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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	love_n	love_v	manifest_v	2,475	5	9.8333	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86270	Repentance and conversion, the fabrick of salvation: or The saints joy in heaven, for the sinners sorrow upon Earth. Being the last sermons preached by that reverend and learned John Hewyt, D.D. Late minister of St. Gregories by St. Pauls. With other of his sermons preached there. Dedicated to all his pious auditors, especially those of the said parish. Also an advertisement concerning some sermons lately printed, and presented to be the doctors, but are disavowed by Geo. Wild. Jo. Barwick.	Hewit, John, 1614-1658.; Wilde, George, 1610-1665.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664.	1658 (1658)	Wing H1637; Thomason E1776_1; ESTC R209722	86,537	249

of God that we understand not what it is to love him This Tree of Knowledge grows not in our Eden This flower springs not up in our Garden 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift dropt out of Heaven proceeding from the Father who is Love and Charity as St. John saith This is a divine liquor the true Nectar that God poures into our souls guttatim drop by drop as in narrow-neckt vessels Wherefore to accommodate our selves to our native slowness we 'll endeavour to infuse into our spirits by little and little so by degrees to arrive at the highest degree and Apex of Love There are five degrees of this our Love to God 1. The first is to love God for the good he doth us and we expect to receive from him still 2. Secondly To love him propter seipsum or sui ipsius gratia for his own sake because he is most excellent and most amiable 3. Thirdly To love God above all things nay your own selves but to love nothing in the World but for his sake 4. Fourthly To detest and abhor himself for the Love of God 5. Fifthly to love him as we shall in the life to come when we shall be in glory with this love the Saints are extasied and assist at the Throne of God in secula seculorum We call these Degrees of Love and not species or kinds because the superior contain the inferior as the chiefest white differs from the other parcels of the same colour that are less clear and transparent not in specie but in gradu we must remount up these degrees or stairs and rest our selves a little upon every one of them 1. The first degree and lowest is Five degrees by which we are brought to love God To love God for the good he doth us upon this step of Love was King David when in the 116 Psalm and in the 1 verse I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication and so in the 18 Psalm for God will have respect and love from us because he extends his bounty so liberally to us 'T is God that created us 't is God that preserves and keeps us being created that nourisheth our bodies that cherisheth our souls that redeemeth us by his Son that governs us by his holy Spirit that instructeth us by his word that hath vouchsafed to admit us as his servants nay his friends and children and which is more the same with himself Plato playing the Philosopher with the grace of God Plato blessed God for three things thanked him for three things 1. That he was created a man and not a beast 2. That he was born a Graecian and not a Barbarian and 3. That he was a Philosopher Now we that are instructed in the School of Christ a School of more strict discipline So ought we for these especially make another kind of distribution of the grace of God and return him thanks for these three things 1. That of all Creatures we were created men 2. That of all men Christians And 3. That among those that are Christians he hath made us in the number of the true elect And if you please you may add a fourth That he hath adopted us by his Son Jesus Christ before the foundation of the World having been carefull of us not onely before we had any existence but even before the world had its creation Now if God did manifest his love to us before we were how liberally will he extend it to us how bountifully will it flow from him when we invocate and call upon his Sacred Name and affect him with a filial and reverential love Now the smaller our number is the larger is our priviledge the more extensive and diffusive is his bounty and goodness to us to endow us with sight among so many blind persons as the portion of Jacob in Aegypt solely enlightned in the midst of obscurity Cimmerian darkness like the fleece of Gideon that was only bedewed with the grace of God when the rest of the earth was dry and destitute of it God hath encircled us with abundance of examples of stupendious caecity or blindness that he might raise our estimation of light and that we might make a farther progress in the way of salvation that so whilest it is called to day we may steer the ship of our souls by the Lanthorn of his Word All these vertues the constellation of all these graces depend upon one Soveraign and Prime one viz. reconciliation with God by the passion of our blessed Jesus This is the Chanel through which the graces of God stream unto us 'T is Jacobs Ladder that joyns Heaven and Earth together that rejoyns God and Man The Angels ascending this Ladder represent our prayers that we piously dart up to Heaven the Angels descending signifie the blessings of God that are distilled in answer to our prayers Jacob sleeping at the foot of the Ladder intimates unto us the quiet and tranquillity of conscience that we enjoy under the cool and comfortable shade of his intercession Before man was environed with horror and astonishment he could not cast his eye aside but he met with an object of fear If he look't upon God he discerned a consuming fire a supream Justice armed with revenge against sinners If he cast his eye upon the Law he immediately perceived the arrest of condemnation If he viewed the Heaven he concluded himself excluded thence by reason of sin If the World he saw his irreparable loss of dominion over the Creatures if himself a thousand spiritual and corporal infirmities At the signes of Heaven and the Earth-quake he was ague-struck with fear Then Satan Death Hell were his inveterate foes that either drew him to perdition or did behel and wrack him with the expectation of them But now every person that hath confidence in Christ Jesus changes his language and speaks in a more pleasing dialect If he look upon God he 'll say 'T is my Father that hath adopted me If his thoughts pitch upon the day of Judgement he 'll bespeak himself thus My Elder Brother sits there and he that is my Judge is also my Counsellor If he think on the Angels he cries out They are my guardians Psalm the 34. If he view the Heaven he terms it his habitation If he hear it thunder he 'll reply 'T is the voice of my Father If he consider the Law The Son of God saith he hath accomplisht it for me If he swim with the flowing tide of prosperity he 'll say God hath reserved better things for me If in the low ebb of adversity Jesus Christ hath endured far more for me God exerciseth or proves corrects or afflicts me making me therein conformable to his Son If he thinks on Hell the Devil or Death then he will triumph over all with the holy Apostle in the 1 to the Corinth the 15 Ch. and the 55 56 and 57 vers O Death where is thy

might be Heaven 5. 5 Cause The perfection of our spirits cannot be but in the union of or with the first of spirits who communicateth his bona or good things to us his Creatures as the Sun darts his rays upon us that is he gives them so he bestows them on us yet so that they depend on him after he hath disposed of them 6. 6 Cause True Love is that transformeth the amantem the Lover in amatum into the thing or party loved Now if a deformed person be never so highly enamoured with the captivitating beauty of a red white complexion he will never be able by this love to correct his deformity On the contrary in loving God we become sibi similes like unto him and as the holy Apostle saith in the second to the Corinth the third Chap. and the last verse Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord with open face are changed into the same image 7. And lastly Beauty 7 Cause being the first incitation to Love or the Tinder of the affections we shall soon be able to discern when the scales of ignorance are fallen from our eyes that this beauty as we term it that is here below is but a superficial colour or a cover to a bundle of filthiness but that the Lumen or true Light is the true beauty God therefore being the true Light and the Father of Lights is the chief beauty and the object on whom we all ought to fix our affections Natural Philosophy here is diametrically opposite to the Divine and jars with it much in this case for Philosophy affirms that Natural motion is better then that is against Nature On the contrary quoad amorem the Word of God that is our Divine Philosophy instructeth and perswadeth us that Love contrary to Nature is better then Love natural For since that Satan in seducing our first Parents hath defaced the image of God in Man our desires have had their constant course towards the World and as I may say our Love hath been precipitated from Heaven to the Earth The affection of the flesh is enmity against God Romans the 8. and the 7 verse If one love that love flows not from him naturally but it is a free gift of God And the Apostle St. Paul drawing us out of the mud and freeing us from the bait of all alluring delights of this World commands us to seek the things above Coloss 3. vers 1 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be skilful in the things above be wise in heavenly matters for according to the words in my Text We love God because he first loved us Our love therefore it appears manifestly is an effect of Gods Love to us nor is there any thing that we ought with more devotion or zeal to crave of God then Love for it is a pledg unto the faithful of Gods Love to him It is the first fruit the primitiae of Faith 't is the most exact and curious extract of the Image of God It is the most perspicuous mark of a child of God Love is the summe of Christianity This Love is the soul of our soul the life of virtue the rule by which we square or at least ought to do all our actions the summary or compendium of the Law 'T is the pillar or sustentaculum of Martyrs the Jacobs Ladder by which you may ascend the Heavens and true peace of conscience nay with holy reverence be it spoken it is a praelibamen or earnest-penny of that Sacred union and communion that we expect all to enjoy with God in Heaven world without end Our meditation could not pitch upon a more sublime subject for what is there that dare stand in competition with God either for his greatness or the sweetness and candor of his Love The profit of this Love of God is no way inferior to the delight for men are termed good or evil not for what they believe but what they love Let us all therefore labour for this and become proficients in the School of Christ and beseech the spirit so to mould our hearts that they may be wrought to a true and perfect Love of God lest we be abused and fooled into error with the sound of this word Love and mistake the spiritual for a carnal love an importunate or fretting corrosion of the heart an aguish alteration the last of vices for the first and best of vertues a brutish malady for an Angelical distemper 'T is true he that disposeth and conformeth himself to the Love of God must expect the hatred and bespattering calumnies of the world but God will cause the very discommodities that the world afflicts us with to be converted into commodity and profit for saith the blessed Apostle Rom. the 8. and the 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose Their corporeal afflictions are but spiritual exercises their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nocumenta documenta The malady of their body is a remedy for their soul for God alone is the true Aesculapius so divine a Chymist that he will convert poysons into Antidotes for his childrens health and security His wounds are balm saith the Divine Harper Psalm 14. vers 5. In all our sufferings for Gods sake there is not only matter of patience but occasion for glory they are scars of credit in the forehead conformities unto our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ and the livery of all Christian Souldiers And all this by the sustentation and support of this Love the sweetness whereof qualifies and abates the bitterness of all sublunary crosses Object But here some may object and say that the Love of God is pro confesso an excellent vertue but we must know him before we love him and we cannot compass any other but a lame and decrepit insufficient notion of him 'T is true but notwithstanding all this we ought still dare operam to it and make exact search after it and when we have it embrace it for ignorance must not be a Cloak or tegument to our negligence since we cannot gain so little of the true knowledge of God but some profit will accrue to us thereby and that will blow up the embers of the love of God in us to an acceptable degree of heat and pious zeal One ray of the love of God will outbalance and overvalue all the splendor of the Meridian Sun A dark obscure knowledge of God surpasseth the most acute and sharp insight into all natural things If one beam of the Sun chance to peep into a Dungeon the prisoner by this recollects the beauty and excellency of Light so that small and imperfect knowledg that we obtain of God is sufficient for a taste of the excellency of his Love and able to inflame us therewith besides 't is sufficient for salvation We love God because he loved us first We are so incapable of the Love

Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia He is the greatest Conqueror that can subdue his own passions and keep his body in subjection as St. Paul did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he I chastise my body from whence Friars draw their authority of chastising themselves though without cause and so take the word to be such a chastisement as School-masters use to boys We ought all of us against the grain of our flesh to mould and fashion our selves to repentance that so we may obtain a Trinity of Graces to save us Faith Hope and Charity and this Trinity of Grace will deliver us from a Trinity of Evils Blindness Error and Unbelief and if we be delivered from these we shall be freed from the predominancy of the World the Flesh and the Devil and if we be preserv'd from these we shall undoubtedly be crowned by the blessed Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost to whom be Glory Honour and Praise World without end Amen GOD AND MAN Mutually Embracing In the first Epistle of St. John the 4 Chap. and the 19 vers it is thus written We love him because he first loved us LOve is the punctum or centre SERM. III. about which the circumference of our thoughts doth move and the primus motor that induceth us to fix our spirits upon an object Love is to our souls as weight is to ponderous bodies for as the gravity of a body forceth it downward that it may enjoy a sweet repose in its centre so Love moves our souls to an object that promiseth repose and contentment therefore from hence it follows that as ponderous bodies move in a straight line toward their centre so if we will obtain a true rest our Love must be regular and proceed in a direct line by a divinely-composed motion This Text Beloved that I come from reading to you is the Epitome of Christian Religion or the great Folio of Christian duty reduced into a Decimo-sexto or pocket-volume In this Text there are two parts and these two parts are the two pillars of the Church and the whole Christian World 1. Our love toward God in these words We love him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Gods love toward us which is but the reason or rather efficient cause of our love toward him because he first loved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to stand upon the nice and fine-spun distinctions that the School-men make of Love we shall only divide it into two sorts Divinum and Humanum amorem into Love Divine and Humane the divine is couched down by the holy Spirit of God in the latter part of the verse because he loved us and the humane in the former We love him We will begin with the latter humane love or the love of man to God Spiritual or true love gives repose and contentment to the soul when as carnal or false love is an irregular agitation and an inconsiderate motion without a Terminus ad quem it is ever repleat with inquietude and distraction and never ceaseth or resteth till it despairs or is quite tired out which is not properly a rest but an impotency and inability of motion and the desire is strong when the power is weak like a horse that tied to a manger gnaweth his bridle asunder such are most persons their desires are strong their power but weak they desire most what they can least perform The cause of this disturbance is this Our Love selecteth out Reasons why we love not God perfectly 1 Cause and fixeth upon false objects and such that cannot satiate the desire for if you survey all sublunary things that deserve the name of beautiful you shall find in them no true quiet or rest but a concatenation of cares interwoven with perpetual trouble The greatest delicacies are consited in bitterness The acquisition of honour and preferment is painful and many break their necks in riding upon the airy stilts of Fame The possession of riches is uncertain and the loss certain if they leave not us by some accident Death Natures Bayliff will arrest us and force us to leave them To aim at such things is but ventum prosequi To pursue the wind an action as ridiculous as can be Grant they be good yet they are incertain therefore we must seek after our repose somewhere else since the earth cannot afford it and turn the compass of our Love toward Heaven For as the lower region of the Air is the habitation of winds tempests and earth-quakes but that part that is near the Heaven is serene and quiet so our Love so long as it adheres to sublunary objects will be full of trouble but 't will find rest and quiet if it lift it self up to Heaven and lay hold of the promises of God and then the soul though in the midst of the confusions and afflictions of this world be they never so thorny will have the fruition of an assured tranquillity like the Needle of the Compass that remains firm upon one point notwithstanding the violence of the scolding surges of a Tempestuous Sea and all because it is guided by the motion of the Heavens God is the sole object or at least ought to be of our Love and hath only a power to render us amiable by loving us He that only can nay that will give them felicity and that unutterable too that love him As the Apostle St. Paul writeth in the first to the Corinth the 2 Chap. and the 9 vers Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love him He promiseth also in St. John chap. 14. vers 23. to come unto him that loveth him and make his abode with him O unparallelled Love that makes a Palace of our souls for the King of Glory and a Sanctuary of the Holy Ghost 2. 2 Cause Philosophy it self hath this down for a maxime that Natura Deus nihil fecerunt frustra that God and Nature made nothing in vain Now that infinite and insatiable desire or appetite that is in man were in vain if there were nothing to satisfie and content it Which since it is impossible to find out upon this Terraqueous Globe we must search after it in Heaven of God that is bonum infinitum an infinite good 3 Cause 3. Besides God created the world for the use of man and therefore without doubt he created man for something better then the world viz. God himself 4 Cause 4. God created man inter omnia animalia only secundum imaginem according to his own image with a straight body and an upright countenance according to mellifluous Naso Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus that so he might behold him whom he represented and that the But and White of all his actions and thoughts

and to destroy them all without compassion thirsting after the dissolution of this body and reigning with God and the blessed Hierarchy of Angels world without end He must be willing to exhaust and pour out every drop of blood that flows in the purple chanels of his body for the glory of God Being wearied out with this fleshly tabernacle as in a rouling prison or an ambulatory sepulchre just like a captive cloystered up in a loathsome prison that peeps at the grates aspiring after liberty you must not expect to have egress or depart by the door but by the ruine of the prison i. e. the dissolution and destruction of the body He that hath commenced war and stood in defiance to his lusts with most vigour and constancy shall have the greatest share of peace with God He that hath accused himself shall be excused he that hath despised and made little or no estimation of this life shall be saved Luke 9. and the 24. saith the blessed Evangelist there For whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it This is the fourth degree of Love and the cream and top of Love whilest we are on this side Heaven 'T was this degree of Love that forc'd the holy Apostle to so pious and querulous an exclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 'T is this degree of Love that forced that sweet Harper King David though his temples at that time were adorned with a Crown and his hands with a Scepter the vanquisher of his enemies whose name was as famous as his possessions were vast confess and acknowledg himself a stranger and a sojourner upon the earth Psalm 39.12 119.19 'T is this degree of love that hath furnished holy Martyrs with resolution and courage accompanied with a zeal that was hotter then the fire it self to pass through all torments and smile at the fagot and sword they fear not the threats of the brow-bearing Judge if furnished with this degree of love they are armed with the murus aheneus of Horace for a guiltless conscience with the shield of his own innocency beats off all opposition and resistance No man can be such an Ignaro as to imagine his sinews to be made of wyre or his bodie to be immured with brass nor no one can be so whimsical as to think them to have the Stoicks a pathy no no but as the violent heat of a fever doth exsiccate the exterior wounds or ulcers and so that the less heat is obedient to the greater so the internal ardor of the Love of God did predominate over the heat of the flames and had more power to sustain the pain then the grief had strength to destroy them The vertues of the Martyrs do check our vices their pious embers do reinfuse heat into our cold walking clay Whose blood for as one of the Fathers saith Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae the bloody time of the Saints is the Seed-time of the Church their blood I say exclaims against our slackness who of late like a spurious issue have degenerated from their constancy And be sure if we imitate them not and follow their example they will be a reproach and condemnation unto us Their red evening was precursor to a most glorious day and their bloody trial proved a deliverance at last from the worlds rage and fury Now to arrive to this degree requires a long and stout combat for our flesh is mutinous and refractory and concupiscence is so fast rooted in us that even Deo judice it is resembled and assimilated to the cutting off of a hand Matth. 5. and pulling out of an eye And the Apostle of the Gentiles terms our lusts our members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coloss 3. Yet God himself tells us that the perfection of his work is manifested in our infirmity He makes us Conquerours 2 Cor. 12. Gal. 5. after many defeats and failings Men oftentimes are as in a crooked way between the flesh and the spirit between mundane and divine Love the Love of God and the Love of the World and then they meet with several wicked and abominable suggestions and a terrible counterscustle between them and their lusts How often and frequently doth it evene that after the Love of God hath gained the dominion and upper-hand in the soul of man and that he is resolved to live well and religiously in a small time after do his lusts and evil concupiscence rally up themselves and make a fresh assault more violent than the former But the faithful man when assaulted with a desire of revenge rapine or adultery will perceive and hear by the ears of faith the Love of God whispering these following interrogations and catechising him thus Miserable wretch that thou art whither dost thou wander Doth not God view thee dost thou despise his menaces dost thou reject his promises dost thou forget thy vocation Why should you grieve the Spirit of God Why should you bespatter his Church with infamy and calumny Where are the promises you made to God Where is the grateful remembrance of his benefits Is this the way to the Kingdom of Heaven Are you certain of arising when you fall What will you disturb your peace of conscience for such bitter-sweet pleasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the most guilded pill of pleasure hath is allow'd ingredients What will you hazard your primogeniture for a mess of lentile-potage At these spiritual suggestions the faithful man makes a stand sighs and groans before God and like Sampson is resolved to break in sunder the bands of his concupiscence But all is not yet ended the rebellious and contumacious surrenders not her self up yet for oftentimes after holy resolutions at certain intervals or spaces of time there will arrive some cooling kind of temper that may induce and perswade carnal reason to a postarize and especially in these rebellious times where a man may find more matter for to compose a book of Apostates rather than Martyrs Now Satan who is a spirit but A-bad-one as 't is in the Revelation watcheth for an opportunity to find us conversant with debauched company and voyd of employment and to catch us discontinuing or ceasing from our pious ejaculations to Heaven which with a fervent and zealous brevity are thrown up to the Throne of Grace and God showres down his blessings upon them according to their request and suitable to their present necessities and indigencies if they be faithful Satan I say raiseth an Anarchy in the soul of man and fosters nothing but a Chaos of confusion then are the concupiscence and lusts of the flesh up in arms against the desires and motions of the spirit and close and strangle one another which oftentimes renders the life of a Christian so bitter and uncomfortable that he is often desiring an end of this

movings of the body trembling and uncertain what can be said but that his body is so miserably agitated that his soul must be in great disorder And in this condition it is as uncapable to produce a good action as to take good counsel but from thence as from an infernal jakes do issue the most infamous vices and execrable actions that can be committed by men And as in an army after a terrour taken the battalions break their rankes in disorder all flye all run and nothing seen but blood and slaughter so it is when fear possesses the soul she troubles her self all vertues abandon her and the vices make a horrible wast and spoil From hence sprung up superstition and so many execrable sacrifices the very report whereof breeds horrour Cruelty claims her for her mother perfidiousness treason and dissembling owe her their original She hath hatcht tyranny and ill counsels and it is none but she that breaking the sacred bonds of nature is capable to animate fathers and mothers against their proper blood and their own bowels In a word 't is impossible to love the thing which we fear Behold then this monster which these Doctors nourish in these poor souls which God by so many promises of his love and assistance chases and banishes from the hearts of his children Fear not little flock for it is your fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom Luk. 12.32 Nay but say they To day I am well assured but who can continue me this assurance till to morrow and afterwards He that perseveres to the end shall be saved Matth. 24.13 And what is there more changeable and inconstant then man So many assaults that Satan gives us so many dangers that beset us so many infirmities that are in us so many examples of Apostates that make shipwrack of their faith do they not give us cause enough to doubt Yes verily and to despair absolutely if we look no farther then to our selves But the power of God is perfected in our weakness 2 Cor. 12.19 If we be weak he is strong if we be changelings he 's immutable I have loved thee with an everlasting love and have therefore extended my loving kindness to thee Jerem. 31.3 Those whom he hath loved he hath loved to the end and the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 His foundation continues firm 2 Tim. 2.19 He knows who are his and none shall ravish them out of his hands and it is impossibile that his elect should be seduced Matth. 24.24 but those whom he hath foreknown he hath predestinated called justified and glorified Rom. 8.29 This chain of his love is altogether inviolable and therefore rest thy self upon his favourable power and upon his unchangeable goodness saying with David Psal 138. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me thy mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever This assurance is the true humility which beats down the pride of man that he may glorifie God pride and presumption are to be feared when we go about to rely upon our selves when we sacrifice to our own nets and exalt the merit of our vertues but let not that man fear to glorifie himself that seeks his glory in the shame of the cross of Christ that strips himself of all other ornaments to put on Christ that celebrates not his own justice but the compassions of God I do not glorifie my self because I am just said St. Ambrose but because I am redeemed I will not glorifie my self at all because I am without sin but because I have obtained pardon of my sins I will not glorifie my self that I have profited any but because Christ is Advocate for me towards the Father 1 Joh. 1.2 that he hath shed his blood for my sake and for me hath tasted of death this is not arrogance but faith To preach and to publish that which thou hast received is not pride but devotion said St. Augustine And for conclusion it is least to be feared that this doctrine should make men negligent or be as a pillow under their elbowes to make their souls sleepy in the neglect of the means of salvation St. Paul draws a quite contrary consequence when he saith Philip. 2.12 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling and adds this for a reason for it is God that works in you both the will and the performance according to his good pleasure Will you say then that this belief makes men sleepy and choakes in their consciences both the duties of prayer and the exercises of charity contrarywise there is not a sharper spur to this acknowledgment then the knowledge of the Love of God and the assurance of his grace Who hath ever seen fear produce a good action And what is there in the world that is either fair or generous which is not to be attributed to hope It were a devilish malice to be wicked because God is good to turn the back upon him when he turns his face upon us to flye him because he seek us to change affection toward him because his love is for ever unchangeable toward us and because he will give a kingdom in heaven for us to cast our selves into the way that leads to infernal pains The children of God go another way and from the faith and assurance which they have of the love of their father they enflame their loves the more to him and feel themselves the more obliged to his obedience They fear to offend so good a Father and being purchased by so excellent a price they consecrate their bodies and spirits to his glory And as the sick man to whom Physitians have given assurance of recovery keeps himself from things that are contrary to his health and takes more willingly the remedies that are ordained him whereas he that despaires of his health abandons himself to his appetite So the faithful man knowing that God will impart to him of his glory goes by the way of sanctity and good works that he may attain to the other and having so many fair promises cleanses himself from all pollution of flesh and spirit finishing the sanctification in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 So Daniel knew that when the 70 years of the captivity were at an end God should deliver his people and therefore about that time he put himself upon prayer and fasting Dan. 9.2 3. So St. Paul Act. 23.24 31. had a promise for all those that were with him in the ship that none should be lost but yet when he saw the Mariners ready to withdraw themselves he did not spare to tell them that if they did not tarry with us we could not be saved The Pagans themselves never entred into combats with more courage then when they had their birds or the entrails favourable they never

whence they had their birth so we say that in the book of Scripture divers matters histories examples judgements threatnings laws instructions and exhortations which like little rivers rejoyce the City of our God and serve to divers uses in the Church But after all Jesus Christ is the mark whereat all aim the Centre whither all return and guide our faith in him to find and obtain rest So Moses and the Prophets give their testimony Luk. 24.27 and the end of the Law is Jesus Christ Rom. 10.4 and to this intent speaks St. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 that he will know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified because that is the summary and principal end of all the knowledge of the Scriptures which faith not onely beholds as a thing to be consented to but embraces it as the only subject where to find salvation and life Certainly faith believes the creation of the world the genealogy of the fathers the confusion of tongues in Babel the captivity of Israel in Egypt the exploits of the Judges and Kings given to the people of God for Liberators and from all these things there may be gathered divers instructions for this life but to find in this recital the means of our reconciliation with God of the remission of sins and the eternal glory it is not possible because it is not in any of these properly Where the Eternal offers and presents the gifts of his heavenly grace that is a Word of God which he pronounced to Adam with his own mouth after he had transgrest the commandment Thou shalt dye the death in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 These things were conformable to the Law and Word of God all these fearful menaces which the friends of Job with so much preparative denounced to the hypocrites and wicked but these are so far from begetting or keeping up faith which as 't is requisite should be accompanied with peace and consolation that contrariwise they put the conscience into trouble they fill the sinful soul with fear and in stead of giving us access to God go chasing and banishing us behind his face as we read of the people of Israel who not able to abide the thundring voice of the Eternal giving his Law upon the mountain stood afar off and said to Moses Exod. 20.19 Speak thou with us and we will hear thee but let not God speak with us for fear we dye This very part of the word that commands obedience and prescribes a rule for works proposing blessing and life to those that accomplish it Do this and thou shalt live Luk. 10.28 Whosoever doth these things shall live by them Levit. 18.5 is not that where our faith rests because as it promises life to the observers so it denounces malediction against all those that do not abide in all the words of the Law to fulfil them And thus our conscience guilty of many transgressions cannot find nor affirm her assurance nor seek for remission of sins where there is nothing presented but wrath and judgment And therefore the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans and in that which he writes to the Galatians retires our faith from the Law and tells us openly that the Law is not of faith Gal. 3.12 that all they that are of the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3.10 11. that the Law was not given to quicken but contrary that it is the minister of death and of condemnation none being able to be justified before God by the works of the Law declaring with David those to be blessed to whom God imputes justice without works Psal 32.1 2. Nevertheless it ceases not to serve faith because by it comes the knowledge of sin and that it serves as a School-master to lead us to Christ Rom. 3.23 in whom we are freely justified by the grace of him by the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whom God hath proposed a mediator by faith in his blood by whom the remission of sin is announced to the end that in whatsoever we could not be justified by the Law whosoever believes might be justified by him Act. 13.39 For to him all the Prophets give testimony that whosoever shall believe in him shall have remission of sins by his name Act. 10.43 Hither it is properly that our faith is invited Whosoever is thirsty let him come to me and drink Joh. 7.37 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy loden and I will refresh you Matth. 11.28 So that this Gospel of peace this word of reconciliation ministry of spirit and of life power of God unto salvation to all that believe Rom. 1.16 Which opens to us the Abysses of compassions of love grace and the good pleasure of God which deduces to us the coming the incarnation the suffrances the justice and the death of the Redeemer of the world and which represents to us the Holy Spirit applying and sealing by the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments these divine and heavenly benefits in our souls and rendring us assured of our reconciliation with God of the abolition of our offences of the imputation of the justice of Christ and of the gift of heavenly life The Gospel is the word of life saith St. Paul Rom. 10.8 It looks at the whole word of God but it embraces only his good will It approves all his truth but it runs only after his gratuity and then 't is best pleased and content when both are met in Christ in whom gratuity and verity are met justice and peace have kissed each other Psal 85.11 by whom the gratuity of God is multiplied upon us and his truth endures for ever Psal 117.2 We do not then reject any part of the word nor we do not tear the faith in pieces but in this general object we observe what is most proper and most particularly belongs to it by reason of the differing parts of it Be then the Word of God a Paradise to the faithful soul but so as among so many fruits of different tast and vertue she may find one tree of life that may fully satisfie the hunger of justice that she so seeks for let the Scripture be her Orchard but yet let there be one apple-tree whose shadow she desires sitting down under it and the fruit sweet to her palate let the truth of God be her garden of aromatique drugs but let there be one Rose of Sharon whose sweet smell may recover her fainting heart and which she may put in her bosome no otherwise then a bundle of myrrhe Cant. 1.13 He knows well enough that his Redeemer is living But if the Gospel be the particular object of faith from whence shall we say that Job learned this science and from whence he could draw the foundations of an assurance so firm since this was not but many ages after his death that the Gospel was publisht to the world or that the Saviour of the world was come to