a high esteem upon this grace to look upon it as the most glorious Stone in the Ring The rest have their luster this is both resplendent and medicinal heals broken souls It is no wonder if St. Jude give it the preheminence since it is both the leading grace and brings the first glad tidings of salvation and also the Mother grace whence all others have their birth and original Without this what are all our works and duties but as we say of the vertues of Heathens Splendida peccata Where faith is not layd as the foundation all our devotions acts of piety charity observance of Sabbaths Ordinances nay that great performance of Prayer are but like that structure built on the sand Mat. 7.26 Without this we can no more appear before the Tribunal of Gods justice then stubble before a consuming fire In the word it is faith that must make us profitable in obedience it is faith that must make us cheerful in prayer it is faith that makes us successfull and in all performances it is faith that makes us acceptable This is that wisedome Job 28.16 17 18 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.8 the price whereof is above Rubies the Topaze of Ethiopia cannot equal it it cannot be valued with pure Gold This will give comfort joy and peace under all distractions make the soul skip like a Lambe leap and dance for joy Other divine qualifications may make you confident but it is faith only that must give you your assurance There cannot be such an abasement where faith will not lift up the head and render you victorious Justice gives every man his own temperance will restrain lusts magnanimity will bear and go through any hardship prudence is an excellent guide to our actions but it is faith that overcometh the world in this Paul insults and triumphs over men and Angels Heaven and Earth Rom. 8.38 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am confident or perswaded That neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You will have a better heart both to the price and the esteem of it if you seriously advise with these considerations The Author The Offices and the Effects of it First Look upon it as Gods gift from whom every good and perfect gift cometh as a fruit of his Spirit Gal. 5.22 This will make it excellent and lovely Let us a little view it in that great interest of our souls the high act of justification we shall there finde it to justifie Infundendo creat creando infundit not as mans faith but as the work of God in in the soul It is an excellent place Eph. 2.8 By grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God faith may be in us but it is not of us that is not from any power of our own but it is a meer gift of God both in the habit and in the act of it Justification is is a free Act of and from eternity without any condition on our parts and that Evangelical righteousness by which we are justified is without us in Christ It is the finger of God that works faith in the soul and having wrought it puts it upon acting thereby to evidence justification to the soul As a father having layd up for his son a great Treasure in some secret place tells him of it and bestows it freely upon him but wanting the possession and enjoyment of it the son is no richer for it till the father lights a Torch guides his son to the hidden Treasure and puts him into the actual possession of it Thus is Faith Gods Instrument by which he discovers to our souls the unvaluable riches of Christ which in the minds and purpose of the Donor was ours from Eternity and evidenceth us to be freely justified lending us that light of faith whereby we apprehend enjoy and apply Christ to our souls It is called the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Whose evidence Gods evidence given us by which he declareth and manifesteth to our consciences those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the invisible things of our justification and salvation and when given it is our evidence also by which we possess Christ and pleads our actual justification against all the accusations of the Law sin and Satan then we have the witnesse in our selves 1 Joh. 5.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods witness so it is sometimes read witnessing to our spirits that we are the children of God we are justified freely by his grace Rom. 3.24 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there answering to the Hebrew Chinnam excluding all both hope of advantage on Gods part and preceding desert in man upon any account whether of faith or works excluding as well merit as rewards hereby intimating that all our works are the works of God in us yea faith it self in that great and high Act of justifying is Gods gift I have here made a little digression to acquaint you with the excellency of this grace that you may set a higher value upon it not only because it is Gods gift but so high and precious a gift of his right hand whereby he gives us an interest to Christ and all his promises and evidenceth eternal life to our souls 2. Consider the Offices of faith which besides union to and communion with Christ formerly named are these two First acceptance wherby we are made willing to receive Christ upon Christs own terms what his terms are he himself tells you Luke 9.23 If any man will come after me he must deny himself and take up his Crosse daily and follow me This is the receiving act of faith and is therfore called the hand of the Soul not for its working quality purifying the heart reviving the dead spirit working by love carrying the Soul through all discouragements these are indeed the works of faith but for its receiving and accepting quality accepting righteousnesse in Christ receiving him as a gift of his fathers love imbracing the promises afar off and laying hold on eternal life The working righteousnesse is Christs the Office or act of faith is accepting applying receiving yeelding consent to that righteousnesse The other Office or Act of Faith is resignation whereby we give our selves wholly up to Christ spirit soul and body to be guided and byassed by him this is that spiritual marriage Eph. 5.17 betwixt Christ and the Soul by which as the soul hath a propriety and right to the body name goods table possessions and purchase of Christ so she doth reciprocally become all his by an unconstrained resignation of her will ways and desires unto his guidance and government we become the servants of Christ to be ruled as well as to be aided and protected by him then doth Christ own us and he stands ingaged to watch over and care for us Then
ways of his Ordinances in hearing the word attending at the Gates of Wisdome in the honour and use of the Sacrament in prayer and other Divine Institutions This is the way Christ hath prescribed and in all ages wonderfully blessed to his Church I have experimentally found it in my self and to my great comfort have had the acknowledgment of it from many of you by and under my Ministry These are the Channels of grace the Conduit-pipes by which God conveys himself and the waters of life to his people here will your souls meet with God and finde the enjoyment of him and the due observation of them is a strong Test of your obedience I know that after my departure you will meet with Foxes and Wolves some crying down all Ordinances as things carnal and below a spiritual and raised estate they will tell you they are weak and low administrations no more then walking by Moon light they will tell you that Seraphical men are above and beyond all Ordinances and their Enthusiasms of greater concernment then the Ordinances of Christ you will meet on the other hand with those who so far cry up Ordinances that they make Idols of them slighting him who is the substance men of Pharisaical Spirits and Interests who while they should preach Christ and him crucified will preach themselves their own parts passions and interests whereby you may probably be made weary both of them and their preaching My ever dear people let none of these things drive you from the Church of God or deter or discourage you from following Christ in those ways he hath prescribed let it be your care to wait on him I have known some who taking offence at these things wo in the mean time to him by whom the offence cometh have in these times declined either to Popery or Atheism I beseech God blesse you I hope better things of you and should be heartily grieved to see such sad failings in any of you I have two things to commend to you in this Point for your better satisfaction First Rest not in a bare formal attendance upon the Ordinance The Harlot can say I have made my peace offerings to day the Ordinance is but the means the end is Communion with Christ and fruition of him The Jews promised themselves much from the naked presence of the Temple Ier. 7.4 though they had but small honour for the Lord of it Iudges 17.13 Micah promised himself mountains when he had got a Levite to be his Priest though he still retained his Idols The Pharisees boasted they were the seed of Abraham when they did the works of the Devil Ioh. 8.33.44 How many poor souls have thus turned the means of salvation into the means of destruction feeds upon busks instead of the true bread nay turned their food into porson not finding Christ in the Ordinances nor being led home to Christ by them My good people think it not enough that you havâ— Geheza with his masters staff that you have Christs Minister and Christs word but as that Shunamite 2 King 4.30 lay hold on Christ himself where every faithful soul sees casts receives enjoys in these Ordinances Secondly when thou hast done thy best and purest service and met with Christ in the Ordinances rest not in the work done loath yourselves with a sincere acknowledgment of your ownunworthinesse and the unprofitablenesse imperfections and iniquities of your most holy things ever resting upon free-grace Be so careful of duty as if there were no grace to justifie you and so rest upon grace as if no work were to be done by you And then secondly wait upon God in the ways of his providence and dispensations this is that excellent grace a fruit of the sanctifying spirit of God whereby the soul freely submits not to the will only but to the wisdom of God in all the crosse acts of Providence we meet with in this life enabling us to bear our own burthens without inordinate sorrow or fretting discontent As by faith we injoy God and by love we injoy our neighbour so through humble waiting and submission to the wisedom of God we possesse our own souls This is an excellent lesson but hard for flesh and blood to learn to beleeve that God can chuse best for us better then we our selves Are not Abanah and Parphar Rivers of Damascus better then all the Waters of Israel 2 Râ—g 5.12 Kinds of age a few fatherly kisses and imbraces a portion in my hand this nature cries out for and would be well pleas'd with but the soul that fears God hath learned with Paul to be content in every condition of life hath learned that sublime Phylosophy of subscribing to Gods wisedom not to his will only that he will force us to and he is a kind of mad Atheist that should deny it but to his wisedom to acknowledge God the best chuser for us the stripes he sends more suitable to us then all the blessings we pray for his denying our demands the most divine way of granting them resolving whatever he imposes upon us is best for us his thoughts are not like our thoughts Heaven and Earth are not alwaies of one opinion Good is the Word of the Lord says good Hezekiah when destruction was denounced to his whole family It is the Lord Iet him do what seemeth him good says old Eli when besides the losse of both his children in one day God tells him there should not be an old man in his house for ever All things saith Paul work together for good to them that love God This submission to the Wisdom of God and the consequent of it Rejoycing in Tribulation is that waiting upon God which I would now instruct you in that better days may teach you humblenesse which is a part of this fear Prov. 22.4 and worser days may teach you that Christian patience whereby you shall be inabled to undergo the hands of heaven to look after deliverance in the ways and accept it upon the terms of God My dear people you are my glory and crown of rejoycing let me commend the serious remembrance of this to your Spirit It was never of more use then in these times of the Churches persecution You shall see men strangely and severally wrestling and tugging under Gods Dispensations In one man a supine stupidity in another the relieving his melancholy thoughts in a cup of Lethe a sleeping Pill of good fellowship like Sauls sending to the Minstrel when the evil spirit came upon him or his second address to the Witch to charm the judgment that was ready to invade him you shall see a third multiplying his sins as fast as God his judgments like the Elephants in the Maccabees whom the blood of the Mulberies more enraged hardning like Pharaoh under the rod like Ahab and Ahaz growing worse under the judgment you will meet with more plausible effects then these in one a contempt of the world his
to sin but to those that fear God the yoke is easie and the burthen light No life like that of dying to sin no way so pleasant as that of walking with God no treasure so desireable as to be rich in faith and good works no comfort like that secret contentment a true Believer hath in his conscionable walking with God Remember this my good people Hereby you shall much honour that Gospel which I have taught and you have received it is that very use which the Apostle every where makes of the Gospel of Christ that we should walk as becometh the Gospel that we should in all things adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour that we should walk worthy of him who hath called us to his Kingdom and to his glory shew forth the vertues and praises of him who hath called us out of darknesse into his marvellous light in all these making out the necessity of walking with God in all those that fear his Name The laft Stone or Diamond in this Ring is the sincere love of God without hypocrisie giving him what is his own the whole heart without any reserve for Satan Mammon or our selves No man can truly fear God but he that loves him nor can any man truly love God whose soul is not first ravished with the apprehension of the love of Christ to him We love God because he first loved us This is that high heroical improvement and elevation of the soul the want whereof whether to God or man is as great a punishment as it is a sin There is as much of hell in the quenching of the one flame as in the raging of the other The Divel cannot possibly pick out or designe to his most hated enemy a greater curse then the want of love My ever dear people let me intreat you to remember this Amor non nisi donum amantis in amatum Guil. Paris you will find many heavenly and comfortable fruits of it it will call you out of your selves to the desire of an union vision and participation of the glory and presence of God the Soul will go to God like Noahs Dove to the Ark and with infinite sweetnesse and security repose it self in him it will cause you to resigne the whole heart to God to give up your selves wholly to him to conform affections and actions to his Will to love every thing wherein your souls shall find Christ his ways his words his Ordinances his Ministers when the root is thus seasoned you will find all corruptions and lusts falling off like dead branches Timor transit in charitatem Greg. A good man is a good Angel alwaies beholding the face of God and the more he sees him the more he loves him and the more he loves him the more he fears him he loves him in that fear and fears him in that love It is said of the two Marys Mat. 28.8 That they went from the Sepulcher with fear and great joy A rare composition of so different affections All other fear being pain the fear of God brings joy and love with it That which I would principally at present urge to you is that Christian Brotherly love which the Gospel frequently makes out and this Age hath almost forgotten which ariseth from and is accompanied with our true love to God Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1.2 How close a connexion there is of the love of God and the love of our Brethren Be kindly affectioned Rom. 12.10 the word is very Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies such a natural binding love and affection as is betwixt Parents and children a real compassionate fervent melting love The Lord Jesus hath lest this both to bee our duty and our reward the loving of the Brethren would you know the rule you must walk by love them as your selves thou wouldst not be hurt hurt not thy Neighbour thou wouldst not be reviled revile no man thou wouldst not be ill spoken of speak not ill of others thou wouldst not be persecuted persecute no man this is the Golden Rule whatsoever yee would that men should do to you Mat. 7.12 do yee even so to them this is the Law and the Prophets or on these two hang the Law and the Prophets Matth. 22 40. This was sure that fire in the Poet stolne from Heaven to inspire and warme the Lower World with It is said to be a speech of Christ which the Nazarene Gospel hath recorded though our Bibles have it not Nunquam laeti sitis nâ—si cum fratrem in charitate videritis There is no other badge to difference a disciple of Christ from any other man but this Ecce ut se invicem diligunt nay the Devil cannot so far be an Hypocrite as to counterfeit this All glorious Appearances without love are but empty shadows hereby wee become like the Saints in Heaven of whose blessed estate all wee understand is onely this that they are happy and love one another and in that eternally happy that they eternally love one another Charity never faileth and so their blisse faileth not You see my good people what times wee are fallen into what wrath clamour malice bitterness raylings revilings there are among men what disaffections divisions persecutions of the Church even by those that professe they have given up their Names to Christ So far from being Christian that they walk as men nay they have put off man in exchange for Wolves Panthers and Tigers nay worse then Wild Beasts who are not Beast enough to devoure those of their own kind as Erasmus observes So Act as if they had made a solemn Covernant with Hell and Death Let these daily examples from the Father of malice provoke you to love and good workes to follow God who is love and to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us It will be hereafter a great rejoycing to my Spirit to see you have thus learned Christ live in love and peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you There are many more branches of this fear of God every Religious Performance is a part of it that of prayer especially as beneficial to the â—oule as the rest But I have not long ago treated of it and cannot stand now to make it out I have already tyred you with Preâ—ching that I should rather have prayed for you that God would plant his fear in the hearts of every one of you I have but two words more to speak in relation to 2. extreams or rocks upon which this fear of God may be in danger to be spsits and I shall give them you by way of Caution First in the defect beware of carnal security in sin promising your selves mercy and impunity upon false and empty bottoms blessing your selves in your hearts Deutr 27.19 till your iniquity be found hateful it will bring you at last to that dead and dedolent