sinner hear and hath learned by it this great lesson This is the reason why affliction doth so ordinarily concur in the work of Conversion These real Arguments which speak to the quick will force a hearing when the most convincing and powerful words are slighted When a sinner made his credit his God and God shall cast him into lowest disgrace or bring him that idolized his riches into a condition wherein they cannot help him or cause them to take wing and flie away or the rust to corrupt and the thief to steal his adored god in a night or an hour what a help is here to this work of Conviction When a man that made his pleasure his god whether ease or sports or mirth or company or gluttony or drunkenness or cloathing or buildings or whatsoever a raging eye a curious ear a raging appetite or a lustful heart could desire and God shall take these from him or give him their sting and curse with them and turn them all into Gall and Wormwood what a help is here to this Conviction When God shall cast a man into languishing sickness and inflict wounds and anguish on his heart and stir up against him his own Conscience and then as it were take the sinner by the hand and lead him to credit to riches to pleasure to company to sports or whatsoever was dearest to him and say Now try if these can help you can these heal thy wounded conscience can they now support thy tottering cotage can they keep thy departing soul in thy body or save thee from mine everlasting wrath will they prove to thee eternal pleasures or redeem thy Soul from the eternal flames cry aloud to them and see now whether these will be instead of God and his Christ unto thee O how this works now with the sinner When sense it self acknowledgeth the truth and even the flesh is convinced of the Creatures vanity and our very deceiver is undeceived Now he despiseth his former Idols and calleth them all but silly Comforters Wooden Earthen Dirty gods of a few days old and quickly perishing He speaketh as contemptuously of them as Baruck of the Pagan Idols or our Martyrs of the Papists god of Bread which was yesterday in the Oven and is to morrow on the Dunghil He chideth himself for his former folly and pitieth those that have no higher happiness O poor Craesus Caesar Alexander thinks he how small how short was your happiness Ah poor riches base honors woful pleasures sad mirth ignorant learning defiled dunghil counterfeit righteousness poor stuff to make a god of simple things to save souls Wo to them that have no better a portion no surer saviours nor greater comforts then these can yield in their last and great distress and need In their own place they are sweet and lovely but in the place of God how contemptible and abominable They that are accounted excellent and admirable within the bounds of their own calling should they step into the throne and usurp Soveraignty would soon in the eyes of all be vile and insufferable 4. The fourth thing that the Soul is convinced and sensible of is The Absolute Necessity the Full Sufficiency and Perfect Excellency of Jesus Christ. It is a great Question Whether all the forementioned works are not common and onely preparations unto this They are preparatives and yet not common Every lesser work is a preparative to the greater and all the first works of Grace to those that follow so Faith is a preparative to our continual living in Christ to our Justification and Glory There are indeed common Convictions and so there is also a common Believing But this as in the former terms explained is both a sanctifying and saving work I mean a saving act of a sanctified Soul excited by the Spirits special Grace That it precedes Justification contradicts not this for so doth Faith it â—elf too Nor that it precedes Faith is any thing against it for I have shewed before that it is a part of Faith in the large sense and in the strict sense taken Faith is not the first gracious act much less that act of fiducial recumbency which is commonly taken for the justifying act Though indeed it is no one single act but many that are the condition of Justification This Conviction is not by meer Argumentation as a man is convinced of the verity of some inconcerning consequence by dispute but also by the sense of our desperate misery as a man in famine of the necessity of food or a man that hath read or heard his sentence of condemnation is convinced of the absolute necessity of pardon or as a man that lies in prison for debt is convinced of the necessity of a surety to discharge it Now the sinner findes himself in another case then ever he was before aware of he feels an insupportable burden upon him and sees there is none but Christ can take it off he perceives that he is under the wrath of God and that the Law proclaims him a Rebel and Out-law and none but Christ can make his peace he is as a man pursued by a Lyon that must perish if he finde not present sanctuary he feels the curse doth lie upon him and upon all he hath for his sake and Christ alone can make him blessed he is now brought to this Dilemma either he must have Christ to justifie him or be eternally condemned he must have Christ to save him or burn in Hell for ever he must have Christ to bring him again to God or be shut out of his presence everlastingly And now no wonder if he cry as the Martyr Lambert None but Christ none but Christ. It is not Gold but Bread that will satisfie the hungry nor any thing but pardon that will comfort the condemned All things are now but dross and dung and what we accounted gain is now but loss in comparison of Christ. For as the sinner seeth his utter misery and the disability of himself and all things to relieve him so he doth perceive that there is no saving mercy out of Christ The truth of the threatning and tenor of both Covenants do put him out of all such hopes There is none found in Heaven or Earth that can open the sealed Book save the Lamb without his blood there is no Remission and without Remission there is no Salvation Could the sinner now make any shift without Christ or could any thing else supply his wants and save his soul then might Christ be disregarded But now he is convinced that there is no other name and the necessity is absolute 2. And as the Soul is thus convinced of the necessity of Christ so also of his full sufficiency He sees though the Creature cannot and himself cannot yet Christ can Though the fig-leaves of our own unrighteous righteousness are too short to cover our nakedness yet the Righteousness of Christ is large enough Ours is
review of which intire work there is no doubt but his soul may take comfort And it is not to be made so light of as most do nor put by with a wet finger That Scripture doth so ordinarily put Repentance before Faith and make them joyntly conditions of the Gospel Which Repentance contains those acts of the Wills aversion from sin and Creatures before exprest It is true if we take Faith in the largest sense of all then it contains Repentance in it but if we take it strictly no doubt there is some acts of it go before Repentance and some follow after Yet is it not of much moment which of the acts before mentioned we shall judg to precede Whether our aversion from sin and renouncing our Idols or our right receiving Christ seeing it all composeth but one work which God doth ever perfect where he beginneth but one step and layeth but one stone in sincerity And the moments of time can be but few that interpose between the several acts Yet though the disposition to all gracious acts be given at once I conceive in our Actual turning the term from which in order of nature is considerable before the term to which we turn If any object That every Grace is received from Christ and therefore must follow our receiving him by Faith I answer There be receivings from Christ before believing and before our receiving of Christ himself Such is all that work of the Spirit that brings the soul to Christ There is a passive receiving before the active Both power and act of Faith are in order of Nature before Christ actually received and the power of all other gracious acts is as soon as that of Faith Though Christ give pardon and Salvation upon condition of believing yet he gives not a new heart a soft heart Faith it self nor the first true Repentance on that condition No more then he gives the Preaching of the Gospel the Spirits motions to believe c. upon a pre-requisite condition of believing SECT V. 4. ANd as the Will is thus averted from the fore-mentioned objects so at the same time doth it cleave to God the Father and to Christ. Its first acting in order of Nature is toward the whole Divine Essence and it consists especially in electing and desiring God for his portion and chief Good Having before been convinced That nothing else can be his happiness he now findes it is in God and there looks toward it But it is yet rather with desire then hope For alas the sinner hath already found himself to be a stranger and enemy to God under the guilt of sin and curse of his Law and knows there is no coming to him in peace till his case be altered And therefore having before been convinced also That onely Christ is able and willing to do this and having heard this mercy in the Gospel freely offered his next act is Secondly to accept most affectionately of Christ for Saviour and Lord. I put the former before this because the ultimate end is necessarily the first intended and the Divine Essence is principally that ultimate end yet not excluding the humane nature in the second person But Christ as Mediator is the way to that end and throughout the Gospel is offered to us in such terms as import his Being the means of making us happy in God And though that former act of the soul toward the Godhead do not justifie as this last doth yet is it I think as proper to the people of God as this nor can any man unregenerate truly chuse God for his Lord his portion and chief good Therefore do they both mistake They who onely mention our turning to Christ and they who onely mention our turning to God in this work of Conversion as is touched before Pauls preaching was Repentance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And life eternal consists first in knowing the onely true God and then Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17.3 Though Repentance Assent Good works c. are required to our full Justification as subservient to or concurrent with Faith yet is the true nature of this justifying Faith it self contained in this most affectionate accepting of Christ for Saviour and Lord. And I think it necessarily contains all this in it Some plead it is the Assenting act some a Fiducial adherence or recumbency I call it Accepting it being principally an act of the Will but yet also of the whole soul. This Accepting being that which the Gospel presseth to and calleth the receiving of Christ I call it an Affectionate accepting though Love seem another act quite distinct from Faith and if you take Faith for any one single act so it is yet I take it as essential to that Faith which justifies To accept Christ without Love is not justifying Faith Nor doth Love follow as a Fruit but immediately concur nor concur as a meer concomitant but essential to a true accepting For this Faith is the receiving of Christ either with the whole soul or with part â—â—t with part onely for that is but a partial receiving And 〈◊〉 clear Divines of late conclude That justifying Faith resides â—â—rn in the Understanding and the Will therefore in the whole soul and so cannot be one single act All those Affections that are for the receiving and entertainment of Good called the concupiscible must receive and entertain Christ. I adde it is the most affectionate accepting of Christ because he that loves Father Mother or any thing more then him is not worthy of him nor can be his Disciple and consequently not justified by him And the truth of this Affection is not to be judged so much by feeling the pulse of it as by comparing it with our affection to other things He that loveth nothing so much as Christ doth love him truly though he finde cause still to bewail the coldness of his Affections I make Christ himself the Object of this Accepting it being not any Theological Axiom concerning himself but himself in person I call it an Accepting him for Saviour and Lord. For in both relations will he be received or not at all It is not onely to acknowledg his sufferings and accept of pardon and glory but to acknowledg his soveraignty and submit to his Government and way of saving and I take all this to be contained in justifying Faith The work which Christ thus accepted of is to perform is to bring the sinners to God that they may be happy in him and this both really by his Spirit and relatively in reconciling them and making them sons and to present them perfect before him at last and to possess them of the Kingdom This will Christ perform and the obtaining of these are the sinners lawful ends in receiving Christ And to these uses doth he offer himself unto us 5. To this end doth
received as a Saviour Mediator Redeemer Reconciler Intercessor c. And all the precepts of Scripture being backed with so many promises and threatenings every one intended of God as a motive to us do imply as much If any think they should be distinguished as two several ends and Gods glory preferred so they separate them not asunder I contend not SECT X. 5. IN the Definition I call a Christians Happiness the end of his Course thereby meaning as Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 the whole scope of his life For as Salvation may and must be our end so not onely the end of our faith though that principally but of all our actions for as whatsoever we do must be done to the glory of God whether eating drinking c. so must they all be done to our Salvation That we may beleeve for Salvation some will grant who yet deny that we may do or obey for it I would it were well understood for the clearing of many controversies what the Scripture usually means by Faith Doubtless the Gospel takes it not so strictly as Philosophers do but in a larger sence for our obedience to all Gospel precepts To beleeve in his name and to receive him are all one but we must receive him as King as well as Saviour therefore beleeving doth not produce subjection as a fruit but contain it as an essential part except we say that Faith receives Christ as a Saviour first and so justifies before it take him for King as some think which is a maimed unsound and no Scripture faith I doubt not but the Soul more sensibly looks at Salvation from Christ then Government by him in the first work yet whatever precedaneous act there may be it never conceives of Christ to Justification nor knows him with the knowledg which is eternal life till it conceive of him and know him for Lord and King Therefore there is not such a difference between Faith and Gospel-obedience or Works as some judg Obedience to the Gospel is put for Faith and Disobedience put for Unbelief usually in the New Testament 6. Lastly I make Happiness to consist in this end obtained for it is not the meer promise of it that immediately makes perfectly happy nor Christs meer purchase nor our meer seeking but the Apprehending and obtaining which sets the Crown on the Saints head when we can say of our work as Christ of the price payd It is finished and as Paul I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth is layd up for me a crown of Salvation 2 Tim. 4.7 8. CHAP. III. What this Rest presupposeth SECT I. FOr the clearer understanding yet of the nature of this Rest you must know 1. There are some things necessarily presupposed to it 2. Some things really conteined in it 1. All these things are presupposed to this Rest. 1. A person in motion seeking Rest. SECT II. 2. AN End toward which he moveth for Rest Which End must be sufficient for his Rest else when 't is obtained it deceiveth him This can be onely God the chief good SECT III. 3. A Distance is presupposed from this End else there can be no motion towards it This sad distance is the woful case of all mankinde since the fall It was our God that we principally lost and were shut out of his gracious presence Though some talk of losing onely a temporal earthly felicity sure I am it was God we fell from and him we lost and since said to be without him in the world and there would have been no death but for sin and to enjoy God without death is neither an earthly nor temporal enjoyment Nay in all men at Age here is supposed not onely a distance from God but also a contrary motion For sin hath not overthrown our Being nor taken away our Motion but our well-being and the Rectitude of our motion When Christ comes with Regenerating Saving Grace he findes no man sitting still but all posting to eternal Ruine and making hast towards hell till by conviction he first bring them to a stand and by conversion turn first their hearts and then their lives sincerely to himself SECT IV. 4. HEre is presupposed a knowledg of the true ultimate End and its excellency for so the motion of the Rational Creature proceedeth An unknown end is no end it is a contradiction We cannot make that our end which we know not nor that our chief End which we know not or judg not to be the chief Good An unknown Good moves not to desire or endeavor Therefore where it is not truly known That God is this End and containeth all good in him there is no obtaining Rest. SECT V. 5. HEre is presupposed not onely a distance from this Rest but also the true knowledg of this distance If a man have lost his way and know it not he seeks not to return If he lose his gold and know it not he seeks it not Therefore they that never knew they were without God never yet enjoyed him and they that never knew they were naturally and actually in the way to Hell did never yet know the way to Heaven Nay there will not onely be a knowledg of this distance and lost estate but also affections answerable Can a man be brought to finde himself hard by the brink of hell and not tremble or to finde he hath lost his God and his Soul and not cry out I am undone Or can such a stupid Soul be so recovered This is the sad case of many thousands and the reason why so few obtain this Rest They will not be convinced or made sensible that they are in point of title distant from it and in point of practice contrary to it They have lost their God their Souls their Rest and do not know it nor will beleeve him that tells them so Who ever travelled towards a place which he thought he was at already or sought for that which he knew not he had lost The whole need not the Physician but they that are sick Mat. 9.12 SECT VI. 6. HEre is also supposed A superiour moving Cause and an influence there-from else should we all stand still and not move a step forward toward our Rest no more then the inferiour wheels in the Watch would stir if you take away the spring or the first mover This primum movens is God What hand God hath in evil Actions or whether he afford the like influence to their production I will not here trouble this Discourse and the Reader to dispute The case is clear in Good Actions If God move us not we cannot move Therefore is it a most necessary part of our Christian Wisdom to keep our subordination to God and dependance on him To be still in the path where he walks and in that way where his Spirit doth most usually move Take heed of being estranged or separated from God or of slacking your
is utterly taken away This is not such a Come as we were wont to hear Come take up your Cross and follow me though that was sweet yet this much more Ye Blessed Blessed indeed when that mouth shall so pronounce us for though the world hath accounted us accursed and we have been ready to account our selves so yet certainly those that he blesseth are blessed and those whom he curseth onely are cursed and his Blessing shall not be Revoked But he hath Blessed us and we shall be Blessed Of my Father Blessed in the Fathers Love as well as the Sons for they are one The Father hath testified his Love in their Election Donation to Christ sending of Christ accepting his Ransom c. as the Son hath also testified his inherit No longer bond-men nor servants onely nor children under age who differ not in possession but onely in title from servants But now we are heirs of the Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Coheirs with Christ. The Kingdom No less then the Kingdom Indeed to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords is our Lords own proper title But to be Kings and reign with him is ours The fruition of this Kingdom is as the fruition of the light of the Sun each have the whole and the rest never the less Prepared for you God is the Alpha as well as the Omega of our Blessedness Eternal Love hath layd the foundation He prepared the Kingdom for us and then prepared us for the Kingdom This is the preparation of his Counsel and Decree for the execution whereof Christ was yet to make a further preparation For you Not for Beleevers onely in general who without individual persons are no body Nor onely for you upon condition of your beleeving But for you personally and determinately for all the Conditions were also prepared for you From the foundation of the world Not onely from the Promise after Adams fall as some but as the phrase usually signifieth though not always from Eternity These were the eternal thoughts of Gods love towards us and this is it he purposed for us But a great difficulty riseth in our way In what sence is our Improvement of our Talent our well doing our overcoming our harboring visiting feeding c. Christ in his little ones alledged as a Reason of our Coronation and Glory Is not it the purchased possession and meet fruit of Christs blood If every man must be judged according to his works and receive according to what they have done in the flesh whether good or evil and God will render to every man according to his Deeds and give eternal life to men if they patiently continue in well doing and give right to the tree of Life and entrance into the City to the doers of his Commandments and if this last Absolving Sentence be the compleating of our Justification and so the doers of the Law be justified Why then what 's become of Free Grace of Justification by Faith onely of the sole Righteousness of Christ to make us accepted Then the Papists say rightly That we are Righteous by our personal Righteousness and Good Works concur to Justification I did not think to have said so much upon Controversie But because the difficulty is very great and the matter very weighty as being neer the foundation I shall in another Book add to what is said before certain brief Positions containing my thoughts on this Subject which may tend to the clearing of these and many other difficulties hereabouts But that the plain constant language of Scripture may not be perverted or disregarded I onely premise these Advertisements by way of caution till thou come to read the full Answer 1. Let not the names of men draw thee one way or other nor make thee partial in Searching for Truth Dislike the men for their unsound doctrine but call not doctrine unsound because it is theirs nor sound because of the repute of the Writer 2. Know this That as an unhumbled Soul is far apter to give too much to Duty and personal Righteousness then to Christ So a humble self-denying Christian is as likely to err on the other hand in giving less to duty then Christ hath given and laying all the work from himself on Christ for fear of robbing Christ of the honor and so much to look at Christ without him and think he should look at nothing in himself that he forgets Christ within him As Luther said of Melancthons self-denying humility Soli Deo omaia deberi tam obstinaté asserit ut mihi plané vidcatur saltem in hoc errare quòd Christum ipse fingat longiùs abesse cordi suo quam sit reverâ Certé nimis nullus in hoc est Philippus He so constantly ascribes all to God that to me he seems directly to err at least in this that he feigneth or imagineth Christ to be further off from his own heart then indeed he is Certainly he is too much Nothing in this 3. Our giving to Christ more of the work then Scripture doth or rather our ascribing it to him out of the Scripture way and sence doth but dishonor and not honor him and depress but not exalt his Free Grace While we deny the inward sanctifying work of his Spirit and extol his free Justification which are equal fruits of his merit we make him an imperfect Saviour And thus we have by the line and plummet of Scripture fathomed this four-fold stream and seen the Christian safely landed in Paradise and in this four-wheeled fiery Charet conveyed honorably to his Rest. Now let us a little further view those Mansions consider his priviledges and see whether there be any Glory like unto his Glory Read and judg but not by outward appearance but judg Righteous Judgment CHAP. VI. This Rest most Excellent discovered by Reason SECT I. THe next thing to be handled is The excellent properties of this Rest and admirable Attributes which as so many Jewels shall adorn the Crown of the Saints And first before we speak of them particularly let us try this Happiness by the Rules of the Philosopher and see whether they will not approve it the more transcendently Good Not as if they were a sufficient Touchstone but that both the Worldling and the Saint may see when any thing stands up in competition with this Glory for the preheminence Reason it self will conclude against it Now in order of good the Philosopher will tell you that by these Rules you may know which is Best SECT I. 1. THat which is desired and sought for it self is better then that which is desired for something else or the End as such is better then all the Means This concludeth for Heavens preheminence All things are but means to that end If any thing here be excellent it is because it is a step to that and the more conducible thereto the more excellent The Salvation of our Souls is the end of our Faith of our
some of those Kingdoms of Infidels would have harkened to the spirits teaching and being taught would have taught others especially if there be a sufficiency in that grace for the obtaining of its end Therefore how to apprehend a verity in their doctrine of universal sufficient grace to believe I know not Yet will I not affirm that the faith that is absolutely necessary among poor Indians is of the same extent in all its acts and dimensions with that required among us no more then that required of the world before Christs coming was Upon what tearmes then God will deal with those dark parts of the world I cannot yet reach to know The scripture speaks of no other way to life but Christ and of no way to Christ but faith But we are not their Judges they stand or fall to their own master But sure that great difference betwixt them and us must arise from Gods own pleasure For they have not abused Christ and Gospel which they never heard of nor can it be that they should be judged by that Gospel which neither before nor since the fall was taught them Christ himself saith plainly that if he had not come to them and spoke the words that no man else could speak and done the works that no man else could do they had not had sin He saith not as some would pervert the sense your sin had not been so great But none at all not speaking of their other sins but their unbelief which he had now in hand teaching us clearly That where there is not competent meanes to convince men of the truth of the Gospel there not believing is no sin For it was to them never forbidden nor the contrary duty ever required And the Apostle tells us those that have sinned without Law shall be judged without Law That place therefore Rom. 2.16 seemeth abused while they would make the sense to be that God will judg the secrets of all men according to the Gospel as the sentencing Law when the Apostle seems to intend but thus much According to my Gospel that is as I have in my preaching the Gospel taught you respecting the verity of what he speak Yet I think that they will be Judged according to Gospel-indulgence as they have been partakers of some mercies from Christ in this life 2. That these people of God are but a Part of those that are thus externally called is too evident in Scripture and experience Many are called but few chosen But the internally effectually called are all chosen For whom he called them he justified and whom he justified them he glorified The bare invitation of the Gospel and mens hearing the Word is so far from giving title to or being an evidence of Christianity and its priviledges that where it prevailes not to a through-Conversion it sinks deeper and casts under a double damnation 3. The first differencing work I affirm to be Regeneration by the Spirit of Christ taking it for granted that this Regeneration is the same with effectual Vocation with Conversion with Sanctification understanding Conversion and Sanctification of the first infusion of the principle of Spiritual life into the soul and not for the addition of degrees or the sanctifying of the conversation in which last sence its most frequently taken in Scripture It s a wonder to me that such a multitude of Learned Divines should so long proceed in that palpable mistake as to divide and mangle so groundlesly the Spirits work upon the soul to affirm that 1. precedes the work of vocation 2. this vocation infuseth faith only say some but faith and repentance say others 3. then must this faith by us be acted 4. by which act we apprehend Christs person and by that apprehension we are united to him 5. from which union proceeds the benefits 1. Of Justification 2. Of Sanctification 6. this Sanctification infuseth all other gracious Habits and hath two degrees 1. Regeneration 2. Renascentiam or the new birth What a multifarious division is here of that one single intire work which is called in Scripture the giving of the Spirit of holiness of the seed of God in us Which seed or life doth no more enter by piecemeal into the soul then the soul into the body And though to salve the Absurdity they tell us the difference is in nature and not in time yet that is impossible For there is mans act of believing intervenes who must have time for all his actions besides the division in order of nature is groundlesly asserted It much perplexeth them to resolve that doubt whether in sanctification faith and Repentance be infused over again which were before infused in vocation or whether all other graces are infused without them Dr. Ames seemes to resolve it in the Affirmative that they are infused again but with this difference 1. That faith in our vocation is not properly considered as a quality but in relation to Christ. 2. Nor is Repentance there looked at as a change of the disposition but as a change of the purpose and intent of the minde but in sanctification a reall change of qualities and dispositions is looked at Answer Strange doctrine for an Anti-Arminian However you consider it sure the habit or disposition is infused before those Acts are excited Act. 26.18 Or else what need we assert any habits at all If the spirit excites those holy acts of faith and repentance in an unholy Soul without any change of its disposition at the first why not ever after as well as then and so the soul be disposed one way and act another and so the Libertines doctrine be true That it is not we that believe and repent but the Spirit Or if these two solitary habits be infused in vocation why not the rest And why again in sanctification Doubtless that internal effectual Call of the spirit metaphorically so called is properly a real operation and that work hath the understanding and will for its object both being the Subject of faith in which the Habit is planted and faith now generally acknowledged to be an act of both And surely an unholy understanding and will cannot believe nor is faith an act of a dead but of a living soul Especially considering that a true spiritual knowledge is requisite either as a precedent act or essential part of true faith All which doth also warrant my putting of this Renewing work of the spirit in the first place and placing Sanctification in the sense before explained before justification The Apostle placeth clearly vocation before justification Rom. 8.30 Which vocation I have shewed is the same thing in a metaphorical term with this first Sanctification or Regeneration Though I know the stream of Interpreters do in explaining that Text make Sanctification to be included in Glorification when yet they can shew no real difference between it and effectual vocation before-named Certainly if Sanctification precede faith and faith precede Justification then
but make it stay to hear its sentence If once or twice or thrice will not do it nor a few days of hearing bring it to issue follow it on with unwearied diligence and give not over till the work be done and till thou canst 〈◊〉 knowingly off or on either thou art or art not a member of Christ either that thou hast or that thou hast not yet title to this Rest. Be sure thou rest not in wilful uncertainties If thou canst no◠dispatch the work well thy self get the help of those that are skilful go to thy Minister if he be a man of experience or go to some able experienced friend open thy case faithfully and wish them to deal plainly And thus continue till thou hast got assurance Not but that some doubtings may still remaine but yet thou maist have so much assurance as to master them that they may not much interrupt thy peace If men did know Heaven to be their own inheritance we should less need to perswade their thoughts unto it or to press them to set their delight in it O if men did truly know that God is their own Father and Christ their own Redeemer and Head and that those are their own Everlasting habitations and that there it is that they must abide and be happy for ever how could they chuse but be ravished with the forethoughts thereof If a Christian could but look upon Sun and Moon and Stars and reckon all his own in Christ and say These are the portion that my Husband doth bestow These are the blessings that my Lord hath procured me and things incomparably greater then these what holy raptures would his spirit feel The more do they sin against their own comforts as well as against the Grace of the Gospel who are wilful maintainers of their own doubtings and plead for their unbelief and cherish distrustful thoughts of God and scandalous injurious thoughts of their Redeemer who represent the Covenant as if it were of works and not of grace and represent Christ as an enemy rather then as a Savior as if he were glad of advantages against them and were willing that they should keep off from him and dye in their unbelief when he hath called them so oft and invited them so kindly and born the hell that they should bear Ah wretches that we are that be keeping up Jealousies of the Love of our Lord when we should be rejoycing and bathing our souls in his love That can question that love which hath been so fully evidenced and doubt still whether he that hath stooped so low and suffered so much and taken up a nature and office of purpose be yet willing to be theirs who are willing to be his As if any man could chose Christ before Christ hath chosen him or any man could desire to have Christ more then Christ desires to have him or any man were more willing to be happy then Christ is to make him happy Fie upon these injurious if not blasphemous thoughts If ever thou have harboured such thoughts in thy brest or if ever thou have uttered such words with thy tongue spit out that venome vomit out that rancor cast them from thee and take heed how thou ever entertainest them more God hath written the names of his people in heaven as you use to write your names in your own books or upon your own Goods or set your Marks on your own sheep And shall we be attempting to rase them out and to write our names on the doors of hell But blessed be our God whose foundation is sure and who keepeth us by his mighty power through Faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Well then this is my second advice to thee that thou follow on the work of self-examination till thou hast got assurance that this rest is thy own and this will draw thy heart unto it and feed thy spirits with fresh delights which else will be but tormented so much the more to think that there is such Rest for others but none for thee SECT III. 3. ANother help to sweeten thy soul with the foretasts of Rest is this Labor to apprehend how neer it is Think seriously of its speedy approach That which we think is neer at hand we are more sensible of then that which we behold at a distance When we hear of war or famin in another country it troubleth not so much or if we hear it prophesied of a long time hence so if we hear of plenty a great way off or of a golden age that shall fall out who knows when this never rejoyceth us But if Judgments or Mercies begin to draw neer then they affect us If we were sure we should see the golden Age then it would take with us When the plague is in a Town but twenty miles off we do not fear it nor much prehaps if it be but in another street but if once it come to the next door or if it seaze on one in our own family then we begin to think on it more feelingly It is so with mercies as well as Judgments VVhen they are far off we talk of them as marvells but when they draw close to us we rejoyce in them as Truths This makes men think on Heaven so insensibly because they conceit it at too great a distance They look on it as twenty or thirty or fourty yeers off and this is it that duls their sense As wicked men are fearless and senseless of judgment because the sentence is not speedily executed Eccles. 8.11 So are the godly deceived of their comforts by supposing them further off then they are This is the danger of putting the day of death far from us VVhen men will promise themselves longer time in the world then God hath promised them and judg of the length of their lives by the probabilities they gather from their Age their health their constitution and temperature this makes them look at heaven as a great way off If 〈◊〉 the rich fool in the Gospel had not expected to have lived many yeers he would sure have thought more of providing for Eternity and less of his present store and possessions And if we did not think of staying many yeers from Heaven we should think on it with far more piercing thoughts This expectation of long life doth both the wicked and the godly a great deal of wrong How much better were it to receive the sentence of death in our selves and to look on Eternity as neer at hand Surely Reader thou standest at the door and hundreds of diseases are ready waiting to open the door and let thee in Is not the thirty or fourty years of thy life that is past quickly gone Is it not a very little time when thou lookest back on it And will not all the rest be shortly so too Do not dayes and nights come very thick Dost thou not feel that building of flesh to shake and perceive thy house of
abuse their bodies and neglect their health did wrong the flesh onely the matter were small but they wrong the soul also As he that spoils the house doth wrong the inhabitant When the body is sick and the spirits do languish how heavily move we in these Meditations and Joyes Yet where God denieth this mercy we may the better bear it because he oft occasioneth our benefit by the denial CHAP. VI. Containing the Description of the great Duty of Heavenly Contemplation SECT I. THough I hope what is already spoken be not unuseful and that it will not by the Reader be cast aside yet I must tell you that the main thing intended is yet behinde and that which I aimed at when I set upon this Work I have observed the Maxime that my principal end be last in execution though it was first in my intention All that I have said is but for the preparation to this The Doctrinal part is but to instruct you for this the rest of the Uses are but introductions to this The Motives I have laid down are but to make you willing for this The Hinderances I mentioned were but so many blocks in the way to this The general Helps which I last delivered are but the necessary Attendants of this So that Reader If thou neglect this that follows thou dost frustrate the main end of my design and makest me lose as to thee the chief of my labor I once more intreat thee therefore as thou art a man that makest conscience of a revealed duty and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit as thou valuest the high delights of a Saint and the soul ravishing exercise of heavenly Contemplation as all my former moving Considerations seem reasonable to thee and as thou art faithful to the peace and prosperity of thine own soul that thou diligently study these Directions following and that thou speedily and faithfully put them into practice Practice is the end of all sound Doctrine and all right Faith doth end in duty I pray thee therefore rosolve before thou readest any further and 〈…〉 here as before the Lord that if the following Advice be wholsome to thy soul thou wilt conscionably follow it and seriously set thy self to the Work and that no laziness of spirit shall take thee off nor lesser business interrupt thy course but that thou wilt approve thy self a Doer of this Word and not an idle hearer onely Is this thy promise and wilt thou stand to it Resolve man and then I shall be encouraged to give thee my Advice if I spread not before thee a delicious feast if I set thee not upon as gainful a trade and put not into thy hand as delightful an imployment as ever thou dealt'st with in all thy life then cast it away and tell me I have deceived thee onely try it throughly and then judg I say again if in the faithful following of this prescribed course thou dost not finde an increase of all thy graces and dost not grow beyond the stature of common Christians and art not made more serviceable in thy place and more pretious in the eyes of all that are discerning if thy soul enjoy not more fellowship with God and thy life be not fuller of pleasure and solace and thou have not comfort readier by thee at a dying hour when thou hast greatest need then throw these Directions back in my face and exclaim against me as a deceiver for ever Except God should leave thee uncomfortable for a little season for the more glorious manifestation of his Attributes and thy integrity and single thee out as he did Job for an example and mirror of constancy and patience which would be but a preparative for thy fuller comfort Certainly God will not forsake this his own Ordinance thus conscionably performed but will be found of those that thus diligently seek him God hath as it were appointed to meet thee in this way Do not thou fail to give him the meeting and thou shalt finde by experience that he will not fail SECT II. THe duty which I press upon thee so earnestly I shall now deâ—scribe and open to thee for I suppose by this time thou art ready to enquire What is this so highly extolled work Why it is The set and solemn acting of all the powers of thy soul upon this most perfect object Rest by Meditation I will a little more fully explain the meaning of this description that so the duty may lye plaine before thee 1. The general title that I give to this duty is Meditation Not as it is precisely distinguished from Cogitation Consideration and Contemplation but as it is taken in the larger and usual sense for Cogitation on things spiritual and so comprehending consideration and contemplation That Meditation is a duty of Gods ordaining not only in his written Law but also in nature it self I never met with the man that would deny But that it is a duty constantly and conscionably practised even by the godly so far as my acquaintance extends I must with sorrow deny it It is in word confessed to be a Duty by all but by the constant neglect denyed by most And I know not by what fatal customary security it comes to passe that men that are very tender conscienc't towards most other duties yet do as easily overslip this as if they knew it not to be a duty at all They that are presently troubled in minde if they omit but a Sermon a Fast a Prayer in publique or private yet were never troubled that they have omitted Meditation perhaps all their life time to this very day Though it be that duty by which all other duties are improved and by which the soul digesteth Truths and draweth forth their strength for its nourishment and refreshing Certainly I think that as a man is but half an hour in chewing and taking into his stomack that meat which he must have seven or eight hours at least to digest so a man may take into his understanding and memory more Truth in one hour then he is able well to digest in many A man may eat too much but he cannot digest too well Therefore God commandeth Joshua That the book of the Law depart not out of his mouth but that he Meditate therein day and night that he may observe to do according to that which is written therein Josh. 1.8 As Digestion is the turning of the raw food into chyle and blood and spirits and flesh So Meditation rightly mannaged turneth the Truths received and remembred into warm affection raised resolution and holy and upright conversation Therefore what good those men are like to get by Sermons or providences who are unacquainted with and unaccustomed to this work of Meditation you may easily judge And why so much preaching is lost among us and professors can run from Sermon to Sermon and are never weary of hearing or reading and yet have such languishing starved souls I know
of this Rest proved by Scripture p. 167 Chap. 2. Perswasions to study and preach the divine authority of Scripture p. 174 Chap. 3 Certain distinctions concerning Scripture p. 184 Sixty Positions concerning Scriptures ibid. Chap. 4. The 1. Argument to prove Scripture the Word of God p. 191 That arguing from Miracles testified by man is no Popish resolving our faith into humane testimony p. 206 The excellency of this argument from Miracles p. 208 What the sin against the Holy Ghost is ibid. The necessity of using humane Testimony p. 210 The use of Church-governours and Teachers and how far they are to be obeyed p. 211 The excellent use of Antiquities for matter of fact p. 213 Chap. 5. The 2. Argument to prove Scripture Gods Word p. 214 Chap. 6. The 3. Argument to prove Scripture Gods Word p. 221 Chap. 7. The 4. Argument to prove Scripture Gods Word p. 235 Of extraordinary Temptations p. 237 Of Apparitions p. 238 Of Sateâ— is possessing and tormenting mens bodies p. 241 Of Witches and the devils compacts with them p. 243 The necessity of a written Word p. 245 Chap. 8. This Rest remaineth to none but the People of God p. 252 Chap. 9. Whether separated Souls enjoy Rest before the Resurrection Proved that they do in a great measure by 20. Arguments p. 257 The Contents of the Third Part. CHAP. I. THE first Vse Shewing the unconceivable misery of the wicked in their loss of this Rest. p. 265 The greatness of their loss 1. They lose all the personall perfection of Soul and Body which the Saints have p. 268 2. They lose God himself p. 270 3. They lose all those spirituall delightfull affections by which the blessed do feed on God p. 272 4. They lose the society of Angels and Saints p. 273 Chap. 2. The aggravations of the wickeds loss of Heaven p. 276 1. Their understandings will be cleared to know its worth p. 277 2. And also enlarged to have deeper apprehensions of it p. 279 3. Conscience will fully apply it to themselves ibid. 4. Their effections will be more lively and enlarged p 281 5. Their memories strong to feed their torment p. 283 Ten things concerning their loss of this Rest which it will for ever torment them to remember p. 285 to 298 Chap. 3. Aggravations from the losses which accompany the loss of Rest. p. 299 1. They shall lose their present presumptuous conceit of Gods favour to them and of their part in Christ. p. 300 2. They shall lose all their Hopes p. 303 3. They shall lose their present ease and peace p. 311 4. They shall lose all their carnall mirth p. 315 5. And all their sensuall contentments and delights p. 316 Chap. 4. The greatness of the damneds torments opened p. 319 By eight aggravations of them to p. 328 The certain truth of these torments ibid. The intollerableness of this loss and torment discovered by ten questions p. 332 Chap. 5. The second Vse Reproving the generall neglect of this Rest and exciting to the utmost diligence in seeking it p. 339 1. To the worldly minded that cannot spare time p. 340 2. To the prophane ungodly presumptuous multitude p. 343 3. To lazy formall self-deceiving Professors p. 344 And of these 1. To the opinionative hypocrite 2. And the worldly hypocrite ibid. p. 345 4. To the godly themselves for their great negligence Magistrates Ministers and People p. 35â— Chap. 6. An exhortation to the greatest seriousness in seeking Rest. p. 349 Twenty lively rationall considerations to quicken us up to the greatest diligence that is possible to p. 350 Ten more very quickening considerations p. 365 Ten more very quickening by way of question p. 369 Ten more peculiar to the godly to quicken them p. 374 Chap. 7. The third Vse Perswading all men to try their title to this Rest and directing them in this tryall p 380 Self-examination defined and explained p. 386 The nature of Assurance or certainty of Salvation opened How much and what the Spirit doth to the producing it And what Scripture what Knowledg what Faith what Holiness and Evidences what Conscience or internall sense and what Reason or discourse do in this work p. 388 What the seal of the Spirit is What the testimony of the Spirit and what the testimony of Conscience p. 391 Against the common distinction of certainty of Evidence and of adherence p. 392 That we are justified and beloved of God is not properly to be believed much less immediatly and by all men ibid. That Assurance may be here attained though not perfect Assurance p. 393 Hinderances that keep from examination 1. Satan p 39â— 2. Wicked men p 397 3. Hinderances in our own hearts p. 398 Hinderances of Assurance in those that do examine p. 400 Further causes of want of Assurance among the most of the godly themselves p. 402 1. Weakness and small measure of Grace p. 403 2. Looking more what they are then what they should do to be better ibid. 3. Mistaking or confounding Assurance and the joy of Assurance p. 405 4. Ignorant of Gods way of conveying Assurance p. 406 5. Expecting a greater measure then God usually giveth here p. 407 6. Taking up comfort in the beginning on unsound or uncertain grounds when yet perhaps they have better grounds and do not see them and then when the weakness of their grounds appear they cast away their comforts too as if all were nought p. 408 7. Imperfection of Reason and naturall parts p. 409 8. The secret maintaining some known sin p. 410 9. Growing lazy in the spirituall part of duty and not keeping graces in constant action p. 411 10. Prevalency of Melancholy in the body p. 414 Chap. 8. An Exhortation to examine our title to Rest. p. 415 Severall Motives to p. 428 Chap. 9. A direction how to manage the work of Self-examination throughly that it may succeed p. 428 Two marks whereby you may infallibly Judg. p. 434 Chap. 10. The fourth Vse The Reasons of the Saints afflictions in this life p. 439 Some Considerations to help us to bear them joyfully drawn from their reference to this Rest. p. 441 Some objections of the afflicted answered p. 452 Chap. 11. An Exhortation to those that have got Assurance of this Rest or title to it to do all that possibly they can to help others to the like p. 458 Here is shewed 1. wherein the duty doth consist p. 459 Directions are added for right performance p. 464 Besides the great duty of private exhortation we must help them to enjoy use and improve the publique Ordinances p. 475 2. The common Hinderances of faithfull endeavours to save mens souls p. 482 Some objections against this duty answered p. 488 Motives to perswade all Christians to this duty p. 491 Chap. 12. An advice to some more especially to help others to this Rest Prest largely on Ministers and Parents p. 501 And 1. To men of ability 2. Or interest 3. Physitians 4. Rich men
and men of Command p. 504 5. To Ministers Five means which they must use p. 506 6. To Parents and masters of Families Severall Considerations to urge them to the performance p. 527 Some of their objections answered p. 537 Directions to Parents for teaching their Children p. 546 The summe or Fundamentals of Divinity which Children and others must first be taught p. 548 Some further Directions only named p. 550 The Contents of the Fourth Part. CHAP. I. REproving our expectation of Rest on earth with divers Reasons against it p. 559 â—hap 2. Reproving our lothness to die and go to our Rest. p. 574 The hainous aggravations of this sin p. 575 Considerations against it and to make us willing and objections answered p. 583 â—hap 3. A Directory for a heavenly life 1. Reproof of our unheavenliness and Exhortation to set our hearts above p. 598 Twelve moving considerations to heavenly-mindedness p. 604 â—hap 4. Seven great Hindrances of heavenliness to be avoided p 645 â—hap 5. Ten general Helps to a heavenly life p. 668 â—hap 6. The great duty of heavenly meditation described and the Description explained p. 686 â—hap 7. Directions 1. Concerning the fittest Time for this Meditation p. 696 2. Concerning the fittest Place p. 712 3. Concerning the preparation of the heart to it p. 714 Chap. 8. Of Consideration and what power it hath to move the soul. p. 718 Chap. 9. What faculties and affections must be acted in this Contemplation p. 724 By what objects and considerations and in what order ibid. More particularly 1. The exercise of Judgment p. 725 2. The acting of Faith p. 728 3. The acting of Love p. 731 4. The acting of Desire p 736 5. The acting of Hope p. 739 6. The acting of Courage or holy Boldness and Resolution p. 742 7. The acting of Joy p. 744 Chap. 10. By what Actings of the soul to proceed to this work of heavenly Contemplation beside Cogitation p. 749 As 1. Soliloquy Its parts and method p 750 2. Speaking to God p. 754 Chap. 11. Some advantages for raising and affecting the soul in its Meditations of Heaven In generall by making use of sense or sensitive things p 756 Particularly 1. By raising strong suppositions from sense p. 759 2. By comparing the objects of Sense with the objects of Faith p. 761 Twelve helps by comparison to be affected with the Joys of Heaven p. 76â— Chap. 12. Direction how to manage and watch over the heart whiâ—â— we are in this work of Contemplation p. 781 Chap. 13. An abstract or brief summe of all for the help of the weak p. 787 Chap. 14. An example of the acting of Judgment Faith Love Joy and Desire by this duty of Heavenly Meditation p. 790 The Conclusion commending this duty from its necessity and excellency p. 83â— THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. CHAP. I. HEBR. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God SECT I. IT was not only our interest in God and actual fruition of him which was lost in Adams Covenant-breaking fall but all spiritual knowledg of him and true disposition towards such a felicity Man hath now a heart too suitable to his estate A low state and a low spirit And as some expound that of Luk. 18.8 when the Son of God comes with Recovering Grace and discoveries and tenders of a spiritual and eternal Happiness and Glory he findes not faith in man to beleeve it But as the poor man that would not beleeve that any one man had such a sum as an hundred pound it was so far above what he possessed So man will hardly now beleeve that there is such a Happiness as once he had much less as Christ hath now procured When God would give the Israelites his Sabbaths of Rest in a Land of Rest he had more ado to make them beleeve it then to overcome their enemies and procure it for them And when they had it only as a small intimation earnest of a more incomparably glorious Rest through Christ they stick there and will yet beleeve no more then they do possess but sit down and say as the Glutton at the feast Sure there 's no other Heaven but this Or if they do expect more by the Messiah it is only the increase of their earthly felicity The Apostle bestows most of this Epistle against this distemper and clearly and largely proves unto them That it 's the end of all Ceremonies and Shadows to direct them to Jesus Christ the Substance and that the Rest of Sabbaths and Canaan should teach them to look for a further Rest which indeed is their Happiness My Text is his Conclusion after divers Arguments to that end a Conclusion so useful to a Beleever as containing the ground of all his comforts the end of all his duty and sufferings the life and sum of all Gospel-promises and Christian-priviledges that you may easily be satisfied why I have made it the subject of my present Discourse What more welcome to men under personal afflictions tiring duty successions of sufferings then Rest What more welcom news to men under publick calamities unpleasing employments plunderings losses sad tydings c. which is the common case then this of Rest Hearers I pray God your attentions intention of spirit entertainment and improvement of it be but half answerable to the verity necessity and excellency of this Subject and then you will have cause to bless God while you live that ever you heard it as I have that ever I studied it SECT II. THe Text is as you may see the Apostles Assertion in an entire proposition with the concluding illative The Subject is Rest The Predicate It yet Remains to the people of God It s requisite we say somewhat briefly 1. For Explication of the terms 2. Of the Subject of them Therefore i. e. It clearly follows from the former Argument There Remains 1. In order of speaking As the Consequence follows the Antecedent or the Conclusion the Premises So there Remains a Rest or it remains that there is another Rest. 2. But rather in order of being As the bargain remains after the earnest the performance after the promise the Anti-type after the Type and the ultimate end after all the means so there remains a Rest To the People of God God hath a two-fold people within the Church One his only by a common vocation by an external acceptation of Christ and covenanting sanctified by the blood of the Covenant so far as to be separated from the open enemies of Christ and all without the Church therefore not to be accounted common and unclean in the sence as Jews and Pagans are but holy and Saints in a larger sence as the Nation of the Jews and all Proselited Gentiles were holy before Christs coming These are called Branches in Christ not bearing fruit and shall be cut off c. for they are in the Church and in him by the foresaid profession and external Covenant but
no further There are in his Kingdom things that offend and men that work iniquity which the Angels at the last day shall gather out and cast into the Lake of fire There are fishes good and bad in his net and tares with wheat in his field The son of Perdition is one of those given to Christ by the Father though not as the Rest these be not the people of God my Text speaks of 2. But God hath a Peculiar People that are his by special vocation cordial acceptation of Christ internal sincere covenanting sanctified by the blood of the Covenant and Spirit of Grace so far as not only to be separated from open Infidels but from all unregenerate Christians being Branches in Christ bearing fruit and for these remains the Rest in my Text. 1. To be Gods people by a forced Subjection i. e. under his dominion is common to all persons even open enemies yea Devils this yeelds not comfort 2. To be his by a verbal Covenant and profession and external Call is common to all in and of the visible Church even Traytors and secret enemies yet hath this many priviledges as the external seals means of grace common mercies but no interest in this Rest. 3. But to be his by election union with Christ and special interest as before mentioned is the peculiar property of those that shall have this Rest. SECT III. Quest. BUt is it to a determinate number of persons by name or onely to a people thus and thus qualified viz. persevering Beleevers without determining by Name who they are Ans. I purposely in this Discourse omit controversies onely in a word thus 1. It is promised only to persevering Beleevers and not to any particular persons by name 2. It is purposed with all the conditions of it and means to it to a determinate Number called the Elect and known by name which I prove thus 1. There 's few will deny that God foreknows from eternity who these are and shall be numerically personally by name 2. To purpose it only to such and to know that only these will be such is in effect to purpose it only to these 3. Especially if we know how little Knowledg and Purpose in God do differ 4. However we must not make his knowledg active and his purpose idle much less to contradict each other as it must be if from eternity he purposed salvation alike to all and yet from eternity knew that only such and such should receive it 5. To purpose all persevering Beleevers to salvation and not to purpose faith and perseverance absolutely to any particular persons is to purpose salvation absolutely to none at all SECT IV. Quest. TO Is it to the people of God upon Certainty or only upon possibility Ans. If only possible it cannot thus be called theirs 1. While they are only elect not called it is certain to them we speak of a certainty of the object by Divine purpose for they are ordained to eternal life first and therefore beleeve and not first beleeve and therefore elected 2. When they are called according to his purpose then it is certain to them by a certainty of promise also as good as if they were named in that promise for the promise is to Beleevers which they may know themselves to be and though it be yet upon condition of overcoming and abiding in Christ and enduring to the end yet that condition being absolutely promised it still remaineth absolutely certain upon promise And indeed if Glory be ours onely upon a condition which condition depends chiefly on our own wills it were cold comfort to those that know what mans will is and how certainly we should play the Prodigals with this as we did with our first stock But I have hitherto understood that in the behalf of the Elect Christ is resolved and hath undertaken for the working and finishing of their faith and the full effecting his peoples salvation and not onely gives us a feigned sufficient grace not effectual leaving it to our wills to make it effectual as some think So that though still the Promise of our Justification and Salvation be Conditional yet God having manifested his purpose of enabling us to fulfil those Conditions he doth thereby shew us a Certainty of our Salvation both in his Promise and his Purpose CHAP. II. This Rest Defined SECT I. NOw let us see 1. What this Rest is 2. What these people of God and why so called 3. The truth of this from other Scripture Arguments 4. Why this Rest must yet Remain 5. Why onely to this people of God 6. What use to make of it 1. And though the sence of the Text includes in the word Rest all that ease and safety which a Soul wearyed with the burthen of sin and suffering and pursued by Law Wrath and Conscience hath with Christ in this life the Rest of Grace yet because it chiefly intends the Rest of eternal Glory as the end and main part I shall therefore confine my Discourse to this last DEFINITION REst is The end and perfection of motion The Saints Rest here in Question is The most happy estate of a Christian having obtained the end of his course SECT II. 1. I Call it the estate of a Christian though Perfection consists in Action as the Philosopher thinks to note both the Active and Passive fruition wherein a Christians blessedness lies and the established continuance of both SECT III. 2. I Call it the most happy estate to difference it not onely from all seeming happiness which is to be found in the enjoyment of creatures but also from all those beginnings foretastes earns first fruits and imperfect degrees which we have here in this life while we are but in the way It is the Chief Good which the world hath so much disputed yet mistaken or neglected without which the greatest confluence of all other good leaves a man miserable and with the enjoyment of which all misery is inconsistent SECT IV. 3. I Call it the estate of a Christian where I mean onely the sincere Regenerate Sanctified Christian whose Soul having discovered that excellency in God through Christ which is not in the world to be found thereupon closeth with him and is cordially set upon him I do not mean every one that being born where Christianity is the Religion of the Country takes it up as other fashions and is become a Christian he scarce knows how or why Nor mean I those that profess Christ in words but in works deny him I shall describe this Christian to you more plainly afterward It is an estate to which many pretend and that with much confidence and because they know it is onely the Christians therefore they all call themselves Christians But multitudes will at last know to their eternal sorrow that this is onely the Inheritance of the Saints and onely those Christians shall possess it who are
not of the world and therefore the world hates them who have forsaken all for Christ and having taken up the Cross do follow him with patient waiting till they inherit the promised Glory SECT V. 4. I Add That this Happiness consists in obtaining the End where I mean the ultimate and principal end not any end secundum quid so called subordinate or less principal Not the end of conclusion in regard of time for so every man hath his end But the end of Intention which sets the Soul a work and is its prime motive in all its actions That the chief Happiness is in the enjoyment of this End I shall fully shew through the whole Discourse and therefore here omit SECT VI. BUt it is a great doubt with many whether the obtainment of this glory may be our end nay concluded that its mercenary yea that to make Salvation the end of Duty is to be a Legalist and act under a Covenant of Works whose Tenor is Do this and Live And many that think it may be our end yet think it may not be our ultimate end for that should be onely the glory of God I shall answer these particularly and briefly SECT VII 1. IT 's properly called mercenary when we expect it as wages for work done and so we may not make it our end Otherwise it is only such a mercenariness as Christ commandeth For consider what this end is It 's the fruition of God in Christ and if seeking Christ be mercenary I desire to be so mercenary 2. It 's not a note of a Legalist neither It hath been the ground of a multitude of Late mistakes in Divinity to think that Do this and Live is onely the language of the Covenant of Works It 's true in some sence it is but in other not The Law of Works onely saith Do this that is perfectly fulfil the whole Law and Live that is for so doing But the Law of Grace saith Do this and Live too that is Beleeve in Christ seek him obey him sincerely as thy Lord and King forsake all suffer all things and overcome and by so doing or in so doing as the Conditions which the Gospel propounds for Salvation you shall live If you set up the abrogated duties of the Law again you are a Legalist if you set up the duties of the Gospel in Christs stead in whole or in part you err still Christ hath his place and work Duty hath its place and work too Set it but in its own place and expect from it but it s own part and you go right Yea more how unsavory soever the phrase may seem you may so far as this comes to trust to your Duty and Works that is for your own part and many miscarry in expecting no more from them as to pray and to expect nothing the more that is from Christ in a way of Duty For if duty have no share why may we not trust Christ as well in a way of disobedience as duty In a word you must both use and trust duty in Subordination to Christ but neither use them nor trust them in Co-ordination with him So that this derogates nothing from Christ for he hath done and will do all his work perfectly and enableth his people to Theirs Yet he is not properly said to do it himself he beleeves not repents not c. but worketh these in them that is enableth and exciteth them to do it SECT VIII IF I should quote all the Scriptures that plainly prove this I should transcribe a great part of the Bible I will bring none out of the Old Testament for I know not whether their Authority will here be acknowledged But I desire the contrary minded whose consciences are tender of abusing Scripture and wresting it from the plain sence to study what tolerable interpretation can be given of these following places which will not prove that Life and Salvation may be yea must be the end of Duty Joh 5.39 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 7.13 Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Rom. 2.7 10. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life Glory honor and peace to every man that worketh good c. 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that you may obtain 2 Tim. 2.5 A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer with him we shall reign with him 1 Tim. 6.12 Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.18 19. That they do good works laying up a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Phil. 3.14 If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling c. Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and enter in by the gates into the City Mat. 25. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit c. for I was hungry and ye c. Mat. 9. Blessed are the pure in heart c. they that hunger and thirst c. Be glad and rejoyce for great is your reward in Heaven Luk. 11.28 Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it Yea the escaping of Hell is a right end of Duty to a Beleever Hebr. 4.1 Let us fear least a promise being left us of entering into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it Luk. 12.5 Fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell yea whatsoever others say I say unto you Fear him 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it in subjection lest when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away Multitudes of Scriptures and Scripture Arguments might be brought but these may suffice to any that beleeve Scripture SECT IX 3. FOr those that think this Rest may be our end but not our ultimate end that must be Gods glory onely let them consider What God hath joyned man must not separate The glorifying himself and the saving his people as I judg are not two Decrees with God but one Decree to glorifie his mercy in their salvation So I think they should be with us one Intention We should aim at the glory of God not alone considered without our salvation but in our salvation Therefore I know no warrant for putting such a Question to our selves as some do Whether we could be content to be damned so God were glorified Sure I am Christ himself is offered to faith in terms for the most part respecting the welfare of the sinner more then his own abstracted glory he would be
dayly expectations of renewed help or of growing insensible of the necessity of the continual influence and assistance of the Spirit When you once begin to trust to your stock of habituall Grace and to depend on your own understanding or resolution for duty and holy walking You are then in a dangerous declining State In every duty remember Christs words Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing And 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God SECT VII 7. HEre is supposed An Internal principle of life in the person God moves not man like a stone but by enduing him first with life not to enable him to move without God but thereby to qualifie him to move himself in subordination to God the first mover What the nature of this spiritual life is is a Question exceeding difficult Whether as some think but as I judg erroniously it be Christ himself in Person or Essence or the holy Ghost personally Or as some will distinguish with what sence I know not it is the person of the holy Ghost but not personally Whether it be an Accident or Quality or whether it be a spiritual substance as the soul it self Whether it be only an Act or a disposition or a habit as it s generally taken Whether a habit infused or acquired by frequent Acts to which the soul hath been morally perswaded or whether it be somewhat lower then a habit i. e. A power viz. potentia proxima intelligendi credendi volendi c. in spiritualibus Which some think the most probable and that it was such a power that Adam lost and that the natural man as experience tells us is still devoyd of Whether such a power can be conceived which is not Reason it self and whether Reason be not the Soul it self and so we should make the soul diminished and encreased as bodies Whether spirits have Accidents as corporal substances have A multitude of such difficulties occur which will be difficulties while the Doctrine of Spirits and Spirituals is so dark to us and that will be while the dust of mortality and corruption is in our eyes This is my comfort that death will shortly blow out this dust and then I shall be resolved of these and many more In the mean time I am a Sceptick and know little in this whole doctrine of spirits and spiritual workings further then Scripture clearly revealeth SECT VIII 8. HEre is presupposed before Rest an Actual Motion Rest is the end of Motion No Motion no Rest. Christianity is not a sedentary profession and employment Nor doth it consist in meer Negatives It is for not feeding not clothing c. that Christ condemns Not doing good is not the least evil sitting still will lose you Heaven as well as if you run from it It 's a great Question Whether the elicit Acts of the Will are by Motion or by subitaneous mutation But it s a Logomachy SECT IX 9. HEre is presupposed also as motion so such motion as is rightly ordered and directed toward the end Not all motion labour seeking that brings to Rest. Every way leads not to this end But he whose goodness hath appointed the end hath in his wisdom and by his soveraign authority appointed the way Our own invented ways may seem to us more wise comly equal pleasant but that is the best Key that will open the Lock which none but that of Gods appointing will do Oh the pains that sinners take and wordlings take but not for this Rest Oh the pains and cost that many an ignorant and superstitious soul is at for this Rest but all in vain How many have a zeal of God but not according to knowledg Who being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God Nor known That Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.2 3 4. Christ is the door the only way to this Rest. Some will allow nothing else to be called the way lest it Derogate from Christ The truth is Christ is the only Way to the Father Yet faith is the way to Christ and Gospel Obedience or Faith and Works the way for those to walk in that are in Christ. There be as before many ways requisite in Subordination to Christ but none in Co-ordination with him So then it 's only Gods way that will lead to this end and Rest. SECT X. 10. THere is supposed also as motion rightly ordered so strong and constant motion which may reach the end If there be not strength put to the bow the Arrow will not reach the mark The Lazy world that think all too much will find this to their cost one day They that think less ado might have served do but reproach Christ for making us so much to do They that have been most holy watchful painful to get faith and assurance do find when they come to dye all too little We see dayly the best Christians when dying Repent their Negligence I never knew any then repent his holiness and diligence It would grieve a mans soul to see a multitude of mistaken sinners lay out their wit and care and pains for a thing of nought and think to have eternal Salvation with a wish If the way to Heaven be not far harder then the world imagines then Christ and his Apostles knew not the way or else have deceived us For they have told us That the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence That the gate is strait and the way narrow and we must strive if we will enter for many shall seek to enter and not be able which implies the faintness of their seeking and that they put not strength to the work and that the righteous themselves are scarcely saved If ever Soul obtain Salvation in the worlds common careless easie way then I 'l say there is a nearer way found out then ever God in Scripture hath revealed to the sons of men But when they have obtained Life and Rest in this way let them boast of it till then let them give us leave who would fain go upon sure grounds in point of eternal Salvation to beleeve that God knows the way better then they and that his Word is a true and infallible discovery thereof I have seen this Doctrine also thrown by with contempt by others who say What do you set us a working for heaven Doth our duty do any thing Hath not Christ done all Is not this to make him a half Saviour and to preach Law Ans. It is to preach the Law of Christ his Subjects are not Lawless It is to preach Duty to Christ No more exact requirer of duty or hater of sin then Christ. Christ hath done and will do all his work and therefore is a perfect Saviour but yet leaves for us a
disproportionable to the justice of the Law but Christs doth extend to every title If he intercede there is no denial such is the dignity of his person and the value of his merits that the Father granteth all he desireth He tells us himself that the Father heareth him always His sufferings being a perfect satisfaction to the Law and all power in Heaven and Earth being given to him he is now able to supply every of our wants and to save to the uttermost all that come to him Quest. How can I know his death is sufficient for me if not for all And how is it sufficient for all if not suffered for all Answ. Because I will not interrupt my present discourse with controversie I will say something to this Question by it self in another Tract if God enable me 3. The Soul is also here convinced of the perfect excellency of Jesus Christ both as he is considered in himself and as considered in relation to us both as he is the onely way to the Father and as he is the end being one with the Father Before he knew Christs excellency as a blinde man knows the light of the Sun but now as one that beholdeth its glory And thus doth the Spirit convince the Soul SECT IIII. 3. AFter this sensible conviction the Will discovereth also its change and that in regard of all the four forementioned objects 1. The sin which the understanding pronounceth evil the will doth accordingly turn from with abhorrency Not that the sensitive appetite is changed or any way made to abhor its object but when it would prevail against the conclusions of Reason and carry us to sin against God when Scripture should be the rule and Reason the Master and Sense the Servant This disorder and evil the will abhorreth 2. The misery also which sin hath procured as he discerneth so he bewaileth It is impossible that the soul now living should look either on its trespass against God or yet on its own self-procured calamity without some compunction and contrition He that truly discerneth that he hath killed Christ and killed himself will surely in some measure be pricked to the heart If he cannot weep he can heartily groan and his heart feels what his understanding sees 3. The Creature he now renounceth as vain and turneth it out of his heart with disdain Not that he undervalueth it or disclaimeth its use but his idolatrous abuse and its unjust usurpation There is a twofold sin One against God himself as well as his Laws when he is cast out of the heart and something else doth take his place This is it that I intend in this place The other is when a man doth take the Lord for his God but yet swerveth in some things from his commands of this before It is a vain distinction that some make That the soul must be turned first from sin secondly from the Creature to God For the sin that is thus set up against God is the choice of something below in his stead and no Creature in it self is evil but the abuse of it is the sin Therefore to turn from the Creature is onely to turn from that sinful abuse Yet hath the Creature here a twofold consideration First As it is vain and insufficient to perform what the Idolater expecteth and so I handle it here Secondly As it is the object of such sinful abuse and the occasion of sin and so it falls under the former branch of our turning from sin and in this sense their division may be granted but this is onely a various respect for indeed it is still onely our sinful abuse of the Creature in our vain admirations undue estimations too strong affections and false expectations which we turn from There is a twofold Error very common in the descriptions of the work of Conversion The one of those who onely mention the sinners turning from sin to God without mentioning any receiving of Christ by Faith The other of those who on the contrary onely mention a sinners believing and then think they have said all Nay they blame them as Legalists who make any thing but the bare believing of the love of God in Christ to us to be part of this work and would perswade poor souls to question all their former comforts and conclude the work to have been onely legal and unsound because they have made their changes of heart and turning from sin and Creatures part of it and have taken up part of their comfort from the reviewing of these as evidences of a right work Indeed should they take up here without Christ or take such change in stead of Christ in whole or in part the reprehension were just and the danger great But can Christ be the way where the Creature is the end Is he not onely the way to the Father And must not a right end be intended before right means Can we seek to Christ for to reconcile us to God while in our hearts we prefer the Creature before him Or doth God dispossess the Creature and sincerely turn the heart therefrom when he will not bring the soul to Christ Is it a work that is ever wrought in an unrenewed soul You will say That without Faith it is impossible to please God True but what Faith doth the Apostle there speak of He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him The belief of the Godhead must needs precede the belief of the Mediatorship and the taking of the Lord for our God must in order precede the taking of Christ for our Saviour though our peace with God do follow this Therefore Paul when he was to deal with the Athenian Idolaters teacheth them the knowledg of the Godhead first and the Mediator afterwards But you will say May not an unregenerate man believe that there is a God True and so may he also believe there is a Christ But he can no more cordially accept of the Lord for his God then he can accept of Christ for his Saviour In the soul of every unregenerate man the Creature possesseth both places and is both God and Christ. Can Christ be believed in where our own Righteousness or any other thing is trusted as our Saviour Or doth God ever throughly discover sin and misery and clearly take the heart from all Creatures and Self-righteousness and yet leave the soul unrenewed The truth is where the work is sincere there it is intire and all these parts are truly wrought And as turning from the Creature to God and not by Christ is no true turning so believing in Christ while the Creature hath our hearts is no true believing And therefore in the work of Self-examination whoever would finde in himself a through-sincere work must finde an entire work even the one of these as well as the other In the
what we believe Both these are again Divine or humane 3. It is one thing to believe as Probable another thing to believe it as certain 4. It s one thing to believe it to be true conditionally another to believe it absolutely 5. We must distinguish betwixt the bare assent of the understanding to the truth of an Axiome when it is only silenced by force of Argument which will be stronger or weaker as the Argument seemeth more or lesse demonstrative and secondly that deep apprehension and firme assent which proceedeth from a well stablished confirmed Faith backed by experience 6. It s one thing to assent to the truth of the Axiome another to taste and chuse the good contained in it which is the work of the Will SECT II. THe Use I shall make of these distinctions is to open the way to these following Positions which will resolve the great Questions on foot How far the belief of the Written Word is of necessity to salvation and Whether it be the foundation of our faith And whether this foundation have been always the same Pos. 1. The Object of belief Is the will of God revealed or a Divine Testimony where two things are absolutely necessary first The Matter secondly The Revelation 2. All this Revealed Will is necessary to the compleating of our faith and it is our duty to believe it But it s onely the substance and tenor of the Covenants and the things necessarily supposed to the knowing and keeping of the Covenant of Grace which are of absolute necessity to the beeing of Faith and to Salvation A man may be saved though he should not believe many things which yet he is bound by God to believe 3. Yet this must be onely through ignorance of the Divineness of the Testimony For a flat unbelief of the smallest truth when we know the Testimony to be of God will not stand with the beeing of true Faith nor with Salvation For Reason layes this ground That God can speak nothing but Truth and Faith proceeds upon that supposition 4. This Doctrine so absolutely necessary hath not been ever from the beginning the same but hath differed according to the different Covenants and Administrations That Doctrine which is now so necessary was not so before the Fall And that which is so necessary since the coming of Christ was not so before his coming Then they might be saved in believing in the Messiah to come of the seed of David but now it s of necessity to believe that this Jesus the Son of Mary is He and that we look not for another I prove it thus That which is not revealed can be no object for Faith much less so necessary But Christ was not Revealed before the Fall nor this Jesus Revealed to be He before his coming therefore these were not of necessity to be believed or as some Metaphorically speak they were then to fundamentall Doctrines Perhaps also some things will be found of absolute necessity to us which are not so to Indians and Turks 5. God hath made this substance of Scripture-Doctrine to be thus necessary primarily and for it self 6. That it be revealed is also of absolute necessity but secondarily and for the Doctrines sake as a means without which Believing is neither possible nor a duty And though where there is no Revelation Faith is not necessary as a duty yet it may be necessary I think as a means that is our natural misery may be such as can no other way be cured but this concerns not us that have heard of Christ 7. Nature Creatures and Providence are no sufficient Revelation of this tenor of the Covenants 8. It is necessary not onely that this Doctrine be Revealed but also that it be Revealed with Grounds or Arguments rationally sufficient to evince the verity of the Doctrine or the Divineness of the Testimony that from it we may conclude the former 9. The Revelation of Truth is to be considered in respect of the first immediate delivery from God or secondly in respect of the way of its coming down to us It is delivered by God immediatly either by writing as the two Tables or by informing Angels who may be his Messengers or by inspiring some choise particular men So that few in the world have received it from God at the first hand 10. The only ways of Revelation that for ought I know are now left are Scripture and Tradition For though God hath not tied himself from Revelations by the Spirit yet he hath ceased them and perfected his Scripture Revelations so that the Spirit onely Reveales what is Revealed already in the Word by illuminating us to understand it 11. The more immediate the Revelation caeteris paribus the more sure and the more succession of hands it passeth through the more uncertain especially in matter of Doctrine 12. When we receive from men by Tradition the Doctrine of God as in the Words of God there is less danger of corruption then when they deliver us that Doctrine in their own words because here taking liberty to vary the expressions it will represent the Truth more uncertainly and in more various shapes 13. Therefore hath God been pleased when he ceased immediate Revelation to leave his Will written in a form of words which should be his standing Law and a Rule to try all other mens expressions by 14. In all the forementioned respects therefore the written Word doth excell the unwritten Tradition of the same Doctrine 15. Yet unwritten Tradition or any sure way of Revealing this Doctrine may suffice to save him who thereby is brought to believe As if there be any among the Abaâ—sines of Ethiopia the Coplies in Egypt or elsewhere that have the substance of the Covenants delivered them by unwritten Tradition or by other Writings if hereby they come to believe they shall be saved For so the Promise of the Gospel runs giving salvation to all that believe by what means soever they were brought to it The like may be said of true Believers in those parts of the Church of Rome where the Scripture is wholly hid from the vulgar if there be any such parts 16. Yet where the written Word is wanting salvation must needs be more difficult and more rare and Faith more feeble and mens conversations worse ordered because they want that clearer Revelation that surer Rule of Faith and Life which might make the way of salvation more easie 17. When Tradition ariseth no higher or cometh originally but from this written Word and not from the verbal Testimonies of the Apostles before the Word was written there that Tradition is but the preaching of the Word and not a distinct way of Revealing 18. Such is most of the Tradition for ought I can learn that is now afoot in the world for matter of Doctrine but not for matter of fact 17. Therefore the Scriptures are not onely necessary to the well-beeing of the Church and to the
Officers and Orders of Churches are to us as Laws still binding with those limitations as Positives onely which give way to greater 43. The ground of this Position is because it is inconsistent with the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to send men to a work and promise to be with them and yet to forsake them and suffer them to err in the building of that House which must indure till the end of the world 44. Yet if any of these Commissioners do err in their own particular conversations or in matters without the extent of their Commission this may consist with the faithfulness of God God hath not promised them infallibility and perfection the disgrace is their own but if they should miscarry in that wherein they are sent to be a rule to others the Church would then have an imperfect Rule and the dishonor would redound to God 45. Yet I finde not that ever God authorized any meere man to be a Lawgiver to the Church in Substantials but onely to deliver the Laws which he had given to Interpret them and to determine Circumstantials not by him determined 46. Where God owneth mens Doctrines and Examples by Miracles they are to be taken as infallibly Divine much more when Commission Promise and Miracles do concur which confirmeth the Apostles Examples for currant 47. So that if any of the â—ings or Prophets had given Laws and formed the Church as Moses they had not been binding because without the said Commission or if any other Minister of the Gospel shall by Word or Action arrogate an Apostolical priviledg 48. There is no verity about God or the chief happiness of man written in Nature but it is to be found written in Scriptures 49. So that the same thing may in these several respects be the object both of Knowledg and of Faith 50. The Scripture being so perfect a Transcript of the law of Nature or Reason is much more to be credited in its supernatural Revelations 51. The probability of most things and the possibility of all things contained in the Scriptures may well be discerned by Reason it self which makes their Existence or Futurity the more easie to be believed 52. Yet before this Existence or Futurity of any thing beyond the reach of Reason can be soundly believed the Testimony must be known to be truly Divine 53. Yet a belief of Scripture Doctrine as probable doth usually go before a belief of certainty and is a good preparative thereto 54. The direct express sense must be believed directly and absolutely as infallible and the consequences where they may be clearly and certainly raised but where there is danger of erring in raising consequences the assent can be but weak and conditional 55. A Consequence raised from Scripture being no part of the immediate sense cannot be called any part of Scripture 56. Where one of the premises is in Nature and the other onely in Scripture there the Conclusion is mixt partly known and partly believed That it is the Consequence of those premises is known but that it is a Truth is as I said apprehended by a mixt Act. Such is a Christians concluding himself to be justified and sanctified c. 57. Where through weakness we are unable to discern the Consequences there is enough in the express direct sense for salvation 58. Where the sense is not unstood there the belief can be but implicit 59. Where the sense is partly understood but with some doubting the Belief can be but conditionally explicit that is we believe it if it be the sense of the Word 60. Fundamentals must be believed Explicitly and Absolutely CHAP. IIII. The first Argument to prove Scripture to be the Word of God SECT IIII. HAving thus shewed you in what sense the Scriptures are the word of God and how far to be believed and what is the excellency necessity and authority of them I shall now adde three or four Arguments to help your Faith which I hope will not onely prove them to be Divine Testimony to the substance of Doctrine though that be a usefull work against our unbelief but also that they are the very written Laws of God and a perfect Rule of Faith and duty My Arguments shall be but few because I handle it but on the by and those such as I finde little of in others writings least I should wast time in doing what is done to my hands 1. Those writings and that Doctrine which were confirmed by many real Miracles must needs be of God and consequently of undoubted Truth But the books and Doctrine of Canonicall Scripture were so confirmed Therefore c. Against the major proposition nothing of any moment can be said For it s a Truth apparent enough to nature that none but God can work real Miracles or at least none but those whom he doth especially enable thereto And it is as manifest that the Righteous and Faithfull God will not give this power for a seal to any falshood or deceit The usuall Objections are these First Antichrist shall come with lying wonders Answ. They are no true Miracles As they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 2.9 lying in sealing to a lying doctrine so also in being but seeming and counterfeit Miracles The like may be said to those of Pharaohs Magicians and all other Sorcerers and Witches and those that may be wrought by Satan himself They may be wonders but not Miracles Object 2. God may enable false Prophets to work Miracles to try the world without any derogation to his Faithfulness Answ. No for Divine power being properly the attendant of Divine Revelation if it should be annexed to Diabolicall delusions it would be a sufficient excuse to the world for their believing those delusions And if Miracles should not be a sufficient seal to prove the Authority of the witness to be Divine then is there nothing in the world sufficient and so our Faith will be quite overthrown Object But however Miracles will no more prove Christ to be the Son of God then they will prove Moses Elias or Elisha to be the Son of God for they wrought Miracles as well as Christ. Answ. Miracles are Gods seal not to extoll the person that is instrumentall nor for his glory but to extoll God and for his own Glory God doth not entrust any creature with this seal so absolutely as that they may use it when and in what case they please If Moses or Elias had affirmed themselves to be the sons of God they could never have confirmed that affirmation with a Miracle for God would not have sealed to a lye Christs power of working Miracles did not immediatly prove him to be the Christ. But it immediately proved his Testimony to be Divine and that Testimony spoke his nature and office So that the power of Miracles in the Prophets and Apostles was not to aâ—â—est to their own greatness but to the truth of their Testimony conâ—â—rning Christ.
of supplication to be importunate with him I doubt not but most Christians that observe the spirit and providences are able to attest this prevalency of prayer by their own experiences Object Perhaps you will say If these rare examples were common I would believe Answ. First If they were common they would be slieghted as common wonders are Secondly Importunate prayer is not common though formall babling be Thirdly The evident returns of prayer are ordinary to the faithfull Fourthly If wonders were common we should live by sense and not by faith Fifthly I answer in the words of Austin God letteth not every Saint partake of Miracles lest the weak should be deceived with this pernicious error to prefer Miracles as better then the works of Righteousness whereby eternall life is attained CHAP. VII The fourth Argument SECT I. MY Fourth and last Argument which I will now produce to prove the Scripture to be the Word and perfect Law of God is this Either the Scriptures are the written Word and Law of God or else there is no such extant in the world But there is a written Word and Law of God in the world Ergo This is it Here I have these two Positions to prove First That God hath such a written Word in the world Secondly That it can be no other but this That there is such a Word I prove thus If it cannot stand with the welfare of mankinde and consequently with that honor which the wisdom and goodness of God hath by their welfare that the world should be without a written Law then certainly there is such a written Law But that it cannot stand with the welfare of the creature or that honor of God appears thus That there be a certain and sufficient Revelation of the VVill of God to man more then meer Nature and Creatures do teach is necessary to the welfare of man and the aforesaid honour of God But there is now no such certain and sufficient Revelation unwritten in the world therefore it is necessary that there be such a Revelation written The proof of the Major is the main task which if it be well performed will clearly carry the whole cause for I believe all the rest will quickly be granted if that be once plain Therefore I shall stand a little the more largely to prove it viz. That there is a necessity for the welfare of man and the honor of Gods VVisdom and Goodness that there be some further Revelation of Gods VVill then is in meer Nature or Creatures to be found And first I will prove it necessary to the welfare of man And that thus If man have a Happiness or Misery to partake of after this life and no sufficient Revelation of it in Nature or Creatures then it is necessary that he have some other Revelation of it which is sufficient But such a Happiness or Misery man must partake of hereafter which Nature and Creatures do not sufficiently reveal either end or means therefore some other is necessary I will stand the largelier on the first Branch of the Antecedent because the chief weight lyeth on it and I scarce ever knew any doubt of Scripture but they also doubted of the immortal state and recompence of souls and that usually is their first and chiefest doubt I will therefore here prove these three things in order thus First That there is such a state for man hereafter Secondly That it is necessary that he know it and the way to be so happy Thirdly That Nature and Creatures do not sufficiently reveal it For the first I take it for granted that there is a God because Nature teacheth that and I shall pass over those Arguments drawn from his righteousness and just dispensations to prove the variety of mens future conditions because they are commonly known and I shall now argue from sense it self because that works best with sensual men and that thus If the devil be very diligent to deceive men of that Happiness and bring them to that misery then sure there is such a Happiness and Misery but the former is true Ergo the later They that doubt of the Major Proposition do most of them doubt whether there be any devil as well as whether he seek our eternal undoing I prove both together First By his Temptations Secondly Apparitions Thirdly Possessions and dispossessions Fourthly His Contracts with Witches I hope these are palpable Discoveries 1. The temptations of Satan are sometime so unnatural so violent and so importunate that the tempted person even feels something besides himself perswading and urging him He cannot go about his calling he cannot be alone but he feels somewhat following him with perswasions to sin yea to sins that he never found his nature much inclined to and such as bring him no advantage in the world and such as are quite against the temperature of his body Doth it not plainly tell us that there is a Devil labouring to deprive man of his Happiness when men are drawn to commit such monstrous sins Such cruelty as the Romans used to the Jews at the taking of Jerusalem So many thousand Christians so barbarously murdered such bloudy actions as those of Nero Caligula Sylla Messala Caeracalla the Romane Gladiatores the French Massacre the Gunpowder Plot the Spanish Inquisition and their murdering fifty millions of Indians in fourty two years according to the Testimony of Acosta their Jesuite Men invading their own neighbours and brethren with an unquenchable thirst after their blood and meerly because of their strictness in the common professed Religion as the late cruel wars in England have declared I say how could these come to pass but by the instigation of the Devil When we see men making a jâ—st of such sins as these making them their pleasure impudently and implacably against Knowledg and Conscience proceeding in them hating those ways that they know to be better and all those persons that would help to save them yea chusing sin though they believe it will damn them despairing and yet sinning still Doth not this tell men plainly that there is a Devil their enemy When men will commit the sin which they abhor in others which Reason is against when men of the best natures as Vespasian Julian c. shall be so bloody murderers when men will not be stirred from sin by any intreaty though their dearest friends should beg with teares upon their knees though Preachers convince them and beseech them in the name of the Lord though wife and children body and soul be undone by it Nay when men will be the same under the greatest judgments and under the most wonderful convincing Providences as appears in England yea under Miracles themselves Surely I think all this shews that there is a Devil and that he is diligent in working out ruine Why else should it be so hard a thing to perswade a man to that which he is convinced to be good SECT II. 2. BUt
sincerely shall be Justified and Saved there is requisite in us 1. A Certainty of Knowledg That such a Proposition is written in Scripture 2. A Certainty of Assent or Faith That this Scripture is the Word of God and True Also in respect of the Minor Proposition But I do sincerely Believe or Love c. there is requisite 1. A Certainty of the Truth of our Faith in point of Being 2. And a Certainty of its Truth in point of Morality or Congruence with the Rule or its Right-being And then followeth Assurance which is the Certainty that the Conclusion Therefore I am Justified c. followeth necessarily upon the former Premises Here also you must carefully distinguish betwixt the several degrees of Assurance All Assurance is not of the highest degree It differs in strength according to the different degrees of Apprehension in all the forementioned Points of Certainty which are necessary thereunto He that can truly raise the foresaid Conclusion That he is Justified c. from the Premises hath some degree of Assurance though he do it with much weakness and staggering and doubting The weakness of our Assurance in any one point of the premises will accordingly weaken our Assurance in the Conclusion Some when they speak of Certainty of Salvation do mean only such a Certainty as excludeth all doubting and think nothing else can be called Certainty but this high degree Perhaps some Papists mean this when they deny a Certainty Some also maintain That Saint Paul's Plerophory or full Assurance is this Highest degree of Assurance and that some Christians do in this life attain to it But Paul calls it Full Assurance in comparison of lower degrees and not because it is perfect For if Assurance be perfect then also our Certainty of Knowledg Faith and Sense in the â—â—â—mises must be perfect And if some Grace perfect why not all and so we turn Novatians Catharists Perfectionists Perhaps in some their Certainty may be so great that it may overcome all sensible doubting or sensible stirrings of Unbelief by reason of the sweet and powerful Acts and Effects of that Certainty And yet it doth not overcome all Unbelief and Uncertainty so as to expel or nullifie them but a certain measure of them remaineth still Even as when you would heat cold water by the mixture of hot you may pour in the hot so long till no coldness is felt and yet the water may be far from the highest degree of heat So faith may suppress the sensible stirrings of unbelief and Certainty prevail against all the trouble of uncertainty and yet be far from the highest degree So that by this which is said you may Answer the Question What Certainty is to be attained in this Life and what Certainty it is that we press men to labour for and expect Furthermore you must be sure to distinguish betwixt Assurance it self and the Joy and Strength and other sweet Effects which follow Assurance or which immediately accompany it It is possible that there may be Assurance and yet no comfort or little There are many unskilful but self-conceited Disputers of late fitter to manage a club then an Argument who tell us That it must be the Spirit that must Assure us of our Salvation and not our Marks and Evidences of Grace That our comfort must not be taken from any thing in our selves That our Justification must be immediately believed and not proved by our Signs or Sanctification c. Of these in order 1. It is as wise a Question to ask Whether our Assurance come from the Spirit or our Evidences or our Faith c as to ask whether it be our meat or our stomack or our teeth or our hands that feed us Or whether it be our Eye-sight or the Sun-light by which we see things They are distinct Causes all necessary to the producing of the same Effect So that by what hath bin said you may discern That the Spirit and Knowledg and Faith and Scripture inward Holines and Reason and inward Sense or Conscience have all several parts and necessary uses in producing our Assurances which I will shew you distinctly 1. To the Spirit belong these particulars 1. He hath indited those Scriptures which contain the promise of our Pardon and Salvation 2. He giveth us the habit or power of Believing 3. He helpeth us also to Believe Actually That the Word is true and to receive Christ and the priviledges offered in the promise 4. He worketh in us those Graces and exciteth those Gracious Acts within us which are the Evidences or Marks of our interest pardon and Life He helpeth us to perform those Acts which God hath made to be the Condition of Pardon and Glory 5. He helpeth us to feel and discover these Acts in our selves 6. He helpeth us to compare them with the Rule and finding out their qualifications to Judg of their Sincerity and Acceptation with God 7. He helpeth our Reason to Conclude rightly of our State from our Acts. 8. He enliveneth and heighteneth our Apprehension in these particulars that our Assurance may accordingly be strong and lively 9. He exciteth our Joy and filleth with comfort when he pleaseth upon this Assurance None of all these could we perform well of our selves 2. The Part which the Scripture hath in this Work is 1. It affordeth us the Major Proposition That whosoever Believeth Sincerely shall be saved 2. It is the Rule by which our Acts must be tryed that we may Judg of their Moral Truth 3. The Part that Knowledg hath in it is to Know that the foresaid Proposition is written in Scripture 4. The Work of Faith is to Believe the Truth of that Scripture and to be the matter of one of our chief Evidences 5. Our Holiness and true Faith as they are Marks and Evidences are the very Medium of our Argument from which we Conclude 6. Our Conscience and internal Sense do acquaint us with both the Being and Qualifications of our inward Acts which are this Medium and which are called Marks 7. Our Reason or Discourse is Necessary to form the Argument and raise the Conclusion from the Premises and to compare our Acts with the Rule and Judg of their Sincerity c. So that you see our Assurance is not an Effect of any one single Cause alone And so neither meerly of Faith by Signs or by the Spirit From all this you may gather 1. What the Seal of the Spirit is to wit the Works or fruits of the Spirit in us 2. What the testimony of the Spirit is for if it be not some of the forementioned Acts I yet know it not 3. What the Testimony of Conscience is And if I be not mistaken the Testimony of the Spirit and the Testimony of Conscience are two concurrent Testimonies or Causes to produce one and the same Effect and to afford the Premises to the same Conclusion and then to raise our Joy thereupon So
acquainted then in their own brests 3. Besides many come to the work with forestalling conclusions They are resolved what to judge before they Try They use the duty but to strengthen their present conceits of themselves and not to find out the truth of their condition Like a bribed Judge who examines each party as if he would Judge uprightly when he is resolved which way the cause shall go before hand Or as perverse disputers who argue only to maintain their present opinions rather then to try those opinions whether they are right or wrong Just so do men examine their hearts 4. Also men are partial in their own Cause They are ready to think their great sins small and their small sins to be none their gifts of nature to be the work of Grace and their gifts of common grace to be the special grace of the Saints They are straight ways ready to say All these have I kept from my youth And I am rich and increased c. Rev. 3.17 The first common excellency that they meet with in themselves doth so dazle their eyes that they are presently satisfied that all is well and look no further 5. Besides most men do search but by the halves If it will not easily quickly be done they are discouraged and leaveoff Few set to it and follow it as beseems them in a work of such moment He must give all diligence that means to make sure 6. Also men try themselves by false Marks and Rules not knowing wherein the truth of Christianity doth consist some looking beyond and some short of the Scripture standard 7. Moreover there is so great likeness betwixt the lowest degree of special grace and the highest degree of Common Grace that it is no wonder if the unskilful be mistaken It is a great Question whether the main difference between special grace and common be not rather gradual then specifical If it should be so as some think then the discovery will be much more difficult However to discern by what principle our affections are moved and to what ends and with what sincerity is not very easie there being so many wrong Ends and motives which may excite the like Acts. Every grace in the Saints hath its counterfeit in the Hypocrite 8. Also men use to Try themselves by unsafe Marks either looking for a high degree of grace instead of a lower degree in sincerity as many doubting Christians do or else enquiring only into their outward Actions or into their inward Affections without their ends motives and other qualifications The sure evidences are Faith Love c. that are Essential parts of our Christianity and that lie neerest to the heart 9. Lastly Men frequently miscarry in this work by setting on it in their own strength As some expect the Spirit should do it without them so others attempt it themselves without seeking or expecting the help of the Spirit both these will certainly miscarry in their Assurance How far the Spirits Assistance is necessary is shewed before and the several Acts which it must perform for us SECT X. FUrther Causes of doubting among Christians Because the Comfort of a Christians life doth so much consist in his Assurance of Gods Special Love and because the right way of obtaining it is so much controverted of late I will here proceed a little further in opening to you some other Hinderances which keep true Christians from Comfortable Certainty besides the forementioned Errors in the Work of Examination Though I would still have you remember and be sensiâ—le That the neglect or slighty performance of that great duty and not following on the seaâ—ch with Seriousness and Constancy is the most common Hinderance for ought I have yet found I shall add now these Ten more which I find very ordinary Impediments and therefore desire Christians more carefully to Consider and Beware of them 1. One Common and great Cause of doubting and uncertainty is The weakness and small measure of our Graces A little Grace is next to None Small things are hardly discerned He that will see a small needle a hair a mote or atome must have clear light and good eyes But houses and Towns and Mountains are easily discerned Most Christians content themselves with a small measure of Grace and do not follow on to spiritual strength and manhood They Believe so weakly and Love God so little that they can scarce find whether they Believe and Love at all Like a man in a swoun whose pulse and breathing is so weak and obscure that it can hardly be perceived whether they move at all and consequently whether the man be alive or dead The chief Remedy for such would be To follow on their duty till their Graces be increased Ply your work Wait upon God in the use of his prescribed means and he will undoubtedly bless you with Increase and Strength Oh that Christians would bestow most of that time in getting more Grace which they bestow in Anxious doubtings whether they have any or none And that they would lay out those Serious Affections in Praying and seeking to Christ for more Grace which they bestow in fruitless Complaints of their supposed Gracelesness I beseech thee Christian take this advice as from God And then when thou Believest strongly and Lovest fervently thou canst not doubt whether thou do Believe and Love or not No more then a man that is burning hot can doubt whether he be warm or a man that is strong and lusty can doubt whether he be alive Strong Affections will make you feel them Who loveth his friend or wife or child or any thing strongly and doth not know it A great measure of Grace is seldom doubted of Or if it be you may quickly find when you seek and try SECT XI 2. ANother Cause of uncomfortable living is That Christians look more at their present Cause of Comfort or Discomfort then they do at their Future Happiness and the way to attain it They look afâ—er Signs which may tell thâ—m what they are more then they do at Pâ—ecepts which tell them what they should do They are very desirous to know whether they are Justified and beloved or not but they do not think what course they should take to be Justified if they be not As if their present Case must needs be their Everlasting Case and if they be now unpardoned there were no Remedy Why I beseech thee consider this Oh doubting Soul What if all were as bâ—d as thou dost fear and none of thy sins were yet pardoned Is not the Remedy at hand May not all this be done in a moment Dost thou not know that thou mayst have Christ and pardon when ever thou wilt Call not this a loose or strange doctrine Christ is willing if thou be willing He offereth himself and all his benefits to thee He presseth them on thee and urgeth thee to accept them He will condemn thee and destroy thee if thou
it If in case of his bodily distress you must not bid him go and come again to morrow when you have it by you and he is in want Prov. 3.27 28. how much less may you delay the succor of his Soul If once death snatch him away he is then out of the reach of your Charity SECT VI. 3. LEt thy Exhortation proceed from Compassion and Love and let the manner of it clearly shew the person thou dealest with that it hence proceedeth It is not jeering or scorning or reproaching a man for his faults that is a likely way to work his reformation Nor is it the right way to convert him to God to rail at him and vilifie him with words of disgrace Men will take them for their enemies that thus deal with them And the words of an enemy are little perswading Lay by your Passion therefore and take up compassion and go to poor sinners with tears in your eyes that they may see you indeed believe them to be miserable and that you do unfeignedly pity their case Deal with them with earnest humble intreatings Let them see that your very bowels do yearn over them and that it is the very desire of your hearts to do them good Let them perceive that you have no other end but the procuring of their everlasting Happiness and that it is your sense of their danger and your love to their Souls that forceth you to speak even because you know the terrors of the Lord and for fear lest you should see them in eternal torments Say to them Why friend you know it is no advantage of my own that I seek The way to please you and to keep your friendship were to sooth you in your way or to speak well of you or to let you alone but Love will not suffer me to see you perish and be silent I seek nothing at your hands but that which is necessary to your own happiness It is your self that will have the gain and comfort if you come in to Christ c. If men should thus go to every ignorant wicked neighbor they have and thus deal with them Oh what blessed fruits should we quickly see I am ashamed to hear some lazy hypocritical wretches to revile their poor ignorant neighbors and separate from their company and communion and proudly to judg them unfit for their society before ever they once tryed with them this compassionate Exhortation Oh you little know what a prevailing course this were like to prove and how few of the vilest drunkards or swearers would prove so obstinate as wholy to reject or despise the Exhortations of Love I know it must be God that must change mens hearts But I know also that God worketh by means and when he meaneth to prevail with men he usually fitteth the means accordingly and stirreth up men to plead with them in a prevailing way and so setteth in with his grace and maketh it successful Certainly those that have tryed can tell you by experience that there is no way so prevailing with men as the way of Compassion and Love So much of these as they discern in your Exhortation usually so much doth it succeed with their hearts And therefore I beseech those that are faithful to practise this course SECT VII 4. ANother Direction I would give you is this Do it with all possible plainness and faithfulness Do not dawb with men and hide from them their misery or danger or any part of it Do not make their sins less then they are nor speak of them in an extenuating language Do not encourage them in a false hope or faith no more then you would discourage the sound hopes of the righteous If you see his case dangerous tell him plainly of it Neighbor I am afraid God hath not yet renewed your Soul and that it is yet a stranger to the great work of Regeneration and Sanctification I doubt you are not yet recovered from the power of Satan to God nor brought out of the state of wrath which you were born in and have lived in I doubt you have not chosen Christ above all nor set your heart upon him nor unfeignedly taken him for your Soveraign Lord. If you had sure you durst not so easily disobey him you could not so neglect him and his worship in your family and in publique you could not so eagerly follow the world and talk of almost nothing but the things of this world while Christ is seldom mentioned or sought after by you If you were in Christ you would be a new Creature old things would be passed away and all things would become new you would have new thoughts and new talk and new company and new endeavors and a new conversation Certainly without these you can never be saved You may think otherwise and hope better as long as you will but your hopes will all deceive you and perish with you Alas it is not as you will nor as I will who shall be saved but it is as God will and God hath told us That without holiness none shall see him and except we be born again we cannot enter into his Kingdom and that all that would not have Christ raign over them shall be brought forth and destroyed before him Oh therefore look to your state in time Thus must you deal roundly and faithfully with men if ever you intend to do them good It is not hovering at a distance in a general discourse that will serve the turn It is not in curing mens Souls as in curing their bodies where they must not know their danger lest it sadden them and hinder the cure They are here agents in their own cure and if they know not their misery they will never bewail it nor know how much need they have of a Saviour If they know not the worst they will not labour to prevent it but will sit still or loiter till they drop into perdition and will trifle out their time in delays till it be too late And therefore speak to men as Christ to the Pharisees till they knew that he meant them Deal plainly or you do but deceive and destroy them SECT VIII 5. ANd as you must do it Plainly so also Seriously Zealously and Effectually The exceeding stupidity and deadness of mens hearts is such that no other dealing will ordinarily work You must call loud to awake a man in a Swoun or Lethargy If you speak to the common sort of men of the evil of their sin of their need of Christ of the danger of their Souls and of the necessity of Regeneration they will wearily and unwillingly give you the hearing and put off all with a sigh or a few good wishes and say God forgive us we are all sinners and there 's an end If ever you will do them good therefore you must sharpen your exhortation and set it home and follow it with their hearts till you have rouzed them up and made
therefore the best digestion is there While Truth is but a speculation swimming in the Brain the Soul hath not half received it nor taken fast hold of it Christ and Heaven hath various Excellencies and therefore God hath formed the soul with a power of divers wayes of apprehending that so we might be capable of enjoying those divers Excellencies in Christ even as the creatures having their severall uses God hath given us several senses that so we might enjoy the delights of them all What the better had we been for the pleasant oderiferous flowers and perfumes if we had not possessed the sense of Smelling or what good would Language or Musick have done us if God had not given us the sense of hearing or what delight should we have found in meats or drinks or sweetest things if we had been deprived of the sense of tasting Why so what good could all the glory of Heaven have done us or what pleasure should we have had even in the goodness and perfection of God himself if we had been without the affections of Love and Joy whereby we are capable of being delighted in that Goodness so also what benefit of strength or sweetness canst thou possible receive by thy Meditations on Eternity while thou dost not exercise those Affections which are the senses of the soul by which it must receive this sweetness and strength This is it that hath deceived Christians in this business They have thought that Meditation is nothing but the bare thinking on Truths and the rolling of them in the Understanding and Memory when every School-Boy can do this or persons that hate the things which they think on Therefore this is the great task in hand and this is the work that I would set thee on to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest may be turned into the blood and spirits of Affection and thou maist feel them revive thee and warm thee at the heart and maist so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on There are two accesses of Contemplation saith Bernard one in Intellection the other in Affection one in Light the other in Heat one in Acquisition the other in Devotion If thou shouldst study of nothing but Heaven while thou livest and shouldst have thy thoughts at command to turn them hither on every occasion and yet shouldst proceed no further then this this were not the Meditation that I intend nor would it much advantage or better thy soul as it is thy whole soul that must possess God hereafter so must the whole in a lower measure possess him here I have shewed you in the beginning of this Treatise how the soul must enjoy the Lord in Glory to wit by knowing by loving and joying in him why the very same way must thou begin thy enjoyment here So much as thy Understanding and Affections are sincerely acted upon God so much dost thou enjoy him And this is the happy Work of this Meditation So that you see here is somewhat more to be done then barely to remember and think of Heaven as Running and Ringing and Moving and such like labors do not onely stir a hand or a foot but do strain and exercise the whole body so doth Meditation the whole soul. As the Affections of Sinners are set on the world and turned to Idols and faln from God as well as the Understanding so must the Affections of men be reduced to God and taken up with him as well as the Understanding and as the whole was filled with sin before so the whole must be filled with God now as St. Paul saith of Knowledg and Gifts and Faith to remove mountains that if thou have all these without Love Thou art but as sounding Brass or as a tinkling Cymbal so I may say of the exercise of these If in this work of Meditation thou do exercise Knowledg and Gifts and Faith of Miracles and not exercise Love and Joy thou dost nothing thou playest the childe and not the man the Sinners part and not the Saints for so will Sinners do also If thy Meditation tends to fill thy Note-Book with notions and good sayings concerning God and not thy heart with longings after him and delight in him for ought I know thy Book is as much a Christian as thou Mark but Davids description of the blessed man Psal. 1.3 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night SECT VI. 4. I Call this Meditation Set and Solemn to difference it from that which is Occasional and Cursory As there is Prayer which is solemn when we set our selves wholly to the duty and Prayer which is sudden and short commonly called Ejaculations when a man in the midst of other business doth send up some brief request to God so also there is Meditation solemn when we apply our selves onely to that work and there is Meditation which is short and cursory when in the midst of our business we have some good thoughts of God in our mindes And as solemn Prayer is either First See when a Christian observing it as a standing duty doth resolvedly practise it in a constant course or secondly Occasional when some unusual occasion doth put us upon it at a season extraordinary so also Meditation admits of the like distinction Now though I would perswade you to that Meditation which is mixt with your common labors in your callings and to that which special occasions do direct you to yet these are not the main thing which I here intend But that you would make it a constant standing duty as you do by Hearing and Praying and Reading the Scripture and that you would solemnly set your selves about it and make it for that time your whole work and intermix other matters no more with it then you would do with prayer or other duties Thus you see as it is differenced by its act what kinde of Meditation it is that we speak of viz. It is the set and solemn acting of all the powers of the Soul SECT VII THe second part of the Difference is drawn from its object which is Rest or the most blessed estate of man in his everlasting enjoyment of God in Heaven Meditation hath a large field to walk in and hath as many objects to work upon as there are matters and lines and words in the Scripture as there are known Creatures in the whole Creation and as there are particular discernable passages of Providence in the Government of the persons and actions through the world But the Meditation that I now direct you in is onely of the end of all these and of these as they refer to that end It is not a walk from Mountains to Valleys from Sea to Land from Kingdom to Kingdom from Planet to Planet But it is a walk from Mountains
work so powerfully with us though we are uncertain whether his heart do concur with his speeches and whether his intention be to inform us or deceive us how much more should our own Reasons work with us when we are acquainted with the right intentions of our own hearts Nay how much more rather should Gods Reasons work with us which we are sure are neither fallacions in his intent nor in themselves seeing he did never yet deceive nor was ever deceived Why now Meditation is but the Reading over and repeating Gods reasons to our hearts and so disputing with our selves in his Arguments and terms And is not this then likely to be a prevailing way What Reasons doth the prodigal plead with himself why he should return to his fathers house And as many and strong have we to plead with our affections to perswade them to our Fathers Everlasting habitations And by Consideration it is that they must all be set a work SECT VI. 4. MEditation putteth reason in its Authority and preheminence It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When Reason is silent it is usually subject For when it is asleep the senses domineer Now consideration wakeneth our reason from its sleep till it rowse up it self as Sampson and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered and then as a Gyant refreshed with wine it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it What strength can the Lyon put forth when he is asleep What is the King more then another man when he is once deposed from his throne and authority When men have no better Judg then the flesh or when the joyes of heaven go no further then their fantasie no wonder if they work but as common things sweet things to the eye and beautiful things to the ear will work no more then bitter and deformed every thing worketh in its own place and every sense hath its proper object Now it is spiritual reason excited by Meditation and not the fantasie or fleshly sense which must favor and judg of those superior Joyes Consideration exalteth the objects of faith and disgraceth comparatively the objects of sense The most inconsiderate men are the most sensual men SECT VII 5. MEditation also putteth reason into his strength Reason is at the strongest when it is most in action Now Meditation produceth reason into Act. Before it was as a standing water which can move nothing else when it self moveth not but now it is as the speedy stream which violently bears down all before it Before it was as the still and silent air but now it is as the powerful motion of the wind and overthrows the opposition of the flesh and the devil Before it was as the stones which lay still in the brook but now when Meditation doth set it awork it is as the stone out of Davids sling which smites the Goliah of our unbelief in the forehead As wicked men continue wicked not because they have not reason in the principle but because they bring it not into Act and use so godly men are uncomfortable and sad not because they have no causes to rejoyce nor because they have not reason to discern those causes but because they let their reason and faith lye asleep and do not labor to set them a going nor stir them up to action by this work of Meditation You know that our very dreams will deeply affect What fears What sorrowes What Joy will they stir up How much more then would serious Meditation affect us SECT VIII 6. MEditation can continue this Discouâ—sive imployment That may be accomplished by a weaker motion continued which will not by a stronger at the first attempt A plaister that is never so effectual to cure must yet have time to do its work and not to be taken off as soon as it s on Now Meditation doth hold the plaister to the sore It holdeth Reason and Faith to their work and bloweth the fire till it throughly burn To run a few steps will not get a man heat but walking an hour together may So though a sudden occasional thought of Heaven will not raise our affections to any spiritual heat yet Meditation can continue our thoughts and lengthen our walk till our hearts grow warm And thus you see what force Meditation or consideration hath for the effecting of this great elevation of the soul whereto I have told you it must be the Instrument CHAP. IX What Affections must be Acted and by what Considerations and objests and in what order SECT I. THirdly To draw yet neerer the heart of the work The third thing to be discovered to you is What Powers of the soul must here be acted What affections excited What considerations of their objects are necessary thereto and in what order we must proceed I joyn all these together because though in themselves they are distinct things yet in the practice they all concurre to the same Action The matters of God which we are to think on have their various qualifications and are presented to the soul of man in divers relative and Modal considerations According to these several considerations of the objects the soul it self is distinguished into its several faculties powers and capacities That as God hath given man five senses to partake of the five distinct excellencies of the objects of sense so he hath diversifyed the soul of man either into faculties powers or ways of acting answerable to the various qualifications and considerations of himself and the inferior objects of this soul And as if there be more sensible excellencies in the creatures yet they are unknown to us who have but these five senses to discern them by so whatever other excellencies are in God and our happiness more then these faculties or powers of the soul can apprehend must needs remain wholly unknown to us till our souls have senses as it were suitable to those objects 〈◊〉 as it is unknown to a tree or a stone what sound and light 〈◊〉 sweetness are or that there are any such things in the world 〈◊〉 Now these matters of God are primarily diversifyed to our consideration under the Distinction of True and Good accordingly the primary Distinction concerning the soul is into the faculties of Understanding and Will the former having Truth for its object and the latter Goodness This Truth is sometime known by evident Demonstration and so it is the object of that we call knowledg which also admits of divers distinctions according to several ways of demonstration which I am loth here to puzzle you with Sometime it is received from the Testimony of others which receiving we call belief When any thing else would obscure it or stands up in competition with it then we weigh their several evidences and accordingly discover and vindicate the Truth and this we call Judgment Sometime by the strength the clearness
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. â— WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the â—â—anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou
it tends also exceedingly to quicken and raise it so that as God is the highest Object of our Thoughts so our viewing of him and our speaking to him and pleading with him doth more elevate the soul and actuate the Affections then any other part of Meditation can do Men that are careless of their carriage and speeches among children and Ideots will be sober and serious with Princes or grave men so though while we do but plead the case with our selves we are careless and unaffected yet when we turn our speech to God it may strike us with awfulness and the holiness and Majesty of him whom we speak to may cause both the matter and words to pierce the deeper Isaac went forth to pray saith the former Translation To Meditate saith the latter The Hebrew Verb saith Paraeus in loc signifieth both ad Orandum Meditandum The men of God both former and later who have left their Meditations on Record for our view have thus intermixed Soliloquy and Prayer sometime speaking to their own hearts and sometime turning their speech to God And though this may seem an indifferent thing yet I conceive it very sutable and necessary and that it is the highest step that we can advance to in the Work Object But why then is it not as good take up with Prayer alone and so save all this tedious work that you prescribe us I Answer They are several duties and therefore must be performed both Secondly We have need of one as well as the other and therefore shall wrong our selves in the neglecting of either Thirdly The mixture as in Musick doth more affect the one helps on and puts life into the other Fourthly It is not the right order to begin at the top therefore Meditation and speaking to our selves should go before Prayer or speaking to God want of this makes Prayer with most to have little more then the name of Prayer and men to speak as lightly and as stupidly to the dreadful God as if it were to one of their companions and with far less reverence and affection then they would speak to an Angel if he should appear to them yea or to a Judg or Prince if they were speaking for their lives and consequently their success and answers are often like their prayers O speaking in the God of Heaven in prayer is a weightier duty then most are aware of SECT V. THe Ancients had a Custom by Apostrophe's and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak as it were to Angels and Saints departed 〈…〉 it was used by them I take to be lawful but what they spoke in Rhetorical Figures were interpreted by the succeeding Ages to be spoken in strict propriety and Doctrinal Conclusions for praying to Saints and Angels were raised from their speeches Therefore I will omit that course which is so little necessary and so subject to scandalize the less-judicious Readers And so much for the fourth part of the Direction by what steps or Acts we must advance to the height of this Work I should clear all this by some examples but that I intend shall follow in the end CHAP. XI Some Advantages and Helps for raising and affecting the Soul by this Meditation SECT I. FIfthly The fifth part of this Directory is To shew you what advantages you should take and what helps you should use to make your Meditations of Heaven more quickening and to make you taste the sweetness that is therein For that is the main work that I drive at through all that you may not stick in a bare thinking but may have the lively seâ—â—e of all upon your hearts And this you will finde to be the most difficult part of the work and that its easier barely to think of Heaven a whole day then to be lively and affectionate in those thoughts one quarter of an hour Therefore let us yet a little further consider what may be done to make your thoughts of Heaven to be piercing affecting raising thoughts Here therefore you must understand That the meer pure work of Faith hath many disadvantages with us in comparison of the work of Sense Faith is imperfect for we are renewed but in part but Sense hath its strength according to the strength of the flesh Faith goes against a world of resistance but Sense doth not Faith is supernatural and therefore prone to declining and to languish both in the habit and exercise further then it is still renewed and excited but Sense is natural and therefore continueth while nature continueth The object of Faith is far off we must go as far as Heaven for our Joyes But the object of Sense is close at hand It is no easie matter to rejoyce at that which we never saw nor ever knew the man that did see it and this upon a meer promise which is written in the Bible and that when we have nothing else to rejoyce in but all our sensible comforts do fail us But to rejoyce in that which we see and feel in that which we have hold of and possession already this is not difficult Well then what should be done in this case Why sure it will be a point of our Spiritual Prudence and a singular help to the furthering of the work of Faith to call in our Sense to its assistance If we can make us friends of these usual enemies and make them instruments of raising us to God which are the usual means of drawing us from God I think we shall perform a very excellent work Sure it is both possible and lawful yea and necessary too to do something in this kinde for God would not have given us either our Senses themselves or their usual objects if they might not have been serviceable to his own praise and helps to raise us up to the apprehension of higher things And it is very considerable How the Holy Ghost doth condescend in the phrase of Scripture in bringing things down to the reach of Sense how he sets forth the excellencies of Spiritual things in words that are borrowed from the objects of Sense how he describeth the glory of the New Jerusalem in expressions that might take even with flesh it self As that the Streets and Buildings are pure Gold that the Gates are Pearl that a Throne doth stand in the midst of it c. Revel 21. and 22. That we shall eat and drink with Christ at his Table in his Kingdom that he will drink with us the fruit of the Vine new that we shall shine as the Sun in the Firmament of our Father These with most other descriptions of our glory are expressed as if it were to the very flesh and sense which though they are all improper and figurative yet doubtless if such expressions had not been best and to us necessary the Holy Ghost would not have so frequently used them He that will speak to mans understanding must speak in mans language and speak that which he is capable
mercies which I here received then shall behold the glory enjoyed there which was the End of all this O what a blessed view will that be O glorious prospect which I shall have on the celestial mount Zion Is it possible that there should be any defect of joy or my heart not raised when I am so raised If one drop of lively faith were mixed with these considerations O what work they would make in my brest and what a Heaven-ravished heart should I carry within me Faine would I believe Lord help my unbelief Yet further consider O my soul How sweet have the very ordinances been unto thee What raptures hast thou had in prayer and under heavenly Sermons What gladness in dayes of thanksgiving after eminent deliverances to the Church or to thy self What delight do I finde in the sweet society of the Saints To be among my humble faithful neighbors and friends To joyne with them in the frequent worship of God To see their growth and stability and soundness of understanding To see those daily added to the Church which shall be saved O then what delight shall I have to see the perfected Church in Heaven and to joyne with these and all the Saints in another kinde of worship then we can here conceive of How sweet is it to joyne in the high praises of God in the solemn assemblies How glad have I been to go up to the house of God Especially after long restraint by sickness when I have been as Hezekiah released and readmitted to joyne with the people of God and to set forth the praises of my great deliverer How sweet is my work in Preaching the Gospel and inviting sinners to the marriage feast of the Lamb and opening to them the treasures of free Grace Especially when God blesseth my endeavors with plenteous success and giveth me to see the fruit of my labors even this alone hath been a greater joy to my heart that if I had been made the Lord of all the riches on earth O how can my heart then conceive that joy which I shall have in my admittance into the Celestial Temple and into the Heavenly Host that shall do nothing but praise the Lord for ever When we shall say to Christ Here am I and the children thou hast given me and when Christ shall present us all to his Father and all are gathered and the Body compleated If the very Word of God were sweeter to Job then his necessary food and to Jeremy was the very joy and rejoycing of his heart and to David was sweeter then the Hony and Honicomb so that he cryeth out O how I love thy Law it is my meditation continually and if thy Law had not been my delight I had perished in my troubles O then how blessed a day will that be when we fully enjoy the Lord of this Word and shall need these written precepts and promises no more but shall in stead of these love-letters enjoy our beloved and in stead of these promises have the happiness in possession and read no book but the face of the glorious God! How far would I go to see one of those blessed Angels which appeared to Abraham to Lot to John c. Or to speak with Henoch or Elias or any Saint who had lived with God especially if he would resolve all my doubts and describe to me the celestial habitacions How much more desirable must it needs be to live with those blessed Saints and Angels and to see and possesse as well as they It is written of Erastus that he was so desirous to learn that it would be sweet to him even to dye so he might but be resolved of those doubtful questions wherein he could not satisfie himself How sweet then should it be to me to dye that I may not only be resolved of all my doubts but also know what I never before did think of and enjoy what before I never knew It was a happy dwelling that the twelve Apostles had with Christ to be always in his company and see his face and hear him open to them the mysteries of the Kingdom But it will be another kinde of happiness to dwell with him in Glory It was a rare priviledg of Thomas to put his fingers into his wounds to confirme his faith and of John to be called the Disciple whom Jesus loved on whose brest at supper he was wont to lean But it will be another kinde of priviledg which I shall enjoy when I shall see him in his glory and not in his wounds and shall enjoy a fuller sense of his Love then John then did and shall have the most hearty entertainment that Heaven affordeth â—f they that heard Christ speak on earth were astonished at his Wisdome and answers and wondered at the gratious Words which proceeded from his mouth How shall I be affected then to behold him in his Majesty Rowse up thy self yet O my soul and consider Can the foresight of this glory make others embrace the stake and kiss the fagot and welcome the cross and refuse deliverance And can it not make thee cheerful under lesser sufferings Can it sweeten the flames to them and can it not sweeten thy life or thy sickness or naturall death If a glympse could make Moses his face to shine and Peter on the mount so transported and Paul so exalted and John so rapt up in the spirit Why should it not somewhat revive me with delight Doubtless it would if my thoughts were more believing Is it not the same Heaven which they and I must live in Is not their God their Christ their Crown and mine the same Nay how many a weak woman or poor despised Christian have I seen mean in parts but rich in faith who could rejoyce and triumph in hope of this inheritance And shall I look upon it with so dim an eye So dull a heart So dejected a countenance some small foretastes also I have had my self though indeed small and seldome thorow mine own belief and how much more delightful have they been then ever was any of these earthly things The full enjoyment then will sure be sweet Remember then this bunch of Grapes which thou hast tasted of and by them conjecture the fruitfulness of the Land of Promise A Grape in a wilderness cannot be like the plentiful Vintage Consider also O my soul What a beauty is there in the imperfect Graces of the spirit here so great that they are called the Image of God and can any created exceellencie have a more honorable title Alas how small a part are these of what we shall enjoy in our perfect state O how pretious a mercy should I esteem it if God would but take off my bodily infirmities and restore me to any comfortable measure of health and strength that I might be able with cheerfulness to go through his work How pretious a mercy then will it be to have all
task of outward Duties Let men see in you what a Life they must aim at If ever a Christian be like himself and answerable to his Principles and Profession it is when he is most serious and lively in this Duty when as Moses before he died went up into Mount Nebo to take a survey of the Land of Canaan so the Christian doth ascend this Mount of Contemplation and take a survey by Faith of his Rest. He looks upon the glorious delectable Mansions and saith Glorious things are deservedly spoken of thee O thou City of God He heareth as it were the melody of the Heavenly Chore and beholdeth the excellent employment of those Spirits and saith Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are they that have the Lord for their God He next looketh to the glorified Inhabitants of that Region and saith Happy art thou O the Israel of God a people saved by the Lord the Shield of thy Strength the Sword of thine Excellency When he looketh upon the Lord himself who is their Glory he is ready with the rest to fall down and worship him that liveth for ever and say Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honor and Power When he looks on the Glorified Saviour of the Saints he is ready to say Amen to that new Song Blessing honor glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever for he hath redeemed us out of every Nation by his blood and made us Kings and Priests to God When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this VVorld he blesseth the believing patient despised Saints he pitieth the ignorant obstinate miserable World and for himself he saith as Peter It is good to be here or as David It is good for me to draw neer to God for all those that are far from him shall perish Thus as Daniel in his captivity did three times a day open his window toward Jerusalem though far out of sight when he went to God in his Devotions so may the believing Soul in this captivity to the flesh look towards Jerusalem which is above And as Paul was to the Colossians so may he be with the Glorified Spirits Absent in the flesh but present in Spirit joying in beholding their Heavenly Order And as Divine Bucholcer in his last Sermon before his death did so sweetly descant upon those comfortable words John 3.16 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life That he raised and ravished the hearts of his otherwise sad hearers So may the Meditating Beleever do through the Spirits assistance by his own heart And as the pretty Lark doth sing most sweetly and never cease her pleasant ditty while she hovereth aloft as if she were there gazing into the glory of the Sun but is suddenly silenced when she falleth to the Earth So is the frame of the Soul most Delectable and Divine while it keepeth in the views of God by Contemplation But alas we make there too short a stay but down again we fall and lay by our musick But O thou the Merciful Father of Spirits the Attractive of Love and Ocean of Delights draw up these drossie hearts unto thy self and keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined and second these thy Servants weak Endevors and perswade those that read these lines to the practice of this Delightful Heavenly Work And O suffer not the Soul of thy most unworthy Servant to be a stranger to those Joyes which he unfoldeth to thy people or to be seldom in that way which he hath here lined out to others But O keep me while I tarry on this Earth in daily serious Breathings after thee and in a Believing Affectionate Walking with thee And when thou comest O let me be found so doing not hiding my Talent nor serving my Flesh nor yet asleep with my Lamp unfurnished but waiting and longing for my Lords return That those who shall read these Heavenly Directions may not read onely the fruit of my Studies and the product of my fancy but the hearty breathings of my active Hope and Love That if my heart were open to their view they might there read the same most deeply engraven with a Beam from the Face of the Son of God and not finde Vanity or Lust or Pride within where the words of Life appear without That so these lines may not witness against me but proceeding from the heart of the Writer may be effectual through thy Grace upon the heart of the Reader and so be the savor of Life to both Amen Glory be to God in the highest On Earth Peace Good-wil towards Men. FINIS BROVGHTON In the Conclusion of His Concent of Scripture Concerning the New-Jerusalem and the Everlasting Sabbatism meant in my Text as begun here and perfected in Heaven THe Company of faithful Souls called to the blessed Marriage of the Lamb are a Jerusalem from Heaven Apoc. 3. and 21. Heb. 12. Though such glorious things are spoken concerning this City of God the perfection whereof cannot be seen in this Vale of Tears yet here God wipeth all tears from our eyes and each blessing is here begun The name of this City much helpeth Jew and Gentile to see the state of peace for this is called Jerusalem and that in Canaan hath Christ destroyed This Name should clearly have taught both the Hebrews not to look and pray daily for to return to Canaan and Pseudo-Catholikes not to fight for special holiness there We live in this by Faith and not by Eye-sight and by Hope we behold the perfection Of this City Salvation is a Wall goodly as Jasper clear as Crystal the foundations are in number twelve of twelve pretious stones such as Aaron ware on his brest all the Work of the Lambs twelve Apostles the Gates are twelve each of Pearl upon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel of whose Faith all must be which enter in Twelve Angels are conductors from East West North and South even the Stars of the Churches The City is square of Burgesses setled for all turns Here God sitteth on a Throne like Jasper and Ruby Comfortable and Just The Lamb is the Temple that a third Temple should not be looked for to be built Thrones twice twelve are for all the Christians born of Israels twelve or taught by the Apostles who for dignity are Seniors for infinity are termed but four and twenty in regard of so many Tribes and Apostles Here the Majesty is Honorable as at the delivery of the Law from whose Throne Thunder Voyces and Lightnings do proceed Here oyl of Grace is never wanting but burning with seven Lamps the spirits of Messias of Wit and Wisdom of Counsel and Courage of Knowledg and Understanding and of the Fear due to the Eternal Here the Valiant Patient Witty and Speedy
Sanctification must needs precede Justification But if we may call that work of the spirit which infuseth the principle of life or holiness into the soul Sanctification then sanctification must needs go before faith For faith in the habit is part of that principle and faith in the act is a fruit of it Gods order is clearly set down in Acts 26.18 He first opens mens eyes and turnes them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and if they be yet unholy I know not what holiness is that they may receive remission of sins there 's their Justification and inheritance among the sanctified that which before was called opening their eyes and turning them is here called Sanctifying by faith that is in me the words by Faith is related to the Receiving of Remission of Sins and the Inheritance but not to the word Sanctified so also 2 Thes. 2.13 God hath before chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience obeying the Gospel is faith and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ there 's Justification so that you see to make faith precede sanctification and to bring in the habits of all other graces and for Justification to go between faith and them is quite against the Scripture order Indeed if Grevinchovius say true that there 's no Habits infused and the spirit work only as the Arminians affirm by an internal and external Swasion and no real physical alteration or infusing of new powers and habits then all this must be otherwise ordered In ascribing this Regeneration to the Spirit I do not intend to exclude the word yet I cannot allow it to be properly the Instrumental cause as the common opinion is Were it an instrument the Energy or Influx of the principal efficient must be first received into it and by it conveyed to the soul but that is an impossibility in Nature The voyce of the Preacher or Letters of the Book are not subjects capable of receiving Spiritual Life to convey to us the like also may be said of Sacraments None of the conditions of an Instrumental efficient cause are found in them The Principal and Instrumental produce one and the same effect But the word works not in the same way of causality with the Spirit yet doth it not follow that it is therefore useless or doth nothing to the work for both kindes of causality are necessary The Spirit works as the principal and onely efficient and hath no intervening instrument that can reach the soul but doth all his work immediately seeing it self alone can touch its object and so work by proper efficiency But the Word and Sacraments work morally onely by propounding the object in its qualifications as a man draws a Horse by shewing him his Provender And though there be some difficulty in resolving whether the propounding the object to the understanding by instruction and to the will and affections by perswasion do work under the efficient or under the final cause yet according to the common Judgment we here take the last for granted The Word then doth sanctifie by exciting of former principles to action which is a preparation to the receiving of the principle of Life and also by present exciting of the newly infused gracious principle and so producing our Actual converting and believing But how it can otherways concur to the infusing of that principle I yet understand not Indeed if no such principle be infused then the Word doth all and the Spirit onely enable the speaker or if any more its hard to discover what it is For whether there be any internal swasion of the Spirit immediately distinct from the external swasion of the Word and also from the Spirits efficacious changing Physical operation is a very great question and worth the considering But I have run on too far in this already This Spiritual Regeneration then is the first and great qualification of these People of God which though Habits are more for their Acts then themselves and are onely perceived in their Acts yet by its causes and effects we should chiefly enquire after To be the people of God without Regeneration is as impossible as to be the natural children of men without Generation seeing we are born Gods enemies we must be new-born his sons or else remain enemies still O that the unregenerate world did know or believe this In whose ears the new birth sounds as a Paradox and the great change which God works upon the soul is a strange thing Who because they never felt any such supernatural work upon themselves do therefore believe that there is no such thing but that it is the conceit and fantasie of idle brains Who make the terms of Regeneration Sanctification Holiness and Conversion a matter of common reproach and scorn though they are the words of the Spirit of God himself and Christ hath spoke it with his own mouth That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Alas how preposterous and vain is it to perswade these poor people to change some actions while their hearts are unchanged and to amend their ways while their natures are the same The greatest Reformation of Life that can be attained to without this new Life wrought in the Soul may procure their further Delusion but never their Salvation That general conceit that they were regenerated in their Baptism is it which furthers the deceit of many When there is an utter impossibility that Baptism should either principally or instrumentally work any Grace on the Soul of an Infant without a miracle for if it do it is either by a Physical and proper efficiency or else morally Not Physically which is more perhaps then the Papists say Because then first the water must be capable of receiving the Grace secondly And of approaching the soul in the application and conveyance both which are impossibilities in Nature Nor can it work morally where there is not the use of Reason to understand and consider of its signification The common shift is apparently vain to say That it works neither Physically nor Morally but Hyperphysically for though it may proceed from a supernatural cause and the work be such as nature cannot produce yet the kinde of operation is still either by a proper and real efficiency which is the meaning of the phrase of Physical operation or else improper and moral So that their Hyperphysical working is no third member nor overthrows that long received distinction if it were yet is not the water the capable instrument of this Hyperphysical operation God is a free agent and by meer concomitancy may make Baptism the season of Regenerating whom he please but that he never intended that Regeneration should be the end of Baptism I think may be easily proved and those two empty Treatises of Baptismal Regeneration as easily answered For men of age the matter