the thing it self therefore he could not be sure of it And a child may comfort himself in hopes of his Fathers estate though he know not but his Father may disinherit him And if any reply that Adam might be taken up with the happiness of his present condition and so not need to look forward for comfort as Believers are fain to do and that Adam had not so much cause to suspect his condition as a believer hath I add a Merchant rejoyceth much in expectation of his Ship coming home richly laden yet he knowes it is subject to great hazards at sea and I desire this may be diligently heeded Faith of recumbency as it is commonly called is the most proper and most noble act of faith though I am farr from thinking that the conclusion is not de fide where both the premises are not so so that assurance is not faith v. Daille la foi fondee c. partie 1. c. 12. For as Christ said to Thomas Joh. 20.29 Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed blessed are they who though they are not assured either by any mediate or immediate testimony of the Spirit yet dare rely strongly strongly strongly as an eminent dying Saint once said upon the Promise of Jesus Christ that he will in no wise cast out those that come to him for as those are commanded to rejoyce that seek the Lord Psa 105.3 though they have not yet found him because he hath not said to any in vain seek ye my face so may those rejoyce that thus cast themselves upon Jesus Christ though he have not yet said to them I am thy Salvation Psal 35.3 and he takes pleasure in those who so hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 Sixthly By Faith we receive strength from Jesus Christ for bearing of affliction I have shewed before how we have Union and Communion with Jesus Christ and through him we are able to do all things Phil. 4.13 he speaks not there of active obedience only as a learned man hath observed Hales Romains 125. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is as much as vales or possum which is as well to suffer as to do and it is clear from the context that he speaks there chiefly of suffering Colos 1.11 There is a gradation strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience with long-suffering and joyfulness The power of God doth not only strengthen us to patience but to all patience we may have patience in some afflictions not in others those may bear losses perhaps that cannot bear affronts or disgrace and not only to patience but long-suffering this respects the length of our sufferings as the other did the weight of theâ— Some can endure a sharp brunt but tire under a long affliction But he goeth further to joyfulness those may endure an heavy affliction and endure it long too which yet go drooping and heavily under it but by Faith in the power of Christ we may bear long and heavy afflictions with joy Thus we are more than conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.37 we conquer afflictions when they do not conquer us but we are more than conquerors when we can rejoyce in them Lastly Faith looks to the recompence of reward as I before shewed the efficacy of it in this respect to overcome temptations so we shall now see how effectual it is to enable us to bear afflictions Though our outward man perish our inward man is renewed day by day saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.16 Afflictions did abound yet they gained spirituall strength to go on more cheerfully instead of fainting or drawing back and the reason hereof was they looked not on the things which were seen but on the things which were not seen vers 18. which is the work of faith Heb. 11.1 As Columbus when he first went to discover America ventured a tedious and long voyage over the main Ocean upon this confidence that he should there discover another part of the world which had formerly been unknown to us when the Spaniards that went with him were ready to mutiny because they had not so much judgment as to be perswaded of any such fruit of their travel Or as Moses had much adoe to get an unbelieving multitude along with him through the wildernesse but they were oft murmuring rebelling turning back in their hearts unto Egypt So have I seen those who have been unequally yoaked and have had some heavy burden of affliction lying on them the one hath born it cheerfully and comfortably the other hath been an hindrance and no help continually murmuring and complaining In such cases the vertue of faith doth most evidently appear and though there are not many amongst us where the Gospel is preached such infidels as to deny the Recompense of reward yet it is only the exercise of a true and lively Faith which can lift up the soul under affliction that being the very substance of the thing hoped for and the evidence of things not seen For a Conclusion of the whole matter let me borrow the words of a learned man Dr. Arrowsmith Tact. Sacr. l. 2. c. 7. s 13. O quanâ—â—â—â— memorem fides virtutum nobilissima c. How shall I make mention of thee O Faith the most noble of all Vertues What shall I say of thee Thou art the Hinge on which the Gate of heaven turns the Bucket by which we draw the water of life the Wedding Ring whereby the Soul is married to Jesus Christ the Receptacle of the Bloud of Christ the only Condition of the New Covenant and the chief part of the New Creature they that by thee attain to a recumbency are safe they that attain to assurance are joyful Thou art the Eye the Hand the Mouth yea the All of our Souls Yea I may add Faith is in Grace as the Philosophers Stone in Nature as a Catholicon or vniversal soveraign remedy for all diseases It is in the Soul as the Lungs in the Body the Instrument of breathing whereby Vitalis spiritus as Fernelius saith tanquam patulo alitur fovetur we are continually thereby taking in and giving out Either receiving from Jesus Christ or laying out for him Wherefore with all our getting as the Wiseman saith of Wisdome Prov. 4.7 let us get Faith and pray that God will fulfil the work of Faith with power in us 2 Thes 1.11 When Christ teaches his Disciples the exercise of Love they pray for the encrease of Faith Luk. 17.5 Whatever we are called to in this World let us pray Lord encrease our Faith hereby we shall be able to perform our Duties to exercise our Graces to overcome our Temptations to bear our Afflictions to hold up in Desertions yea all things are possible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 Search and examine your selves whether you be in the Faith or no 2 Cor. 13.5 No Faith no Life and be diligent in the use of all means for the strengthening
therefore we yield up the people of Campania the City of Capua our fields Temples and all belonging to us to your jurisdiction or dominion so that whatsoever we suffer for the future we shall suffer as your subjects So if we fear being overcome by the assaults of our spiritual adversaries let us apply our selves to Jesus Christ and go and renew our Covenant with him resigning up our selves souls bodies and all the faculties and members thereof to be kept by his power to salvation that we may be able to claim his aid and challenge his assistance as he hath a special inteâ—est in us John 10.12 cap. 17. 9. and pray as David Psal 119.94 I am thine Lord save me CHAP. VII What our spiritual Adversaries are How our Lusts do tempt us James 1.14 explained The Disadvantage of Believers in their spirituall combate by reason of their own lusts shewed by many similitudes out of Parisiensis The use of Faith in purifying the heart 1 John 3.2 3 cleared IF we consider the forementioned services as part of that homage which we owe to our Creator acknowledging the dependance which we have on him in directing all our prayers and supplications to him the authority which he hath over us as our Lawgiver Jam. 4.12 by sitting down at his feet to receive of his words Deut. 33.3 the obligations that are upon us to him for the great things Christ hath done and suffer'd for us by celebrating the Memorial of his Passion in the Lords Supper Faith quits it self sufficiently in a right performance of these Duties But considering them as means of grace for the getting and encrease thereof so what Faith doth therein is but in order to the overcoming of temptations and bearing afflictions wherein the grace which we get thereby is very much exercised So that in speaking of these things I must necessarily refer to many things spoken of in the foregoing Chapters though I shall not repeat them and in treating of those temptations which faith is of such use to overcome I shall shew you whence they proceed and how we do by faith overcome them Now these Temptations do proceed from the flesh from the world and from the Devil These are ordinarily reckoned our three spiritual adversaries and though they do all of them many times conspire in the same temptation yet I must treat of them distinctly For the First The Apostle tells us that fleshly lusts war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 And every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and inticed James 1.14 where we have the two wayes whereby lust prevails either the impetus and violence of it whereby it hurrieth a man into sin as the horse his rider into the battle Jer. 8.6 casting reason down from its seat where it should hold the reines of our affections so that neither fear shame admonitioÌ„s of others checks of conscience our own Principles Professions former resolutions will restrain them but they break all bands cast away all cords Ps 2.3 Secondly They entice and allure the will to consent by pretending the great pleasure and satisfaction in fulfilling them the consistency thereof with Salvation purpose of repentance probability of pardon c. by reason hereof we fight with our other adversaries at a great disadvantage as Parisiensis de Tent. resist cap. 2. hath by many apt similitudes excellently shewed as Of a Kingdome divided against it self having a party within it ready to joyn as occasion serves with a forrain adversary Of a Souldier that rides on a restive or unruly horse that runs backwards or runs away with him when he should charge his enemy To a strong man standing to fight on a slippery place where he is not able to hold his feet to put forth his strength To a Souldier in a house or castle that hath many breaches or open places where an enemy may shoot in at him To a Souldier that bares an heavy burthen which loads him and presses him down when he should fight To an house whose lower part is of some combustible dry matter and ready to take fire so our hearts are ready as occasion serves to comply with Satan and betray us into his snares our affections unruly our senses as so many windows or Avenues through which Satan may cast in his darts our corruptions as a burden that keeps us down as the remainders of an evil disease that enfeebles us so as we fail when we should put forth our strength against our spiritual adversaries our hearts as tinder or gun-powder apt to be set on fire by every spark of temptation Now Faith is of great use to us in this respect Purifying the heart from these corrupt lusts Acts 15.9 And this it doth 1. As it unites us to Jesus Christ whereby we are made partakers of the Divine Nature which is continually lusting and striving against our corrupt nature weakening it by degrees The spirit lusts against the flesh as the flesh lusts against the spirit Gal. 5.17 This is in the soul as the expulsive faculty which is subservient to the nutritive faculty expelling such things as are noxious to nature 2. By Faith we receive the spirit of Jesus Christ This may seem to be the same with the former but they differ as the habits of grace from assisting grace or auxilium habituale actuale of which see Alvarez de auxiliis divin grat Disp. 82. N. 10. as the Fable is of Hercules that he cleansed the stable of Augea wherein thousands of oxen had lyen for many years by turning a river through it so this sinke of our hearts is cleansed by the spirit which as a fountain opened for sin and for uncleannesse doth continually flow in a believers soul compare Zach. 13.1 with John 7.38 39. 3. Faith purifieth the heart as it improves those Ordinances which are means for the purifying of it as the Word Psalm 119.9 John 15.3 Prayer Exek 36.26 27 37. Psalm 51.10 c. How Faith improves these I have shewed in the former Chapters 4. Faith doth this morally by improving such Arguments as may perswade us hereto 2 Corinth 7.1 1 John 3.2 3. Faith and Hope run parallel faith believing the promise hope expecting the thing promised and we can hope for nothing but what we believe the Promise of Now whoever hopes to be like Christ hereafter will certainly purifie himself that he may in some measure be like him here that being our state of perfection and there being in every thing a naturall tendency and reaching forth to its perfection and the spirit doth not work in us as physick but there must be a subordinate concurrence of our wills therewith the Apostle on the same ground presseth to mortification Col. 3.4 5. CHAP. VIII What a dangerous temptation the world is What it is to overcome the world The Story of Constantius his Courtiers The Parable of the thorny ground Luke 8.14 opened How Faith overcomes the world
Heb. 11.24 c. illustrated Matth. 6.30 c. cleared How Faith overcomes by looking to the recompence of reward How it discovers the vanity of the world 1 Cor. 7.29 c. THe world in our spiritual conflict is as the Midianitish women which caused the Children of Israel to sin Numb 31.16 according to the wicked counsel of Balaam spoken of Rev. 2.14 the story of which we may read Num. 25. and more fully in Jos de Ant. Jud. l. 4. c. 6. And though the necessaries of this life sometimes prove a temptation to many yet the chief baits of the world are the superfluities of it as riches pleasures honors and preferments Now as the Moralist saith of vices we conflict with them not that we may wholly overcome them but that we may not be overcome by them So if we can maintain our ground so farr against the world that it doth not intangle and overcome us it is a good degree of victory though we be sometimes solicited by the allurements of it And we thus overcome the world 1. When we do not use any unlawfull means for the attainment of the things of it This was it which that good man feared Prov. 30.9 that being pressed with poverty and want he should be tempted for the supply of his necessities to take some sinfull course and so make his Profession of the name of God to become vain 2. When we do not for the things of the world cast off the Profession of Religion like the Courtiers of Constantius whose Story is worth setting down The Christians were sometimes in great esteem with the heathen Emperours because by means of their Prayers they sometimes obtained great victories and had wonderfull successe whereof there is a memorable instance in the Letter of Aurelius which he sent to the Senate of Rome the copy of which is to be read in the Magdeburgenses Cent. 2. cap. 3. so that Constantius had a minde to know whether there were any true Christians in his Court and to that end made a Decree that whosoever would sacrifice to their Idols should be preferred in his Court but those that would not must depart and be thankfull that they might depart without punishment Hereupon many did renounce their profession others resolutely maintained it and would not by any means be prevailed with to worship their false Gods Constantius when he had hereby made tryall who were sincere in their Profession and would rather lose their honors and Preferments than quit it these he highly honoured and advanced but the other he severely reproved and banished them from his Court as being unfit to be trusted by men who would not be faithfull to God Eusebius de vita Constantini Histor Trip. L. 1. c. 7. So the young man Matt. 19.22 left Christ being overcome with the love of riches and those John 12.42 had some convictions that Christ was the Messiah but durst not make confession to Salvation because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God as many doubtless are ready to say with Balaam Numb 23.10 Let me die the death of the righteous being convinced they are in the right way yet think if they should live their life and betake themselves to a strict course of holiness they should be accounted some silly sneaksbies or dull hypocondriaques men of no port or breeding among the esprits forts or brave gallants of the time and they will lose heaven rather than runne the hazzard of such an imputation But yet there is a 3. way farr more dangerous whereby the world prevails against multitudes and this is intimated in the Parable of the thorny ground Luke 8.14 those do not fall away as they v. 13. but hold on in a Profession of Religion but it comes to nothing at last they bring forth no fruit to perfection being choked with cares and riches and pleasures of the world they deceive themselves by thinking to serve both God and mammon to keep up a Profession of Religion which will consist with their lusts carnal interests Now these things hinder the growth of the Word as thornes hinder the growth of the corne 1. by drawing away the heart of the earth whereby the corne should thrive and grow 2. by overtopping the corne and keeping it down While these should be meditating in the Word of God day and night having their thoughts much exercised therein that so they may be as a tree planted by the rivers of water bringing forth fruit in due season Psal 1.2 3. they have their thoughts wholly taken up with distracting cares about the necessaries of this life what they shall eat and what they shall drink and wherewith they shall be cloathed Matth. 6.31 Or if their abundance set them above this temptation then riches or pleasures ingross their thoughts they are either projecting how for the future to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it Rom. 13.14 how to compass such a place or purchase where to meet with such company to enjoy their pleasure how to morrow may be as this day and much more abundant Isa 56.12 or else they are acting over their former sinneâ— in their imagination that they may again enjoy the pleasure thereof by rumination pleasing themselves with the remembrance of what they did in the dayes of old Ezek. 23.19 at such a time in such a place in such company which is worse than the first commission of it being in effect a justifying of their former sin and wishing they had an opportunity to commit it again upon second thoughts which should be wiser than former every one knowes best himself how much of his solitary time is thus taken up and such thoughts as these prey upon the vitalls of Christianity as the disease called the wolfe preys upon the body Or else as the thornes overtop the corne these make a profession of Religion and bear Christ fair in hand while they can make his interest and theirs agree but if they have an opportunity for satisfying their lusts Christ must be served as the man Luke 14.8 he must take the lowest room to give place to another and make way for their lusts This was Herod's case who heard John gladly and did many things which he taught but he must enjoy his pleasure whatever John said Mark 6.17 20. This is the ruine of thousands of soules who have a form of godliness but are lovers of pleasures or else lovers of riches and honors more than lovers of God 2 Tim. 3.4 5. Now it is by Faith that we overcome these This is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith 1 John 5.4 a clear proof hereof we have in Moses Hebr. 11.24 in whom God would let us see the victory of Faith as clearly as we did in Solomon the vanity of the world Observe in this place the strength of Moses temptation his absolute conquest and the means whereby he overcame to enforce the Temptation he had on