Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	justify_v	object_n	1,744	5	9.2095	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41355	The marrow of modern divinity touching both the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, with their use and end, both in the time of the Old Testament, and in the time of the New : wherein every one may cleerly see how far forth he bringeth the law into the case of justification, and so deserverh the name of legalist : and how far forth he rejecteth the law, in the case of sanctification, and so deserveth the name of Antinomist : with the middle path between them both, which by Iesus Christ leadeth to eternall life : in a dialogue, betwixt Evangelista, a minister of the Gospel, Nomista, a legalist, Antinomista, an Antinomian, and Neophytus, a young Christian / by the author, E.F. ; before the which there is prefixed the commendatory epistles of divers divines of great esteem in the citie of London ; whereunto is also added, the substance of a	Fisher, Edward, fl. 1627-1655.; Hamilton, Patrick, 1504?-1528. Patricks places.	1646 (1646)	Wing F997; ESTC R1839	130,516	286

behalfe of all his chosen perfectly fulfilled the Law as it is the covenant of works divine justice delivered that bond in to Christ who utterly cancelled that hand-writing so that none of his chosen were to have any more to doe with it nor it with them and now you by your believing in Christ having manifested that you are one that was chosen in him before the foundation of the world his fulfilling of that covenant and cancelling of it is imputed to you and so you are acquitted and absolved from all your transgressions against that covenant either past present or to come and so you are justified as the Apostle saith Freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Ant. I pray you Sir give mee leave to speake a word by the way was not he justified before this time Evan. If he did not believe in Christ before this time as I conceive hee did not then certainly he was not justified before this time Ant. But Sir you know as the Apostle saith It is God that justifieth and God is eternall and as you have shewed Christ may be said to have fulfilled the covenant of works from all eternity and if he bee Christs now then was he Christs from all eternity and therefore as I conceive hee was justified from all eternity Evan. Indeed God is from all eternity and in respect of Gods accepting of Christs undertaking to fulfill the covenant of works he fulfilled it from all eternity and in respect of Gods electing of him he was Christs from all eternity and therefore it is true in respect of Gods decree hee was justified from all eternity and hee was justified meritoriously in the death and resurrection of Christ but yet he was not justified actually till he did actually believe in Christ for saith the Apostle By him all that believe are justified so that in the act of justifying faith and Christ must have a mutuall relation and must always concur and meet together faith as the action which apprehendeth and Christ as the object which is apprehended for neither doth Christ justifie without faith neither doth faith except it bee in Christ. Ant. Truly Sir you have indifferently well satisfied me in this point and surely I like it marvellous well that you conclude no faith justifieth but that whose object is Christ. Eva. The very truth is thuogh a man believe that God is mercifull and true of his promise and that he hath his elect number from the beginning and that he himselfe is one of that number yet if this faith doe not eye Christ if it be not in God as he is in Christ it will not serve turn for God cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our mediator for if we finde not God in Christ saith Calvin salvation cannot bee known wherefore neighbour Neophytus I will say unto you as sweet Master Bradford said unto a gentlewoman in your case Thus then if you would be quiet and certain in conscience then let your faith burst forth through all things not onely that you have within you but also whatsoever is in heaven earth and hell and never rest untill it come to Christ crucified and the eternall sweete mercie and goodnesse of God in ●hrist Neo. But Sir I am not yet satisfied concerning the point you touched before and therefore I pray you proceed to shew me how far forth I am delivered from the Law as it is the covenant of works Evan. Truly as it is the covenant of works you are wholy and altogether delivered and set free from it you are dead to it and it is dead to you and if it be dead to you then it can doe you neither good nor hurt and if you be dead to it you can expect neither good nor hurt from it consider man I pray you that as I said before you are now under another covenant to wit the covenant of grace and you cannot bee under two covenants at once neither wholy nor partly and therefore as before you believed you were wholy under the covenant of works as Adam left both you and all his posterity after his fall so now since you have believed you are wholy under the covenant of grace Assure your selfe then that no Minister or Preacher of Gods Word hath any warrant to say unto you hereafter either doe this and this dutie contained in the law and avoid this and this sin forbidden in the Law and God will justifie thee and save thy soule or doe it not and Hee will condemne thee and damne thee no no you are now set free both from the commanding and condemning power of the covenant of works so that I will say unto you as the Apostle saith unto the believing Hebrews You are not come to Mount Sinai that might not be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blacknesse and darknesse and tempests but you are come unto Mount Sion the City of the living God and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant so that to speak with holy reverence God cannot by vertue of the covenant of wotks either require of you any obedience or punish you for any disobedience no he cannot by vertue of that covenant so much as threaten you or give you an angry word or shew you an angry look for indeed he can see no sin in you as a transgression of that covenant for saith the Apostle Where there is no Law there is no transgression And therfore though hereafter you doe through frailty transgresse any or all the ten Commandements yet doe you not thereby transgresse the covenant of works there is no such covenant now betwixt God and you and therefore though you shall hereafter heare such a voice as this if thou wilt be saved keep the commandements or cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are writen in the book of the Law to doe them nay though you heare the voice of thunder and a fearfull noyse nay though you see blacknesse and darknesse and feel a great tempest that is to say though you heare us that are Preachers according to our commission Lift up our voice like a trumpet in threatning hell and damnation to sinners and transgressors of the Law though these be the words of God yet are you not to thinke that they are spoken to you no no the Apostle assures you ●hat there is no condemnation to them that ●●re in Christ Jesus believe it man God never threatens eternall death after he hath once given to a man eternall life nay the truth is God never speaks to a believer out of Christ and in Christ hee speaks not a word in the terms of the covenant of works and if the Law of it selfe should presume to ●ome into your conscience and say herein and herein thou hast transgressed and broken ●●e and therefore thou owest so much and ●o much to divine Justice which must be

your believing that you have believed upon and so forcibly to hasten your assurance before the time for though this be not to turn quite back to the covenant of works for that you shall never do yet is it to turn aside towards that covenant as Abraham did who after that he had long wayted for the promised seed though he was before justified by believing the free promise yet for the more speedy satisfying of his faith hee turned aside to go in unto Hagar who was as you have heard a type of the covenant of works so that you see this is not the right way but the right way for you in this case to get your assurance again is when all other things fail to look to Christ That is go to the word and promise and leave off and cease a while to reason about the truth of your faith and set your heart on work to believe as if you had never yet done it saying in your heart well Satan suppose my faith hath not been true hitherto yet now will I begin to endevour after true faith and therefore ô Lord here I cast my self upon thy mercy afresh For in thee the fatherlesse finde mercy thus I say hold to the word goe not away but keep you here and you shall bring forth fruit with patience Neo. Well Sir you have fully satisfied the concerning that point but as I remember it followeth in the same Verse Know yee not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be repoobates wherefore I desire to heare how a man may know that Jesus Christ is in him Evan. Why if Christ be in a man hee lives in him as sayth the Apostle I live not but Christ liveth in me Neo. But how then shall a man know that Christ lives in him Evan. Why in what man soever Christ lives according to the measure of his faith he executes his threefold office in him viz. his Propheticall Priestly and Kingly Office Neo. I desire to hear more of this threefold office of Christ and therefore I pray you Sir tell me first how a man may know that Christ executes his Propheticall office in him Evan. Why so far forth as any man heares and knows that there was a covenant made betwixt God and all mankinde in Adam and that it was an equall covenant and that Gods justice must needs enter upon the breach of it and that all mankind for that cause were lyable to eternall death and damnation so that if God had condemned all mankinde yet had it beene but the sentence of an equall and just Judge seeking rather the execution of his justice then mans ruine and destruction and thereupon takes it home and applyes it particularly to himself and so is convinced that hee is a miserable lost and helplesse man I say so far forth as a man doth this CHRIST executes his Propheticall office in him in teaching him and revealing unto him the covenant of works And so far forth as any man hears and knowes that God made a covenant with Abraham and all his believing seed in Jesus Christ offering him freely to all to whom the sound of the Gospell comes and giving him freely to all that receive him by faith and so justifies them and saves them eternally and thereupon hath his heart opened to receive this truth not as a man taketh an object or a theologicall point into his head whereby hee is onely made able to discourse but as an habituall and practicall point receiving it into his heart by the faith of the Gospell and applying it to himselfe and laying his eternall state upon it and so setting to his seal that God is true I say so far forth as a man doth this CHRIST executes his propheticall office in him in teaching him and revealing to him the Covenant of grace and so far forth as any man hears and knows that This is the will of GOD even his sanctification c. And thereupon concludes that it is his dutie to endeavour after it I say so far forth as a man doth this Christ executes his propheticall office in him in teaching and revealing his law to him and this I hope is sufficient for answer to your first question Neo. I pray you Sir in the second place tell mee how a man may know that Christ executes his priestly office in him Evan. Why so far forth as any man hears and knows that Christ hath given himselfe as that onely absolute and perfect sacrifice for the sins of believers and joyned them unto himselfe by faith and himself unto them by his spirit and so made them one with him and is now entred into Heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for them and hereupon is emboldned to go immediatly to God in prayer as to a father and meet him in Christ and present him with Christ himselfe as with a Sacrifice without spot or blemish I say so far forth as any man doth this Christ executes his priestly office in him Neo. But Sir would you have a believer to goe immediately unto God how then doth Christ make intercession for us at Gods right hand as the Apostle sayth hee doth Rom. 8.34 Evan. It is true indeed Christ as a publike person representing all believers appeares before God his Father and willeth according to both his natures and desireth as he is man that God would for his satisfaction sake grant unto them whatsoever they aske according to his will But yet you must goe immediately to God in prayer for all that you must not pitch your prayers upon Christ and terminate them there as if he were to take them and present them to his Father but the very presenting place of your prayers must be God himselfe in Christ neither must you conceive as though Christ the Sonne were more willing to grant your request then God the Father for whatsoever Christ willeth the same also the Father being well pleased with him willeth in Christ then I say and nowhere else must you expect to have your petitions granted and as in Christ and no place else so for Christs sake and nothing else and therefore I beseech you to beware you forget not Christ when you go unto the Father to beg any thing which you desire either for your selfe or others especially when you desire co have any pardon for sin you are not to thinke that when you joyn with your prayers fasting weeping and afflicting of your selfe that for so doing you shall prevail with God to heare you and grant your petitions no no you must meete God in Christ and present him with his sufferings your eye your minde and all your confidence must be therein and in that be as confident as possibly you can yea expostulate the matter as it were with God the Father and say lo here is the person that hath well deserved it here 〈◊〉 the person that

I may say as Jacob did of his venison Gen. 27.20 The Lord hath brought it unto me let me speak it without vain glory I have endeavoured herein to imitate the laborious Bee who out of divers flowers gathers honey and wax and thereof makes one combe if any soule feels any sweetnesse in it let them praise God and pray for me who am weak in faith and cold in love E. F. TO THE READER IF thou wilt please to peruse this little Book thou shalt finde great worth in it There is a line of a gracious Spirit drawne through it which hath fastned many precious truths together and presented them to thy view according to the variety of mens spirits the various ways of presenting known truths are profitable The grace of God hath helped this Author in his worke if it in like manner helps thee in reading thou shalt have cause to blesse God for these truths thus brought to thee and for the labours of this good man whose ends I believe are very syncere for God and thy good Jer. Burroughes OCcasionally lighting upon this Dialogue under the Approbation of a learned and judicious Divine I was thereby induced to read it and afterwards upon serious consideration of the usefulnesse of it to commend it to the people in my publike Ministry Two things in it especially tooke with me first the matter the main substance being distinctly to discover the nature of the two Covenants upon which all the mysteries both of Law and Gospel depend To see the first Adam to be primus foederatus in the one and the second Adam in the other to distinguish rightly betwixt the law standing alone as a Covenant and standing in subordination to the Gospel as a servant this I assure my selfe to be the key which opens the hiden treasures of the Gospel As soone as God had given Luther but a glimpse hereof hee professeth that hee seemed to bee brought into Paradise again and the whole face of the Scripture to bee changed to him and he looked upon every truth with another eye Secondly the manner because it is an Irenicum and tends to an accommodation and a right understanding Times of Reformation have always been times of division Satan will cast out a floud after the woman as knowing that more die by the disagreement of the humours of their own bodies than by the sword and that if men be once engaged they will contend if not for truth yet for victory Now if the difference be in things of lesser consequence the best way to quench it were silence this was Luthers counsell given in an Epistle written to the Divines assembled in a Synod at Norimberge Meum consilium fuerit cum nullum sit Ecclesiae periculum ut hanc causam sinatis vel ad tempus sopitam utinam extinctam jacere donec tutiore meliore tempore animis in pace firmatis charitate aduatis eam disputetis I think it were good counsell concerning many of the Disputes of our times But if the difference be of greater concernment as this is then the way to decide it is to bring in more light which this Authour hath done with much evidence of Scripture backt with the authority of most moderne Divines so that whosoever desires to have his judgement cleered in the maine controversie betweene us and the Antinomians with a small expence either of money or time hee may here receive ample satisfaction this I testifie upon request professing my selfe a friend both to truth and peace Novem. 12. W. Strong THis book at first well accommodated with so valuable a testimony as M. Caryls besides its better-approving it self to the choicer spirits every where to the speedy distribution of the whole impression it might seeme a needlesse or superfluous thing to adde any more to the praise thereof yet meeting with detracting language from some few by reason of some phrases by them either not duly pondered or not rightly understood it is thought meete this second impression to relieve that worthy testimony which still stands to it with fresh supplies not for any need the truth therein contained hath thereof but because either the prejudice or darknesse of some mens judgements doth require it I therefore having throughly perused it cannot but testifie that if I have any the least judgment or rellish of truth hee that findes this book findes a good thing and not unworthy of its title and may account the Saints to have obtained favour with the Lord in the ministration of it as that which with great plainenesse and evidence of truth comprises the chiefe if not all the differences that have been lately ingendred about the Law it hath I must confesse not onely fortified my judgement but also warmed my heart in the reading of it as indeed inculcating throughout the whole Dialogue the cleer and familiar notion of those things by which we live as Hezekias speaks in another case and it appeareth to me to be written from much experimentall knowledge of Christ and teaching of the Spirit Let all men that taste the fruit of it confesse to the glory of God he is no respecter of persons and endeavour to know no man henceforth after the flesh nor envie the compiler thereof the honour to be accounted as God hath made him in this point a healer of breaches and a restorer of the over-grown paths of the Gospel as for mine own part I am so satisfied in this testimony I lend that I reckon what ever credit is thus pawned will be a glory to the name that stands by and avows this truth so long as the book shall endure to record it Ihshua Sprigge Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus My loving friend in Christ I Have according to your desire read over your Booke and finde it full of Evangelicall light and life and I doubt not but the oftner I read it the more true comfort I shall finde in the knowledge of Christ thereby the matter ●s pure the method is Apostolicall wherein the works of love in the right place after the life of faith bee effectually required God hath endewed his Fisher with the Net of a trying understanding and discerning iudgement and discretion whereby out of the Christaline streams of the well of life you have taken a messe of the sweetest and wholsomest fish that the whole world can afford which if I could daily have enough of I should no more care for the flesh or the works thereof Samuell Prittie A CATALOGUE of those Writers names out of whom I have collected much of the matter contained in this ensuing Dialogue A Doctor Ames M. Aynsworth B M. Beza M. Bulenger M. Bradford M. Bastingius Bishop Babington M. Ball M. Robert Boulton M. Samuel Boulton C M. Calvin M. Culverwell M. Carelesse M. Cornwall D Du Plesse B. D●wname Doctor Di●da●e M. Dixon M. Dyke E M. Elton F M. Fox M. Frith M. Forbs G M. Greenham M. Gibbens M. Thomas Goodwin

he first loved us the Lord doth pay them or at least giveth them a sure earnest of their wages before hee bid them work and therefore the contest of a believer according to the measure of his faith is not what will God give mee but what shall I give God What shall I render unto the Lord for all his goodnesse for thy loving kindnesse is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Nom. Then Sir it seems that holinesse of life and good workes are not the cause of eternall happines but onely the way thether Evan. Doe you not remember that our Lord Jesus himself sayth I am the way the truth and the life And doth not the Apostle say to the believing Colossians As ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk in him that is As you have received him by faith so goe on in your faith and by his power walk in his Commandements so that good works as I conceive may rather be called a believers walking in the way to eternal happinesse then the way it self but however this wee may assuredly conclude that the summe and substance both of the way and walking in the way consist in the receiving of Jesus Christ by faith and in yielding obedience to his law according to the measure of that receiving Neo. Sir I am perswaded that through my neighbour Nomistas asking you these questions you have been interrupted in your discourse in shewing how faith doth enable a man to exercise his christian graces and performe his christian duties aright And therefore I pray you go on Evan. What should I say more for the time would fail me to tell how that according to the measure of any mans faith is his true peace of conscience for sayth the Apostle being justified by faith wee have peace with God yea sayth the Prophet Isaiah Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee here there is a sure and true grounded peace therfore it is of faith sayth the Apostle that it might be by grace and that the promise might be sure to all the seed and answerably to a mans believing that hee is justified fully by Gods grace through that redemption that is in Jesus Christ is his true humility of spirit so that although he be endued with excellent gifts and graces and though he performe never so many duties he denyes himselfe in all hee doth not make them as ladders for him to ascend up into Heaven by But desires to be found in Christ not having his own righteousnesse which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ he doth not think himselfe to be one step neerer to Heaven for all his works and performances and if hee heare any man prayse him for his gifts and graces hee will not conceit that he hath obteined the same by his own industry and pains taking as some men have proudly thought neyther will hee speak it out as some have done saying these gifts and graces have cost mee something I have taken much pains to obtain them but he sayth Not I but by the grace of God I am that I am and not I but the grace of God that was with me And if he behold an ignorant man or a wicked liver he will not call him carnall wretch or prophane fellow nor say stand by thy selfe come not neere to mee for I am holier then thou as some have said but he pitieth such a man and prays for him and in his heart he sayth concerning himself who maketh thee to differ And what hast thou that thou hast not received And thus I might goe on and shew you how according to any mans faith is his true joy in God and his true thankfulnesse to God and his patience in all troubles and afflictions and his contentednesse in any condition and his willingnesse to suffer and his cheerfulnesse in suffering and his contentednesse to part with any earthly thing yea according to any mans faith is his ability to pray aright to heare or read the Word of God aright to receive the Sacrament with profit and comfort and to do any duty either to God or man after a right manner and to a right end yea according to the measure of any mans faith is his love to Christ and so to man for Christs sake and so consequently his readinesse and willingnesse to forgive an injury yea to forgive an enemy and to doe good to them that hate him and the more faith any man hath the lesse love he hath to the world or the things that are in the world to conclude the greater any mans faith is the more fitter he is to die and the more willing he is to die Neo. Well Sir now I doe perceive that faith is a most excellent grace and happie is that man that hath a great measure of it Evan. The truth is faith is the chief grace that Christians are to be exhorted to get and exercise and therefore when the people asked our Lord Christ what they should doe to worke the worke of God he answered and said this is the work of God That ye believe on him whom he hath sent speaking as if there were no other duty at all required but onely believing for indeed to say as the thing is believing includeth all other duties in it and they spring all from it and therefore sayth one Preach Faith and preach all Whilst I bid man believe sayth learned Rollock I bid him doe all good things for sayth Doctor Preston truth of belief will bring forth truth of holinesse if a man believe works of sanctification will follow for faith draws after it inherent righteousnesse and sanctification wherefore sayth he if a man will goe about this great worke to change his life to get victory over any sin that it may not have dominion over him to have his conscience purged from dead works and to bee made partaker of the divine nature let him not goe about it as a morall man that is let him not consider what Commandements there are what the rectitude is which the Law requires and how to bring his heart to it but let him goe about it as a Christian that is let him believe the promise of pardon in the bloud of Christ and the very believing the promise will be able to cleanse his heart from dead works Neo. But I pray you Sir whence hath faith its power and vertue to doe all this Evan. Even from our Lord Jesus Christ for faith doth ingraft a man who is by nature a wild olive branch into Christ as into the naturall olive and fetcheth sap from the root Christ and thereby makes the tree bring forth fruit in its kind yea faith fetcheth a supernaturall efficacie from the death and life of Christ by vertue whereof it metamorphoseth the heart of a

comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned for indeed Christ paid God till hee sayd hee had enough hee was fully satisfied fully contented and therefore in Jer. 50.20 it is sayd that in those dayes and at that time the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sinnes of Judah and they shall not be found for by Christs death Satan sinne and Death were conquered and taken captive and whatsoever might bee brought against us was taken away as the least bill or scroule and yet it is sayd concerning the seed and children of Jesus Christ Psal. 89.30 If they forsake my Law and walke not in my judgements then will I visit your transgressions with the rod and their iniquities with stripes and in like manner 1 Cor. 11.30 it is sayd concerning believers For this cause many are weak and sickly amongst you and many sleepe Now though all these Scriptures speake contrary one to another yet they all speake truth for they bee all of them the words of truth and that it may appeare to you that they doe so I pray you take notice that where believers are sayd not to bee under the Law and freed from the Law it is to be understood of the Law as it is the covenant of works and where it is sayd that believers are under the Law and that faith establisheth the Law it is to bee understood of the Law as it is the law of Christ now if believers be not under but are freed from the law of works or covenant of works then though they doe transgresse the law yet they doe not transgresse the Covenant of works and if they transgresse not the covenant of works then cannot God see any transgression of theirs as a transgression against that Covenant And if he see it not then can ye neither be angry with them nor yet chastise them for it But if believers be under the Law and faith doe establish the Law as it is the Law of Christ then if they transgresse any of the ten Commandements they transgresse the Law of Christ and if they transgresse the Law of Christ then doth Christ see it and if Christ see it he will be both angry with them and chastise them for it Now then neighbour Neophytus to apply these things to you and so to give you a particular answer to your question you are to know that you are not now under the Law but are by Christ freed from it as it is the Law of works and therefore whensoever you shall hereafter through frailty transgresse any of the ten Commandements you are not to thinke you have thereby transgressed the Covenant of works neither are you to conceive that God either sees your transgressions or is angry with you or doth chastise you for them as they are any way a transgression of that Covenant for you being freed from that Covenant and so consequently from sinning against it must needs likewise be freed from all wrath anger miseries calamities and afflictions as fruits and effects of any transgression against that Covenant But yet whilst you live you are to conceive that you are under the Law of Christ and therefore whensoever you doe swerve or goe away from the rule of any of the ten Commandements you must perswade your selfe that you have thereby transgressed the Law of Christ and that hee sees it and is displeased with you for it and if you be not grieved for it and doe not reforme it Christ will chastise you for it either by hiding his face and withdrawing the light of his countenance from you and so by depriving you of peace and comfort in him for a time or else by some outward losse or crosse in this World for that is the penalty of the Law of Christ so that if you or any believer else doe transgresse the Law of Christ if need be you shall bee as sure of temporall corrections as an unbeliever that transgresseth the covenant of works shall be of eternall damnation in hell wherefore I beseech you according to my exhortation and your resolution first be carefull to exercise your faith and use all meanes to increase it that so it may become effectuall working by love for according to the measure of your faith will be your true love to Christ and to his will and commandements and according to the measure of your love to them will be your delight in them and your aptnesse and readinesse to doe them and hence it is that Christ sayth If ye love me keep my commandements and hence it is that the believing soule according to the measure of its faith sayth with the Psalmist I delight to doe thy will ô my God yea thy law is within my heart for this is the love of God sayth that loving Disciple that we keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous nay the very truth is nothing will be more grievous to your soule then that you cannot keep them as you would ô this love of God being truly rooted in your heart will make you say with godly Joseph in case you be tempted as he was How can I doe this great wickednesse and so sinne against God how can I doe that which I know will displease so gracious a Father and so mercifull a Saviour no I will not doe it no I cannot doe it Secondly If in case you be at any time by reason of the weaknesse of your faith strength of your tentation drawn aside and prevailed with to transgresse any of Christs Comandements then beware that you do not thereupon take occasion to call Christs love to you into question but believe as firmly that he loves you as dearly as he did before you thus transgressed for this is a certain truth as no good in you or done by you did move or can move Christ to love you the more so no evill in you or done by you can move him to love you the lesse no assure your selfe that as he first loved you freely so will he hereafter heal your backsliding and still love you freely Hosea 14.4 yee hee will love you unto the end John 13.1 And therefore as you must be nothing in your selfe in case of your most exact obedience so must you be all in Christ in case of your most imperfect and defective obedience the which if you be why then the love of Christ will constrain you to mourn with an evangelicall or Gospell mourning reasoning with your self after this manner and is it so indeed though I have thus sinned yet will the Lord love me never the lesse for all that and am I as much in his favour now and as sure of erernall happinesse with Christ as I was before I thus sinned ô what a loving Father is this ô what a gracious Saviour is this ô what a wretched man am I to sin against such

be perswaded to it before this day nor indeed should not have been perswaded to it now had not you so plainly and fully handled this threefold law and truly Sir I doe now unfainedly desire to renounce my self and all that ever I have done and by faith to adhere onely to Jesus Christ for now I see that hee is all in all ô that the Lord would enable me so to do and I beseech you Sir pray for me Ant. And truly Sir I must needs confesse that I have erred as much on the other hand for I have been so far from seeking to be justified by the works of the law that I have neyther regarded law nor works but now I see mine errour I purpose God willing to reform it Evan. The Lord grant that you may but how do you neighbour Neophytus for me thinks you look very heavily Neo. Truly Sir I was thinking of that place of Scripture where the Apostle exhorts us to examine our selves whether we be in the faith or no whereby it seems to mee that a man may think he is in the faith when he is not therefore Sir I would gladly heare how I may be sure that I am in the faith Evan I would not have you to make any question of it since you have grounded your faith upon such a firme foundation as will never fail you for the promise of God in Christ is of a tried truth and never yet failed any man nor never will therefore I would have you to close with Christ in the promise without making any question whether you are in the faith or no for there is an assurance which ariseth from the exercise of faith by a direct act and that is when a man by faith directly layes hold upon Christ and concludes assurance from thence Neo. Sir I know that the foundation whereon I am to ground my faith remayneth sure and I think I have already built thereon but yet because I conceive a man may thinke hee hath done so when hee hath not therefore would I fain know how I may be assured that I have done so Eva. Wel now I understand you what you mean it seems you do not want a ground for your believing but for your believing that you have believed Neo. Yea indeed that is the thing I want Evan. Why the next way to finde out and know this is to looke backe and reflect upon your own heart consider what actions have passed through there for indeed this is the benefit that a reasonable soul hath that it is able to returne upon it selfe to see what it hath done which the soul of a beast cannot do Consider then I pray you whether the free and full promise of God in Christ hath not beene so cleered unto you that you had nothing to object why it did not belong particularly to you and whether you have not seen a readinesse and willingnesse in Christ to receive and embrace you as his beloved Spouse And whether you have not thereupon consented and resolved to take Christ and to give up yourselfe to him and whether you have not since that found in your heart a love to Christ and his law and a readinesse and willingnes to doe your duty to God as a childe to his father freely without feare of hell or hope of Heaven now tell me I pray you truly whether you have not found these things in you Neo. Yea indeed I hope I have in some measure Evan. Why then I may say with the Apostle John You are of the truth and may assure or perswade your heart before God Wherefore sayth Christ to you I say unto thee that thy many sins are forgiven thee for thou lovest much Ant. But Sir shall he not in so doing turne back from the Covenant of grace to the covenant of works and from Christ to himselfe Evan. Indeed if he should looke upon these things in himselfe and thereupon conclude that because he hath done thus God hath accepted of him and justified him and will save him and so make them the ground of his believing this were to turn back from the Covenant of grace to the Covenant of works and from Christ to himselfe But if he look upon these things in himselfe and thereupon conclude that because these things are in his heart Christ dwels there by faith and therefore he is accepted of God and justified and shall certainly be saved and so make them an evidence of his believing or the ground of his believing that he hath believed this is neither to turn back from the Covenant of grace to the Covenant of works nor from Christ to himselfe so that these things in his heart being the daughters of faith and the of-spring of Christ though they cannot at first produce or bring forth their mother yet may they in time of need nourish her Nom. But I pray you Sir are there not other things besides these that he sayth hee finds in himselfe that a man may looke upon as evidences of his believing or as you call them as grounds of his believing that hee hath believed Evan. Yea indeed besides these inward qualifications that are in the heart there are outward qualifications in the life as having respect unto all Christs Commandements which a man may look upon as an evidence provided that hee be sure it flow from those within Nom. But Sir how should a man know that Evan. The sure and best way to know this is for a man to examine himselfe whether he did first believe in Christ and then reforme his life and so made his faith the cause of the change of his life or whether he did first reforme his life and then believe and so made his reformation of life the cause of his faith if he be sure he did the former then may he be sure that his outward qualifications proceeded from his inward and so are right and true but if hee did the latter then may he be sure that they are wrong and false evidences Nom. Then truly Sir I have not as yet any right and true evidences of faith Evan. If you have not then as I tell you it is time to believe that so you may have them that are right and true Neo. But Sir I pray you let me ask you one question more touching this point and that is suppose that hereafter I should see no outward evidences and question whether I had ever any true inward evidences and so whether I did ever truly believe or no What must I do then Evan. Indeed it is possible you may come to such a condition and therefore you doe well to provide aforehand for it Now then if ever it shall please the Lord to give you over to such a condition first let mee warn you to take heed of forcing and constraining your selfe to yield obedience to Gods Commandements to the end you may so get an evidence of faith again or a ground to lay

mans soule doth re-aspire towards God the Creator when as it is evident that every mans soule naturally is bent towards the creature to seeke a rest there Evan. For answer hereunto I pray you consider that naturally mans understanding is dark and blinde and therefore is ignorant what his own soul doth desire and strongly aspire unto it knoweth indeed that there is a want in the soule but till it be enlightned it knoweth not what it is which the soule wanteth for indeed the case standeth with the soule as with a child new born which child by naturall instinct doth gape and cry for nutriment yea for such nutriment as may agree with it tender condition and if the nurse through negligence or ignorance eyther give it no meat at all or else such as it is not capable of receiving the childe refuseth it and still cryeth in strength of desire after the dug yet doth not the child in this estate know by any intellectuall power and understanding what it self desireth even so mans poore soule doth cry to God as for its proper nourishment but his understanding like a blind ignorant nurse not knowing what it cryeth for doth offer to the heart a creature instead of a Creatour thus by reason of the understanding together with the corruption of the will and disorder of the affections mans soule is kept by violence from its proper centre even God himselfe ô how many souls are there in the world that are hindred if not quite kept from rest in God by reason that their blinde understanding doth present unto their sensual appetites varieties of sensuall objects Is there not many a luxurious persons soule hindred if not quite kept from true rest in God by that beauty which nature hath placed in feminine faces especially when Satan doth secretly suggest into such feminine harts a desire of an artificiall dressing from the head to the foot yea and sometimes painting the face like their mother Jezabel And is there not many a voluptuous Epicures soule hindred if not quite kept from rest in God by beholding the colour and tasting the sweetnesse of dainty delicate dishes his wine red in the cup and his beer of amber colour in the glasse in the Scripture we read of a certain man that fared deliciously very day as if there had been no more but one so ill disposed but in our times there are certain hundreds both of men and women that do not only fare deliciously but voluptuously twice every day if no more And is there not many a proud persons soul hindered if not quite kept from rest in God by the harmonious sound of popular prayse which like a load-stone draweth the vain-glorious heart to hunt so much the more eagerly to augment the eccho of such vain windy reputation And is there not many a covetous persons soule hindred if not quite kept from rest in God by the cry of great abundance the words of wealth and the glory of gain And is there not many a musicall minde hindered if not quite kept from sweet comfort in God by the harmony of artificiall concord upon musicall instruments And how many perfumed fools are there in the world who by smelling their sweet apparell and their sweet nose-gayes are kept from souls sweetnesse in Christ. And thus doth Satan like a cunning fisher beat his hooke with a sensuall object to catch men with and having gotten it into their jaws he draweth them up and down in their sensuall contentments till hee hath so drowned them therein that the peace and rest of their souls in God be almost forgotten and hence it is that the greatest part of mans life and in many their whole life is spent in seeking satisfaction to the sensuall appetite Nom. Indeed Sir this which you have sayd we may see truly verified in many men who spend their days about these vanities and will afford no time for religious exercises no not upon the Lords day by their good will Neo. You say the truth and yet let mee tell you withall that a man by the power of naturall conscience may bee forced to confesse that his hopes of happinesse are in God alone and not in these things yea and to forsake profits and pleasures and all sensuall objects as unable to give his soule any true contentment and fall to the performance of religious exercises and yet rest there and never come to God for rest and if we consider it either in the rude multitude of sensuall livers or in the more seemingly religious we shall perceive that the religious exercises of men doe strongly deceive and strangely delude many men of their hearts happinesse in God For the first sort though they be such as make their belly their best God and doe no Sacrifice but to Bacchus Apollo or Venus though their conscience doe accuse them that these things are nought yet in that they have the name of Christians put upon them in their baptisme and for as much as they doe often repeat the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and the ten Commandements and in that it may be they have lately accustomed themselves to goe to Church to heare divine service and a preaching now and then and in that they have divers times received the Sacrament they will not be perswaded but that God is well pleased with them and a man may as well perswade them that they are not men and women as that they are not in a good condition And for the second sort that ordinarily have more humane wisdome and humane learning then the former sort and seeme to bee more holy and devout then the former sort of sensuall ignorant people yet how many are there of this sort that never passe farther then the outward court of bodily performances feeding and feasting themselves as men in a dreame supposing themselves to have all things and yet indeed have nothing but onely a bladder full or rather a brainfull of winde and worldly conceptions Are there not some who give themselves to a more speciall searching and seeking out for knowledge in Scripture learnednesse and Clerklike skill in this Art and that Language till they come to bee able to repeate all the historicall places in the Bible yea● and all those texts of Scripture that they conceive doe make for some private opinion of theirs concerning Ceremonies Church-government or other such circumstantiall points of Religion touching which points they are very able to reason and dispute and to put forth such curious questions as are not easily answered Are not some of these men called Sect-makers and begetters or devisers of new opinions in Religion especially in the matter of worshiping God as they use to call it wherein they finde a beginning but hardly any end for this religious knowledge is so variable through the multiplicity of curious wits and contentious Spirits that the life of man way seeme too short to take a full view of this variety for though all Sects say