which shall devoure the adversaries Heb. 10.27 4. Lastly in the meane time this want of Faith in the promises leaves the heart of a man full of distractions and unquietnesse thereby so that one becomes uneven in all his wayes unsettled in all his thoughts raised up and cast down with contrary hopes and feares as the outward things of this life subject to continuall changes ebbe and flow from day to day whereof we have too many evidences in these times of trouble wherein men fall on and off as their vaine hopes and feares carry them on to one party or drive to the other to the shipwrack of their owne consciences and as much as in them lyes the betraying of the cause of Christ and of his Church and to their shame discovering to the world that they were never yet setled upon any firme foundation whereas one that hath built his Faith upon Gods promise is like a Ship moared by her anchors in a safe harbour from whence the ebbs and flouds of the sea cannot remove her 2. Vse Let me therefore earnestly beseech you right honourable and beloved by the mercies of God to labour above all things to strengthen Faith having such a firme foundation to build it on not cunningly devised fables as the Apostle cals them 2 Pet. 12.16 not the word of men who may deceive and be deceived but a faithfull word Tit. 1.29 A sure word 2. Pet. 1.29 The word of the God of truth who cannot lye a word more firme then the foundation of the earth setled for ever in heaven Psal 119.89 We have great reason to be earnest and serious in labouring with all our power to attain to this firmnesse of Faith not only because otherwise we despise this great mercy and compassion of God towards us in condescending to our weaknesse and abasing himselfe to be ingaged to us by his word his oath and his seales but more especially upon these sore weighty and important considerations 1. Of all other graces Faith is most necessary and usefull unto us every way 1. We thereby bring unto God the greatest glory by it setting to our seale that God is true Ioh. 3.33 As Abraham is said to give glory to God when he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith Rom. 4.20 Indeed there is no more mentioned in that place but that he beleeved and thereby Sealed to the power of God being fully perswaded that he which had promised was able to doe it ver 21. But without beleeving his faithfulnesse and truth with all neither had hee any sound comfort nor God his due honour by beleeving wherefore it expresly testified of Sarah that she beleeved that he was faithfull that had promised Heb. 11.11 2. ly To us is Faith of such necessity that without it wee were dead spiritually it is that which unites us unto Christ the fountaine of life in whom we live as the Apostle testifieth of himself I live saith he yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by Faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2.20 So that without Faith we are without Christ who is our life Col. 3.4 Again it is Faith that quickens all our endeavours and sweetens all our labours in Gods service knowing that in due season we shall reape if we faint not Gal 6.9 Thirdly it is Faith by which both our persons and services are accepted By Faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice then Cain by which he obtained witnesse that he was righteous Heb. 12.4 Fourthly it is Faith that holds up our spirits in afflictions I had fainted saith David unlesse I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of God in the land of the living Psal 27.13 Whence he professeth that Gods word the ground of our Faith was all the comfort which he had in his afflictions Psal 119.50 Fifthly Faith only enables us to withstand all terrours By Faith Moses his parents feared not the Kings commandement Heb. 11.23 And by the same power of Faith the three Children feared neither King Nebuchadnezzars angry countenance nor his threatning words nor his preparations of the flames of fire to torment them no not so farre as to take time to consider what to answer in so dangerous a case Dan. 3.17 Lastly it is Faith that supplies us with strong consolations Heb. 6.18 So that the Apostle tels us that being justified by Faith as we have peace with God so we not only bear tribulations patiently but in the midst of them rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.3 Secondly as Faith of all Graces is most necessary and usefull so is it of all others the hardest to be obtained and that in divers respects For first there is nothing in Nature that can help us to the attaining of Faith Sense cannot help us for the objects of Faith are things that are not seene Heb. 11.1 That is things that are above Sense things that are in the nature of them spirituall 2. Cor. 4.18 Whereas Sense apprehends only things that are grosse and earthly and things whereof many have no present being but are in hope and expectation only Much lesse can Reason help Faith seeing that takes all her grounds from Sense Wherefore Abraham that he might waxe strong in Faith silenced Reason which would have furnished him with arguments against the promise of having a sonne by Sarah for the Apostle tels us that he considered not that is did not so much admit into debate reasons drawn from the deadnesse of his own body and of Sarah's wombe Rom. 4.19 No Sense and Reason are so farre from helping Faith that they are the most dangerous of all other meares to hinder it or overthrow it where it is When David judged by Sense of Gods wayes and dispensations which represented unto him the prosperous condition of the wicked and his owne afflictions every morning it so shooke his Faith that he had almost slipt and was upon the point of condemning his owne wayes and the state of the Godly too as himself acknowledgeth Psal 73.2.13.15 And when Sarah began by Reason to examine the promise of having a Child at 90. yeers old she was so farre from beleeving it that she laughed at it Gen. 18.11 And as long as Moses makes use of his reason to weigh Gods promise of feeding six hundred thousand men besides women and children with flesh in the Wildernesse for a moneth together we see how hardly he is brought to beleeve it Num. 11.21 22 23. It must therefore be concluded that seeing neither Sense nor Reason nor consequently any thing in Nature can bring any help to Faith nay rather are the strongest meanes to oppose and hinder it it must needs be a difficult worke as being both above and contrary to Nature to obtain it A second difficulty in obtaining Faith is the consideration of those great and wonderfull things which it apprehends and beleeves
shall be no more said the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of Egypt but the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of the North. This was indeed a work so farre above all possibility in mans eye that the Iewes themselves concluded Our bones are dryed vp our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Ezech. 37.1 A work in it self wonderfull to Admiration but made more wonderfull by the Time wherin it was wrought a Troublous time sufficient to hinder the most easie and likely work much more to make a work in it self so Difficult and improbable altogether Impossible in mans judgement To come therefore to the neerer Examination of these words we shall find in them three Particulars worthy our serious consideration First the manner of Expression implying an infallibility Know saith the Lord to the Prophet and Vnderstand that is be sure of it and make accompt of it as of a thing certaine that shall not faile and afterwards The street shall be built againe and the wall in the time expressed after 7 weeks that is accompting every day for a yeare after 49 yeares from the going out of the Decree Secondly we have represented unto us the Condition of the Time when it shall be built a Troublous time for the exact Period of the time that it shall be accomplished after 49 yeares it makes not much to our present occasion unlesse it be to give farther assurance to the certainty of the Prophecy that God limits it to a precise number of yeares which none can doe but hee which hath the times and seasons in his owne hand It is enough to our purpose to looke upon it as a Troublous time Thirdly we have the work promised to be performed the building of the Street and Wall of Ierusalem The accomplishment of this Prophecy we have related especially to the Booke of Nehemiah Of these three Particulars as I have layd them out before you in their order The manner of the expression considered in relation to the Work the most difficult of all works and the Time the unfittest of all times iâ— worthy our carefull observation Notwithstanding the impossibility of the work in mans judgement and the impediments by the Troubles of the time the Street and Wall shall be built yea they shall be built by such a time Doubt not of it saith God but know this be assured it shall be so Thus God may speak and thus he thinks it fit to expresse himself So that upon this particular Instance we may observe in generall that Gods Promises even concerning things most Difficult and Impossible things in Mans eye are notwithstanding certain and Infallible They are saith the Apostle all of them Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Yea and not Nay as hee explaines it vers 18. that is True in the event and reall performance and Amen that is Stable and firme as that Hebrew word signifies This will evidently appeare by instances The greatest of all Gods promises was that of sending CHRIST into the world to be borne of a Virgin and to be made Immanuel truly Man and so GOD with us this when God promiseth Isa 7.14 hee prefixeth a Behold before it Behold a Vigin shall conceive and beare a Sonne which is a note not only of Admiration but Confirmation too as if God would represent it as a thing Present to be seene with our eyes so Peremptorily doth he promise that wonder of wonders which was as really performed in the fulnesse of time Gal. 4.4 It was a strange and unlikely thing that Israel after so long and heavie a bondage under the Egyptians should be wrested out of the hand of such a mighty Nation that kept them under as their slaves yet God not onely promiseth it but bids Abraham to make accompt of it as of a certaine thing know saith he of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and they shall afflict them 400 yeeres and afterward they shall come out with great substance Gen. 15.13 14. It was not more serioussy promised then really performed and that in the point of time limited by the Lord The selfe same day it came to passe that all the Hosts of the Lord went up out of the land of Egypt saith Moses Exod. 12.41 It seemed so impossible at hing that Abraham should have a Sonne by his wife Sarah who had bin all her life barraine and was now 90 yeeres old and her husband an hundred and both their bodies dead as to the having of children that Sarah laughs at the Promise Gen. 18.12 and yet see how peremptorily God promiseth it I will certainly returne unto thee according to the time of life and loe Sarah thy wife shall have a Sonne ver 10. And we know the Lord made it good God promiseth to provide flesh for his people in the Wildernesse that they should eate their fill of it for a moneth long Numb 11.19 20. The people thought it was more then God could do as they spake Psal 78.19 20. and Moses was almost of their mind as it appeares by his objection of the impossibility of feeding six hundred thousand men besides women and children in a barraine Wildernesse that yeelded no provision for the sustaining of mans life yet we see it made good in the event by the sending of innumerable multitudes of Quails the most dainty of all flesh Numb 11.31 Many more instances might be brought to evidence this truth but these are sufficient Let us see what grounds we have for it in Reason First that God hath sufficient ground to speak peremp torily of things to come will be evident unto us if we consider what hinders men that they cannot speak in that manner or with like certainty concerning their owne purposes There be three things in men that may hinder the accomplishment of that which they intend 1. The man may die and then all his thoughts and consequently his resolutions and purposes perish with him Psal 146.4 Now God we know lives for ever from everlasting to everlasting he is God Psal 90.2 The earth may faile and the heavens may be roled up as a garment but God remaines the same and his yeeres faile not Heb. 1.11 Whence the Apostle drawes a strong ground of consolation to us in Christs mediation that it shall be effectuall to us because he lives for ever to make intercession for uâ— Hev 7.25 2. Though the man continue and live yet his mind and purpose may alter Never had a man more full purpose to doe any thing then Esau had to kill his Brother Iacob Gen. 27.41 and this resolution continued with him 20 yeeres while Iacob sojourned with Laban as is evident by his gathering of foure hundred men to come against him when he heard of Iacobs returne homewards Gen. 32.6 Questionlesse to doe that which Iacob feared with the sword to cut off him and his retinew And yet
liberall things Isa 32.8 And yet these are not the words of men but the Promises of the God of truth more firme then the earth it self The Apostle tels us that Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 Now seeing wee are so greedy of gaine why doe we not follow after this gainfull way of godlinesse which brings so large and lasting a reward assured by the word of God himself Nay why upon the same assurance doewe not lay hold of Eternall life What doe we grasping after the world when we have assurance of heaven a Kingdome that cannot be moved by the firmest of all Gods promises in which it is impossible for him to lye Consider I beseech you and let us weigh well what we doe and take notice First of the great wrong and dishonour wee offer to God himself Secondly of the evils that we bring and that deservedly upon our own soules We dishonour God 1. In that we receive not his Testimony for what we beleeve not that in effect we deny and by consequence make him a lyar 1 Ioh. 5.10 He that beleeveth not God hath made him a lyar as he that beleeves on the contrary sets to his seale that God is true Ioh. 13.33 Herein we doe in effect crosse the maine end for which we came into the world and for which God hath indued us with wisdome and understanding above the beasts of the field that being true of every man which our Saviour affirmes of himself for this cause came I into the world that I should beare witnesse to the Truth Ioh. 18.36 Men will indeed beapt to beguile themselves and others too in professing that they receive Gods testimony in all that he speakes but the Apostle tels us that there is a deniall in Workes as well as in Words Tit. 1.16 And to speake truth deniall in Deeds is the strongest deniall and manifests our affirming in words to be meere Hypocrisie as the Psalmist justifies it against the Israelites in the Wildernesse that though they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer yet they flattered him with their mouth and lyed unto him with their tongue Psal 78.35 36. and proves by their workes because they still went on in tempting and provoking God and limiting the Holy one of Israel ver 40.41 2. It is the greater wrong and dishonour to God not to receive his Testimony First because God hath so farre condescended to our weaknesse as to engage himselfe unto us so many wayes being notwithstanding debtor to no man bestowing whatsoever he gives freely out of meere Grace We accompt it a wrong to a friend to require a bond of him for the assuring of a free gift But God hath bin content to abase himselfe so farre to us as to engage himselfe unto us by his Word to confirme his Word by an Oath and to ratify both by the seales of his Covenant That after the manifesting of so much tender respect to us and condiscending so farre to our weakenesse and affording such firme footing for our Faith God should not have so much credit with us as to bee beleeved upon his Word his Oath his Seale is such a dishonour to the God of Truth as we would be ashamed to offer to a mortall man Especially if we consider in the next place that God hath never given us cause to distrust him he never failed us in any one Promise wherein he hath ingaged himselfe unto us Thirdly it is yet the greater wrong to God if we consider by whom it is offered Nothing so farre kindled Gods wrath as the provoking of his sonnes and daughters Deut. 32.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What thou my sonne said Iulius Cesar to Brutus when he saw him amongst the rest of the conspirators come to stabbe him There cannot be a greater wrong to a master then not to be trusted by his owne servants much greater is the injury when a Father can have no credit from his owne children How is it possible then that God should beare it at the hands of those that call him Father and desire to be known by the name of his children that great dishonour of slighting his Promises and in their lives and conversations declaring to the world that they make more accompt of mens assurance then they doe of them Secondly as the Lord for whose glory we are created is wronged by our unbeliefe in not resting upon his Promises so it fals out as usually it doth in all like cases that we infinitely thereby prejudice our selves many wayes 1. By this meanes we deprive our selves of all true grounds of comfort which might support us in time of tryall It was Gods Word which quickened David in time of his affliction Psal 119.50 It was Gods Word on which he depended Psal 130.5 When he powred out his complaint before God out of the depths that is in floods of distresses that overwhelmed him For as for any other meanes to establish our hearts and beare up our spirits in times of inward distresses or outward afflictions wee shall find our selves forced to take up Davids complaint I looked for comforters but J found none Psal 69.20 and Psal 142.4 I looked on my right hand and there was no man would know me refuge failed me And as for Gods promises whence only the ground of true comfort ariseth with what cold hearts must we needs either apply them to our own soules or urge them and presse them upon God in our prayers when our own consciences tell us that these are the truths of God which we have cast by as matters of which we never made any great accompt Surely God can returne us no other answer to such suits then he gives his people Iudg. 10.14 Go cry unto the gods whom you have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation Cry to your Lands to your Treasures to your Friends in whom you have confided what have you to doe with my promises which you never beleeved nor regarded This is and will be a sad condition into which our unbelief will cast us when it will be too late to help it 2. ly This want of staying on Gods promises wonderfully deads our hearts unto all duties of Gods service unto which we are in an especiall manner encouraged because we know that our labour is not in vaine in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 And the Psalmist professeth the hope of Salvation from God was it that encouraged him to doe Gods commandments Psal 119.166 As on the other-side those that exported nothing from God desire to have nothing to doe with his service Iob 21.15 3. ly The want of this Faith by which we embrace Gods promises utterly cuts off all hope of eternall life which nothing but Faith in Gods promises can lay hold off And to be shut of that hope leaves unto a man nothing but a certaine looking for of judgement and fiery indignation
that men may see and know and understand together that the Lord hath done this Isa 41.18 19 20. So when men by whose councels and endeavours ordinarily things are effected intend any thing and the event falls out contrary to what they purposed it must be concluded that when the heart of man deviseth his way yet it is God that directeth his steps Prov. 16.9 Thus that it may appeare the restoring of the Church is Gods own Work he suffers Satan and his wicked instruments to oppose and hinder it what they can that the effecting of that Worke without and against mens intentions may be ascribed to God alone 2. ly As the carrying on of the Churches Reformation in Troublous times discovers it to be Gods Worke so it manifests it to be the Work of his Almighty power when his enemies having armed themselves against him with all their strength are overmastered by him Now I know saith Iethro that the Lord is greater then all Gods for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Exod. 18.11 When Nebuchadnezar saw that with all his power and with the help of his fiery furnace he was not able to hurt so much as an heire of the heads of the three children it moved him not only to Astonishment at the present but withall to passe a decree for the honouring of that Almighty God whom those menserved Neither doth this way of Gods in restoring his Church in Troublous times more manifest his power then it doth his goodnesse in drawing Good out of Evil and his wisdome in serving himselfe of the Councels and endeavours of his Enemies and turning all their crosse wayes to meet in the furthering of his owne ends as he did Satans practice in crucifying our Saviour to the accomplishing of the Worke of mans Salvation which Satan laboured to overthrow Thirdly God is highly honoured by the Churches troubles when his children thereby discover their sincere love to Christ and his truth when they choose him in the middest of all outward discouragements When Moses chose afflictions with the people of God rather then the honour to be accompted the Son of Pharaohs daughter he testified that he esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater then the Treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.24 25 26. And when Iobs sincerity being questioned by Satan God delivered him over to be exorcised by the Divel under so many bitter afflictions in the middest whereof his heart still rested on God in whom he resolved to trust I though he should slay him Iob 13.15 Those afflictions of his were but as so many windowes as an ancient Father calls them through which the World might look into the uprightnesse of his heart and true love unto God from which no afflictions could move him It was an honourable testimony given of Christ by Iohn Lambert that holy Martyr as due unto Christ when in the middest of the flames of fire he lifted up his hands clapping them together over his head and cryed out with a loud voyce None but Christ None but Christ How the troubles which accompany the Churches Reformation serve to the advantages of Gods honour we have seene We shall find them no lesse Beneficiall to his Church and that sundry wayes First therefore by these Troubles which fall in with the first Planting or Reforming of the Church Gods people are prepared to Endure hardnesse as good souldiers of IESVS CHRIST which St. Paul in the person of Timothy exhorts us unto 2 Tim. 2.3 It is true that warnings before-hand are of use to prepare men for sufferings to which purpose our Saviour exhorts his followers to take up the Crosse Math. 16.24 and St. Paul fore-tels his that they must through many afflictions enter into the Kingdome of God Act. 14.22 But this Dreame of an outward glorious and Peaceable estate under Christs government so fills the heads not onely of the Papists who reckon it among the markes of the true Church and of the Iewes who despised Christ because they saw no forme or Beauty that is no outward Pompe or Glory in him Isa 53.2 3. an errour that possessed the very Apostles themselves so farre that both the sonnes of Zebedee sued for places of honourable preferment in CHRIST's Kingdome Math. 20.20 21. And all the rest of them disputed the Point Who amongst them should be greatest Mark 9.34 But generally is so rooted in the hearts of all men that unlesse experience of Troubles in their first entrance under Christs government taught them the contrary admonitions would be of little force to awaken men out of that Dreame Wherein if they should be confirmed by a Peaceable and quiet setling of the Church at the first it would endanger mens Apostasie afterward when they should find the course of a Christian life full of Troubles and Persecution so farre unanswerable to that which their Peaceable entrance in taking up the yoke of CHRIST seemed to promise as appeares both by the falling away of such as are resembled by the Stony ground Math. 13.22 And by Davids danger of condemning his owne wayes upon the same ground Psal 73.13 14. So that troublesome beginnings of the Churches Reformation are a great meanes of preferving men from Apostasie afterwards or at least from great discouragements in the course of a Christian life Secondly the troublesome setling of the Church warning men to expect troubles afterwards makes them by that expectation acquainted with Evils before they come which much abates the feare of them when they happen Iulius Caesar in his warres in France was wont to tell his Souldiers strange things of the great Power wherewith the Enemy came against them whereof they having knowledge beforehand and when they came to the encounter finding their forces no more or usually farre lesse then they expected they despised the danger and fought with incredible resolution Troubles and afflictions are formidable to men a farre off the more wee are acquainted with them the lesse cause we see to feare them So that the acquainting of the Church with Troubles in the beginning armes the godly with resolution against them and by expectation makes them familiar unto them that they beare them with incredible patience when they come St. Paul warned by the Holy Ghost that hee was to expect Bonds and afflictions in every City growes so resolute that he despiseth his owne life Act. 20.23 24. Thirdly such Troubles although they are unpleasant to the flesh are very available to put the Spirit in a right frame moving us to retire neerer to God to hide under the shadow of his wings as in a place of security Psal 91.2 3. Davids afflictions every morning made him find that it was good for him to draw neere unto God Psal 73.28 Againe it makes us to looke more carefully as David professeth hee did to our wayes Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word as well that wee may cut off occasion from those that