well to the Will as the Understanding It gives us as I may say a kind of Livery and Seisin of all we hope and pray for and even long to be united to though by the Help of a Dissolution In so much that the Plenitude of this One Grace in the sense I mention'd which Plenitude is expressed by a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boldly rendred a full Assurance I say the Plenitude or fulness of this one Grace which is attainable by Christians whilst here below is worthily reckon'd by St. Paul The Inchoation of our Glory This very Grace is once affirm'd to be a kind of beatifick although an antedated Vision of the Glory of God And for a man to leave This for a better world with such a cordial Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ as was here recommended by Paul and Silas which I have hitherto explain'd by several passages of Scripture is nothing else but to pass from a Paradise to a Heaven or to use St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Glory to another For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. § 10. But some may tacitly now object against Paul and Silas in the Text or at least against St. Luke the Relator of it That if by Faith we must be justified and also sanctified in part before we can expect it should ever save us they should have told the Jailour of it in Terms at large and have shew'd in the Retail how many Duties of a Christian are succinctly comprehended in that expression not have told him only in Gross as Dutchmen make their dishonest Reckonings He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. For how knew the Jailour he was to do any thing but to Believe or to believe in any other than the second Person in the Trinity God manifest in the Flesh for they seem to have made no mention to him of his being to believe in God the Father or in God the Holy Ghost much less did they add the other Articles of the Creed which are Ingredients in the object of Saving Faith § 11. To which I answer by two Degrees And first of all by a concession That if indeed Paul and Silas had said no more to their Catechumenist than that He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ not explaining what was meant by that Habit of Faith from which the Act of his Believing was to proceed nor yet explaining what was meant by the Lord Iesus Christ who is often put by a Synecdoche for the whole object of our Belief Faith in Christ being the Pandect of Christian Duties which are all shut up in Faith as Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell Then indeed they might have made him a Solifidian or a Fiduciary which had not been the way to his being sav'd But secondly I answer That the objection is made of a false Hypothesis For Paul and Silas dealt honestly and discreetly with the Jailour when having told him he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ for his being sav'd it presently follows after the Text they spake unto him the Word of God that is they expounded the Scriptures to him And in the doing of That they prov'd the object of his Faith to be the Trinity in Unity not solely and exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ but in conjunction with God the Father and with God the Holy Ghost too Again in expounding the Scriptures to him they could not but tell him what was meant by an effectual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ importing such a kind of Faith as is ever working and such a kind of working as is by Love and by such a kind of Love as is the fulfilling of the Law and of such a Law too as does consist of somewhat higher and more illustrious Injunctions than those of Moses and of such an obedience to those Injunctions as is attended and waited on by Perseverance unto the End There is no doubt but they acquainted him in their expounding of the Scriptures and speaking to him the Word of God how very highly it did concern him not only to escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust and also to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but besides This as St. Peter speaks to give all diligence for the adding to his Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity For that these were all needful and no redundant superadditions is very clear from St. Peter in the next verse but one He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins But if these Things be in you and abound Then indeed as St. Peter adds ye shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Now can we think that St. Peter did not teach the same Doctrin with Paul and Silas or can we think that Paul and Silas would withhold from the Jailour that Train of Duties for want of which he had been Blind and not in Case to see God no whatever might have been wanting in their succinct and pithy Answer whereby to give him a right Understanding of it was abundantly supply'd by their following Sermon And though the Heads of their Sermon are not put upon Record but only the Text upon which they made it yet St. Luke records This That such a Sermon there was preach'd in that he saith They spake to him the Word of God § 12. And truly This is such a Method as I could wish were well observ'd by all that are of their Function I mean the Stewards of the Mysteries of the Living God Unto whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation whose lips are made to be the Treasuries and Conservatories of Knowledge and which the People are appointed to seek at their Mouths For the Text we have in hand is often turned to advance either Truth or Falshood even according to the handle by which 't is held forth to the giddy People And is made to be eventually either venomous or wholsom just in proportion to the sense in which 't is taken and digested by them that hear it If to Believe is only taken for an Assent unto the Truth or a Relyance on the Merits of Jesus Christ or a confident Application of all his Promises to our selves And this in a kind of opposition to the Necessity of Good works which ought to be in conjunction with it Then 't is apt to cause a wreck in the waters of Life and through the Malignity of a Digestion a man may be kill'd by the Bread of Heaven But if 't is taken for obedience to the Commandments of Christ
to our Charity touching the Safety or the Danger the unworthiness or the worth of our selves or others For when All that are in the Graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth our Saviour adds both their Qualities and the Ends of their coming forth They that have done good shall infallibly come forth unto the Resurrection of Life And They that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5. 29. Now certainly He who is the Saviour can best of all tell us what belongs to Salvation and to whom it does belong who they are that must be saved and what we must do that we may be sav'd It is not meerly the priviledge of being received into the Church and of being admitted to all her Publick Dispensations but especially the Abstaining from so much evil as would denominate Evil-Doers and the Doing so much Good as does denominate a Good and a Faithful Servant by which a man hath just Ground to think himself in God's Favour and that he is doing what he must do that he may be sav'd And if this is the Exegesis of what is said by Paul and Silas and that by way of Answer to the Inquiry of the Iailour Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be sav'd so as it cannot be understood concerning Faith without Works but of such a Faith only as worketh by Love and so fulfilleth the Law of Christ The proof and evidence of which we have in part seen already and shall see more at large upon the next opportunity Then let us not so mistake the words in the next Verse after my Text or take them so by the wrong handle as to imply that Paul and Silas were but a Couple of Antinomians Or that nothing is to be done as of necessity to Salvation but barely to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ which being abstracted from obedience is nothing better than Presumption But rather let us work out our own Salvation and let us do it with fear and trembling Let us give all diligence by adding to Faith Vertue and one Vertue unto another to make our Calling and Election sure Let us not look upon our selves as having already apprehended or as being already made perfect but forgetting those things that are behind let us reach forth to those things that are before ever pressing towards the Mark for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Iesus And leading a life of Self-denials by frequent watchings and fastings and other warrantable Austerities which are found in holy Scripture to be fit Instances of Attrition let us beat down our Bodies and bring our Flesh into Subjection if by any means we may attain to the Resurrection of the Dead if by any means we may apprehend That for which we are also apprehended of Christ Iesus That so when Time it self shall be lost into Eternity and all days shall be ended in that one great Sabbath which never Ends we may also lose our hopes and our endeavours of being sav'd into the ravishing experience and presence of it There with Angels and Arch-Angels and with all the Company of Heaven singing Hosannahs and Halleluiahs to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever more A SHORT and EASY RESOLUTION Of the fore-mentioned ENQUIRY Borrowed from the Mouths of the Two Free-Pris'ners Paul and Silas A RESOLUTION OF THE INQUIRY FROM A Practical Belief c. ACTS XVI 31. Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved § 1. THere are such shallownesses and depths too in this little short passage of the Waters of Life as I am prompted out of Scripture to call the Gospel that I may say of this Rivulet what St. Austin once spake of the whole Ocean of holy Writ The tenderest Lamb may here wade and the tallest Elephant may swim It is a small Current of words But such as opens and will ingage us in a full Sea of matter A Sea as hospitable and easy as That which is now call'd The Euxine But yet as hazardous and as difficult if not as proverbial as The Aegaean and so as famous for danger as 't is for safety A Sea we all are to sail in if bound for Heaven And yet for want of good steerage How many Adventurers unaware have been imbark'd in it for Hell and been even split upon the Rock of their own Salvation The Antinomians Fiduciaries and Solifidians betwixt whom there is a nice but a real Difference do not more differ in the ground and the occasion of their Error than they agree in the danger and issue of it For making use of the literal against the rational Importance of many Scriptures and blending many great Truths with the greatest Falshoods so as the latter do pass for currant by their vicinity with the former they commonly reason within themselves in this following manner § 2. Sure we need not live so rigidly by Rules and Praecepts as some Arminian and Legal Divines would have us For we are not under the Law but under Grace And we are justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law Nor are we justified from some things whilst we are answerable for others but as St. Paul taught at Antioch where he is written to have preached Forgiveness of Sins All that believe are justified from all Things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Then why should we busie our selves with Martha about many Things of little moment when 't is so easy for us with Mary to choose the One that is needful for can any Thing be easier than to believe without doubting that Iesus is the Christ yet whosoever so believeth is born of God And whosoever is born of God overcometh the world Nor indeed is it a wonder considering the Vertue of such Belief For our Saviour tells us expresly That all Things are possible to Him that believeth From whence it follows that to believe is The unum Necessarium which a Christian is to provide in his way to Heaven And accordingly said our Saviour unto the Ruler of the Synagogue not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only believe Nor can this be thought the Priviledge of but here and there one for 't is indefinitely extended to all in general He that believeth in me hath eternal life Where the word He being indefinite is tantamount to whosoever and every one And so indeed it is express't in other passages of Scripture As when 't is said to Cornelius and others with him whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins And in the Epistle to the Romans we find it said of the Gospel That ' t is the Power of God unto Salvation to every One that believeth Where the Gospel cannot be meant as being inclusive of the Law because 't is said of our Lord in the same Epistle
on Earth too It is enough for poor Lazarus to have his Good things hereafter And enough for Rich Dives to have his proportion of Good things here But the good men I speak of will needs be happier than Lazarus and yet much richer than Dives too They will have their good things as well in this as another World All the subject of their Inquiry is not how to be better than other men in Acts of Iustice and Works of Mercy But how to be greater and more regarded which is call'd a being better in point of Quality and Degree And after these very things do the Gentiles seek They of Iava and the Molucco's They of Tartary and China whether as greedily as Christians I cannot tell But our Saviour spake only of Food and Rayment as of things which the Gentiles are wont to seek And well it were for Real Christians if Nominal Christians would seek no more If Food and Rayment would serve the turn Christians then like other Creatures might quietly live by one another But it seems they have no more than the Name of Christians who chiefly seek with the Gentiles the low concernments of the Flesh. For as many as are Christians in very good earnest will bestow themselves in seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof supposing such things as These will be added to the rest as a good Appendix Man not living by Bread alone as our Saviour said to Satan but by bread as it is blessed by the good Word of God Nor indeed is he worthy to live by Bread who is not able to live without it who is not able to subsist upon better things When we reckon Food and Rayment among the Necessaries of Life which we do with good reason we only speak of such a painful and dying life as is not worthy our caring for unless in order to life Aeternal And for the nourishing of That the very famishing of the Body may pass for food unto the Soul From all which together it seems to follow That they who arrogate to themselves not only the greatest both Faith and Hope but the perfectest Assurance of life Aeternal do prove themselves unaware the greatest Infidels in the World whilst neglecting the grand Inquiry they ought to make after Heaven they let the Tide of their Affections run out wholly upon the Earth For did they really look for a Day of Iudgment as much as they do for an Hour of Death they would as certainly provide against the one as commonly they do against the other They would take as much Care to be just and honest as universally they do to be rich or healthful And make as much of their Souls by Mortification and Self-denial as now they do of their Bodies by a plentiful Injoyment of Creature-Comforts 'T is true indeed Life Aeternal is a thing which is quickly talk't of nor are there any so uncivil as not to afford it a friendly mention It is no hard thing to be another mans flatterer much less is it difficult to be ones own To be secure and praesumptuous is cheap and easy Yea 't is pleasant to flesh and blood to be carnally set free from that fear and trembling wherewith a man is to work out his own Salvation Thence it is that we abound with such an Herd of Fiduciaries and Solifidians who having persuaded themselves to fancy that Life Eternal is a thing which cannot possibly escape them and that all the next world is irresistibly their own They think they have nothing to do in This but to make a Trial whether it hath not been decreed that all shall be theirs that they can get and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall get all they try for and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall try to get All. When men are season'd with such a Principle they cannot think it concerns them to give all Diligence for the making of their Calling and Election sure by ceasing to do evil and by learning to do well or by adding to Faith Vertue and one Vertue unto another But supposing their Election so sure already as to be pass't the possibility of being miss't It is natural for them to give all diligence to make themselves sure of somewhat else For let them say what they will and let them think what they please and let them do what they can they cannot possibly give diligence to seek a thing in their possession or to secure what they believe it is impossible for them to lose No man living will light a Candle to look about for those Eyes which he believes are in his Head nor will he search after his head which is he doubts not upon his shoulders Our Saviour's two Parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Groat cannot but seem an arrant Iargon unto a man of such Principles as now I speak of For will He send about the Country to find a Sheep which is in his Fold or sweep the House for a Groat which he praesumes is in his Pocket No being poyson'd with an opinion that he was justified from Eternity and hath Grace irresistible and therefore cannot fall totally much less finally from Grace he will esteem it a thing impertinent for a man of his Talents to be so anxious as to Inquire what Good things he ought to do that he may inherit Eternal Life § 6. The great unhappiness of it is what I am sorry I have reason to believe I say truly That there are few Congregations wherein there are not such Professors as now I speak of who as long as fermented with such a Leven cannot possibly be profited by all our Preaching And therefore They above others must be inform'd That by the Nature of our Inquiries we ought to try as by a Touchstone of what sort we are whether Silver or Alchymy whether true and solid Gold or but polished Iron with double Gilt. By this we may explore from whence we came and whither 't is that we are going of whom we are and whom we are for For that Saying of our Saviour Matth. 24. 28. which historically refers to the Roman Army Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together must needs be applicable and true in This sense also which is our Saviour's own Sense Luke 12. 34. Where your Treasure is there your Heart will be also From whence it follows unavoidably That if we are men of another world and have our Treasure laid up in Heaven we shall behave our selves as Pilgrims and perfect Sojourners here on Earth We shall be commonly looking Upwards with our Backs upon Egypt and our Faces towards Canaan Our Souls will be athirst for God Psal. 42. 1 2 3. our Hearts will pant after Eternity as the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks crying out with holy David in an Exiliency of Spirit O when shall we appear before the Presence of God How low soever both our Bodies and