thing they correct themselves and use al kind of diminutive and lessening expressions that may be concerning themselves I live saith Paul yet not I in Gal. 2.20 I live but not I. I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me As if he should have said The root of my life lies in his love He loved me and revealed that to me and my Faith laid hold of it and that quickned me As Faith cannot assent unto any Error no man can with a Divine Faith beleeve any thing that is false because the object of Divine Faith takes the infallible Testimony and Truth of God So Faith as it is in the Will makes a man that he cannot but be humbled he cannot be lifted up Why Because it leads a man out of himself unto another for all he hath As infallible Truths and Errors are contra-distinct and cannot consist together so is going out of a mans self to receive and being lifted up Faith may be compared to a Golden Hammer as it is Gold it is excellent but as it is a Hammer it subdues and beats down and keeps down every thought and imagination As there is some Physick that doth at the same working both purge and strengthen Such a thing is Faith it empties a man of himself and fills him with Christ it takes a man off his own bottom and sets him on Christ it destroyes in him the confidence he had and gives him a spirit above al his danger or to contest with all his danger through Jesus Christ it makes him to do all things and yet makes him see that he is able to do nothing Lord encrease our Faith said the Disciples unto Christ Luke 17.5 As if they should have said We are not able to add one degree we are not able to improve the Faith we have one degree not the least circumstance In 1 Cor. 15.10 I have labored more than them all yet not I yet not I. True Faith makes a man as earnest for every thing as if it were his own and due by merit and it makes a man as humble when he hath any thing as if he had nothing at all but ascribes all unto Jesus Christ and the Love of God the Father in him There is not a motion of Faith mark it but if so be that you did attend unto it and understand it you would find it to be of this sense As God said unto the People of Israel That he had delivered them but not for your sakes do I do this but for my own Names sake So saith Faith All this that is done for you it is not for any thing that you have done but for the sake of him who hath fulfilled all Righteousness Peter James and John in Acts 4.10 cried unto the People Be it known unto you that by the Power of Jesus of Nazareth and by the Name of him whom you have crucified this man doth stand among you So when Faith hath received all from Christ it saith unto the Soul Be it known unto you that you may thank the Lord for this it is not your good desires or performances or good disposition and this leaves the Soul exceeding humble As you have somtimes writ upon somthing that is done for publick use This is the gift of such a one and such a one And as poor men do weare the armes of those that give them cloaths and food in the Almes-houses so faith doth put forth such a work in the soul that it leaves behind it this sence That it is done for us of Gods free grace and not for any thing in us Dost thou find therefore that thy affections grow lesser and lesser to thy self Thou art less and less considerable in thy own eyes every day When thou lookest upon what thou hast received thou wonderest wherefore God should do it That upon such a one as thou art his hand should be stretched forth and unto such a one as thou art he should give so much Art thou when thou gettest any refreshing from Christ art more ashamed of thy self dost thou magnify Christ more and vilify thy self more Thou mayst then think it to be true because faith is a receiving So that the Sum of the point is this The life of faith is meane not in regard of the things received by faith For we receive him saith the text that is Jesus Christ and such things with him which eye hath not seen nor eare heard nor hath entred into the heart of man as the Apostle speaks in 1 Cor. 2.9 nor is the life of faith meane in regard of him from whom we receive for in that respect it is a living at the wel head it is the service of a King I know saith Paul whom I have trusted 2. Tim. 1.12 One that is able Nor thirdly is the life of faith in its self simply considered meane For the happiness of a creature doth lie in its dependance upon God even as the being of the streame lyes in the flowing of the water from the fountain CHAP. XIX How the life of Faith is said to be mean First If compared with any other kind of living wel 1 as Compared with the life of Adam in innocency 2. Compared with the life of Glory Secondly If compared with any other kind of living by Faith An Objection answered But compare the life of faith with any other kind of living wel Or compare it 2 With any other kind of living by faith then this and so it is exceeding meane I shal open these a little to you First It is meane compared with any other kind of living wel 1 As compare with it the life of Adam in innocency and so is the life of faith meane Because al that Adam did receive he received it by way of Justice Here what you do receive is by way of almes Adam should have received for his work and here we receive meerly for good wil. 2. Compare this life of faith with the life of Glory which the Saints live in heaven and which the Saints shal and so the Apostle saith in 1. Cor. 13.13 That faith shal cease as an imperfection Secondly Yea compare this life of faith with any other kind of living by faith and it is the meanest of al. First There is a living upon God by faith for preservation and Secondly a living upon God by faith for Justification and pardon For perservation The most perfect of the creatures do live upon God It implies a contradiction that they should be without their dependance upon him For in him we live and move and have our being But the life of faith for Justification and pardon that now supposeth guilt yea it supposeth weakness Guilt for where there is no offence there needs no pardon nor forgiveness And it supposeth weakness as not being able to keep our selves in the love of God by any thing that we are able to do There are two things which do
That men may be brought to beleeve we teach them that the nature of God is good and kind and merciful But it is only to these ends and in this sense Partly to shew them that God is not moved by any thing out of himself But not to shew them that he were not God by nature unless he took their cause to heart And partly it is to shew them how his wil hath set his nature on work for them and of his grace he hath laid a law upon himself that as he is holy he should keep his word And as he would be acknowledged to be powerful so he should work for us and as he would have the glory of his Justice so he should save And therefore Christ useth these titles Father and Holy Father as it is in John 17.11.21 But this is the first thing When men wil beleeve no more then can be deduced out of those principles which they have of the knowledg of God in them by nature when as the things that God hath promised by Josus Christ are those things which his nature wil make good but they are those things only which his wil hath given to us II. And again Men do receive Jesus Christ into their reason only when as they wil beleeve no more then can be demonstrated and evidently concluded from the scriptures themselves Concluded from the scripture every thing must be demonstratively or by just consequence and it is beleeved savingly But though it must be concluded justly yet it is not necessary that it should be demonstrative unto our faith A conclusion is then demonstrative mark it when it is as clear and evident as the principle is whence it is drawn I say when it is as cleer As for example In 2 Cor. 5.15 Saith the Apostle If Christ died for al then were al dead This is the conclusion Then were al dead and this is as demonstrative and as cleer as this That Christ died For he died for them and in their stead and he needed not to die for them and in their stead if they had not been lyable to death themselves But al matters of faith al matters that shal be done for us by Jesus Christ shal not be thus cleerly demonstrated That is the thing in hand For the proofe of it Consider with your selves that it is the self same faith whereby a man doth beleeve his own Salvation and doth beleeve the truth of the promises The faith of assurance it is a divine faith as wel as the faith of assent is unto what God hath revealed A man that makes this discourse Mark 16.16 He that doth beleeve shal be saved takes that upon the word of God which cannot be denyed But I have true faith faith he and therefore I shal be saved This conclusion now is as divine because drawn from that proposition as that proposition is That he that beleeves shal be saved But it is not as demonstrative and cleere It is as true I say but not as cleere Then you see that more is to be beleeved then can be cleerly demonstrated The scriptures are like a treasure or womb which containe more things in them then the word at the first face and looking upon can make known unto the mind of a man I would but only instance in one thing more Math. 22.32 which I spake of just now Christ goes about to prove the resurrection of the dead from this that God said he wil be the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. That he wil be their God that is cleere From thence he concludes therefore that the dead shal rise This is as certaine but it is not so cleere unless God first explains what it is to be a God unto one It is required of Faith in this promise I will be thy God to expect as much as God can do for one though it be not expressed That is the thing that I aim at Matters of favors are to be alwaies inlarged and promises are to be interpreted in the extensivest and largest sense And you have this proof of it because when God saith he will be ones God and gives him this promise he is bound to beleeve that God will do as much for him as he can though those words do not express it Therfore saith Christ in Math. 22.29 You err not knowing the Scripture and the power of God You think the Scriptures contain no more in them than what the words do at first sight and in their view tender to you You must saith he interpret the scripture according to Gods power and know where he hath said he will be a God unto a man there he hath ingaged all his power to do for a man or else you err You err not knowing the Scripture and the power of God However the words of scripture are used to direct and limit the sense of our Faith or the hope of our Faith yet they are not given to limit and bound the goodness of God The goodness of God and the love which he bears and the good that he will do is far greater because it is infinite than words taken from men can set forth There are some that go yet further in their entertainment of Jesus Christ and they put him into their affections They that hold that mans Will must have the casting voice in the matters of his conversion and salvation use this distinction They fay the Will may be wrought upon quo ad affectum but not quo ad effectum God by means doth effect the Will But that the Wil should be throughly effected and brought over unto the things that God would have it that ariseth from a mans own self The distinction is good and serviceable to the point in hand though it be applied by them But it hath this truth in it That a man may have his affections stirred and stirred under the means with the things which do belong unto eternal life and yet notwithstanding have his heart ful of lusts and his wil stand in the same firmness stiffness and stubborness against the things of Jesus Christ as if he had no such kind of affections Let me but instance in this one particular Suppose a man to be taken or delighted with a Jewel that is worth millions but the delight that he hath in it is but as the delight which belongs unto a thing worth but twenty pounds So there may be a delight in Jesus Christ but not suitable to the worth and excellencies of him Suppose yet further Suppose a man should make shew of love unto a man as I said in the beginning of the point but yet should lodg him among vile persons whom he loaths no man will say this mans affections are good So when as Jesus Christ shal be lodged with the Devil and with thy lusts and corruptions With one breath thou art for him and with another thou art for them When thy sins reign and live in thy heart taking their pleasures
And as the earth first receives the seed before it brings forth meat for him by whom it is dressed Heb. 6.7 And as the Disciplesare first bid to attend the Passover and then to receive the Holy Ghost and then to go abroad and to distribute unto the Nations the knowledge of Christ So Faith first receives from Christ and according as it receives from him So it stirs up every Grace and Faculty to its work I say Faith receives first In Col. 2.6 As ye have received the Lord Jesus Christ so walk in him As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is suitably to our receiving of Christ We beleeve therefore have we spoken 2 Cor. 4.13 Now that which is said concerning faiths opening the mouths of the Apostles to declare for certain the truth of that Doctrine which they were experienced in So I may say concerning any other Duty When as Faith hath received the certainty of the word of God then it cals upon the understanding not to dispute When as Faith hath received Jesus Christ then it cals upon the will and saith forsake all other things and cleave unto him for you have enough in him He is a Mine and a Field wherein there is a Treasure and you shal need nothing while you have him And from this three-fold Demonstration I suppose it will appear that Faith is a receiving And beloved think not much that I stand long upon this for it is not rivited in our thoughts We live not as if it were so CHAP. II. Application Beleeve that to Receive is the principal Vse of Faith USE BEleeve then this is the principal use of Faith To Receive to be like a Bucket to draw water of life and salvation out of the Well A spunge as I may expressit to suck in and draw of the fulness of Jesus Christ That Faith is best which is most receptive That is the thing I do intend That is best us'd which is us'd to this end to receive The excelency of Faith doth not lie in it self but in its object In what it doth bring in For there is more vertue in the Act of any Grace whatever He that knows a thing doth it because of the evidence of reason But he that beleeveth knows it not Only he believs because he thinks that he that speaks speaks true Faith degrades a man from the use of his reason and makes him although far more excellent in his knowledg yet to see in the light of God It is so because he saith so As a man that hath but little stock but hath goods coming in by his trade Such a trade is Faith It 's a weak and a feeble Grace as I may call it of it self but it is that which doth receive and fetch in much from Jesus Christ As the way of some mans living is not upon any thing he hath of his own but he is a Receiver to some noble and great man and all his rents and Estate passeth through his hands and so he comes to have a feeling of it and to be inriched Through the hand of Faith al the Treasury of grace and mercy cometh Do not therefore my beloved think it enough that you do by Faith secure your selves from the fear of Hell and say I do beleeve and therefore I shall not perish but have everlasting life Do not think it enough that by Faith you order your conversation aright for although it be true that no grace makes cleaner work in a mans conversation than Faith doth it purifies even as God is pure of all that Niter and Soap which God hath given to wash in there is none so scouring as Faith is if I may use that expression it will fetch out any spot and any defilement But although Faith be of excellent use to order a mans conversation yet do not think you have made sufficient use of your Faith when you have used it to that end but use it to receive As the use of a purse is to put money in And the use of an Iron Chest is to lodge money in So the end of Faith is to receive You are often times checking your selves that you are not contented with what you have for you have more than you deserve And that is true But it is not more than you ought to receive For Faith must have its perfect work and its perfect work is this that it doth look upon all Ordinances as bags that are filled out of which it 's to receive according as Jesus Christ hath laid up and treasured up of himself in them After every duty enquire therfore what thy Faith hath gotten how thy talent of Faith hath gained Be not contented that thou hast the same confidence that thou hadst thou must either have more confidence or further of the spirit of Christ by that confidence Before thou dost go to any Duty or to any Ordinance charge thy self as the Master or Merchant doth charge his Servant that goes out to receive money Go to such a place and receive and return not else Importune and be not satisfied with any answer untill you have received such a sum As men are lost in the world and are of little use they are in vain but ciphers because they are not put to that work to which their Genius and disposition tends One man is made a Preacher that is much fitter for another calling And another goes into the world that is fitter for another politick imployment The World is out of order because men are not put to that use which God hath fitted men for So the Grace of Faith is out of order and of little use because it is not put to its proper work viz. to receive Put your Faith to that and you will thrive and not otherwise They profited not because they did not mix the word with Faith Heb. 4.2 And what is said of hearing the word may be said of Praying or receiving the Lords Supper Meditation or any other Ordinance whatsoever They profited not That is they got no more because it was not mixed with Faith Things are said to be mixed not when they are one in another in a common vessel but when they are beaten together that they make but one body and substance So Faith is mingled with the word when there is not only a believing in the Gross and a taking for granted that that is true which is received but when unto every word there goes an assent and a closing of heart unto every word That is true saith the soul in such a case When as it hears the heart is desperately wicked and that none can go to the bottom of it And when it hears by and by that concerning such an heart that there is hope the Soul saith that is true When every thing is mingled with Faith then it profits Let me I beseech you my beloved speak a little to you freely Why do you suffer your Faith to be Idle Why do you busie it about
discovery of God in nature yet you cannot thence conclude that therefore God will do such things or that such things shall be done by God for us as Faith doth beleeve Again Compare earthly things and heavenly things together Though that earthly things may serve to give you some resemblance of heavenly though that similitude may set out things revealed and keep them in memory yet these similitudes do not prove these things to be nor can shew them in their own nature And therefore you shall find that Nicodemus was partly ignorant of regeneration though that Christ had told him of it under an earthly similitude of being born again That similitude did rather make the thing hard than easie And our Lord adds that If I have spoken unto you of earthly things and you beleeve not how wil you beleeve if I tel you of heavenly Joh. 3.12 That is there are some things to be beleeved in reference unto salvation that there are no things in the earth to be compared to them Therefore if you will not beleeve but by similitude you wil not beleeve them You shall see what I aim at beloved The knowledg or faith of unregenerate men may be reduced Either unto discourse knowledg or unto fancy which is all one Unto the congruity that is between things that are earthly and unto heavenly I say you may either reduce it into discourse As for example Men reason thus First by way of causality that if there be kindness in men then much more in God that gave it Secondly by way of eminency there is much more in the Fountain than in the streams that are derived from it Thirdly By way of negation If so be that this be not fit for a man to do if man wil not be unjust or forgetfull of the service that is done unto him then God will not forget the labor of our love and the work of our faith c. Now such a kind of conclusion as this is is not faith I beseech you mark it It is not faith because the conclusion is drawn only from a naturall principle from that knowledg which we have of God by nature This knowledg by discourse is naturall and therefore this cannot be true faith I shall only give you this for a proof of it which is in James 2.19 The Devils do beleeve and tremble They properly do not beleeve as is apparent by this because their Faith hath not those effects which true faith hath But they are said to beleeve because they have experience in themselves of the truth of the word of God They find that true to their cost which God hath threatned It is made good upon them which God hath written in the word And again they see by experience that many whom they have tempted are gone to Heaven and therefore they know that God will not fail nor break his word Their Faith being raised only from their experience that credit which they give to God being only from what they feel see is not good Now al the faith in unregenerate men is of the same sort with this faith of the Devils for there is no more in the Child than there is in the Parent In John 8.44 They are of their Father the Devill because they go no further than he is a pattern to them in As the Children of the first Adam are like unto him so all the Children of the Devill are like unto him And therefore as you may thus reduce or analize their Faith unto light or discourse so that faith which unregerate men have is taken from the similitude which earthly things have with Heavenly They look upon Heavenly things through Earthly as through a glass and no further than that do they see Matth. 13.11 To you saith God it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God but unto these in parables that in seeing they might not see and in bearing they might not understand Here you find a difference between the knowledg of the Mystery and the knowledg which men have by parables Parables are nothing else but only the comparing of one thing with another One thing set out by another To have no more knowledg therefore of Heavenly things than Earthly doth administer is for a man to have his eyes blinded Yea it is a Seal of the eternall wrath of God Least he should be converted and healed by me If it may be yet more plainly to express my self As in the worship of God an Image or representation made by man cannot help a man at all in the worship of God So neither can the Image of Heavenly things in Earthly similitudes give us life and salvation You know that there are Innate principles Notions which are in every man by nature of a Judgment and of a God Look what those principles are unto natural things such a kind of innate principle is Faith unto the new Creature which makes known the things of God by Jesus Christ It 's not raised by discourse It comes not in by discourse it is infused It lies there and from thence it sends forth its light into the Soul You find the Apostle in the Epistle to the Corinthians blaming the Teachers there because they teached in the wisdom of words and he tels them that it was the means to make â—he faith of their hearts to consist in man and not in the power of God His meaning is this they heard the Gospel preached Eloquently and Rhetorically They looked upon Heaven as upon a Paradise or garden of pleasure They looked upon Communion with God but only as friendship of one with his Friend The things of Christ were set out only by Earthly things as in a Map All the Glory of Heavenly things were put upon them only by the resemblances which they had unto these Earthly things If so be it be so good to be rich and so good to have pleasures here then what is it to have good for ever and the like The Apostle tels them that al this would never make them Christians for their Faith must be in God and this would keep them stil in the wisdom of man I shal conclude this Point thus That as a man that knows a man only by his cloaths takes another for him that is cloathed like him So a man that hath the knowledg of these things only by Earthly things loseth his knowledg or his fancy of them as his fancy alters Secondly The second is this Wherever this saving light in the understanding is there it 's joyned with love in the Will that is the heart doth choose embrace take pleasure and contentment in it that is it so takes pleasure as that it would rather have the truth than any thing though somtimes in a passion it may as wel quarrel with that truth as it doth at other times quarrel with a lust But that I shall speak more unto when I come to speak of the Acts of Faith as it is
sake The heart doth approve and like of its self in believing on or going to Jesus Christ That if a Believer could immediately reflect upon what he hath done when he hath closed with Jesus Christ if he had I say a reciprocall knowledg of his action that he could say I have now given up my self to him and this giving up my self to him is forever never to be my own any more If he could thus reflect upon himself he would bless the Lord for helping him so to do But besides this There is a love which goes along with Faith A love unto Jesus Christ alone besides the approbation of the Soul in believing As the Eye delights in seeing and the Ear is taken with sound So there is a contentment and pleasure that the Soul takes in Faith As it is in Prov. 21.15 said concerning righteousness in the generall That it is a joy to a just man to do justice So it is a joy to a good man to beleeve which I shall lay open in divers particulars 1. Take Faith first as we handled it heretofore to be an Act of the Understanding an assenting unto the truth which God speaks though the things be not only obscure but contrary to Reason it is a pleasure now unto a Beleever to do so To give up his judgment to God To have his knowledg from the report which God gives of things and not from himself or his own apprehension Therefore you shall find him to pray God to lead him by his counsell till he brought him to Glory Psal 73.24 And Paul in Gal. 3. when he was called he would not consult with flesh and blood to hear what they could say but because of the divine testimony which he had received he gives up himself unto Jesus Christ and unto the work of the Ministry Hence it comes to pass that though you may silence a Saint yet you cannot convince him that he is in an error 1 Cor. 2.15 The spirituall man judgeth all things But he himself is judged of none As Bathsheba took all the waies she could to make her Son Solomon to raign in 1 Kings 1.17 Didst thou not say that my Son should raign And why is it not so She stuck unto his word and took no other way So doth Faith take that way Thou hast said Thou hast said Thou hast said And as a proof of that that Faith delights to take Gods word by way of evidence rather than any other In Heb. 11.3 it 's said By Faith we understand that the world was made of nothing We know it by reason that the world was made of nothing But that doth not content a Beleever But by Faith we know it Because we rather judg by the light that comes from God than by the light that is in the things themselves I beseech you my beloved mark it In humane affairs and in things that belong unto men It is as great a weakness as can be to depend upon others to see with other mens eyes and not with a mans own To say as other men say and to speak after them We count it no learning at all neither is it for a man to quote Authors and to say such a man is of this mind and such a man is of that mind A man may be as ignorant as the Books themselves are wherein these things are recorded and yet may have this kind of knowledg But though in humane affairs it be weakness and folly for a man to give up his judgment and to captivate his understanding to what another saith yet it is the excellency of Faith And therefore it is said in John 6.45 that they are learned men who do hear and learn of the Father Every one that hears and learns of the Father comes unto me He is a learned man in the judgment of God that goes by hear-say That Faith is more to be esteemed that is grounded upon the Scripture than that Faith which is assisted by discourse and by reason And the reason of it is this because that Faith is only dependant upon the testimony of God Among Schollars and Ministers you shall many times find a great deal more of knowledg than in others in the matter of divinity but less Faith Because the Hearers go only by the Scripture and the Teachers go by parts and Books They go by the authority of God in the Scripture Reason may be assistant unto Faith But it destroys Faith as it is a principle in 1 Cor. 2.16 We have the mind of Christ saith the Apostle We have the better of it because we have the mind of Christ And if you have all the subtilty and curiosity and heigth and depth which naturall understanding can reach unto to yet know that we are contented with this that we take things barely as they are reported unto us by Jesus Christ Now this is that which Beleevers do cheerfully He is willing to be a Fool willing to have his understanding denied that he may receive the testimony or report of God either concerning his person or concerning Gods good will concerning him or his duty And so take the other part of Faith as it is in the will A resting and quieting of the Soul in Jesus Christ And so a Beleever is willing thereunto It is a great matter to be so as I have shewed heretofore It is a mean thing in its self for a man to live dependantly to have nothing but from hand to mouth All a mans Glory and confidence and boasting is excluded thereby But though a man be nothing and though a man be rendred vile and mean in the Eyes of God and all good men yet Faith makes a man willing thereunto A Soul that is converted had rather have its Good in Christs hands than in its own rather have its comforts in Christs giving and disposing than in its own that he should keep the Bottle and give it as he thinks good It would not be its own Carver if it might Observe it So far as there is Faith unfeigned in a man he had rather be at Gods carving and Gods allowance for Grace and comfort and assistance and supply than at its own Therefore see how cheerfully Paul speaks concerning this case in 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have beleeved As if he should have said though that it be not in my own hand yet it is in his hand that is able Though I have not that which makes me to abound and to be as if I were in Heaven yet I know whom I have trusted and that he will keep it for me CHAP. XXIII The Nature of true Faith in a willingness to believe appears in these particulars 1. In loving to hear the Doctrine of Faith 2. In a desire and longing after Christ 3. In a high esteem of Jesus Christ 4. In suffering it self to be wrought up by God to Jesus Christ 5. In gladly parting with its confidence in any thing but Jesus Christ
6. In that its joy is full when it comes to know that it hath by Faith received Jesus Christ FOr the further discovery therefore of this joy and Faith wherein this willingness to beleeve and love of Christ appears I shall name these six particulars First Wherever there is true Faith in any measure the Soul doth love to hear the Doctrine of faith of Jesus Christ Of al truths that is most pleasing And most pleasing not only because it 's most profitable but because it 's most self-denying If so be the Soul would make its choice or call for any thing out of the Book of God before another it should be for somthing that laies open Christ and presseth beleeving on him How beautifull are the Feet of them that bring glad tidings Rom. 10.15 How beautifull that is they are as lovely as can be Nay so lovely as no words are able to express How beautifull The Apostle Paul did desire to know nothing among the Corinthians but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 that is he desired to make nothing else known And look what it was in him preaching so in every Beleever In Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his Death and the vertue of his Resurrection These things a man loves and he loves to hear spoken of and discoursed of Evil men therefore do love corrupt words and unsavory language Beleevers they love to hear of Jesus Christ His name is sweet and precious Not only to hear of him as a story but as a person whereof there is need and of whom there is use and absolute necessity unto salvation First I say the heart loves to hear of Jesus Christ Acts 13.42 When the Apostle had preached in the name of Christ all that were good came to him and prayed him to preach that over the next Sabbath day or as it is in some translations between this and the next Sabbath day as the word may well be rendred And he did as you may read there As in John 6. they cryed out ever more give us this bread so the poor Soul desires to hear of that again and again When Lidia heard Paul preach Jesus Christ she attended as one that would not lose a fillable nor a word of what was spoken concerning jesus Christ Acts 16.14 How heautifull as I said before are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace It is good to love the Law of God which teacheth a man his duty like one that is carefull to do his masters will Psal 1.2 He meditates therein day and night But it 's a better sign for a man to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ the glad tidings of him As I shal shew you if I come to it that there is not only as great honor given unto God thereby but thereby a man if more humbled and abased in himself and made nothing than by all that obedience which the Law requires or by all that sense of misery that the Law works in us because we have not done our duty A man hath meaner thoughts of himself when he thinks he must beleeve or he cannot be saved than he hath when he thinks if he be called to an account he must needs perish because he hath transgressed Gods Law The soul loves that law which shews its own face in a glass with al its spots upon it But it loves that glass better in which it beholds the face of God For thereby it is transformed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3. last Out of a spirit of indignation and wrath against a mans selfe and sin a man is glad to heare any thing that can be against himself and his sin But out of a love of Christ and out of the love of greater excellencies in Christ then is in a mans self a man is glad to heare rather of Christ then of himself his name is as ointment powred forth Cant. 1.3 There is nothing in the scripture but what is sweet and as hony But the Gospel is as the hony-comb The whole scripture is as a sugared cup But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is as the bottom of that cup. Secondly Where ever there is true faith there is a desire and longing after Faith and Jesus Christ As new borne babes as the Text saith in 1. Pet. 2.3 A desire formally O Lord said the Disciples unto Jesus Christ increase our faith O Lord that we may receive our sight For its faith alone that makes us see the things freely given us of God and to know the treasury of grace and mercy which doth and hath lain hid from eternity And so there is also a vertual desire after Christ in al beleevers They long after the meanes whereby faith is wrought If you have rasted how good the Lord is As new borne babes you wil desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby Though that a Child cannot distinguish rationally between the Milk of the breast and that which is sugared It cannot tel that this is the one and this is the other But it hath a tast by which it can and nothing pleaseth but the mothers breast The Child cannot ask for it nor describe it but you may know it loves it because it is stilled with it and quieted with it So may be the case of many a Christian He may not be able by reason or by discourse or argument to make out the desirableness of Jesus Christ above al other things the excellencies of Jesus Christ above al other waies There may be Rhetorick put upon al other things beyond al that which he can see through or put upon the things of Jesus Christ But you wil find his heart quieted with nothing but Jesus Christ Let him pray with never so much in largedness and affections let him hear with never so much understanding and live with never so much unblameableness in the world yet al this is nothing his heart is unquiet because it is not according to what the law requires And if he sees no fault in it yet there is fault which the pure eyes of God behold when he comes to look it through and through And he hath no peace but when he comes to beleeve in Jesus Christ and receive peace from him What is there in al the meanes of salvation which thou longest after What is it which thou wouldest carry home with thee Is it somthing that may draw Jesus Christ nearer to thee and make him more lovely to thee So much thou mayest conceive of hope of thy state of Salvation The Love of Jesus Chrst is described by this that nothing gives the heart so much quiet and in nothing is the heart so much taken up and contented as it is with this that Jesus Christ is the Mediator and undertaker and is the surety and doth al with the father And that It doth do al with the father by him The heart being pleased and contented argues
is under this work As the wax is said to receive the impression when the Seal is put upon it Or as the ground receives the seed when it 's cast into it As the Air is first inlightened and then scatters light abroad Object How can this be counted a receiving The very giving a power cannot be a receiving Answ To that I Answer in a word or two That this giving us power doth comprehend within it two things First Gods working Secondly The Answer or Effect of that work As a Workman that makes a piece of plate or any other piece of mettal that is ductile or that may be beaten forth his hammering of it makes it of that fashion or Image So Gods working upon a man to receive makes him to receive And the truth of it is my beloved That this doth alter our state For though we are distinguished from men unregenerate by beleeving yet our beleeving is distinguished by this working of the spirit And though there be phrases in the scripture which speak of Christs dwelling in our hearts by faith yet that whereby Christ comes to dwell and take possession of us is his Spirit We have more security of our perseverance and continuance in the state of Grace from this that we are laid hold on by the Spirit and wrought thereunto as saith the Apostle and are apprehended Then we have from this that we do apprehend and lay hold upon Christ Thy apprehension were nothing were it not for this that thou art made to do this by him that alters and changeth not And I speak this to this very end That though this work be never without a work of ours following of it yet notwithstanding the frame and habit of the soul the dispolition temper which we are cast into by the Spirit through the word is unto a man a better ground when he cannot act faith or when he doth act faith it is a better ground than any thing else It is a ground when he cannot and a better ground than any thing else For Mark it Thy acting doth but flow from this work and cannot be made out to be good further than this is in thee As we say in al other duties The Lord looks to the heart It is not the gifts but the will with which we do any thing that God takes pleasure in So I say here It 's not any thing that I have mentioned concerning faith But it is that spirit of faith so the Apostle cals it also that frame of faith An heart cast into that mould which makes al your acts to be accepted If upon any act of ours though those acts were inabled unto by Grace our salvation did depend it might be hazardous But it cannot be hazarded There is no possibility of falling away because the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Son and of the Father doth work and hath wrought us hereunto to beleeve upon him and will maintain that work As a child if I may so express it because born of such Parents hath a right unto the Estate though it cannot plead nor speak to it self It is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone So art thou one Spirit with Jesus Christ when thou art thus shaped and made to give up thy self when thou hast a tendency of spirit to God in all thy hopes when they heart and all within thee is unto Jesus Christ and thou takest all from him as he shall please to give it thee USE If Faith as it is thus in the understanding be a receiving or there may be so much gotten from Jesus Christ by the understanding and knowledg of him then I beseech you look unto the understanding There is a double reason that lies in the Text and in the Point that I have in hand By it you do receive as by a hand And in it is laid up as in an house or barn or treasure rich things from Jesus Christ It is his Cabinet and your Honor or it is your Treasure-house You have nothing to lay up the things of Jesus Christ in or you will not know where to lay them up if you have not a mind to know him Take heed to your understanding take heed what you beleeve Errors in the understanding hinder you from the getting of faith We live in the last and worst Age of the world wherein men make no Covenant with their understanding Job said that he would do so with his eyes that he might not look upon a Maid Yet that was lawfull But there was a snare laid in it Men keep not their thoughts from any thing that may be said pro and con against the Gospel of Jesus Christ So full of Adultery and unchastity are the minds of most that there is scarce any room for Jesus Christ to lodg in Let me but tel you thus much that so much as you are stuft with the things that are not according unto truth so much you keep out the things of the Lord Jesus If you do not beleeve the truth you may be damned So the Text saith in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 2.12 That they all might be damned that beleeve not the truth That word All is put in to shew both how great the punishment is of those that do not beleeve As a fire grows hot by having much timber So the wrath of God is hot against such kind of Men It 's an increase of coles upon them God puts in All there because he would have men know how exceedingly he is provoked and that he will do nothing for them When Princes see whole Counties and Cities in a mutiny they take out one or two to punish and not al. And to shew you that if God do not damn you for receiving the truth yet you will be damnified for not receiving the truth That is you will be hindred Take heed that you miss not of receiving a full reward Why what will hinder them He reckons up the Errors of those times which are rank now as they were then that men do not abide in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ In 2 Joh. 10. If any man come unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not Nor bid him God speed for this wil hinder your of receiving a full reward And as the Apostle saith in the Corinthians You shall be saved it may be but as it were by fire it will cost you many an heart breaking and many a frown from God and many a sob and sigh when God opens your eyes that you should be so careless of letting things into your understanding which he hath made a place and treasure for himself Look you therefore unto your understandings Me thinks this should make a man very cautious yea very obstinate against Errors when he once understands that he must sustain so great a loss and be hindred from so great a gain by it As a man somtimes saith unto his friends If it were not for you I might
have gotten thus much and thus much Let me tell thee If thou didst beleeve the truth which thou canst not do while thy understanding is darkened through Errors thou mightst have gotten this and that from Jesus Christ for by beleeving in thy understanding there is a receiving of him CHAP. X. This Object That Receiving of Christ is not an act of the Vnderstanding for that may be in Hypocrites and Vnregenerate Persons answered OBJECT THese Acts of the understanding may seem not to be a receiving of and from Christ for these may be in an Hypocrite Hypocrites have their understandings inlightned and assent so firmly unto the things that are revealed in the Gospell as those which are regenerated do They are often times perswaded and affected with the perswasion of the word to go unto Christ The Seat of Grace it may be said is not in the understanding for it's Grace which makes good which no virtue in the understanding doth for no man is said to be good because he knows Faith so far as it is in the understanding is common as well to an unregenerate man as to a regenerate man The Objection is grounded upon these two things 1. Because the Scripture doth ascribe unto Hypocrites and men that perish that they do beleeve 2. Upon this Principle viz. That is only to be counted a Grace which makes a man good and no man is said to be good for what he knows but for what he doth Answ Because of this difficulty some have placed the difference btween a regenerate and an unregenerate man only in the Wil that a regenerate man approves and an unregenerate man doth not of the light that shines in him But though that be true yet the Scripture doth make a cleer and distinct difference between a regenerate man and an unregenerate man even in their very mind and understanding As you may see in 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath all the reason and understanding which a man as a man is capable of he doth not understand the things of God neither can he saith the text But we have the mind of Christ As the sense doth only meddle with the things that are sensible So reason and understanding in men doth meddle only with the things that are naturall or with things that are spirituall in a naturall way For as every thing is so it works So in 1 Thes 5.23 You have the whol man distributed into spirit soul and body I pray God sanctifie you throughout in spirit soul and body By the spirit be means the understanding as you may see by the like phrase in Rom. 12.2 where he bids them be renewed in the spirit of their mind And by Soul he means the Will and affections and by Body the outward practice and conversation And in John 6.44 Our Lord laies the reason why some come to him and not all because some were taught and some were not taught of the Father Murmur not among your selves for no man can come to me except my Father which hath sent me draw him for it is written in the Prophets You shal be al taught of God Every one therefore that hath learned and been taught of the Father comes unto me And in Eph. 4.20 You have not so learned Christ That word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Imports a different apprehension in men of the same object Jesus Christ You have not So learned him that is so as some other men have whose hearts are not renewed and changed to walk according to what they know of him If you do but observe it in that very place the Apostle gives that as the reason why some put off the old man with its deceitfull lusts and others are cloathed with the new man in righteousness and true holiness in verse 21.22 Because that they had not so learned Jesus Christ It 's a marvellous hard thing I confess to assign the difference that is between the historical faith of him that shal be saved and of an Hypocrite it 's hard but yet the Scripture makes a difference and distinction In the general therefore Grace or Virtue may be considered under a double notion Either as it gives a power and ability to do good And so Grace may be said to be in the understanding Or Secondly As Grace doth put that power into use and inables a man to use that power wel And so it 's properly in the Will For al vertuous acts must be voluntary and therefore they depend upon the sanctification of the affections But though the use of this light in externall acts depends upon the Will yet notwithstanding this light in its self doth differ from all other light For it 's a new one Bear with the Phrase for it 's the phrase of the Holy Ghost in Rom. 12.2 Be renewed in the spirit of your mind This saving Faith gives an intuitive knowledg of the things of God as they are in themselves 2 Pet. 1.9 saith the Apostle He that lacketh these things the word in The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things are not present It 's all one with that of 2 Cor. 3.18 We behold with open face And with that in Eph. 1.18 where he praies that they may have their eyes opened to see what is the hope of their calling what it is in it self For the better understanding of this you must know That unto the sight of the eye there goes two things First A Faculty and a visive power And Secondly There must be light to discover the Object unto the eye So unto the sight of the mind there goes these two things First Somthing which doth convey the mind of God which the School-men cals Lumen deferens Something which conveys things unto the understanding And that is the word of Scripture The letter Similitude discourse and reasonings wherby one thing is gathered and concluded from another And this answers unto the light which is in the air for the eye to see by There is also Lumen disponens or a light which makes the understanding to see or take notice of the things revealed that is as the light of the eye And this light which indeed is the light of Faith it is infused and comes not nor is caused by discourse or study or by deduction or consequence from any naturall thing but ariseth immediately from the spirit bringing the things of God and the Soul together You shall discern it in that similitude which the Scripture sets it forth by Tasting and Seeing Tasting That as a man that tasts a thing he hath it present with him the savor of it that there is no disputing against it or making him to beleeve otherwise Do not you tast it saith he So also the things of God are brought unto the soul so through the word by faith that there is not a possibility for the soul to be mistaken That you may see a little into this take the cleerest
the world almost There are but few Receivers of Jesus Christ Many to whom he is offered but few that give him entertainment by Faith And those that have given him entertainment have not done according to the Law of that duty in receiving him with that kindness which he should have been entertained with I shal put both these sorts together because they are both under one reproof though not both under the same danger First I say this Point discovers many to be under unbelief and so not to be the Sons of God but the wrath of God to abide upon them And that even many of those who do live under the Gospel have beleeved received Christ but not received him with love As the Apostle saith in another case you have not so learned Christ So may I say they have not so received Christ They have received him but not as a friend and not as a guest and not as one that loves him But even as somtimes a poor Child is taken to keeping because they are compelled thereunto by Law and they cannot rid themselves of that charge So men are compelled by their light and conviction to beleeve that there is no way for salvation but by Jesus Christ Their Understanding is forced to receive in this truth because it shines so cleerly As the light that opens the sleeping mans eyes that lies against it but they do not love him In John 3.19 They loved darkness rather than light because their works were evill Loved darkness more than light Jesus Christ is that light and Faith is that sight whereby we see that light and they love darkness that is they love even the most uncomfortable estate that they could be in the world better then they love the way of Jesus Christ darkness in the Scripture is referred to uncomfortableness Whether you refer it to the darkness of the shadow under the Law Or to the darkness of heaviness and grief of Spirit wherein men are put when they apprehend what they have done to the destruction of their Souls Men love any thing darkness rather than Jesus Christ I shall have occasion to open that again and therefore I pass it over shortly Out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordained praise that thou maiest still the avenger and the enemy Psal 8.2 And who is the Enemy and the Avenger It is only the naturall man For in the Hebrews you shall find that the eighth Psalme is only a Prophecy of Jesus Christ under whose feet God puts all things Jesus Christ was the praise of God the Father because he was as unfit to have undertaken and perfected the work of our salvation in the eyes of the world as a Child is unfit to do the service of a man Or as the language of a Child is insignificant and is not able to express it self Now why will God take such a course That he may still he Enemy and the Avenger That I would have you note That there is in men an enmity and a rage against Jesus Christ and the way of salvation by him If there were any thing he would destroy and if there were any wall he would pluck down and if there were any truth he would deny namely salvation by Jesus Christ He came to his own and his own received him not His own that is those that were separated from the rest of the world As we call that a mans own wherein a man hath a particular interest title and possession If they were Christs own then they had in some measure owned him as wel as he had owned them They had owned him by profession and yet they received him not because they received him not with love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies properly a receiving kindly and respectively and gladly So they received him not The Jews they thought they had received the Messiah when they refused the Messiah They thought that he that should be the Messiah should be such a one and because Christ came not cloathed like unto him therefore they rejected him So Christians are apt to a great mistake about Jesus Christ preached and born in the Gospell as I may say as the Jews were about him when that he came in the Flesh I shall instance only in one They do not love beleeving nor receive Jesus Christ with love who beleeve him not to be such a one as he is who receive him not according to the greatness and glory with which he is invested and which belonges unto him Suppose a Noble man should come unto a mans house and be regarded but as an ordinary man Let his entertainment be otherwise what it wil be he is not used kindly but you do degrade him and level him to an ordinary mans condition when as he is a person of Honor Kind usage of one lyes in the shewing him that respect and esteem which belongs unto him He is an unkind man to his wife who respects her but as his Father and Mother when as he must leave Father and Mother in his affections in comparison of her So now he useth Christ unkindly and he doth not shew his love by beleeving on him who doth not by faith receive him as he is God and Man One in whose hands al power is may do what he pleaseth viz. Give the spirit from the father And one who is holy and harmless and separate from sinners I say unless you beleeve upon him as such a one and receive him as such a one and love him as such a one then you do not beleeve In 1 Rom. 21. They Glorifyed him not as God and therefore God gave them up to vile affections They Glorified God he confesseth But not as God and therefore they were punished Wherein lay that that they glorified him not as God It lay in this God had put forth his power and wisdom in the things that he had made and they set up things which they made in the memorial of that God but they praised him not as a God of infinite power They looked after no more then was in the creation and therefore not giving infinite power to him they Glorified him not as God So I say here They do not love Jesus Christ as Christ who do not acknowledg him to be what indeed he is and to be such a one as he is revealed I shall speak more plainly thus The Jews did stumble at the meaness of Christs out-side because they looked by him to have a temporall kingdome There are as false as erronious apprehensions of Christ in the minds of men now The dealings of Christ with the Souls of men are as contrary and as unanswerable unto mens expectations and presumptions as the mean coming of Jesus Christ into the world was contrary unto the expectation of the Jews Mark it Christs dealings with the Spirits of men are as unanswerable as his coming in the Flesh was unanswerable to what the Jews expected When