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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33545	Fifteen sermons preach'd upon several occassions, and on various subjects by John Cockburn ...	Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.	1697 (1697)	Wing C4808; ESTC R32630	223,517	543

thy self thus disposed thus inclined thus resolved And is this any ways to be seen in thy Life and Conversation Then be of Courage thou hast true Faith and see thou take heed to preserve what thou hast to cherish and encrease it But if thou can'st not shew thy Faith by such Works and Fruits as these thy Faith is vain it is dead and life-less and will not avail thee for these Works and Effects do as necessarily flow from true Faith as Light and Heat from the Sun And as our Lord saith ye may know the Tree by its Fruit. Every good tree bringeth forth good Fruit but that which beareth no fruit is barren and useless it cumbereth the ground and is only fit for the fire This some will say perhaps is severe Doctrine but it is true it maketh many Christians to be nothing but Infidels which is sad indeed but who can help it We must not alter the Nature of Faith to make Men Believers but ought rather to exhort them not to deceive themselves with Shadows and Appearances with mere Fancies and Conceits but to seek seriously after that Faith which is true and unfeigned In all other things Mens Perswasions appear by their Actions and why should not Faith in Christ do so too He who is inwardly affected and delighted with Honour is always seeking after Preferment he who thinks it a fine thing to be rich is ever catching at Gain he who is perswaded of the Evil of any thing doth certainly forbear it and who apprehends any thing to be good will not fail to endeavour the getting it Must then Faith in Christ the Belief of the Gospel be the only Idle Dull and ineffectual Perswasion No certainly it is impossible but this will be active as well as the other Consider I pray you and you cannot but acknowledge that Barrenness in good Works and especially the Habit and frequent Practice of Sin is inconsistent with a true Faith and hearty Belief of the Gospel For I ask if any Person should pretend a Kindness and Affection for you and yet neither defend your Interest nor Reputation nor any way bestir himself in your behalf when he had fair Occasions for it would you believe him And if he should be easily drawn to pick a Quarrel with you to side with your Enemies to molest and trouble you would not you challenge him of Falshood and Hypocrisie Now make Application to the Case in hand and tell me then how can he be freed of Hypocrisie who pretends to believe in Christ and yet refuseth to be directed by him never minds what is pleasing to him but is with every small Temptation carried to the Transgression of his Laws Let me therefore beseech you not to rest in a lazy sluggish unactive Faith if such a thing should be called Faith But rather seek after that true Faith which will abide the Test and hold good though never so narrowly searched and examined and whose Fruits are not Words and an outward Profession only but Obedience and a sincere Compliance with all the parts of the Gospel also If you ask how this is to be attained I answer with St. Paul faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Give a diligent Ear to the Word of God read and meditate on the Scriptures frequently and seriously consider their inward Evidence and those unquestionable Testimonies have been given for evincing their Authority lay aside all Prejudice hearken attentively to Christ himself for he is Light and Truth and none can deeply contemplate him but shall be convinced and constrained to believe in him But this we must do often and seriously for by short light and inconsiderate Thoughts we cannot learn the Truth of any thing almost Let us love the Truth and be desirous to know the Truth and it shall not be hid from us For God is willing that all men come to the knowledge of the Truth If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them Be not selfish nor weded to any Lust pray to God for the Spirit of Grace cherish and be tractable to its Motions and then no doubt he will remove from you all Infidelity work in you Faith and make that the Word of Christ shall richly dwell in you in all Wisdom Thus we have seen what the Apostle means by having the Son that it is to believe in Christ to have him dwelling in our Hearts by Faith and that the necessary Fruits and Effects thereof is the living to him and for him the doing all things for his Glory and the studying carefully to demean our selves always according to his holy Word It follows next that we consider what that Life is which is here promised and assured to every one who hath the Son Life hath divers Acceptations in Scripture Sometimes it is taken for our natural Life and the Comforts and Accommodations thereof in this World But though it be true that he who hath the Son hath this Life yet this is not the Apostle's Aim here This Life is neither the End nor the Reward of our Faith Christ came not to the World to be a Provisor for it It is true to free us from immoderate Care and Anxiety he hath given us some Assurance of necessary Supplies And as St. Paul saith Godliness hath the promise of this life But these things are given in common to the Wicked and to the Godly to Believers and to Infidels yea sometimes their Share is greater And therefore the same Apostle saith If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable and that not only upon the Account of those many Crosses and Persecutions which our Faith and sincere Profession of Christ sometimes expose us to But also because Faith raiseth our Thoughts higher than this Life it begets in us a disgust of this World and all that is to be found in it and even to despise Life it self except that it affords the Occasion and Capacity of better things What a poor mean silly thing is it for one to live only that he may eat drink and walk abroad and behold a great deal of impertinent noise and stir about Trifles and things of no Moment What is there here to be seen but a dull ill acted Tragedy a constant Scene of Folly Impertinency and Sorrow How languid and grievous must such a sight be And especially when we cannot be simple Spectators and Beholders but are often necessitated to be Actors and Partners also A mere Heathen thro' natural Philosophy and the Improvement of his Reason may bring himself to despise and undervalue this present Life and much more a Christian who sees by a better and clearer Light The present Dispensation of Providence in

of their Functions and hindred from promoting the Great Work of the Gospel and the Salvation of Souls If a King be engaged in War doth he employ crazy and sickly Generals and Captains Would he not wish them perfect Health and Strength of Body that they might be in a Capacity of disciplining the Army and of going about to exhort and encourage the Soldiers How then comes it to pass that the Champions in the Christian Warfare that the Generals and Captains in God's spiritual Militia should be so much liable to bodily Distempers and Infirmities and other grievous Afflictions nay more liable commonly than any other sort of Men so that they cannot make those Advances and Progress which otherwise they would The great St. Chrysostom starts this Question upon this very Text and handles it at great length in a particular Discourse but I shall be very brief upon it having been so large already and shall only touch a little at those things which come properly under this Head First Then for Answer to this Question the same Reason may be given for the Sickness and bodily Distempers of the Ministers of the Gospel even the most eminent which the Scripture gives in general for the Afflictions of the Children of God viz. That hereby they may be tried and perfected God will not have his Children and Servants soft and effeminate but wise and well experienced which cannot be without putting them to divers Temptations and Afflictions The Captain of our Salvation was perfected by sufferings and by the same means we must all arrive to true Perfection Secondly This is done to keep these Servants and Favourites of God in all Humility and to preserve them from Pride which would cast them out of his Favour Men are naturally enclined to be proud they are apt to be vain and lifted up for the very common Endowments of Nature and how much more ready would they be to be exalted in their own Conceit for the special and much more valuable Blessings of Grace if something were not done to them at the very time to convince them of their Frailty and Meanness After St. Paul was caught up into the third Heavens and had so many special Favours bestowed on him he tells us Lest I should be exalted above measure for the abundance of the Revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Some make this thorn in the flesh to be a grievous Pain in the Head but I have not leasure to examine that matter A Third Reason is That other Men may not think of them above what they ought to think The World has been generally too much enclined to magnifie their Heroes over-much they have made Gods of meer Men because of the Eminency that appeared in them and upon the Account of the Benefits they had from them Now God to restrain his People from such Absurdity and that none of his beloved Servants employed by him might become a Snare to others or a Means of dishonouring himself he therefore stamps them with visible Marks of humane Frailty He makes them bear in their Body the signs that they are Men that none may be so senseless as to Deifie them Fourthly God thus dealeth with the Servants whom he employeth in his special Work of the Gospel that he may bring the greater Glory to himself His strength is made perfect in weakness The more weak mean and silly the Instrument is the more doth his Wisdom and Power appear which atchieve great things thereby The Excellent and Heavenly Treasures of the Gospel are committed unto Earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of men He chuseth the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty that no flesh should glory in his presence but as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. i. 27. Fifthly The Divine Providence ordereth these harsh Dispensations to these his Servants to manifest the Truth and Sincerity of their Heart to all the World How that they do not serve him for temporal things as the Devil thought Iob did Of whom God said to the Devil That he was a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil who still holdeth fast his integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause and to make this fully and clearly appear God suffered all these Disasters to befall him Sixthly One end of this Providence is to keep People in hopes of a Resurrection and future Rewards For if the Justice and Goodness of God cannot but reward those who faithfully serve him and that they receive not their Rewards in this Life therefore it 's certain there must be another wherein they are given If in this life only we had hope we are of all men most miserable saith our Apostle And because it were most absurd to make him and others like him the most miserable of Men therefore their Miseries are a most convincing Argument of a better Life Seventhly God layeth Diseases on Timothy and such other eminent Servants that the weaker and meaner ones may have Comfort and Encouragement Man is apt to despond in Adversity Afflictions are ordinarily construed Signs of the divine Displeasure and Proofs of God's Rejection which be of dangerous Consequence and ready to run the weaker and ignorant sort into Despair Therefore God to comfort such he afflicteth his most beloved that it may be seen whom he loveth he chastiseth and correcteth every son that he receiveth and so none may either despise or murmur against the Chastisements of the Lord. Finally God suffereth his chosen Servants and whom he designeth to be Leaders of his People to fall into frequent Infirmities not only that they may give Example of Patience unto others But that all other People may be excited and encouraged to imitate and follow them in all other Vertues which shine forth in their Life If the Prophets and Apostles if the Timothys and other eminent Lights of the Church had been exempted from the common Calamities and Infirmities of humane Nature People would have concluded them to have been something more than Men and so would have excused themselves from the Imitation of them But now that we see clearly they are Men of the like Passions and Infirmities with our selves what can we say What Excuse can we pretend for not shewing the like Zeal and Devotion and Piety and Charity and Patience and Courage which they manifested on all Occasions The Weakness of our Natures needs not hinder it for we see that those who were naturally as weak as our selves have attained to these and all other Graces wherefore we ought to lay aside all Excuses and to wrestle through all Difficulties and to go on with St. Paul