shall find v. 3. That God sent the Prophet to meet Ahaz His business was to incourage him a●d to del●ver him from the fear of the two potent adversaries Rezin and Pekah chap. 8● v. 13. saith he Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts So out Saviour Ma● 10. 10. and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And indeed it is but a reasonable thing A greater fear doth as naturally swallow up a lesser as a greater pain of the Stone or the like drowneth the lesser and causeth it hardly to be discerned Now this is no small advantage The bondage of fear which in this life we are subject to is no small bondage and it is no small blessing to be delivered from it But let this be enough to have spoken by way of motive to perswade people to this fear of Jehovah I have spoken so much concerning the excellent habit that me thinks I cannot but in charity judge there is by this time kindled in your hearts some desires after it and hear you whispering How should I get this fear of the Lord In order to it let me commend to you something of Meditation Observation Caution Faith Prayer 1. The first thing is Meditation as to which in this case let me commend to you a double Object The Word of God The Works of God The Word of God Deut. 4. 10. I will make them to hear my words that they may learn to Deut. 4. 10. fear me all the daies they shall live The holy Scriptures as to the matter of them have much in them which hath a natural tendency to affect the hearts of men and women with this dread of God 1. They tell you what God is what a great and glorious Majesly what a pure and holy God he is what a just and severe God he is How infinite his Power is that he killeth and saveth alive whomsoever he pleaseth throws to Hell and brings to Heaven whom he pleaseth from whence every rational soul must necessarily conclude the subjection of his poor feeble nature unto him and this apprehension as to any thing is the foundation of fear in us I mean of all reverential and servile fear They likewise tell you what God is in his Goodness and Mercy and the apprehension of this is the foundation of all filial fear 2. They tell you what God hath revealed that he will be and shew himself to be both to all impenitent and presumptuous sinners and to all those who are his children And 3. They tell you much what God hath been towards all sorts in the ancient issues of his Providence Now I would have you not only to read these but to meditate on them Meditation is the souls stand upon its object it s weighing of matter proposed and attention to it The want of this is one great cause there is so little dread of God in the world Have not men the Scriptures What house is there amongst us in which are not many Bibles Do they not read them many do but they do it in a vain formality without a due digestion and meditation so as the notions of holy Writ leave no impression upon their hearts Would men but allow the Word to have a place in their hearts did the Word of God dwell in them it were impossible one would think but this savour of it should be left behind men could not talk and walk as they do 2. Let the Works of God be also the matter of your meditation Come and see saith the Psalmist what desolations he hath wrought in the earth The truth is the wheel of Providence hath turned so strangely in the world since the world had an existence that if men could give themselves leisure to think of its motions to consider them in their causes in the manner of their revolution in the things brought to pass by them one would think it impossible but that it should affect their hearts with a dread of the Divine Majesty But of this more by and by 2. The second thing which I shall commend to you is Observation Observation of the motions of Providence I remember it is reported of Waldus the Father of those famous Christians the Waldenses that he was converted by seeing the sudden death of one of his companion● in the daies of his vanity Would we but obs●rve how Providence is every day ratifying the Promises cutting of blood-thirsty and deceitful me● who he hath said shall not live out half their daies bringing the Councils of Ahitophels to folly striking sinners dead in their full career of sin and sending them down in a moment to the pit and many other waies men could not but fear that great and glorious Name but we see and do not see These and such like examples are daily before our eyes and we observe them not and therefore we fear not God Christians if you would fear God observe the workings of his Providence much how in his great works he is daily confirming his Promises to his people and his threatnings to his enemies If the Word of God will not make you fear him yet surely his works must his works by which you see him justifying and giving a Being to his Word 3. If you would get this fear of God take heed of those things which have a direct tendency to harden your hearts from his fear 1. Take heed first of Atheistical Principles

I shall shew thee more by and by Further yet when thou acceptedst of the Covenant of Grace offered to thee did not God agree with thee for a penny Is not this the Lords Covenant Believe and be saved This indeed the Lord hath said That whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast away But hath he any where said That whosoever by faith cometh unto him shall walk in the uninterrupted light of his countenance If thou couldest not challenge these comfortable manifestations as thy earnings yet if thou couldest challenge them as debts from God upon compact thou mightest indeed complain of wrong done unto thee in the want of them but there is no such thing promises indeed there are of such kind of mercies as there is of outward prosperity health riches c. to be understood with a reservation to Gods wisdom so far as he sees good for thy salvation and for his own glory But thou wilt say to me this is a poor ground of satisfaction if I were now going down into the bottomless pit God did me no wrong 2. Secondly Therefore I say God under such dark d●spensations is yet exceeding good and gracious to thee if thou findest him but inabling thee to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness to believe and to live an holy life and conversation David in Psal 73. relates under what a great temptation Psal 73. 1. he was by reason of his own afflicted state and the prosperity of wicked men he begins the Psalm Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Thou art under a great temptation possibly by reason of that darkness in which it pleaseth God to keep thee as to sensible evidences yet I will shew thee thou hast reason to say Truly God is good to me I will open this in a few particulars 1. Thou hast the hope of glory All thy exercises of grace thy looking up to God thy waiting for him thy fear of offending God thy trouble when thou hast offended him thy love jealousies thy waiting for God all thy exercises of grace are branches springing from that root and indeed the child of God cannot be without hope These all speak thy union with Christ without whom thou couldest do none of these things Now where Christ is there must be the hopes of glory Christ in you the hope of glory saith Col. 1. 27. the Apostle It was a portion of Scripture which often refreshed the soul of this excellent Lady whose funerals we are celebrating if I remember right I have heard her say it was the first piece of Scripture which God sealed to her soul I am sure it was what often refreshed her in her latter daies and to her very last hour it was as the sword of Goliah None to it both for the repelling of temptations and the refreshing of her fainting soul 2. Secondly By hope saith the Apostle we Rom. 8. 24. are saved Now saith the same Apostle Hope that is seen is no hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for The hope of a child of God hath this character it maketh not ashamed David saith no more but that his Rom. 5. 5. flesh should rest in hope Psal 16. 9. And the wise man saith no more but The Righteous Pro. 14. 32. hath hope in his death It is not alwaies true that the righteous man hath assurance in his death but he hath hope in his death an hope that maketh not ashamed in his death and so standeth distinguished from the Hypocrite of whom Job saith Where is the hope of the Hypocrite when God takes away his soul 3. This hope Thirdly is enough to give the soul joy Hence you read of the rejoycing of hope which may be kept firm to the end Heb. 3. 6. it is not so with ordinary hope Solomon saith Hope deferred makes the heart sick But it is so with this good hope through grace because of the certainty that attends it the certainty of the word of promise upon which it leaneth 4. Fourthly Observe what the Apostle saith of this hope Heb. 6. 18 19 20. That by two Heb. 6. 18 19 20. immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither the forerunner is for us entred even Jesus who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The two immutable things are Gods Word and his Oath His word of promise that is immutable Heaven and Earth shall pass away before a tittle shall pass from it His Oath in that God hath condescended to our infirmity that we might hope stedfastly O nos foelices saith Tertullian quorum gratiâ Deus jurat O infideles si juranti non credamus These two are the grounds of our hope and the Apostle judgeth them sufficient for an anchor for our souls both sure and stedfast yea not only so but to raise a strong consolation to those who fly to it for refuge and why because it is entred within the vail it is fastened in Heaven it is not like an anchor fallen in a sandy soil it is entred within the vail and if you would know how Heaven comes to be so sure a soil for a poor Christians hope the Apostle tells you that our forerunner Christ Jesus is entred there and that in the quality of a Priest an eternal Priest not after the order of Aaron who was daily to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin but after the order of Melchisedeck Christ hath died for our sins and risen again for our justification he hath said that whosoever believeth in him shall not be condemned he hath made this Covenant with every Believer and is now entred into Heaven in the quality of a Priest an eternal Priest who stands alwaies before his Fathers Throne presenting his own mediatory performances and merits unto his Father the soul believeth in him then raiseth an hope of salvation though it wants sensible evidences and this hope is sufficient to give unto the soul a strong consolation having fled to Christ for refuge however to be an anchor to the soul and that both sure and stedfast which therefore should stay it 5. Fifthly Faith and strong Faith is surely enough to carry a soul to Heaven though it wants sensible evidences if it be not what becomes of the Covenant of Grace what became of all the promises repetitions and branches of that Covenant but a child of God may have faith and strong faith and yet want sensible consolation I say a Christian may have faith I do not mean only a faith of assent which the Devils may have Saint James saith they believe and tremble they doubtless do agree to the Propositions of

truth in the Scripture but I mean that faith which the Apostle calls The faith of Gods Elect Justifying faith It was indeed an unwary description which some ancient Divines gave of justifying faith calling it a full perswasion of the Love of God and it may be much occasioned by the heat of their opposition to the jejune faith of Papists who would make justifying faith to be assent to the Proposition of the Word it is likely their so describing justifying faith gave too much advantage to the Antinomian notion who to this day will understand nothing of faith under plerophory or full perswasion but undoubtedly the act of justifying faith lyes lower in receiving Christ believing in him relying upon him committing our selves unto him c. Nor can the other be the act of faith that justifieth being not to be found but in souls that are justified For how can any soul whom God doth not love in Jesus Christ be fully and justly perswaded of his love Now the Lord loveth the righteous until the soul be made righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ it can be no object of divine love That soul who hath opened his Will through divine grace to receive and embrace Christ as tendered in the Gospel that is perswaded to rest hang trust rely commit its self to him and him alone for salvation that soul truly believeth Now this the soul doth that watcheth for Gods likeness though it want sensible comforts Nay this faith is strong faith It is the note of a late eminent servant of God that faith is so much the stronger by how much the fewer externals it needs to support it It was said of Abraham that he was strong in the Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. faith giving glory to God Wherein did the strength of Abrahams faith appear v. 18. He staggered not at the promise he against hope believed in hope he had nothing of sense to help his faith his faith stood meerly upon the strength of the word he had a word of promise and he staggered not at the promise he was so far from having any help to his faith from sense that he had all the discouragement and hinderance imaginable the matter to be believed was that God would give him a Son for this he had the word of God Thou shalt have a Son saith God his wife was past child-bearing her womb was dead insomuch that she laughed when she Gen. 18. 12. heard the promise and said Shall I of a surety bear a child who am old Abraham himself was beyond the age in which ordinarily children are begot he was an hundred years old But though he had no incouragement but all imaginable discouragement from sense both on his own and on his wives part yet saith the Apostle he distrusted not he staggered not at the promise through unbelief Thus he was strong in faith and thus he gave glory to God saith the Apostle giving him the honour of his power of his truth and faithfulness c. and this faith was imputed to him for righteousness v. 21 22. Now if the weakest faith being true be sufficient to carry the soul to Heaven much more shall a strong faith such a faith as that of Abraham the Father of the faithful do it 6. Lastly Will it not satisfie thee Christian to tell thee thou art blessed I have a good warrant to do that Joh. 20. 19. They are the words of our Saviour to Thomas Thou hast seen saith our Lord therefore thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed You are even out of Christs mouth more blessed believing when you do not see than those are who see and therefore believe But I shall enlarge no more upon this first ground of satisfaction for Christians walking in the dark and seeing no light I proceed to the second from the word considered as it signifies to awake 2. It ought to satisfie Christians walking in the dark as to sensible consolations to consider that when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God There is nothing more needful for the explication of the Proposition than I have already said in the opening of some or other of the Propositions In short the substance of what I intend is this that if it so pleaseth God that any child of his should not only spend a great part of his life without any sensible comforts any witnessings of the Spirit to his spirit Nay if the Lord should call him to die without such sensible evidences yet he ought not to repine or murmure against God but to be silent before him and trust in him chearfully considering that though he dieth he shall rise again from the dead and in the resurrection he shall be fully and abundantly satisfied with Gods full and glorious manifestations of himself unto him when he shall be blessed in the full and glorious enjoyment of God to all eternity 1. This is that which God hath agreed with us for this is the penny for which he hath contracted But of this I spake before 2. This is infinitely more than any child of God hath merited or can merit at Gods hand It will be a great piece of the work of the Saints in Heaven to admire that rich and infinite grace which hath brought them thither Yea though we should never see Gods face till we come in Heaven yet we shall see free grace magnified in bringing us thither at last 3. Lastly The satisfaction which the soul shall meet with when it comes in Heaven will be infinitely more than will make us amends for all the dissatisfactions all the hours of sadness and darkness we have met with in this life and infinitely more than will recompence us for all our faith and hope all our watchings and waitings for and upon God For our duties we value them above the Scripture rate if we count them better than menstrous cloths and filthy raggs or reckon that they deserve any thing at the hand of God other than wrath and shame and confusion of faith And saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Every one of you would easily determine this were I able to shew you but a little of those things which eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes 1. 17. 1 Joh. 3. 2. it enter into the heart of man to conceive To open to you what it is to be ever with the Lord to see him face to face to see him as be is to be like the Angels in Heaven to have our bodies made like unto his glorious body and our corruptible to put on incorruption I say were I able to open these and other expressions by which it hath pleased the Holy Ghost in Scripture to express